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conceived the idea of erecting a monument to the skull in his back garden! When the
desecration was discovered in 1820 there was an outcry, followed by police search.
Prince Esterhazy would stand no nonsense. The skull must be returned, no questions
would be asked, and Peter was offered a reward if he found it. The notion then occurred
to Rosenbaum of palming off another skull for Haydn's. This he actually succeeded in
doing, the head of some unfortunate individual being handed to the police. Peter claimed
the reward, which was very justly refused him. When Rosenbaum was dying he
confessed to the deception, and gave the skull back to Peter. Peter formed the resolution
of bequeathing it, by will, to the Conservatorium at Vienna; but he altered his mind
before he died, and by codicil left the skull to Dr Haller, from whose keeping it ultimately
found its way to the anatomical museum at Vienna. We believe it is still in the museum.
Its proper place is, of course, in Haydn's grave, and a stigma will rest on Vienna until it is
placed there.
[The great masters have been peculiarly unfortunate in the matter of their "remains."
When Beethoven's grave was opened in 1863, Professor Wagner was actually allowed to
cut off the ears and aural cavities of the corpse in order to investigate the cause of the
dead man's deafness. The alleged skeleton of Sebastian Bach was taken to an anatomical
museum a few years ago, "cleaned up," and clothed with a semblance of flesh to show
how Bach looked in life! Donizetti's skull was stolen before the funeral, and was
afterwards sold to a pork butcher, who used it as a money-bowl. Gluck was re-buried in
1890 beside Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, after having lain in the little suburban
churchyard of Matzleinsdorf since 1787.]
A copy of Haydn's will has been printed as one of the appendices to the present volume,
with notes and all necessary information about the interesting document. Two years
before his death he had arranged that his books, music, manuscripts and medals should
become the property of the Esterhazy family. Among the relics were twenty-four canons
which had hung, framed and glazed, in his bedroom. "I am not rich enough," he said, "to
buy good pictures, so I have provided myself with hangings of a kind that few possess."
These little compositions were the subject of an oft-quoted anecdote. His wife, in one of
her peevish moods, was complaining that if he should die suddenly, there was not
sufficient money in the house to bury him. "In case such a calamity should occur," he
replied, "take these canons to the music-publisher. I will answer for it, that they will bring
enough to pay for a decent funeral."
Haydn: The Man
Face and Features--Portraits--Social Habits--Partial to Pretty Women--His Letters--His
Humour--His Generosity--Unspoiled by Success--His Piety--His Industry--Habits of
Composition-- Impatient of Pedantry.
Face and Features
Something of Haydn's person and character will have already been gathered from the
foregoing pages. He considered himself an ugly man, and, in Addison's words, thought
that the best expedient was "to be pleasant upon himself." His face was deeply pitted with
small-pox, and the nose, large and aquiline, was disfigured by the polypus which he had
inherited from his mother. In complexion he was so dark as to have earned in some
quarters the familiar nickname of "The Moor." His underlip was thick and hanging, his
jaw massive. "The mouth and chin are Philistine," wrote Lavater under his silhouette,
noting, at the same time, "something out of the common in the eyes and the nose." The
eyes were dark gray. They are described as "beaming with benevolence," and he used to
say himself: "Anyone can see by the look of me that I am a good-natured sort of fellow."
In stature he was rather under the middle height, with legs disproportionately short, a
defect rendered more noticeable by the style of his dress, which he refused to change with
the changes of fashion. Dies writes: "His features were regular, his expression animated,
yet, at the same time, temperate, gentle and attractive. His face wore a stern look when in
repose, but in conversation it was smiling and cheerful. I never heard him laugh out loud.
His build was substantial, but deficient in muscle." Another of his acquaintances says that
"notwithstanding a cast of physiognomy rather morose, and a short way of expressing
himself, which seemed to indicate an ill-tempered man, the character of Haydn was gay,
open and humorous." From these testimonies we get the impression of a rather unusual
combination of the attractive and the repulsive, the intellectual and the vulgar. What
Lavater described as the "lofty and good" brow was partly concealed by a wig, with side
curls, and a pig-tail, which he wore to the last. His dress as a private individual has not
been described in detail, but the Esterhazy uniform, though frequently changing in colour
and style, showed him in knee-breeches, white stockings, lace ruffles and white
neckcloth. This uniform he never wore except when on actual duty.
Portraits
After his death there were many portraits in chalks, engraved, and modeled in wax.
Notwithstanding his admission of the lack of personal graces, he had a sort of feminine
objection to an artist making him look old. We read that, in 1800, he was "seriously
angry" with a painter who had represented him as he then appeared. "If I was Haydn at
forty," said he, "why should you transmit to posterity a Haydn of seventy-eight?" Several
writers mention a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and even give details of the sittings,
but he never sat to Reynolds, whose eyesight had begun to fail before Haydn's arrival in
England. During his first visit to London Hoppner painted his portrait at the special
request of the Prince of Wales. This portrait was engraved by Facius in 1807, and is now
at Hampton Court. Engravings were also published in London by Schiavonetti and
Bartolozzi from portraits by Guttenbrunn and Ott, and by Hardy from his own oil-
painting. A silhouette, which hung for long at the head of his bed, was engraved for the
first time for Grove's Dictionary of Music. This was said by Elssler, his old servant, to
have been a striking likeness. Of the many busts, the best is that by his friend Grassi, the
sculptor.
Social Habits
Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like excess in wine is not once
mentioned; but it is easy to see from his correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner,
and was not insensible to creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz in 1788, he
says: "By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for the capital cheese you sent me, and
also the sausages, for which I am your debtor, but shall not fail when an opportunity
offers to return the obligation." In a subsequent letter to Frau von Genzinger he comically
laments the change from Vienna to Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three
days, for the effect of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas! alas!' thought
I, when driven to eat at the restaurateurs, 'instead of capital beef, a slice of a cow fifty
years old; instead of a ragout with little balls of force-meat, an old sheep with yellow
carrots; instead of a Bohemian pheasant, a tough grill; instead of pastry, dry apple fritters [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]