THE PHYSICAL BEETHOVEN 265 



THE PHYSICAL BEETHOVEN 



By De. JAMES FREDERICK ROGERS 



NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



rriHE study of the parentage of Beethoven should cause the over- 

 ■*- zealous eugenist to pause and ponder whether we as yet have 

 sufficient knowledge of the conditions governing heredity for the pass- 

 ing of any save the most tentative laws toward the regulation of 

 lives to be. 



Beethoven's mother was consumptive, his father a sot, and yet, 

 though his immediate ancestry promised so little, the great musician 

 was a giant in bodily force, a marvel of sober mental power in his art 

 and a profound thinker along other lines; tender and self-sacrificing in 

 his family relations, and of lofty moral sentiment and practise. Erratic 

 he undoubtedly was, but largely from the stress and distress of a hyper- 

 sensitive organization, produced by his deafness and other bodily ail- 

 ments. 



Little is known of the ancestry of Beethoven. His grandfather, 

 who seems to have been a worthy man, and well-to-do, was apparently of 

 good physique and in excellent health. Besides being a musician he 

 carried on a small wine business. His wife was not so steady. The 

 wine shop was too great a temptation for her. She fell into intemperate 

 ways to such an extent that it was found necessary to confine her in a 

 convent. Their only surviving child came easily by his mother's bad 

 habits, for " he was given to tasting wine from a very early age." His 

 illustrious son often rescued him from the clutches of the police and 

 helped him home, always with the utmost tenderness. He was never 

 known to utter a bitter word about his father, and he resented any un- 

 charitableness toward him on the part of others. His father lived until 

 Beethoven was twenty-two. His mother, who is described as a pretty 

 and slender woman, died, after a long illness of consumption, when 

 Ludwig was seventeen. 



The boy Beethoven was a lively little fellow, but more reserved and 

 less boisterous than most at his age. He evidently had a goodly fund of 

 animal spirits for, like all healthy children, he had a great dislike for 

 sitting still, and it was necessary to drive him to the piano if any study- 

 ing was to be done. His unfortunate father, hoping to produce a prof- 

 itable prodigy — possibly another Mozart — began his lessons by the time 

 he was four years old and kept him hard at work at them. Friends of 



