Kfri>u> of Remewt, tO/'.pa, 



Leading Articles. 



387 



BEETHOVEN'S UNGRATEFUL NEPHEW. 



New Light From the Co.nversatioix-IjCOKs. 



In La Revue of February ist, Jean Chantavoine 

 concludes his article on Beethoven and His Nephew. 



Previous writers on Beethoven's relations to his 

 nephew have been very hard on the nephew, but the 

 present writer is, perhaps, a little hard on Beet- 

 hoven. He first tells the story, as recorded by 

 Schindler and Breuning, of the unhappiness brought 

 on Beethoven by his nephew, Carl Beethoven — the 

 story of a great man and a young boy, perverted by 

 his mother, each making the other miserable for a 

 period of eleven years — and then proceeds to show 

 that in the case of Carl there were extenuating cir- 

 cumstances. 



The deaf Beethoven's Conversation-Books, which 

 are presen-ed in the Royal Library at Berlin, were 

 only partially utilised by Nohl in his great biography 

 of Beethoven, but in the present article the writer 

 publishes for the first time a number of extracts 

 contributed to the books by Carl, 



That Carl's indolence and dissipation made 

 Beethoven extremely irritable is undoubted, and as 

 Carl's conduct grew worse the reproaches of Beet- 

 hoven became more and more bitter. Altogether, 

 the facts as we know them seem very unfavourable 

 til Carl, but, asks the writer, was he as ungrateful as 

 he has been made out to be? 



EXTENUATING CIECUMSTAXCES. 



Carl, he explains, was not only the son of a father 

 Weak in character and debilitated in health, who had 

 suffered by his wife, but he was also the son of this 

 vindictive, sensual woman. Thus his early days were 

 spent in unhappy surroundings, and when at the age 

 of nine, owing to his father's death, he went to his 

 uncle, he had already reached that point of unbear- 

 able exasperation which engenders taciturnity ami 

 dissimulation. For his uncle his feelings w^ere com- 

 plex. In his youth he admired him sincerely, but 

 this admiration came to be tempered by judgment. 

 The admiration was certainly not mingled with 

 afifection. In the Conversation-Books he writes: — 



Your deafness ought to add to your glory: everyone is 

 astonished not that you write thus, hut that you do so in 

 epite of your affliction. I helieve vour deafness lias ron- 

 trihuted ereatly to the originality of your works. 



I helieve ever.y genius, no maitter how great- he may ))e. 

 when he liears the compositions of others unconsciously 

 gets from them new ideas, but tliat is not the case witli 

 you. since you draw all your ideas out of yourself. 



The mother did her utmost to incite her son 

 against his uncle, but graduallv the nephew came to 

 judge his mother. The Conversation-Books reveal 

 Beethoven savnng to Carl : " Be quiet, it is your 

 mother you are speaking of!" and, on the other 

 hand, we find Carl interrupting : " Be quiet, it is 

 mv mother you are speaking of !" In these two re- 

 plies is contained the most insoluble drama which 

 can rend the heart of a child. 



REOIPROOAL INCiJMi'ATIBIUTV. 



After his attempted suicide, Carl said his whok- 

 life had been unhappy, and that his character be 

 came worse because his uncle wished him to becomt 

 better. He was right when he said he had known 

 nothing but sorrow. No one could have been less 

 fitte<i to bring him up than his uncle, with his in- 

 firmity, his unequal character, and his total want of 

 practical sense. 



He would exaggerate the merits or the defects of 

 Carl, and alternate tenderness and weak indulgence 

 with the greatest severity. If history attributes to 

 Carl the responsibility of having shortened Beet- 

 ho\en's life, it is equallv certain that Carl was the 

 victim of an unhappy fate. The reciprocal incom 

 patiKility of the two characters was indeed cruel 

 and fatal. 



HOME RULE AND LABOUR. 



.\ Proposed Alliance. 



Professor Bi-esiiy, writing in the Positivist Revieur, 

 pleads for an alliance between the Lalx)ur Party and 

 the Irish Nationalists. He thinks such an alliance 

 would strengthen Sir H. Campliell-Bannernian's 

 hands, for he regards " C.-B." as the stoutest Radi- 

 cal in the Cabinet. 



He thinks that the Trade Unionists will not re- 

 cover their former position unless they can rely upon 

 the support of the Irish, who, he says, have an inte- 

 rest in bridling the lawyers and in restricting the 

 range of the law of conspiracy. They will vot.- 

 solid with the Labour Party if that party will vote- 

 solid for Home Rule. " C.-B.," says Professor 

 Beesly, has carefully guarded himself against giving 

 any pledge that he will or will not take some step in 

 that direction before the present Parliament is dis- 

 solved. No doubt Sir E. Grey and Mr. Asquith 

 were less judicious. But if they feel bound by the - 

 pledges which they gave without necessity on their 

 own motion they can resign when the time comes. 

 He says : — 



The Irish party, if frankly and fairl.v treated, are not 

 likely to insist on a complete tcheme of Home Rule during 

 til© present Parliament. They will prohahly he well satis- 

 fied in the earl.y sessions with substantial administrative - 

 reforms and the repeal of the Crimes Act. This may in- 

 volve a collision with the House of Lords, as Mr. Balfour 

 intended it should when he devised the .\ct nineteen years - 

 ago. But such collisions are to l)e sought, not avoided, by 

 this House of Commons. In some later session the Prime 

 Minister will no doubt be able to carry one of tliose " in- 

 stalments " of Home Rule which he foreshadowed at Stir- 

 ling. Bnt the really important thing is that wiienever the 

 time comes for another General Election, it should be 

 made to turn unmistakably on the question of Home Rule. 

 This is what the Unionists want above all thines to avoid. 

 They hoi>e to have some colour for again alleging that 

 the country was not consulted specificall.v on that issue. 

 and that therefore the Lords will be .iustified in rejecting 

 any Bill tha.t may be passed in the House of Commons. 

 Tills hope will be disappointed if the Prime Minister, when 

 he dissolves the present Parliament, makes it clear that he 

 intends to propose either a further instalment or a com- 

 plete scheme of Home Rule. 



Professor Beesly might have strengthened his plea 

 by quoting a declaration made bv Lord Crewe in 

 favour of the adoption of this- policy. 



