Note 88 — Chapter XVI
Henry Edward Krehbiel translation
The humor to which Beethoven resorts in this note in order to show his contrition necessarily evaporates in any attempt to translate its Viennese colloquialisms. “Herzens Natzerl” is to be understood as “Dear little Ignacius of my heart,” Nazerl being an affectionate diminutive of Ignaz or Ignacius. Why it should have been applied to Hummel, whose Christian names were Johann Nepomuk, does not appear. “Mehlschöberl” is a term which has survived in the Austrian cuisine of to-day, the article itself being a sort of soup dumpling.