Note 121 — Chapter XXI

Jahn transcribes the last words (“je la méprisois,” etc.) as follows: Elle est née Guicciardi elle étoit (an illegible word marked with an interrogation point) qu epouse de lui (avant son voyage) de l’Italie. Arrivée à Vienne et elle cherchoit moi pleurant, mais je la méprisois.

Ludwig Nohl asserts that the words “arrivée à Vienne” had been “added” by Schindler. But Schindler printed the passage in 1845 as well as in 1860 thus: Elle étoit l’épouse de lui avant son voyage en Italie.... Arrivée a Vienne elle cherchoit moi pleurant, etc. In the edition of 1860 of his biography of Beethoven he adds the following remark: “One of the conversation books of 1823, all of which are preserved in the Royal Court Library at Berlin, contains these revelations.” If Nohl’s assertion is correct it follows that Schindler lied and deceived the public, being guilty of a forgery which escaped the eyes of both Jahn and Thayer; and that, furthermore, he was guilty of the folly of calling attention to the very book whose contents he had falsified. Nohl asserts further that Giulietta had sought an interview with Beethoven before her journey to Italy. On such an act he founds the assertion that the young woman, married only a few months, was already willing to leave her husband. From circumstances unknown to Nohl it is certain that the visit did not take place until after her return to Vienna in 1822.