Note 127 — Chapter XXI

Riemann in his revision of Vol. II of this biography says, “The statement in the second and third volumes of the first edition were based on the belief that the serious marriage project of Beethoven which led him to ask Wegeler to get for him [a transcript of] his baptismal certificate, but which fell through soon after, must needs be connected with the person to whom the love-letter was addressed. But since it has been determined by a careful study of Clementi’s letters that Beethoven’s offer of marriage, in 1810, most certainly referred to Therese von Malfatti, who, however, as we shall see, cannot be considered in connection with the love-letter, this combination is become untenable. A large number of Beethoven’s letters must be assigned to entirely different years, because Clementi’s correspondence with his partner Collard makes it certain that the honorarium for the works sold in 1807 was not paid out till the spring of 1810. The relations of Beethoven to Therese Malfatti are thus transferred from 1807 to 1809-1810, and it can no longer be maintained that 1810 was the year in which Beethoven’s prospect of a marriage with Therese Brunswick came to an end.” This means that Dr. Riemann believes that while a man of 38 years of age would not write a love-letter like Beethoven’s to a girl of less than 14 years he would try to marry her when he was 40 and she a trifle under 16.