Note 110 — Chapter XIII

Here is Dr. Riemann’s interpretation: “That the reference is to the obstacles standing in the way of a marriage, can scarcely be controverted. Compare with this what Fanny Giannatasio del Rio says on September 16, 1816, in her journal: Five years before he had got acquainted with a person, union with whom would have been to him the greatest happiness of his life. ‘It is still as on the first day, I have not been able to get it out of my mind.’ The words ‘got acquainted five years ago’ apply rather to Amalie Sebald or Bettina von Arnim than to Therese Brunswick; but it should be borne in mind that the young woman is reporting a conversation overheard from some distance between Beethoven and her father.”