August 9 1812: Beethoven on Goethe

On August 9 1812, Ludwig Beethoven writes to his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, and complains about the waters he has to take for his health at Teplitz, describes a concert he gave for fire victims and gossips about Goethe.

To Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 

Frantzens Brunn near Eger, 9th August, 1812 

Only what is most necessary; you have not got the title of the Mass, and I have many things too much, taking baths,  doing nothing and etc., also other unavoidable things. I am tired of chance things, surprises — you see and think I am now here, but my doctor drives me from one place to another in search of health, from Teplitz to Carlsbad, from there back here. In C. I played to the Saxons and Prussians some music for the benefit of those who had suffered from the fire at Baden; it was so to speak a poor concert for the poor — Signore Polledrone helped me, and after he had once got rid, as usual, of his nervousness, played well —"Seine Durchlaucht dem Hochgebohrnen Fürsten Kynsky," something of that sort for the title — and now I must refrain from writing any more; instead of that I have to go again and dabble about in water; scarcely have I filled my inside with a good quantity of the same, than I have then to bathe myself all over — very shortly will I answer the other points in your letter — Court air suits Goethe more than becomes a poet. One cannot laugh much at the ridiculous things that virtuosi do, when poets, who ought to be looked upon as the principal teachers of the nation, forget everything else amidst this glitter. 

Yours, 

Beethoven