When he arrived at Vienna in December, 1826, he went immediately to bed
in his lodgings in the Schwarzspanierhaus. He had dismissed rudely two
eminent physicians who had treated him for a former illness, and they
would not now attend him. His nephew, who was charged with the errand of
finding a doctor, played billiards and forgot the condition of his uncle,
so that two days went by without medical assistance. Finally Dr. Andreas
Wawruch was told by a billiard-marker of the suffering of the sick man. He
went to him and dosed him with decoctions. In a few days the patient was
worse, in spite of the great array of empty bottles of medicine. Dropsy
declared itself. He was tapped by Dr. Seibert, and during one of the
operations he said, "I would rather see the water flow from my belly than
from my pen." Schindler and Breuning came to his bedside, and with them
young Gerhard Breuning, the son of Stephen. This lad now dwelled in the
house with Beethoven as his constant companion. Dr. Malfatti was persuaded
to forget his quarrels with the composer, and he consented to act in
consultation with Dr. Wawruch. Beethoven saw his old friend gladly; but he
would turn his back to Wawruch with the remark, "Oh, the ass!" Malfatti
administered iced punch; for a short time the patient seemed stronger, and
he talked of the 10th symphony. But in February, 1827, he was tapped for
the fourth time; his aristocratic friends were forgetful of him, and even
the Archduke Rudolph did not interest himself by cheap inquiry. In this
same month Beethoven wrote to Moscheles and Sir George Smart telling them
of his strait, and begging them to arrange for a concert for his benefit.
All this time he had the seven bank shares of one thousand florins each
that were found with the two mysterious love letters in a secret drawer of
his writing desk, the day after his death; these shares he held for his
scape-grace nephew, whom he made his sole heir, although by a codicil the
capital was placed beyond his nephew's control. The Philharmonic Society
promptly sent through Moscheles £100 on account of the future concert, and
promised more if it were necessary. Unable to compose, Beethoven tried to
read Sir Walter Scott's "Kenilworth," but he threw it aside and said, "The
man writes only for money." He saw "the divine fire" in some of Schubert's
songs. He wrote many letters, he arranged certain dedications of his
works, and he found pleasure in a lithograph of Haydn's birthplace, and in
a set of Handel's compositions in forty volumes, which had been given him.
The Rhine wine that he had asked of Schott came too late. Hummel called
on him in March and introduced his pupil Ferdinand Hiller. On the 19th of
this month Beethoven felt the end, and he said to Breuning and Schindler,
"_Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est_." On the 23d he made with his
own hand the codicil above mentioned. Several people called, among them
Schubert, who saw him but could not speak with him. The last Sacraments
of the Roman Catholic church were administered to the dying man the 24th.
Then Beethoven wrestled with death until a quarter to six on the evening
of the 26th, when he gave up the ghost. His sufferings were atrocious; the
final agony was terrible. Just as he was delivered from his earthly ills a
tempest, a great storm of hail and snow, burst over the roofs of Vienna.
There was a dazzling flash of lightning; and the roaring thunder roused
Beethoven. He pulled himself up in his bed, shook his fist at the sky, and
fell back dead. Anselm Hüttenbrenner and the wife of Johann Beethoven were
by his side.
The post mortem examination was made by Doctors Wagner and Rokitansky.
Wagner cut and preserved the temporal muscles and the organs of hearing.
The body was dressed and exposed in the room of the death. The lower jaw
was not sustained, and the face with its long hair and its beard of three
months' growth was savage.
The funeral was the 29th at three o'clock in the afternoon. It was
attended by an immense crowd. Dr. Breuning estimated the number of persons
on the glacis and in the neighboring streets at 20,000. The coffin was
placed on the shoulders of eight members of the Imperial Opera. Eybler,
Hummel, Kreutzer, Weigl, Gyrowetz, Seyfried, Gänsbacher and Würfel held
the streamers of the canopy. There were thirty-two torch bearers, whose
left arms were wrapped in crape ornamented by lilies and white roses.
Among these torch bearers were Czerny, Schubert and the giant Lablache. At
the head, after the crucifix, four trombone players marched, and played
alternately with the singing of a choir of sixteen men the two Equali of
the dead composer. The crowd that followed was so enormous that soldiers
were summoned to force a way. The ceremonies were held at the Church of
the Minorites, and the body was then put in a hearse which was drawn by
four horses to the Währinger cemetery. The gate was reached at the falling
of night, and the play-actor Anschütz delivered an address written by
Grillparzer. Other poems were read and distributed. Flowers and laurel
wreaths were heaped on the coffin when it was lowered to its resting place.
The 3d of April the furniture, clothes and the Graf and Broadwood
pianofortes were sold at auction. The same day Mozart's Requiem was sung
in the Hofpfarrkirche of the Augustines, and Lablache not only sang the
solo bass but paid about $80 for the cost of the singers. In November the
musical effects were sold at auction, and they brought about 1200 florins.
The total amount of money then was about $5,000.
In 1863 the Gesellschaft der Musik-Freunde opened the tombs of Beethoven
and Schubert and reburied their bodies in leaden coffins. The 21st of
June, 1888, the body of Beethoven was removed from the Währinger cemetery
and transferred to the central cemetery of Vienna at Simmering. A monument
was raised in Bonn in 1845, chiefly through the generosity and enthusiasm
of Liszt. It is by Höhnel, and it represents Beethoven standing, draped
in a mantle. A colossal statue by Zurnbusch stands in one of the public
places in Vienna, in front of the Academic Gymnasium.
[Illustration: BEETHOVEN'S TOMB IN VIENNA CEMETERY.