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It was about this time that he began to correspond with Artaria,
the Vienna music-publisher, with whom he had business dealings
for many years. A large number of his letters is given in an
English translation by Lady Wallace. [See Letters of Distinguished
Musicians. Translated from the German by Lady Wallace. London,
1867]. They treat principally of business matters, but are not
unimportant as fixing the chronological dates of some of his
works. They exhibit in a striking way the simple, honest,
unassuming nature of the composer; and if they also show him
"rather eager after gain, and even particular to a groschen," we
must not forget the ever-pressing necessity for economy under
which be laboured, and his almost lavish benevolence to
straitened relatives and friends. In one letter requesting an
advance he writes: "I am unwilling to be in debt to tradesmen,
and, thank God! I am free from this burden; but as great people
keep me so long waiting for payments, I have got rather into
difficulty. This letter, however, will be your security...I will
pay off the interest with my notes." There is no real ground for
charging Haydn with avarice, as some writers have done. "Even
philosophers," as he remarked himself, "occasionally stand in
need of money"; and, as Beethoven said to George Thomson, when
haggling about prices, there is no reason why the "true artist"
should not be "honourably paid."
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