Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/58

 from a sketch by the Frenchman Latronne and the savage-looking cast by Franz Klein in 1812 present a lifelike image of Beethoven at the time of the Congress of Vienna. The dominating charac. teristic of this leonine face with its firm set jaws scored with the furrows of anger and trouble, is determination—a Napoleonic will. One recognises the man who said of Napoleon after Jena, "How unfortunate that I do not know as much about warfare as music! I would show myself his master." But his kingdom was not of this world. My empire is in the air," he wrote to Franz von Brunswick.

After this hour of glory comes the saddest and most miserable period. Vienna had never been sympathetic to Beethoven. Haughty and bold genius as he was, he could not be at ease in this frivolous city with its mundane and its mediocre spirit, which Wagner laughed to scorn later on. He lost no opportunities of going away; and