Dear Z[meskall],
I received only yesterday a written statement that the Archduke is paying his share in redemption bonds [Anderson footnote: “By the Austrian Finanzpatent, which came into force on March 15, 1811, redemption bonds were issued to replace the depreciated bank-notes at a rate of one for five.”] –– Please write down for me now the substance more or less of what you said on Sunday and tell me what you consider to be the best way to approach the other two –– The suggestion is to give me a certificate that the Archduke is paying in redemption bonds. But I think that this is unnecessary, the more so as the court officials in spite of all their apparent friendship for me declare that my demands are not fair ! ! ! ! ! Oh Heaven, help me to bare my burden. I am no Hercules who can help Atlas to carry the world, still less carry it for him –– Only yesterday I was given a full account of nice things Herr Baron Krufft said about me at Zizius’s and how he passed judgment on me –– Well, let us say no more about that, dear Z[meskall]. All this will not last much longer, for I will not go on living here to be so insulted. Art, when it is persecuted, finds asylum everywhere. Why, Daedalus when confined to the labyrinth invented the wings which lifted him upwards and into the air. Oh, I too shall find them, these wings ––
Wholly your
Beethoven
If you have time to do so, send me this morning the form I have asked for – to receive it for nothing, probably for nothing, put off with fine words; in any case the time has already been wasted.