Beethoven-Part 3

by Arthur S. Garbett

Frugal by habit, his meals were simple. He drank a cup of coffee on rising, carefully counting out sixty beans as the proper quantity. for dinner he preferred something light - a bit of fish or macaroni and cheese. On Fridays he would sometimes invite friends to eat "Schill" with him - a haddock-like fish from the Danube. He occasionally drank wine, preferring a variety produced from the heights around Buda. A pipe and a glass of beer he enjoyed. But above all, he drank water copiously. He loved water, bathing in it frequently, and sometimes pouring whole jugfuls over his wrists as a tonic for inspiration, allowing the water to drain off onto the floor -- one reason, perhaps, why he had to change lodgings frequently! Wrangles with his landladies, and with his unspeakable brothers were frequent, and did not help to prolong his life.

In his youth he was something of a dandy, with a bizarre taste in clothes. Carl Czerny, when a boy, visited him, in the hope of taking lessons, and found him clad in coat and trousers of goat-skin, hairy side out. In later days he was careless of his appearance, preferring old clothes to new.