e or some light wine. His provision merchant once
begged him for an autographed portrait. The composer gave it to him
with the inscription, "To my stomach's best friend." The tradesman
used this souvenir as an advertisement and largely increased his
business thereby, as such a testimonial from such an acknowledged
epicure had a very definite value. J. B. Weckerlin asserts that when
Rossini dined at the Rothschild's he first went to the kitchen to pay
his respects to the _chef_, to look over the menu, and even to discuss
the various dishes, after which he ascended to the drawing room to
greet the family of the rich banker. Mme. Alboni told Weckerlin that
Rossini had dedicated a piece of music to the Rothschild's _chef_.

Anfossi, we are informed, could compose only when he was surrounded by
smoking fowls and Bologna sausages; their fumes seemed to inflame his
imagination, to feed his muse; his brain was stimulated first through
his nose and then through his stomach. When Gluck wrote music he
betook himself to the open fields, accompanied by at least two bottles
of champagne. Salieri told Michael Kelly that a comic opera of Gluck's
being performed at the Elector Palatine's theatre, at Schwetzingen,
his Electoral Highness was struck with the music, and inquired who had
composed it; on being informed that he was an honest German who loved
_old wine_, his Highness immediately ordered him a tun of Hock.
Beethoven, on the contrary, seems to have fed on his thoughts
occasionally, although there is evidence that he was not only a good
eater but also a good cook (the mothers of both Beethoven and Schubert
were cooks in domestic service). There is a story related of him that
about the time he was composing the _Sixth Symphony_ he walked into a
Viennese restaurant and ordered dinner. While it was being prepared,
he became involved in thought, and when the waiter returned to serve
him, he said: "Thank you, I have dined!" laid the price of the dinner
on the table, and took his departure. Gretry, too, lost his appetite
when he was composing. There are numerous references to eating and
drinking in Mendelssohn's letters. His particular preferences,
according to Sir George Grove, were for rice milk and cherry pie.
Dussek was a famous eater, and it is said that his ruling passion
eventually killed him. His patron, the Prince of Benevento, paid the
composer eight hundred napoleons a year, with a free table for three
persons, at which, as a