vocalist. Luigia Polzelli
was a lively Italian girl of nineteen. She does not seem to have been
happy with Polzelli, and Haydn's pity was roused for her, much
as Shelley's pity was roused for "my unfortunate friend," Harriet
Westbrook. The pity, as often happens in such cases, ultimately ripened
into a violent passion.

We are not concerned to adopt an apologetic tone towards Haydn. But
Signora Polzelli was clearly an unscrupulous woman. She first got her
admirer into her power, and then used her position to dun him for money.
She had two sons, and the popular belief of the time that Haydn was
the father of the younger is perpetuated in several of the biographies.
Haydn had certainly a great regard for the boy, made him a pupil of
his own, and left him a small sum in his first will, which, however, he
revoked in the second. Signora Polzelli's conduct was probably natural
enough in the circumstances, but it must have been rather embarrassing
to Haydn. After the death of her husband, she wheedled him into signing
a paper promising to marry her in the event of his becoming a widower.
This promise he subsequently repudiated, but he cared for her well
enough to leave her an annuity in his will, notwithstanding that she
had married again. She survived him for twenty-three years, and her two
daughters were still living at Pesth in 1878.

Returning to 1779, an untoward event of that year was the destruction
by fire of the theatre at Esterhaz. The re-building of the house was
set about at once, the prince having meanwhile gone to Paris, and the
re-opening took place on October 15, 1780, when Haydn's "La Fedelta
Premiata," already mentioned, was staged.

Correspondence

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 he
laboured, and his almost lavish benevolence to straitened relatives and