Esterhazy, the "fair-headed blockhead" took the cruel delight of
thanking her for this rather questionable mark of Imperial favour!

"Sang like a Crow"

As a matter of fact, the empress, however she may have thought of Haydn
the man, showed herself anything but considerate to Haydn the choir-boy.
The future composer's younger brother, Michael, had now arrived in
Vienna, and had been admitted to the St Stephen's choir. His voice is
said to have been "stronger and of better quality" than Joseph's, which
had almost reached the "breaking" stage; and the empress, complaining to
Reutter that Joseph "sang like a crow," the complacent choirmaster put
Michael in his place. The empress was so pleased with the change that
she personally complimented Michael, and made him a present of 24
ducats.

Dismissed from St Stephen's

One thing leads to another. Reutter, it is obvious, did not like Haydn,
and any opportunity of playing toady to the empress was too good to
be lost. Unfortunately Haydn himself provided the opportunity. Having
become possessed of a new pair of scissors, he was itching to try their
quality. The pig-tail of the chorister sitting before him offered an
irresistible attraction; one snip and lo! the plaited hair lay at his
feet. Discipline must be maintained; and Reutter sentenced the culprit
to be caned on the hand. This was too great an indignity for poor
Joseph, by this time a youth of seventeen--old enough, one would have
thought, to have forsworn such boyish mischief. He declared that
he would rather leave the cathedral service than submit. "You shall
certainly leave," retorted the Capellmeister, "but you must be caned
first." And so, having received his caning, Haydn was sent adrift on
the streets of Vienna, a broken-voiced chorister, without a coin in
his pocket, and with only poverty staring him in the face. This was in
November 1749.

CHAPTER II. VIENNA--1750-1760

Vienna--The Forlorn Ex-Chorister--A Good Samaritan--Haydn
Enskied--Street Serenades--Joins a Pilgrim Party--An Unconditional
Loan--"Attic" Studies--An Early Composition--Metastasio--A Noble
Pupil--Porpora--Menial Duties--Emanuel Bach--Haydn his Disciple--Violin
Studies--Attempts at "Programme" Music--First Opera--An Aristocratic
Appointment--Taken for an Impostor--A Count's Capellmeister--Falls in
Love--Marries--His Wife.

Vienna

The Vienna into which Haydn was thus cast, a friendless and forlorn
youth of seventeen, was not materi