re does not
seem to have been much affection on either side to start with; but Haydn
declared that he had really begun to "like" his wife, and would have
come to entertain a stronger feeling for her if she had behaved in a
reasonable way. It was, however, not in Anna Maria's nature to behave in
a reasonable way. The diverting Marville says that the majority of women
married to men of genius are so vain of the abilities of their husbands
that they are frequently insufferable. Frau Haydn was not a woman of
that kind. As Haydn himself sadly remarked, it did not matter to her
whether he were a cobbler or an artist. She used his manuscript scores
for curling papers and underlays for the pastry, and wrote to him when
he was in England for money to buy a "widow's home." He was even driven
to pitifully undignified expedients to protect his hard-earned cash from
her extravagant hands.

There are not many details of Anna Maria's behaviour, for Haydn was
discreetly reticent about his domestic affairs; and only two references
can be found in all his published correspondence to the woman who had
rendered his life miserable. But these anecdotes tell us enough. For a
long time he tried making the best of it; but making the best of it is
a poor affair when it comes to a man and woman living together, and the
day arrived when the composer realized that to live entirely apart was
the only way of ending a union that had proved anything but a foretaste
of heaven. Frau Haydn looked to spend her last years in a "widow's home"
provided for her by the generosity of her husband, but she predeceased
him by nine years, dying at Baden, near Vienna, on the 20th of March
1800. With this simple statement of facts we may finally dismiss a
matter that is best left to silence--to where "beyond these voices there
is peace."

Whether Count Morzin would have retained the services of Haydn in spite
of his marriage is uncertain. The question was not put to the test, for
the count fell into financial embarrassments and had to discharge his
musical establishment. A short time before this, Prince Paul Anton
Esterhazy had heard some of Haydn's compositions when on a visit to
Morzin, and, being favourably impressed thereby, he resolved to engage
Haydn should an opportunity ever present itself. The opportunity had
come, and Haydn entered the service of a family who were practically
his life-long patrons, and with whom his name must always be intimately
associate