She,
in short, did for Beethoven what Madame Boehme did for Goethe many years
before, when the poet left his native Frankfort and came to Leipsic. He
was but sixteen, and found in her a friend, counsellor, almost a mother,
who not only instructed him about dress and deportment, which soon
enabled him to obliterate his provincialism, but showed a motherly
solicitude for him, which must have been of great help to him in many
ways.
Madame von Breuning interested Beethoven in the classics, as well as in
contemporary philosophical literature. Lessing, Goethe and Schiller
became favorite authors with him. A much-thumbed translation of
Shakespeare was a valued part of his small library in after years. He
devoted much study to Homer and to Plato. Beethoven left school at the
age of thirteen, and could not have given much time to his studies even
when at school, as so much was required of him in his music. He learned
a little--a very little, of French, also some Latin and Italian, and
made up for his deficiencies by studying at home.
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