1807 that a u n i o n w i t h h i m w o u l d n o t be best for her, h e r child r e n , o r i n d e e d p e r h a p s for h i m . Y e t h e c o n t i n u e d t o h o p e t h a t o n e d a y h e w o u l d find t h e kind
o f idyllic
domestic
contentment
that
he
openly
had
y e a r n e d for o v e r t h e y e a r s , a n d a g a i n g l i m p s e d t h a t p o s s i b i l i t y i n his r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h T h e r e s e M a l f a t t i , a n i e c e o f t h e Italian physician
G i o v a n n i Malfatti,
who
had become Beethoven's
d o c t o r following the death of J o h a n n Schmidt the year before. Although
the
surviving
letters
between
the
forty-year-old
c o m p o s e r a n d t h e y o u n g w o m a n w h o w a s h a l f his a g e d o n o t demonstrate
the
kind
of passionate
love
he
expressed
to
J o s e p h i n e D e y m a f e w y e a r s b e f o r e , B e e t h o v e n d i d discuss w i t h f r i e n d s his h o p e s t o b e m a r r i e d s o o n . H e w e n t s o far a s to w r i t e to Franz W e g e l e r in B o n n , asking h i m to search the a r c h i v e s for his b a p t i s m a l c e r t i f i c a t e , w h i c h h e w o u l d n e e d i n o r d e r to o b t a i n a m a r r i a g e license, b u t t h e relationship c o o l e d , t h e n e n d e d , before t h e certificate was n e e d e d . He
probably
Beethoven
did
never
proposed
continue
to
be
marriage drawn
to
again,
although
sensitive,
artistic
w o m e n , and if they s o m e h o w w e r e unobtainable, so m u c h the better, it seemed. W h i l e vacationing at Teplitz in the s u m m e r s o f 1 8 1 1 a n d 1 8 1 2 , h e d e v e l o p e d a lively a n d f l i r t a t i o u s r e l a tionship w i t h a y o u n g opera singer n a m e d Amalie Sebald, b u t she lived in distant Berlin and t h e y spent only those t w o s u m m e r s in relative proximity to each other. A n d at r o u g h l y the same t i m e at h o m e in V i e n n a he h a d b e c o m e close to a m a r ried w o m a n , A n t o n i e B r e n t a n o , t h e wife of a Frankfurt businessman n a m e d Franz Brentano, Beethoven's friend Bettina B r e n t a n o s half b r o t h e r .