[28] Beethoven was really short-sighted. Ignaz von Seyfried says that this was caused by smallpox, and that he was obliged to wear spectacles when quite young. This short-sightedness would probably exaggerate the wild expression of his eyes. His letters between 1823-4 contain frequent complaints on the subject of his eyes which were often painful. See the articles by Christian Kalischer on this subject, _Beethovens Augens und Augenleiden_ (_Die Musik_, 15th March--1st April, 1902). [29] The music for Goethe's play _Egmont_ was commenced in 1809. Beethoven had also wished to write the music to William Tell, but Gyrovetz was chosen before him. [30] Conversation with Schindler. [31] But written (so it seems) from Korompa at the Brunswick's house. [32] This portrait can still be seen in Beethoven's house at Bonn. It is reproduced in Frimmel's _Life of Beethoven_, page 29, and in the "Musical Times," 15th December, 1892. [33] To Gleichenstein. [34] "The heart is the mainspring of all that is great" (to Giannatasio del Rio). [35] "Goethe's poems give me great happiness," he wrote to Bettina Brentano on 19th February, 1811. And also "Goethe and Schiller are my favourite poets, together with Ossian and Homer, whom, unfortunately, I can only read in translations." To Breitkopf & Härtel, 8th August, 1809, Nohl, _New Letters_, LIII. It is remarkable that Beethoven's taste in literature was so sound in view of his neglected education. In addition to Goethe, who he said was "grand, majestic, always in D major" (and more than Goethe) he loved three men, Homer, Plutarch and Shakespeare. Of Homer's works he preferred the _Odyssey_ to the _Iliad_; he was continually reading Shakespeare (from a German translation) and we know with what tragic grandeur he has set _Coriolanus_ and the _Tempest_ in music. He read Plutarch continually, as did all who were in favour of the revolution. Brutus was his hero, as was also the case with Michael Angelo; he had a small statue of him in his bedroom. He loved Plato, and dreamed of establishing his republic in the whole world. "Socrates and Jesus have been my models," he wrote once on his note-books (_Conversations during 1819 and 1820_). [36] To Bettina von Arnim. The authenticity of Beethoven's letters to Bettina, doubted by Schindler, Marx and Deiters, has been supported by Moritz Carriere, Nohl and Kalischer. Bettina has perhaps embellished them a little, but the foundation remains reliable.