Lichnowsky’s suggestion bore fruit of a kind. Grillparzer has left us an account of his attempt to collaborate with Beethoven on an opera in his “Erinnerungen an Beethoven.”[86] The request for a libretto, he says, came to him through Count Dietrichstein and was somewhat embarrassing to him because of his unfamiliarity with the lyric drama and his doubts touching Beethoven’s ability, after his later works, to compose an opera. Finally, however, he decided to make the attempt, and submitted a subject to Beethoven’s friends and then to Beethoven himself. It was a semi-diabolical story drawn from Bohemian legendary history, entitled “Dragomira.” It met with Beethoven’s approval and he agreed to write it, but afterward changed his mind and took up the fairy tale of Melusina. Of the manner in which he treated this subject Grillparzer says: [Sidenote: GRILLPARZER AND HIS “MELUSINA”] So far as possible I banished the reflective element and sought, by giving prominence to the chorus, creating powerful finales and adopting the melodramatic style for the third act, to adjust myself to Beethoven’s last period. I avoided a preliminary conference with the composer concerning the subject-matter, because I wanted to preserve the independence of my views. Moreover, it was possible to make alterations, and in the last instance it rested with him to compose the book or not to compose it, as he listed. In order not to coerce him in the least I sent him the book by the same channel which had brought me the call. He was not to be influenced by personal considerations or embarrassed in any manner whatsoever. The book appealed to Beethoven, but several conferences between him and the poet were necessary before it was brought into satisfactory shape. Grillparzer had excluded much of the material in the old legend which was unsuited to dramatic treatment, and strengthened the plot with conceits of his own invention. As soon as he had sent the text he went to Beethoven at Schindler’s request. At first blush Beethoven was much pleased with the book, and he wrote Grillparzer a letter which delighted the poet. Grillparzer describes the visit to Beethoven at his lodgings in the Kothgasse which he made in company with Schindler: I found him lying in soiled night wear on a disordered bed, a book in his hand. At the head of the bed was a small door which, as I observed later, opened into the dining-room and which Beethoven seemed in a manner to be guarding, for when subsequently a maid came through it with butter and eggs he could not restrain himself, in the middle of an earnest conversation, from throwing a searching glance at the quantity of the provisions served--which gave me a painful picture of the disorder prevailing in his domestic economy.