Other performances of the Quartet were planned, but it does not appear that any took place. Schuppanzigh was indisposed to venture upon a repetition, but Böhm and Mayseder were eager to play it. The latter with his companions gave quartet parties at the house of Dembscher, an agent of the Austrian War Department, and wanted to produce the Quartet there. But Dembscher had neglected to subscribe for Schuppanzigh’s concert and had said that he would have it played at his house, since it was easy for him to get manuscripts from Beethoven for that purpose. He applied to Beethoven for the Quartet, but the latter refused to let him have it, and Holz, as he related to Beethoven, told Dembscher in the presence of other persons that Beethoven would not let him have any more music because he had not attended Schuppanzigh’s concert. Dembscher stammered in confusion and begged Holz to find some means to restore him to Beethoven’s good graces. Holz said that the first step should be to send Schuppanzigh 50 florins, the price of the subscription. Dembscher laughingly asked, “Must it be?” (_Muss es sein?_). When Holz related the incident to Beethoven he too laughed and instantly wrote down a canon on the words: “It must be! Yes, yes, yes, it must be. Out with the purse!”[148] [Sidenote: ORIGIN OF “ES MUSS SEIN!”] Out of this joke in the late fall of the year grew the finale of the last of the last five quartets, that in F major. Op. 135, to which Beethoven gave the superscription: “The difficult resolution” (_Der schwergefasste Entschluss_). The story, almost universally current and still repeated, that the phrases: _Muss es sein_? _Es muss sein_, and _Der schwergefasste Entschluss_ had their origin in [Illustration: Es muss sein! Es muss sein! ja, ja, ja, ja It must be! It must be! yes, yes, yes, yes Es muss sein! ja, ja, ja, ja Es muss sein! ja, ja, ja, ja It must be! yes, yes, yes, yes, It must be! yes, yes, yes, yes Heraus mit dem Beutel! Heraus! Heraus: Es muss sein! Come down with the rhino! Come down! Come down! It must be! Ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, ja, Es muss sein! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, It must be! ] a scene frequently repeated when Beethoven’s housekeeper came to him of a Saturday for the weekly house-money, was spread by Schindler, who was familiar in a way with the Dembscher incident but assigned it to the Quartet in E-flat. Holz was an actor in the scene and is the better witness, being confirmed, moreover, by the Conversation Book. Schindler probably took his clue from a page in the Conversation Book used in December, 1826, in which Beethoven writes the phrases “Must it be?” and “It must be,” and Schindler, after a conversation in which Schuppanzigh takes part, concludes with: “It must be. The old woman is again in need of her weekly money.” The joke played a part in the conversations with Beethoven for some time.