The following draft of Haydn's will is copied from Lady Wallace's Letters of Distinguished Musicians (London, 1867), where it was published in full for the first time. The much-corrected original is in the Court Library at Vienna. Dies says: "Six weeks before his death, in April 1809, he read over his will to his servants in the presence of witnesses, and asked them whether they were satisfied with his provisions or not. The good people were quite taken by surprise at the kindness of their master's heart, seeing themselves thus provided for in time to come, and they thanked him with tears in their eyes." The extracts given by Dies vary in some particulars from the following, because Haydn's final testamentary dispositions were made at a later date. But, as Lady Wallace says, it is not the legal but the moral aspect of the affair that interests us. Here we see epitomized all the goodness and beauty of Haydn's character. The document runs as follows:

                                                       FLORINS.

1.  For holy masses,........................................12

2.  To the Norman School,....................................5

3.  To the Poorhouse,........................................5

4.  To the executor of my will.............................200
         And also the small portrait of Grassi.

5.  To the pastor,..........................................10

6.  Expenses of my funeral, first-class,...................200

7.  To my dear brother Michael, in Salzburg,..............4000

8.  To my brother Johann, in Eisenstadt,..................4000

9.  To my sister in Rohrau (erased, and written
    underneath): "God have mercy on her soul! To the
    three children of my sister,".........................2000

10. To the workwoman in Esterhazy, Anna Maria Moser,
    nee Frohlichin,........................................500

11. To the workwoman in Rohrau, Elisabeth, nee Bohme,......500

12. To the two workwomen there (erased, and replaced
    by: "To the shoemaker, Anna Loder, in Vienna"),........200
    Should she presume to make any written claims, I
    declare them to be null and void, having already
    paid for her and her profligate husband, Joseph
    Lungmayer, more than 6000 gulden.

13. To the shoemaker in Garhaus, Theresa Hammer,............500

14. To her son, the blacksmith, Matthias Frohlich,..........500

15.&16. To the eldest child of my deceased sister,
    Anna Wimmer, and her husband, at Meolo, in Hungary,.....500

17. To her married daughter at Kaposwar,....................100

18. To the other three children (erased),...................300

19. To the married Dusse, nee Scheeger,.....................300

20. To her imbecile brother, Joseph (erased),...............100

21. To her brother, Karl Scheeger, silversmith, and his
    wife,...................................................900

22. To the son of Frau von Koller,..........................300

23. To his son (erased),....................................100

24. To the sister of my late wife (erased).

25. To my servant, Johann Elssler,.........................2500
    Also one year's wages, likewise a coat, waistcoat
    and a pair of trousers. (According to Griesinger,
    Haydn bequeathed a capital of 6000 florins to this
    faithful servant and copyist.)

26. To Rosalia Weber, formerly in my service,...............300
    (She has a written certificate of this from me.)

27. To my present maid-servant, Anna Kremnitzer,...........1000
    And a year's wages in addition. Also, her bed and
    bedding and two pairs of linen sheets; also, four
    chairs, a table, a chest of drawers, the watch,
    the clock and the picture of the Blessed Virgin in
    her room, a flat-iron, kitchen utensils and crockery,
    one water-pail, and other trifles.

28. To my housekeeper, Theresia Meyer,......................500
       And one year's wages,.................................20

29. To my old gardener, Michel,..............................24

30. To the Prince's Choir for my obsequies, to share
       alike (erased),......................................100

31. To the priest (erased),..................................12

32. To the pastor in Eisenstadt for a solemn mass,............5

33. To his clerk,.............................................2

34. To the beneficiary,.......................................2

35. To Pastor von Nollendorf,.................................2

36. To Pastor von St Georg,...................................2

37. To the sexton (erased from 33),...........................1

38. To the organ-bellows' blower,.............................1

39. To the singer, Babett,...................................50

40. To my cousin, the saddler's wife, in Eisenstadt,.........50
    To her daughter,........................................300

41. To Mesdemoiselles Anna and Josepha Dillin,..............100

42. To the blind daughter of Herr Graus, leader of
    the choir in Eisenstadt (erased),.......................100

43. To the four sisters Sommerfeld, daughters of
    the wigmaker in Presburg,...............................200

44. To Nannerl, daughter of Herr Weissgerb, my
    neighbour (erased),......................................50

45. To Herr Art, merchant in the Kleine Steingasse,..........50

46. To the pastor in Rohrau,.................................12

47. To the schoolmaster in Rohrau,............................6

48. To the school children,...................................3

49. To Herr Wamerl, formerly with Count v. Harrach,..........50