Editing Joseph Haydn (section)

==Character and appearance==
[[File:Joseph Haydn Signature.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|Haydn's signature on a work of music: ''di me giuseppe Haydn'' ("by me Joseph Haydn"). He writes in Italian, a language he often used professionally.]]
[[File:Page 729 (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians-Volume 1).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[Laus Deo]]'' ("praise be to God") at the conclusion of a Haydn manuscript{{efn|The inscription continues (in abbreviations) "et Beatae Virginis Mariae et omnibus sanctis" ("and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints"). The image is taken from the 1900 edition of ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]''; it does not identify the work in question.}}]]

[[James Webster (musicologist)|James Webster]] writes of Haydn's public character thus: "Haydn's public life exemplified the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideal of the ''honnête homme'' (''honest man''): the man whose good character and worldly success enable and justify each other. His modesty and probity were everywhere acknowledged. These traits were not only prerequisites to his success as [[Kapellmeister]], entrepreneur and public figure, but also aided the favourable reception of his music."<ref>{{Harvnb|Webster|2002|p=44}}. These same traits and his connection to the aristocracy contributed to the decline in his reputation in the nineteenth century: {{Harvnb|Proksch|2015}}</ref> Haydn was especially respected by the Esterházy court musicians whom he supervised, as he maintained a cordial working atmosphere and effectively represented the musicians' interests with their employer; see [[Papa Haydn]] and the tale of the [[Symphony No. 45 (Haydn)|"Farewell" Symphony]]. Haydn had a robust sense of humour, evident in his love of practical jokes<ref>{{Harvnb|Griesinger|1963|p=20}}; {{harvnb|Dies|1810|loc=(in the English translation from {{harvnb|Gotwals|1963|pp=92–93}}).}}</ref> and often apparent in his music, and he had many friends. For much of his life he benefited from a "happy and naturally cheerful temperament",<ref>{{harvnb|Dies|1810|loc=(in the English translation from {{harvnb|Gotwals|1963|p=91}}).}}</ref> but in his later life, there is evidence for periods of depression, notably in the correspondence with [[Maria Anna von Genzinger|Mrs. Genzinger]] and in Dies's biography, based on visits made in Haydn's old age.

Haydn was a devout Catholic who often turned to his [[rosary]] when he had trouble composing, a practice that he usually found to be effective.{{sfn|Griesinger|1963|p=54}} He normally began the manuscript of each composition with {{lang|la|In nomine Domini}} [in the name of the Lord] and ended with {{lang|la|Laus Deo}} [praise be to God].{{sfn|Larsen|1980|p=81}} He retained this practice even in his secular works; he frequently only uses the initials "L. D.", "S. D. G." {{bracket|{{lang|la|[[soli Deo gloria]]}}}}, or {{lang|la|Laus Deo et B. V. M.}} {{bracket|... and to [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Beatae Virgini Mariae]]}} and sometimes adds, "et om{{sup|s}} si{{sup|s}}{{-"}} ({{lang|la|et omnibus sanctis}} – and all saints)<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42gPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA249|last=Pohl|first=C. F.|author-link=Carl Ferdinand Pohl|title=Haydn with the Esterhazys|journal=[[Dwight's Journal of Music]]|volume=36|issue=6|date=24 June 1876|location=Boston|page=249|type=translation of Pohl's German paper for this journal}}</ref>

Haydn's early years of poverty and awareness of the financial precariousness of musical life made him astute and even sharp in his business dealings. Some contemporaries (usually, it has to be said, wealthy ones) were surprised and even shocked at this. Webster writes: "As regards money, Haydn…always attempted to maximize his income, whether by negotiating the right to sell his music outside the Esterházy court, driving hard bargains with publishers or selling his works three and four times over [to publishers in different countries]; he regularly engaged in 'sharp practice'" which nowadays might be regarded as plain fraud.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{harvnb|Webster|2002|loc=section 6}}</ref> But those were days when copyright was in its infancy, and the pirating of musical works was common. Publishers had few qualms about attaching Haydn's name to popular works by lesser composers, an arrangement that effectively robbed the lesser musician of livelihood. Webster notes that Haydn's ruthlessness in business might be viewed more sympathetically in light of his struggles with poverty during his years as a freelancer—and that outside the world of business, in his dealings, for example, with relatives, musicians and servants, and in volunteering his services for charitable concerts, Haydn was a generous man – e.g., offering to teach the two infant sons of Mozart for free after their father's death.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> When Haydn died he was certainly comfortably off, but by middle class rather than aristocratic standards.

[[File:Joseph Haydn SchloßLWL (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portrait of Joseph Haydn by Christian Ludwig Seehas, 1785]]

Haydn was short in stature, perhaps as a result of having been underfed throughout most of his youth. He was not handsome, and like many in his day he was a survivor of [[smallpox]]; his face was pitted with the scars of this disease.{{efn|The date of Haydn's bout with smallpox is not preserved. It was prior to the time he was hired by Countess Thun (i.e. as a young adult; see above), since it is recorded that when she first encountered Haydn she observed his scars as part of the generally poor impression his appearance made on her. See {{harvnb|Geiringer|1982|p=34}}.}} His biographer [[Albert Christoph Dies|Dies]] wrote: "he couldn't understand how it happened that in his life he had been loved by many a pretty woman. 'They couldn't have been led to it by my beauty.{{'"}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Dies|1810}}, (in the English translation from {{harvnb|Landon|Jones|1988|p=157}})</ref>

Haydn generally enjoyed good health, but he suffered from [[nasal polyp]]s during much of his adult life,{{sfn|Hadden|1902|p=158}} an agonizing and debilitating condition that at times prevented him from writing music.<ref>Cohen, Jack (1998), "The agony of nasal polyps and the terror of their removal 200 years ago", ''[[The Laryngoscope]]'' 108(9): 1311–1313 (September 1998).</ref>