Chapter III: Part 3

132. "At 11 o'clock in the forenoon, a little too early for me, unfortunately, we already go to table; we dine together,--the two temporal and spiritual valets, Mr. the Controller, Mr. Zetti, the Confectioner, Messrs. the two cooks, Ceccarelli, Brunetti and my insignificance. N.B. The two valets sit at the head of the table; I have at least the honor of sitting above the cooks. Well, I simply think I am at Salzburg. At dinner a great many coarse and silly jokes are cracked, but not at me, because I do not speak a word unless of necessity and then always with the utmost seriousness. As soon as I have dined I go my way."

(Vienna, March 17, 1781, to his father. The Archbishop was visiting Vienna and had brought with him his best musicians whom, however, he treated shabbily. At length the rupture came; Mozart was dismissed--literally with a kick.)

133. "Believe me, best of fathers, that I must summon all my manhood to write to you what reason commands. God knows how hard it is for me to leave you; but if beggary were my lot I would no longer serve such a master; for that I shall never forget as long as I live,--and I beg of you, I beg of you for the sake of everything in the world, encourage me in my determination instead of trying to dissuade me. That would unfit me for what I must do. For it is my desire and hope to win honor, fame and money, and I hope to be of greater service to you in Vienna than in Salzburg."

(Vienna, May 12, 1781, to his father.)

134. "I did not know that I was a valet de chambre, and that broke my neck. I ought to have wasted a few hours every forenoon in the antechamber. I was often told that I should let myself be seen, but I could not recall that this was my duty and came punctually only when the Archbishop summoned me."

(Vienna, May 12, 1781.)

135. "To please you, best of fathers, I would sacrifice my happiness, my health and my life; but my honor is my own, and ought to be above all else to you. Let Count Arco and all Salzburg read this letter."

(Vienna, May 19, 1781. It was Count Arco who had dismissed Mozart with a kick. The father was thrown into consternation at the maltreatment of his son and sought to persuade Mozart to return to Salzburg. Mozart replied: "Best, dearest father, ask of me anything you please but not that; the very thought makes me tremble with rage.")

136. "You did not think when you wrote this that such a back-step would stamp me as one of the most contemptible fellows in the world. All Vienna knows that I have left the Archbishop, knows why, knows that it is because of my injured honor, of an injury inflicted three times,--and I am to make a public denial, proclaim myself a cur and the Archbishop a noble prince? No man could do the former, least of all I, and the second can only be done by God if He should choose to enlighten him."

(Vienna, May 19, 1781, to his father, who had asked him to return to the service of the Archbishop.)

137. "If it be happiness to be rid of a prince who never pays one, but torments him to death, then I am happy. For if I had to work from morning till night I would do it gladly rather than live off the bounty of such a,--I do not dare to call him by the name he deserves,--I was forced to take the step I did and I can not swerve a hair's breadth from it; impossible."

(Vienna, May 19, 1781.)

138. "Salzburg is nothing now to me except it offer an opportunity to give the Count a kick...even if it were in the public street. I desire no satisfaction from the Archbishop, for he is not in a position to offer me the kind that I want and must have. Within a day or two I shall write to the Count telling him what he can confidently expect to receive from me the first time I meet him, be it where it may, except a place that commands my respect."

(Vienna, June 13, 1781, to his father. Count Arco's offence has been mentioned. On June 16 Mozart wrote: "The hungry ass shall not escape my chastisement if I have to wait twenty years; for as soon as I see him he shall come in contact with my foot, unless I should be so unfortunate as to see him in the sanctuary." [The reader will probably guess that the translator is resorting to euphemisms in rendering Mozart's language. H.E.K.])

139. "It is the heart that confers the patent of nobility on man; and although I am no count I probably have more honor within me than many a count. Menial or count, whoever insults me is a cur. I shall begin by representing to him, with complete gravity, how badly he did his business, but at the end I shall have to assure him in writing that he is to expect a kick...and a box on the ear from me; for if a man insults me I have got to be revenged, and if I give him no more than he gave me, it is mere retaliation and not punishment. Besides I should thus put myself on a level with him, and I am too proud to compare myself with such a stupid gelding."

(Vienna, June 20, 1781, to his father. These expressions, called out by the insulting treatment received from the Archbishop and Count Arco, are in striking contrast to Mozart's habitual amiability.)

140. "I can easily believe that the court parasites will look askance at you, but why need you disturb yourself about such a miserable pack? The more inimical such persons are to you the greater the pride and contempt with which you should look down upon them."

(Vienna, June 20, 1778, to his father, who fears that some of the consequences of his son's step may be visited upon him.)

141. "I do not ask of you that you make a disturbance or enter the least complaint, but the Archbishop and the whole pack must fear to speak to you about this matter, for you (if compelled) can without the slightest alarm say frankly that you would be ashamed to have reared a son who would have accepted abuse from such an infamous cur as Arco; and you may assure all that if I had the good luck to meet him today I should treat him as he deserves, and that he would have occasion to remember me the rest of his life. All that I want is that everybody shall see in your bearing that you have nothing to fear. Keep quiet; but if necessary, speak, and then to some purpose."

(Vienna, July 4, 1781, to his father.)

142. "I may say that because of Vogler, Winter was always my greatest enemy. But because he is a beast in his mode of life, and in all other matters a child, I would be ashamed to set down a single word on his account; he deserves the contempt of all honorable men. I will, therefore, not tell infamous truths rather than infamous lies about him."

(Vienna, December 22, 1781, to his father, to whose ears Peter Winter, a composer, had brought slanderous reports concerning Mozart and his Constanze. Winter was a pupil of Abbe Vogler. See No. 66.)

143. "He is a nice fellow and a good friend of mine; I might often dine with him, but it is a custom with me never to take pay for my favors; nor would a dish of soup pay them. Yet such people have wonderful notions of what they accomplish with one....I am fond of doing favors for people but they must not plague me. She (the daughter) is not satisfied if I spend two hours every day with her, but wants me to loll about the whole day; yet she tries to play the well behaved one."

(Vienna, August 22, 1781, to his father. Mozart is writing about a landlord and his daughter concerning whom favorable reports had reached the ears of the father. Mozart explains matters and soon thereafter announces a change of lodgings.)

144. "I beg of you that when you write to me about something in my conduct which is displeasing to you, and I in turn give you my views, let it always be a matter between father and son, and therefore a secret not to be divulged to others. Let our letters suffice and do not address yourself to others, for, by heaven, I will not give a finger's length of accounting concerning my doings or omissions to others, not even to the Emperor himself. I have cares and anxieties of my own and have no use for petulant letters."

(Vienna, September 5, 1781, to his father, who lent a willing ear to gossips and was never chary of his reproaches. Mozart was already twenty-five years old.)

145. "If I were Wiedmer I would demand the following satisfaction from the Emperor: he should endure 50 strokes at the same place in my presence and then he should pay me 6,000 ducats. If I could not obtain this satisfaction I should take none, but thrust a dagger through his heart at the first opportunity. N.B. He has already had an offer of 3,000 ducats on condition that he does not come to Vienna, but permits the matter to drop. The people of Innsbruck say of Wiedmer: he who was scourged for our sake will also redeem us."

(Vienna, August 8, 1781, to his father. Herr von Wiedmer was a nobleman and theatre director, who, without cause, had been sentenced to a whipping by the president, Count Wolkenstein, on the complaint of another nobleman. [Mozart's bloodthirstiness was probably due to memories of Arco's kick still rankling in his heart. It was only after long solicitation from his father that he abandoned his plan to send Arco the threatened letter. H.E.K.])

146. "You perhaps already know that the musico Marquesi-- Marquesius di Milano--was poisoned in Naples; but how! He was in love with a duchess and her real amant grew jealous and sent three or four bravos to Marquesi and left him the choice of drinking poison or being massacred. He chose the poison. Being a timid Italian he died alone and left his gentlemen murderers to live in rest and peace. Had they come into my room, I would have taken a few of them with me into the other world, as long as some one had to die. Pity for so excellent a singer!"

(Munich, December 30, 1780, to his father. Mozart, on the whole, was one of the most peaceable men on earth, but he was not wanting in personal courage, and he could fly into transports of rage.)

147. "If you were to write also to Prince Zeil I should be glad. But short and good. Do not by any means crawl! That I can not endure."

(Mannheim, December 10, 1777, to his father. Count Ferdinand von Zeil was Prince Bishop of Chimsee and favorably disposed towards Mozart, who was hoping for an appointment in Munich. "If he wants to do something he can; all Munich told me that." Nothing came of it.)

148. "Whoever judges me by such bagatelles is also a scamp!"

(Mozart wrote many occasional pieces for his friends,--fitting them to the players' capacities. Mozart said that the publisher who bought some of these "bagatelles" and printed them without applying to him was a scamp (Lump), but took no proceedings against him.)

149. "Very well; then I shall earn nothing more, go hungry and the devil a bit will I care!"

(Mozart's answer to Hofmeister, the Leipsic publisher, who had said: "Write in a more popular style or I can neither print nor pay for anything of yours.")

STRIVINGS AND LABORS

150. "We live in this world only that we may go onward without ceasing, a peculiar help in this direction being that one enlightens the other by communicating his ideas; in the sciences and fine arts there is always more to learn."

(Salzburg, September 7, 1776, to Padre Martini of Bologna, whose opinion he asks concerning a motet which the Archbishop of Salzburg had faulted.)

151. "I am just now reading 'Telemachus;' I am in the second part."

(Bologna, September 8, 1770, to his mother and sister.)

152. "Because you said yesterday that you could understand anything, and that I might write what I please in Latin, curiosity has led me to try you with some Latin lines. Have the kindness when you have solved the problem to send the result to me by the Hagenauer servant maid."

"Cuperem scire, de qua causa, a quam plurimis adolescentibus ottium usque adeo aestimetur, ut ipsi se nec verbis, nec verberibus ab hoc sinant abduci."

(The Archiepiscopal concertmaster, aged 13, writes thus to a girl friend.)

153. "Since then I have exercised myself daily in the French language, and already taken three lessons in English. In three months I hope to be able to read and understand the English books fairly well."

(Vienna, August 17, 1782, to his father. Mozart had given it out that he intended to go to Paris or London. Prince Kaunitz had said to Archduke Maximilian that men like Mozart lived but once in a hundred years, and should not be driven out of Germany. Mozart, however, writes to his father: "But I do not want to wait on charity; I find that, even if it were the Emperor, I am not dependent on his bounty.")

154. "I place my confidence in three friends, and they are strong and invincible friends, viz: God, your head and my head. True our heads differ, but each is very good, serviceable, and useful in its genre, and in time I hope that my head will be as good as yours in the field in which now yours is superior."

(Mannheim, February 28, 1778, to his father.)

155. "Believe me, I do not love idleness, but work. True it was difficult in Salzburg and cost me an effort and I could scarcely persuade myself. Why? Because I was not happy there. You must admit that, for me at least, there was not a pennyworth of entertainment in Salzburg. I do not want to associate with many and of the majority of the rest I am not fond. There is no encouragement for my talent! If I play, or one of my compositions is performed, the audience might as well consist of tables and chairs....In Salzburg I sigh for a hundred amusements, and here for not one; to live in Vienna is amusement enough."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father, who was concerned as to the progress making in Vienna.)

156. "I beg of you, best and dearest of fathers, do not write me any more letters of this kind,--I conjure you, for they serve no other purpose than to heat my head and disturb my heart and mood. And I, who must compose continually, need a clear head and quiet mood."

(Vienna, June 9, 1781, to his father, who had reproached him because of his rupture with the Archbishop.)

157. "If there ever was a time when I was not thinking about marriage it is now. I wish for nothing less than a rich wife, and if I could make my fortune by marriage now I should perforce have to wait, because I have very different things in my head. God did not give me my talent to put it a-dangle on a wife, and spend my young life in inactivity. I am just beginning life, and shall I embitter it myself? I have nothing against matrimony, but for me it would be an evil just now."

(Vienna, July 25, 1781, to his father, who was solicitous lest he fall in love with one of the daughters in the Weber family with whom he was living. All manner of rumors had been carried to him. The father persuaded his son to seek other lodgings; but Constanze Weber eventually became Mozart's wife nevertheless.)

158. "This sort of composer can do nothing in this genre. He has no conception of what is wanted. Lord! if God had only given me such a place in the church and before such an orchestra!"

(A remark made in Leipsic, in 1789, in reference to a composer who was suited to comic opera work, but had received an appointment as Church composer. Mozart examined a mass of his and said: "It sounds all very well, but not in church." He then played it through with new words improvised by himself, such as (in the Cum sancto spiritu) "Stolen property, gentlemen, but no offence.")

159. "You see my intentions are good; but if you can't, you can't! I do not want to scribble, and therefore can not send you the whole symphony before next post day."

(Vienna, July 31, 1782, to his father, who had asked for a symphony for the Hafner family in Salzburg.)

160. "I do not beg pardon; no! But I beg of Herr Bullinger that he himself apply to himself for pardon in my behalf, with the assurance that as soon as I can do so in quiet I shall write to him. Until now no such occasion has offered itself, for as soon as I know that in all likelihood I must leave a place I have no restful hour. And although I still have a modicum of hope, I am not at ease and shall not be until I know my status."

(Mannheim, November 22, 1777, to his father. Abbe Bullinger was the most intimate friend that the Mozart family had in Salzburg. Mozart had been negligent in his correspondence.)

161. "To live well and to live happily are different things, and the latter would be impossible for me without witchcraft; it would have to be supernatural; and that is impossible for there are no witches now-a-days."

(Paris, August 7, 1778, to his friend Bullinger, who had sought to persuade him to return to Salzburg.)

162. "The Duke de Chabot sat himself down beside me and listened attentively; and I--I forgot the cold, and the headache and played regardless of the wretched clavier as I play when I am in the mood. Give me the best clavier in Europe and at the same time hearers who understand nothing or want to understand nothing, and who do not feel what I play with me, and all my joy is gone."

(Paris, May 1, 1778, to his father. The Duchess had behaved very haughtily and kept Mozart sitting in a cold room for a long time before the Duke came.)

AT HOME AND ABROAD

163. "I assure you that without travel we (at least men of the arts and sciences) are miserable creatures. A man of mediocre talent will remain mediocre whether he travel or not; but a man of superior talent (which I can not deny I am, without doing wrong) deteriorates if he remains continually in one place."

(Paris, September 11, 1778, to his father, who had secured an appointment for him at Salzburg which he was loath to accept. He asked that the Archbishop permit him to travel once in two years. He feared that he "would find no congenial society" in Salzburg, where, moreover, music did not stand in large appreciation. Mozart's subsequent experiences were of the most pitiable character.)

164. "Write me, how is Mr. Canary? Does he still sing? Does he still pipe? Do you know why I am thinking of the canary? Because there is one in our anteroom that makes the same little sounds as ours."

(Naples, May 19, 1770, to his sister. Mozart was very fond of animals. In a letter from Vienna to his sister on August 21, 1773, he writes: "How is Miss Bimbes? Please present all manner of compliments to her." "Miss Bimbes" was a dog. At another time he wrote a pathetic little poem on the death of a starling. While in the midst of the composition and rehearsal of "Idomeneo" he wrote to his father: "Give Pimperl (a dog) a pinch of Spanish snuff, a good wine-biscuit and three busses.")

165. "Because of my disposition which leans towards a quiet, domestic life rather than to boisterousness, and the fact that since my youth I have never given a thought to my linen, clothing or such things, I can think of nothing more necessary than a wife. I assure you that I frequently spend money unnecessarily because I am negligent of these things. I am convinced that I could get along better than I do now on the same income if I had a wife. How many unnecessary expenditures would be saved? Others are added, it is true, but you know in advance what they are and can adjust them;--in a word you lead a regulated life. In my opinion an unmarried man lives only half a life; that is my conviction and I can not help it. I have resolved the matter over and over in my mind and am of the same opinion still."

(Vienna, December 15, 1781, to his father.)

166. "At present I have only one pupil....I could have several if I were to lower my fee; but as soon as one does that one loses credit. My price is twelve lessons for six ducats, and I make it understood besides that I give the lessons as a favor. I would rather have three pupils who pay well than six who pay ill. I am writing this to you to prevent you from thinking that it is selfishness which prevents me from sending you more than thirty ducats."

(Vienna, June 16, 1781, to his father. [In American money Mozart's fee is represented by $1.20 per lesson. H.E.K.])

167. "I could not go about Vienna looking like a tramp, particularly just at this time. My linen was pitiable; no servant here has shirts of such coarse stuff as mine,--and that certainly is a frightful thing for a man. Consequently there were again expenditures. I had only one pupil; she suspended her lessons for three weeks, and I was again the loser. One must not throw one's self away here,--that is a first principle,--or one is ruined forever. The most audacious man wins the day."

(Vienna, September 5, 1781, to his father, excusing himself for not having made remittances.)

168. "Resent anything and at once you receive smaller pay. Besides all this the Emperor is a skinflint. If the Emperor wants me he ought to pay for me; the mere honor of being in his employ is not enough. If the Emperor were to offer me 1,000 florins and a count 2,000, I should present my compliments to the Emperor and go to the count,--assuming a guarantee, of course."

(Vienna, April 10, 1782, to his father. Mozart was not too industrious in the pursuit of a court appointment, yet had reason to be hopeful. Near the end of his short life the appointment came from Joseph II, to whom Mozart had been too faithful.)

169. "I described my manner of life to my father only recently, and I will now repeat it to you. At six o'clock in the morning I am already done with my friseur, and at seven I am fully dressed. Thereupon I compose until nine o'clock. From nine to one I give lessons; then I eat unless I am a guest at places where they dine at two or even three o'clock,--as, for instance, today and tomorrow with Countess Zichy and Countess Thun. I can not work before five or six o'clock in the evening and I am often prevented even then by a concert; if not I write till nine. Then I go to my dear Constanze, where the delight of our meeting is generally embittered by the words of her mother;--hence my desire to free and save her as soon as possible. At half after ten or eleven I am again at home. Since (owing to the occasional concerts and the uncertainty as to whether or not I may be called out) I can not depend on having time for composition in the evening, I am in the habit (particularly when I come home early) of writing something before I go to bed. Frequently I forget myself and write till one o'clock,--then up again at six."

(Vienna, February 13, 1782, to his sister Marianne--Nannerl, as he called her.)

170. "We do not go to bed before 12 o'clock and get up half after five or five, because nearly every day we take an early walk in the Augarten."

(Vienna, May 26, 1784, to his father, to whom he complains of his maid-servant who came from Salzburg and who had written to the father that she was not permitted to sleep except between 11 and 6 o'clock.)

171. "Now as to my mode of life: As soon as you were gone I played two games of billiards with Herr von Mozart who wrote the opera for Schickaneder's theatre; then I sold my nag for fourteen ducats; then I had Joseph call my primus and bring a black coffee, to which I smoked a glorious pipe of tobacco....At 5:30 I went out of the door and took my favorite promenade through the Glacis to the theatre. What do I see? What do I smell? It is the primus with the cutlet Gusto! I eat to your health. It has just struck 11 o'clock. Perhaps you are already asleep. Sh! sh! sh! I do not want to wake you."

"Saturday, the 8th. You ought to have seen me yesterday at supper! I could not find the old dishes and therefore produced a set as white as snow-flowers and had the wax candelabra in front of me."

(Vienna, October 7, 1791, to his wife, who was taking the waters at Baden. Mozart was fond of billiards and often played alone as on this occasion. He was careful of his health and had been advised by his physician to ride; but he could not acquire a taste for the exercise--Hence the sale of his horse. The primus was his valet, a servant found in every Viennese household at the time. Out of the door through which he stepped on beginning his walk to the theatre his funeral procession passed two months later.)

172. "I have done more work during the ten days that I have lived here than in two months in any other lodgings; and if it were not that I am too often harassed by gloomy thoughts which I can dispel only by force, I could do still more, for I live pleasantly, comfortably and cheaply."

(Vienna, June 27, 1788, to his friend Puchberg.)

173. "I have no conveniences for writing there (i.e. at Baden), and I want to avoid embarrassments as much as possible. Nothing is more enjoyable than a quiet life and to obtain that one must be industrious. I am glad to be that."

(Vienna, October 8, 1791, to his wife at Baden. Mozart probably refers to work on his "Requiem." He says further: "If I had had nothing to do I would have gone with you to spend the week.")

174. "Now the babe against my will, yet with my consent, has been provided with a wet nurse. It was always my determination that, whether she was able to do so or not, my wife was not to suckle her child; but neither was the child to guzzle the milk of another woman. I want it brought up on water as I and my sister were, but..."

(Vienna, June 8, 1783, to his father, the day after his first child was born. The "Dear, thick, fat little fellow" died soon after.)

175. "Young as I am, I never go to bed without thinking that possibly I may not be alive on the morrow; yet not one of the many persons who know me can say that I am morose or melancholy. For this happy disposition I thank my Creator daily, and wish with all my heart that it were shared by all my fellows."

(Vienna, April 4, 1787, to his father, shortly before the latter's death. Mozart himself died when, he was not quite thirty-six years old.)

176. "If it chances to be convenient I shall call on the Fischers for a moment; longer than that I could not endure their warm room and the wine at table. I know very well that people of their class think they are bestowing the highest honors when they offer these things, but I am not fond of such things,--still less of such people."

(Vienna, December 22, 1781, to his sister. Mozart was acquainted with the Fischer family from the time of his first journeys as a child. The contrast which he draws between the artist and the comfort-loving, commonplace citizen is diverting.)

177. "The Viennese are a people who soon grow weary and listless,--but only of the theatre. My forte is too popular to be neglected. This, surely, is Clavierland!"

(Spoken to Count Arco who had warned him against removing to Vienna because of the fickleness of the Viennese public. He wanted him to return to Salzburg.)

178. "I am writing at a place called Reisenberg which is an hour's distance from Vienna. I once stayed here over night; now I shall remain a few days. The house is insignificant, but the surroundings, the woods in which a grotto has been built as natural as can be, are splendid and very pleasant."

(Vienna, July 13, 1781, to his father. Like Beethoven, Mozart loved nature and wanted a garden about his home.)

179. "I wish that my sister were here in Rome. I am sure she would be pleased with the city, for St. Peter's church is regular, and many other things in Rome are regular."

(Rome, April 14, 1770. A droll criticism from the traveling virtuoso, aged 14, in a letter to his mother and sister.)

180. "Carefully thinking it over I conclude that in no country have I received so many honors or been so highly appreciated as in Italy. You get credit in Italy if you have written an opera,--especially in Naples."

(Munich, October 11, 1777, to his father. An influential friend had offered to help him get an appointment in Italy.)

181. "Strassburg can't get along without me. You have no idea how I am honored and loved here. The people say that everything I do is refined, that I am so sedate and courteous and have so good a bearing. Everybody knows me."

(Strassburg, October 26, 1778, to his father, on his return journey from Paris. On October 3 he had written: "I beg your pardon if I cannot write much. It is because, unless I am in a city in which I am well known, I am never in a good humor. If I were acquainted here I would gladly stay, for the city is truly charming--beautiful houses, handsome broad streets, and superb squares.")

182. "Oh, what a difference between the people of the Palatinate and of Bavaria! What a language! How coarse! To say nothing of the mode of life!"

(Mannheim, November 12, 1778, to his father. Mozart, while returning from Paris, had stopped at his "dear Mannheim," where at the moment a regiment of Bavarian soldiers were quartered, and had just got news of the rudeness with which the people of Munich had treated their Elector.)

183. "In Regensburg we dined magnificently at noon, listened to divine table music, had angelic service and glorious Mosel wine. We breakfasted in Nuremberg,--a hideous city. At Wurzburg we strengthened our stomachs with coffee; a beautiful, a splendid city. The charges were moderate everywhere. Only two post relays from here, in Aschaffenburg, the landlord swindled us shamefully."

(Frankfort-on-the-Main, September 29, 1790, to his wife. The remark is notable because of the judgments pronounced on the renaissance city Nuremberg, and the rococo city Wurzburg.)

184. "All the talk about the imperial cities is mere boasting. I am famous, admired and loved here, it is true, but the people are worse than the Viennese in their parsimony."

(Mozart went to Frankfort, in 1790, on the occasion of the coronation of the emperor, hoping to make enough money with concerts to help himself out of financial difficulties, but failed.)

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

Mozart's love for his father made him dependent on the latter to the end of his days. He was a model son and must have loved his wife devotedly, since, for her sake, he once in his life disobeyed his father. The majority of his letters which have been preserved are addressed to his father, to whom he reported all his happenings and whose advice he is forever seeking. Similar were his relations with his sister Marianne (Nannerl), whom he loved with great tenderness. The letters to his wife are unique; all of them, even the last, seem to be the letters of a lover. They were a pair of turtle-doves.

Mozart was an ideal friend, ready to sacrifice to the uttermost on the altar of friendship. It was this trait of character which made him throw himself with enthusiasm into Freemasonry, whose affiliations he sought to widen by drafting the constitution of a community which he called "The Grotto." He probably hated only one man in the world,--the Archbishop of Salzburg, his tormentor.

185. "The moment you do not trust me I shall distrust myself. The time is past, it is true, when I used to stand on the settle, sing oragna fiagata fa and kiss the tip end of your nose; but have I therefore shown laxity in respect, love and obedience? I say no more."

(Mannheim, February 19, 1779, to his father, who was vexed because Mozart was showing a disposition to stay in Mannheim, because of a love affair, instead of going to Paris. "Off with you to Paris, and soon!" wrote the father. The Italian words are meaningless and but a bit of child's play, the nature of which can be gathered from Mozart's remark.)

186. "Pray do not let your mind often harbor the thought that I shall ever forget you! It is intolerable to me. My chief aim in life has been, is, and will be to strive so that we may soon be reunited and happy....Reflect that you have a son who will never consciously forget his filial duty toward you, and who will labor ever to grow more worthy of so good a father."

(Mannheim, February 28, 1778, to his father.)

187. "The first thing I did after reading your letter was to go on my knees, and, out of a full heart, thank my dear God for this mercy. Now I am again at peace, since I know that I need no longer be concerned about the two persons who are the dearest things on earth to me."

(Paris, July 31, 1778, to his father, who had written that he and Nannerl had comforted each other on the death of his mother.)

188. "Dearest, best of fathers! I wish you all conceivable good; whatever can be wished, that I wish you,--but no, I wish you nothing, but myself everything. For myself, then, I wish that you remain well and live innumerable years to my great happiness and pleasure; I wish that everything that I undertake may agree with your desire and liking,--or, rather, that I may undertake nothing which might not turn out to your joy. This also I hope, for whatever adds to the happiness of your son must naturally be agreeable also to you."

(Vienna, November 16, 1781, to his father, congratulating him on his name-day. On March 17, 1778, Mozart had written from Mannheim: "Your accuracy extends to all things. 'Papa comes directly after God' was my maxim as a child and I shall stick to it.")

189. "Our little cousin is pretty, sensible, amiable, clever and merry, all because she has been in society; she visited Munich for a while. You are right, we suit each other admirably, for she, too, is a bit naughty. We play great pranks on the people hereabouts."

(Augsburg, October 17, 1777, to his father. The "little cousin" was two years younger than Mozart. Her father was a master bookbinder in Augsburg. The maiden seems later to have had serious designs on the composer.)

190. "I shall be right glad when I meet a place in which there is a court. I tell you that if I did not have so fine a Mr. Cousin and Miss Cousin and so dear a little cousin, my regrets that I am in Augsburg would be as numerous as the hairs of my head."

(Augsburg, October 17, 1777, to his father, whose birthplace he was visiting on a concert tour. Mozart was vexed at the insolence of the patricians.)

191. "In the case of Frau Lange I was a fool,--that's certain; but what is a fellow not when he's in love? I did really love her, and am not indifferent toward her even now. It's lucky for me that her husband is a jealous fool and never permits her to go anywhere, so that I seldom see her."

(Vienna, May 12, 1781, to his father, at the time when he was being outrageously treated by the Archbishop. Frau Lange was Aloysia Weber, sister of Constanze, to whom Mozart transferred his love and whom he made his wife. Aloysia married an actor at the Court Theatre, Josef Lange, with whom she lived unhappily.)

192. "I will not say that when at the house of the Mademoiselle to whom I seem already to have been married off, I am morose and silent; but neither am I in love. I jest with her and amuse her when I have time (which is only evenings when I sup at home, for in the forenoons I write in my room and in the afternoons I am seldom at home); only that and nothing more. If I were obliged to marry all the girls with whom I have jested I should have at least 200 wives."

(Vienna, July 25, 1781, to his father, who had heard all manner of tales concerning the relations of Mozart and Constanze Weber.)

193. "My good, dear Constanze is the martyr, and, perhaps for that very reason, the best hearted, cleverest, and (in a word) the best of them all. She assumes all the cares of the house, and yet does not seem able to accomplish anything. O, best of fathers, I could write pages if I were to tell you all the scenes that have taken place in this house because of us two....Constanze is not ugly, but anything but beautiful; all her beauty consists of two little black eyes and a handsome figure. She is not witty but has enough common sense to be able to perform her duties as wife and mother. She is not inclined to finery,--that is utterly false; on the contrary, she is generally ill clad, for the little that the mother was able to do for her children was done for the other two--nothing for her. True she likes to be neatly and cleanly, though not extravagantly, dressed, and she can herself make most of the clothes that a woman needs; she also dresses her own hair every day, understands housekeeping, has the best heart in the world,--tell me, could I wish a better wife?"

(Vienna, December 15, 1781, to his father. Constanze seems to have been made for Mozart; they went through the years of their brief wedded life like two children.)

194. "Dearest, best of friends!"

"Surely you will let me call you that? You can not hate me so greatly as not to permit me to be your friend, and yourself to become mine? And even if you do not want to be my friend longer, you can not forbid me to think kindly of you as I have been in the habit of doing. Consider well what you said to me today. Despite my entreaties you gave me the mitten three times and told me to my face that you would have nothing further to do with me. I, to whom it is not such a matter of indifference as it is to you to lose a sweetheart, am not so hot tempered, inconsiderate or unwise as to accept that mitten. I love you too dearly for that. I therefore beg you to ponder on the cause of your indignation. A little confession of your thoughtless conduct would have made all well,--if you do not take it ill, dear friend, may still make all well. From this you see how much I love you. I do not flare up as you do; I think, I consider, and I feel. If you have any feeling I am sure that I will be able to say to myself before night: Constanze is the virtuous, honor-loving, sensible and faithful sweetheart of just and well-meaning Mozart."

(Vienna, April 29, 1782, to his fiancee, Constanze Weber. She had played at a game of forfeits such as was looked upon lightly by the frivolous society of the period in Vienna. Mozart rebuked her and she broke off the engagement. The letter followed and soon thereafter a reconciliation. Mozart had said to her: "No girl who is jealous of her honor would do such a thing.")

195. "She is an honest, good girl of decent parents;--I am able to provide her with bread;--we love each other and want each other!...It is better to put one's things to rights and be an honest fellow!--God will give the reward! I do not want to have anything to reproach myself with."

(Vienna, July 31, 1782, to his father, who had given his consent, hesitatingly and unwillingly, to the marriage of his son who was twenty-six years old. On August 7 Mozart wrote to him: "I kiss your hands and thank you with all the tenderness which a son should feel for his father, for your kind permission and paternal blessing.")

196. "If I were to tell you all the things that I do with your portrait, you would laugh heartily. For instance when I take it out of its prison house I say 'God bless you, Stanzerl! God bless you, you little rascal,--Krallerballer--Sharpnose--little Bagatelle!' And when I put it back I let it slip down slowly and gradually and say 'Nu,--Nu,--Nu,--Nu;' but with the emphasis which this highly significant word demands, and at the last, quickly: 'Good-night, little Mouse, sleep well!' Now, I suppose, I have written down a lot of nonsense (at least so the world would think); but for us, who love each other so tenderly, it isn't altogether silly."

(Dresden, April 13, 1789, to his wife in Vienna.)

197. "Dear little wife, I have a multitude of requests; 1mo, I beg of you not to be sad.

"2do, that you take care of your health and not trust the spring air.

"3tio, that you refrain from walking out alone, or, better, do not walk out at all.

"4to, that you rest assured of my love. Not a letter have I written to you but that your portrait was placed in front of mine.

"5to, I beg of you to consider not only my honor and yours in your conduct but also in appearances. Do not get angry because of this request. You ought to love me all the more because I make so much of honor."

(Dresden, April 16, 1789, to his wife, in Vienna, who was fond of life's pleasures.)

198. "You can not imagine how slowly time goes when you are not with me! I can't describe the feeling; there is a sort of sense of emptiness, which hurts--a certain longing which can not be satisfied, and hence never ends, but grows day by day. When I remember how childishly merry we were in Baden, and what mournful, tedious hours I pass here, my work gives me no pleasure, because it is not possible as was my wont, to chat a few words with you when stopping for a moment. If I go to the Clavier and sing something from the opera (Die Zauberflote) I must stop at once because of my emotions.--Basta!"

(Vienna, July 7, 1791, to his wife, who was taking the waters at Baden.)

199. "I call only him or her a friend who is a friend under all circumstances, who thinks day or night of nothing else than to promote the welfare of a friend, who urges all well-to-do friends and works himself to make the other person happy."

(Kaisersheim, December 18, 1778, to his father. Mozart was making the journey from Mannheim to Munich in the carriage of a prelate. The parting with his Mannheim friends, especially with Frau Cannabich, his motherly friend, was hard. "For me, who never made a more painful parting than this, the journey was only half pleasant--it would even have been a bore, if from childhood I had not been accustomed to leave people, countries and cities.")

200. "Permit me to beg for a continuance of your precious friendship, and to ask you to accept mine for now and forever; with an honest heart I vow it to you everlastingly. True it will be of little use to you; but it will be the more durable and honest for that reason. You know that the best and truest friends are the poor. Rich people know nothing of friendship!--especially those who are born rich and those who have become rich fortuitously,--they are too often wrapped up completely in their own luck! But there is nothing to fear from a man who has been placed in advantageous circumstances, not through blind, but deserved good fortune, through merit,--a man who did not lose courage because of his first failures,--who remained true to his religion and trust in God, was a good Christian and an honest man and cherished and valued his true friend,--in a word,--a man who has deserved better fortune--from such a man, there is nothing to fear."

(Paris, August 7, 1778, to his friend Bullinger, in Salzburg, to whom he felt beholden for the gentle and considerate way in which he had broken the news of his mother's death to the family.)

201. "My friend, had I but the money which many a man who does not deserve it wastes so miserably,--if I only had it! O, with what joy would I not help you!--But, alas! those who can will not, and those who would like to can not!"

(Paris, July 29, 1778, to Fridolin Weber, father of Constanze. The letter was found but recently among some Goethe autographs.)

WORLDLY WISDOM

Mozart's father brought him up to be worldly wise. While journeying at a tender age through the world with his father the lad became an eye witness of the paternal business management with all its attention to detail; of the art of utilizing persons and conditions in order to achieve material results. As a youth he repeats the journeys accompanied by his mother whom he loses by death in Paris. Regularly from Salzburg his father sends him letters full of admonitions and advice, the subjects almost systematically grouped. The worldly wisdom of the son is the fruit of paternal education, which he did not outgrow up to the day of his death. But life, experience, was also an educator; a seeming distrust of mankind speaks out of many a passage in his letters, but on the whole he thought too well of his fellow men, and remained blind to the faults of his false friends who basely exploited him for their own ends. Although gifted with keen powers of observation he always followed his kind heart instead of his better judgment and his sister spoke no more than the truth when she said after his death: "Outside of music he was, and remained, nearly always, a child. This was the chief trait of his character on its shady side; he always needed a father, mother, or other guardian."

202. "Reflect, too, on this only too certain truth: it is not always wise to do all the things contemplated. Often one thinks one thing would be most advisable and another unadvisable and bad, when, if it were done, the opposite results would disclose themselves."

(Mannheim, December 10, 1777, to his father, when a plan for an appointment in Mannheim came to naught.)

203. "I am not indifferent but only resolved, and therefore, I can endure everything with patience,--provided, only, that neither my honor nor the good name of Mozart shall suffer therefrom. Well, since it must be so, so be it; only I beg, do not rejoice or sorrow prematurely; for let happen what may it will be all right so long as we remain well--happiness exists only in the imagination."

(Mannheim, November 29, 1777, to his father, who had upbraided him because of his reckless expenditures. At the time Mozart was hoping for an appointment at Mannheim.)

204. "Dearest and best of fathers:--You shall see that things go better and better with me. What use is this perpetual turmoil, this hurried fortune? It does not endure.--Che va piano va, sano. One must adjust himself to circumstances."

(Vienna, December 22, 1781, to his father, just before Mozart's marriage engagement to Constanze Weber.)

205. "Now, to put your mind at ease, I am doing nothing without reasons, and well-founded ones, too."

(Vienna, October 21, 1781, to his "little cousin," who may still have cherished hopes of capturing her merry kinsman.)

206. "I have no news except that 35, 59, 60, 61, 62, were the winning numbers in the lottery, and, therefore, that if we had played those numbers we would have won; but that inasmuch as we did not play those numbers we neither won nor lost but had a good laugh at others."

(Milan, October 26, 1771, to his sister.)

207. "Everybody was extremely courteous, and therefore I was also very courteous; for it is my custom to conduct myself towards others as they conduct themselves towards me,--it's the best way to get along."

(Augsburg, October 14, 1777, to his father.)

208. "In Vienna and all the imperial hereditaments the theatres will all open in six weeks. It is wisely designed; for the dead are not so much benefited by the long mourning as many people are harmed."

(Munich, December 13, 1780, to his father. Empress Maria Theresa had died on November 29. Mozart had greatly revered her from his youth. Nevertheless he takes a practical view of the situation since the production of his opera "Idomeneo" is imminent. He requests of his father to have his "black coat thoroughly dusted, cleaned and put to rights," and to send it to him, since "everybody would go into mourning, and I, who will be summoned hither and thither, must weep along with the others.")

209. "Rest assured that I am a changed man; outside of my health I know of nothing more necessary than money. I am certainly not a miser,--it would be difficult for me to change myself into one--and yet the people here think me more disposed to be stingy than prodigal; and for a beginning that will suffice. So far as pupils are concerned I can have as many as I want; but I do not want many; I want better pay than the others, and therefore I am content with fewer. One must put on a few airs at the beginning or one is lost, i.e. one must travel the common road with the many."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

210. "Depend confidently on me. I am no longer a fool, and you will still less believe that I am a wicked and ungrateful son. Meanwhile trust my brains and my good heart implicitly, and you shall never be sorry. How should I have learned to value money? I never had enough of it in my hands. I remember that once when I had 20 ducats I thought myself rich. Need alone teaches the value of money."

(Vienna, May 26, 1781, to his father.)

211. "If it were possible that it should vex me I should do my best not to notice it; as it is, thank God, there is no need of my deceiving myself because only the opposite could vex me, and I should have had to decline, which is always too bad when one is dealing with a grand gentleman."

(Vienna, October 5, 1782, to his father. Mozart had expected to give music lessons to a princess, but another teacher was chosen. Continuing in the same letter, he says: "I need only tell you his fee and you will easily be able to judge from it the strength of the master--400 florins. His name is Summerer.")