"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.)