The emperor, indeed, valued Mozart’s _talent decidé_ very highly, and one day summoned him to meet Clement, in single combat, that his majesty might enjoy his immense superiority over the more formal talent of that renowned Roman. But the emperor did not recognize the full value of the _Elopement from the Seraglio_, which he once characterized by saying of it: _non era gran cosa_--“it did not amount to a great deal.” This grieved Mozart sorely. He even thought of leaving Vienna in consequence of it, and of going first to France and then to England. In the meantime, the Italian musicians in Vienna, probably because of the steady and great success of the _Elopement from the Seraglio_, had induced the emperor to order a new and excellent _opera buffa_, which gave great satisfaction. Mozart wrote of it: “The _basso buffo_ is remarkably good; his name is Benucci.” Lorenzo da Ponte, known to-day as the poet of the two greatest _opere buffe_ of the world--our _Figaro_ and _Don Giovanni_ had been in Vienna for some time, and was there now. He had promised Mozart, who of course had an eye on this Italian opera, a new subject as soon as he had finished one for Salieri. Two years passed away, but Da Ponte’s word was kept at length. In the meantime, Mozart had, on the occasion of his visit to Salzburg, in the fall of 1783, begun a comic opera, “Die Gans von Cairo”--“The Goose of Cairo.” It was, however, never completed. The libretto was too bad and the goose-story too “stupid.” To this epoch, ending with the _Figaro_, belongs a large abundance of purely instrumental music. The quartet for the piano with wind-instruments was ready on the 24th of March, 1784; the fantasy in C major, which was never surpassed even by Beethoven, and the _Veilchen_, in the spring of 1785; the piano quartet in G minor, which Mozart called the best he had written in his whole life, in July of the same year; and the six quartets, dedicated to Joseph Haydn, the creator of that species of music, in the fall of that year (1785), a year which must be considered among the most fertile of his life. And yet, even at this time, Mozart was engaged on the comic opera above named, and had begun another, the _Il Sposo deluso_, “The derided Bridegroom,” which he dropped, to work on the _Figaro_. Scarcely had this last subject begun to occupy his mind, than it took possession of it entirely. Not even to the _Idomeneo_ and the _Elopement from the Seraglio_ did he devote himself so entirely as to the _Figaro_. Into this last he put all his individuality. It was the first subject which occupied all his mind and soul, and, at the same time, afforded him an opportunity to show the real brilliancy of his wit and of his musical capacity. In this work, we have a perfect whole, a gem which shines with dazzling brightness. A few weaknesses due to its derivation from the Italian opera are cancelled by its excellences. It is a picture of