Schikaneder who, as far back as 1780, had known how to make use of young Mozart in Salzburg, had been some years in Vienna, and had a small wooden theatre in the Stahremberg _Freihaus_.[9] His inexhaustible good humor made him very good company, and Mozart had long enjoyed himself in the circle of his theatrical friends. Schikaneder had frequently, when acting as theatrical director, alternately reveled in superfluity, and almost starved. Now, in consequence of the competition of the theatre in the Leopoldstadt, he was brought to the very brink of ruin. This was in the spring of 1791. He applied to Mozart for a “piece that would attract.” He said that he had a proper subject, a _Magic Opera_, and that Mozart was the man to write the music for it. It was an unparalleled piece of impudence, and one which discloses Schikaneder’s whole character, to ask the emperor’s composer, the author of _Figaro_ and _Don Giovanni_ to write a _Magic_ _Opera_ for a board booth in the suburbs. But Schikaneder knew the world and knew Mozart. And then he was linked to him by the ties of brotherhood in the order of Free Masons. To that brotherhood, Mozart himself owed the steady assistance he received from Puchberg. And hence his objections were soon overcome by the description the sly director gave of his extreme poverty. “If we are unfortunate in the matter, it will not be my fault,” Mozart replied; “for I never yet composed a ‘magic opera,’” and with these words, he went immediately to work. To the clown, Schikaneder, the bird-catcher, Papageno--who understood so well how to describe the good natured, rather timid, fanciful, easy-going nature of the average Viennese--was of more consequence than the other nobler characters of the opera. But to the composer, the chosen play was a reflection of life such as he had seen it in his own soul for years, and above all, as it was in the heart of the loving pair who, separated by adverse fate, were destined to meet again in more intimate union; and in the _Dies Bildniss ist bezaubernd schoen_, we hear once more the first heart-felt love notes of his youth, more beautiful and more full of soul than ever. But we would call attention also to the ideal charm and transformation of all the other powers that appear in this magic play. Mozart really felt the existence of higher powers, and that they preside over our lives. The rehearsals of the first act began as early as July; for Schikaneder had the tact to win Mozart over to himself completely. He had even given up the summer house in the garden to him, and endeavored to provide him with the most cheerful society. The accounts that have come down to us representing Mozart as a frivolous pleasure-seeker originated about this time. But we need only read the letters which he wrote during this same time to his wife, who was not far away,--she was in Baden on account of sickness,--to see that his soul was not in these outer pleasures. Yet