He endeavoured also to bring about an expression "of gratitude, or at
all events of approbation" on the part of the Archbishop towards the
Count. For several weeks after his recovery, Wolfgang was obliged to
be very careful of his eyes, and his daily visitor, the Archbishop's
chaplain, Hay, afterwards Bishop of Konigsgràz (brother to Frau von
Sonnenfels),[2] strove to relieve the tedium of his enforced idleness by
teaching him card-games, in which the boy soon became as great an adept
as his instructor. He threw himself with the same zeal into the practice
of fencing,
{IMPERIAL CONDESCENSION--VIENNA, 1768.}
(65)
having at all times a great love of exercises demanding bodily
activity.[3] When his recovery was complete, he composed an aria for the
little daughter of his physician, Wolf, of which her father reminded him
in later years (May 28, 1778).
On their return journey to Vienna they stayed for a fortnight at Brunn,
where they were received with great kindness by Count Franz Anton
Schrattenbach, brother to Archbishop Sigismund, of Salzburg: all the
nobility residing at Brünn treated them with the "highest distinction."
But at Vienna, which they re-entered at the beginning of January, 1768,
difficulties crowded thick upon them. At court, indeed, their reception
took place sooner than they had dared to hope. The Empress Maria Theresa
had scarcely recovered from the small-pox, when she remembered her
admiration of the children, and sent for the family.
The Emperor himself came into the ante-chamber, and conducted them
to his mother, no other person being present but Duke Albert of
Sachsen-Teschen, and the Archduchesses. They passed two hours in the
midst of this family circle. The Empress, a motherly woman, conversed
intimately with Frau Mozart, and questioned her on all details of
the children's illness, pressing her hands and stroking her cheeks
compassionately, while the Emperor discussed musical and other matters
with Wolfgang and his father, and "made Nannerl blush very often."
This unusual condescension was gratifying to the patriotic feelings
of the Mozart family, but it was not directly profitable. The Empress
presented them with a pretty medal of small value; but as she had
visited neither the opera nor the theatre since the death of her
consort, and had discontinued all musical parties, a summons to play
at court could only come from the Emperor. But Joseph showed little
inclination to liberality in the cause of art, and others, besides L.
Mozart, complained of his parsimony.
{THE FIRST OPERA IN VIENNA.}
(66)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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