[Footnote 5: I cannot undertake to give anything like a comprehensive description of Mozart's wife, although I have received many communications from trustworthy persons who have known her personally. Their knowledge is of her later years only, and their accounts are often inconsistent. This inconsistency arises from the conflict in the widow's mind between pride in the fame of the husband, of whose greatness she was fully aware only after his death, and a painful remembrance of the hardships of their married life. These hardships she was inclined to ascribe solely to his want of capacity for practical affairs, and an injured feeling was often mingled with her unbounded pride in Mozart's artistic achievements and her belief in his love for her. The peculiarities of her second husband, Nissen, a business man, painfully accurate and precise, tended no doubt to intensify the contrast. Nissen's was an honourable, although a commonplace nature, and he had earned Constanze's gratitude by his care for her in her widowed and destitute condition, and by placing her in a good worldly position as his wife; so that it is not surprising that Mozart's memory should have passed into the background, with the exception of his musical fame, which Nissen could not rival. At any rate, we find Constanze continually posing as the patient martyr, suffering from the thoughtlessness of a man of genius, who remained a child to the end of his days. This is unjust to Mozart, but it would be equally unjust to Constanze to make her mainly responsible for the family difficulties.] [Footnote 6: Jahrb. d. Tonkunst. (1796), p. 43.] [Footnote 7: Nissen, p. 689.] [Footnote 8: Shlichtegrolls Nekrolog. Cf. Zelter, Briefw. mit Goethe, VI., p. 61.] [Footnote 9: Niemetschek, p. 97. Nissen, p. 686.] [Footnote 10: A. M. Z., I., p. 291. Nissen, p. 687.] [Footnote 11: This letter was made use of by Nissen. I obtained it from Köchel.] [Footnote 12: A. M. Z., I., p. 291. Nissen, p. 687.] [Footnote 13: "On this point I have accepted the verbal testimony of trustworthy Salzburg friends, confirmed by Niemetschek, p. 98 (Nissen, p. 690).] [Footnote 14: Forster, Sämmtl. Schr., VII., p. 268. The French traveller [K. Risbeck] says a great deal about the dissoluteness of the Viennese. "All the great towns are alike in this respect. The courts are more or less corrupt, and the nobility universally so; those who can do as they like abuse their privileges, and act unworthily. But it is not always fair to consider freedom of manner as a sign of licentiousness, as those who live in small towns are apt to do. If a pretty girl permits a kiss on her hand, or even her lips--if, when she loves a man, she is not ashamed to say so--these are not deadly sins, and the shame rests with those who take advantage of her openness."] [Footnote 15: From a MS. biographical notice of Hummel, by M. J. Seidel, communicated by Preller.]