before appearing to their brides undertake and carry out the trial of their constancy; Despina undertakes the cure in her own person, and in the last finale a real notary is brought on, whom she afterwards declares to be her lover. The progress of the plot is completely changed, almost all the songs are transformed and taken from their proper connection. Herklot's alterations in "Die verhangnissvolle Wette" went still deeper.[37] The ladies are not put to the test by their own lovers, but, with the connivance of the latter, by two of their friends, whose servant Pedrillo takes part in the intrigue as the doctor and the notary. Not to mention the injury which the musical characterisation suffers thereby, the clumsiness of the test imposed is made still more apparent, and the final reconciliation becomes more unreal and revolting. Da Ponte has made no effort to soften the awkwardness of the situation; it is indeed very much increased by the exchange of lovers made during the trial, as if the right choice was that which is then made. G. Bernhard (Gugler), who has done honour both to words and music by his excellent edition of the opera,[38] removed this obstacle in his adaptation, "Sind sie treu?" (Stuttgart, 1858). Here each lover proves his own mistress, and the plot and its development are modified accordingly.[39] Da Ponte sacrificed the excuse this would have afforded to the two ladies--who might be supposed unconsciously drawn towards the true object of their affections--to the dramatic effect of the embarrassing position of the men on either side. Attempts to remedy this defect led to other and greater ones.[40] In an old adaptation, "Die Wette, oder Màdchen-List und -Liebe," the author {CRITICISM OF THE LIBRETTO.} (247) (whose name is unknown to me) has hit upon the device of making the waiting-maid betray Don Alfonso's plot to the sisters before the entrance of the pretended friends, so that they are supposed to be hoaxing their lovers all the time, and the latter have to sue for pardon at the end. Despina's disguise as the doctor is retained, but a real notary is brought in for the last finale. Arnold proceeded similarly in his English version, "Tit for Tat."[41] L. Schneider, too, has made the same alteration, with the difference that Despina does not betray to her mistresses the plot against them until the second act, from which time they feign the weakness with which they mean to chastise their lovers. But this alteration implies a coarseness of conduct in the two sisters which is scarcely less reprehensible than their fickleness. The musical characterisation also is destroyed, since they are now supposed to feign the sentiments which they were originally intended to express in all seriousness; the inconsistency is sometimes unendurable. Added to this, the second finale is nullified by the altered catastrophe, and the charming part omitted where the men recall the characters assumed by them.[42]