is induced by her more thoughtless sister to coquet with the new lover, but Dorabella's lover presents himself after a fashion calculated to make a strong impression upon her. Guillelmo is always light-hearted and cheerful; while, even in the parting scene, Ferrando has shown himself to be a man of softer mould. His air (17), after the first repulse of his suit, leaves no doubt as to his nature. It renders the vapid sentimentality of the words with remarkable tenderness and delicacy, but this kind of sentimentality being quite foreign to the southern nature, the portrayal of it would rouse more ridicule than sympathy. Such a character cuts a comic figure upon the 'stage--a circumstance which must be borne in mind in considering this opera. Even in his feigned wooing he expresses his feelings with warmth and animation, his eccentricities being indeed heightened by the difficulties of the situation. This is just the demeanour calculated to make an impression on Fiordiligi, and she soon begins to waver. Perceiving this, he expresses his delight with an extravagance which a man of calmer temperament would have been incapable of dissembling;[49] it is evident that his fancy gets the better of his excited feelings. So apprehended, this air (24) not only entrances our minds by its continuous flow of lovely melody, but gives us a sense of natural fitness for the situation and characters. It would have been an impossible task for music to represent Ferrando as singing this song with coolly calculated dissimulation; for the exaggeration of caricature is only appropriate when no conviction is required to be brought home to us, whereas here the impression experienced by Fiordiligi must be shared by the audience before it can become intelligible. The music must therefore express a feeling by which a man of excitable nature would be likely to be carried away. In this way only can we justify the deep impression made upon the equally excitable Fiordiligi, when, left alone, she reproaches herself doubly for having coquetted with Ferrando, and been false at heart to her lover. The feeling {COSÌ FAN TUTTE.} (256)