Mozart has shown correct judgment in making Guillelmo' a natural, good-humoured character, instead of a caricatured buffo figure. But a motive seems to have been at work here which appears throughout the whole of "Cosi fan Tutte." It is evident that Mozart has sought to clear himself from the reproach that his music was too heavy, too serious for a comic opera, and to satisfy the taste of the public for what was light and entertaining. This demand was met in the two male duets, the first (7) being light and superficial, and the second a serenade (21), which (accompanied, according to custom, only by wind instruments) follows a striking chorus with a melodious and pleasing effect, but without individual character. The same motive is even more evidently at work in the character of Despina. She never betrays a particle of true feeling. She has no sympathy {COSÌ FAN TUTTE.} (262) either for her mistresses, or for their lovers, or for Don Alfonso, and she has no love affair of her own. The only visible motive of action with her is selfishness, which triumphs even over her love of intrigue; every expression of hers shows giddy thoughtlessness, not always of the most refined kind. Her two songs are both addressed to her ladies. The first (12) is in answer to Dorabella's pathetic burst of sorrow, and scoffs at her belief in the constancy of men, while urging her to reward inconstancy with inconstancy. The second (19) exhorts the still undecided fair ones to adopt coquetry as the true rule of life for the female sex. In the first air the gaiety, lightly tinged with humour in the short introductory allegretto, is light and easy, and has a forwardness about it not quite maidenly, but so pretty and winning that the whole person is invested with a certain interest and attractiveness. In the second air Despina appears as the temptress; therefore the action is more careful, the expression more delicate; insinuating persuasion takes the place of her former pertness, and the comic element only asserts itself once in the strongly accented:-- E qual regina Dali' alto soglio Coll posso e voglio Farsi ubbidir. This air reminds us in many points of Zerlina, but it serves also to prove how many touches of detail and delicate shades of musical expression are wanting when true feeling is not at the root of the conception. Spite of its commonplace tone, its lively gaiety gives it a certain charm, just as in everyday life we often meet with people commonplace in their nature, but attractive from their youthful freshness and cheerfulness. But Despina is in her element when she herself is playing some extravagant prank, and she adopts her various disguises with much boldness and gay humour. The scene where she enters as a doctor in the first finale belongs indisputably to the wittiest performances of comic music. After the long suspense, the animation caused by the entrance of the doctor has an excellent effect, and the {DESPINA.} (263)