But Schikaneder took care to keep his composer in good humour by frequent invitations to his table; where both eating and drinking were of the best, and by introductions to the jovial and free-living society in which he himself moved, and which also included A. Stadler, the man who so shamefully abused Mozart's good nature (Vol. II., p. 309). The pressure of external circumstances, of growing domestic troubles, and the bitter feeling of failure and disappointed hope, combined with his own excitable nature to cause Mozart to seek for distraction and forgetfulness in the whirl of a pleasure-loving life. His wife was at Baden, where his youngest son Wolfgang was born on July 26; her absence deprived his home life of any comfort, and drove him to take refuge among his theatrical friends. Folly and dissipation were the inevitable accompaniments of such an existence, and these soon reached the public ear, combining with the exaggerated accounts current of the loose life led by Schikaneder and his associates to cover Mozart's name for several months with an amount of obloquy beyond what he deserved (Vol. II., p. 270). While the "Zauberflöte" was in course of composition, Da Ponte, who was obliged to leave Vienna, tried to persuade Mozart to accompany him to London, and there take an active part in the production of Italian opera. Mozart turned a favourable ear to the project, but demanded a delay of six months for the completion and performance of his opera, to which Da Ponte could not agree.[31] In July, 1791, the work was so far advanced that he was able to insert the opera in his catalogue as virtually complete; the rehearsals had begun as {LABOUR AND POVERTY.} (286) soon as the voices and bass parts were ready, the working-out of the instrumentation being left, as usual, to the last.