The success was not at first so great as had been expected, and after the first act Mozart rushed, pale and excited, behind the scenes to Schikaneder, who endeavoured to console him. In the course of the second act the audience recovered from the first shock of surprise, and at the close of the opera Mozart was recalled. He had hidden himself, and when he was found could with difficulty be persuaded to appear before the audience, not certainly from bashfulness, for he was used by this time to brilliant successes, but because he was not satisfied with the way in which his music had been received. The story that Haydn consoled Mozart by his approbation is untrue,[4] for he was in London at the time. But Schenck relates in his manuscript autobiography that he had a place in the orchestra at the first performance, and that after the overture, unable to contain his delight, he crept along to the conductor's stool, seized Mozart's hand and kissed it; Mozart, still beating time with his right hand, looked at him with a smile, and stroked his cheek. At the second performance on the following day he again conducted, but afterwards resigned the conductorship to Henneberg. On October 9 notice was sent to Berlin:-- The new spectacular drama, "Die Zauberflöte," with music by our kapellmeister, Mozart, has been performed at great expense and with much magnificence of scenery, &c.; but it has not attained the success hoped for, owing to the inferiority of the subject and diction of the piece.[5] Schikaneder, however, persevered, and with every repetition the applause increased; Mozart's pleasure thereat, and more especially at the approbation expressed by Salieri and Cavalieri, may be gathered from his letters to his wife. The "Zauberflöte" soon became the most popular of operas. It was performed twenty-four times in October; on November 23, 1792, Schikaneder announced the hundredth, and on October 22,1795, the two hundredth performance of the opera.[6] {DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE.} (305)