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312 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS sang in a loud voice, " Ich lass das Madchen gem das mich nicht will " (I gladly give up the girl who slights me). It was all over, and he had to bear the loss of the fickle girl as best he might. There is a significant line in one of his letters at this time to his father : " In my whole life I never wrote worse than I do to-day. but I really am unfit for anything ; my heart is so full of tears." After two years' absence he returned home to Salzburg, where he was warmly welcomed back. Here he remained for a little while, and wrote his first serious opera, " Idomeneo," to the text of an Abbe Varesco, a Salzburger. This opera Beethoven thought the finest of all that Mozart wrote. It was brought out at Munich in January, 1 781, and was brilliantly successful. In the March following, an order was re- ceived from the archbishop to follow him to Vienna, where he wished to appear with all the full pomp and brilliant retinue of a prince of the church ; and as one of this retinue Mozart had to follow him, little thinking at the time that he should never return to Salzburg, but that Vienna henceforth was to be his home. In Vienna he found that he had to live in the archbishop's house, and was looked upon there as one of the ordinary servants. He says, " We dine at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, unluckily rather too early an hour for me. Our party consists of the two valets, the comptroller, Herr Zetti, the confectioner, the two cooks, Cecarilli, Brunetti (two singers), and my insignificant self. N. B. — The two valets sit at the head of the table. I have, at all events, the honor to be placed above the cooks ; I almost believe I am back to Salzburg." Mozart was a true gentleman, with no foolish false pride, but with the hon- orable self-respect that every gentleman must possess, and it was very galling to him to have to suffer such odious treatment from the mean-spirited archbishop. Indeed, it was only for his father's sake that he submitted to the continued contumely and petty slights to which the archbishop delighted in subjecting him. At last the open rupture came. The archbishop called him a knave and disso- lute fellow, and told him to be off ; and when Mozart waited upon Count Arco, the principal official, to obtain the regular dismissal that was necessary, the fellow poured abuse upon him, and actually kicked him out of the room. Poor Mozart was in a state of violent excitement after this outrage, and for some days was so ill that he could not continue his ordinary work. But now at least he was free, and though his father, like a timid, prudent old man, bewailed the loss of the stipend which his son had been receiving, Mozart himself knew that the release was entirely for the best. In 1782 appeared " Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail," his first really important opera, full of beautiful airs, which at once became enormously popular with the Viennese. The Emperor Joseph II. knew very little about music, but, as fre- quently happens in such cases, considered that he possessed prodigious taste. On hearing it he said, " Much too fine for our ears, dear Mozart ; and what a quantity of notes ! " The bold reply to this was, " Just as many notes as are necessary, your Ma- jesty."