Mannheim and Paris
Despite all this work, the young man chafed at the narrow provincialism of his native town, at the absence of true artistic interest, at the company he was obliged to keep at the Archbishop’s table, and, most of all, at that cleric’s attitude. Leopold, seeing the dangerous way in which the situation was shaping itself between the young man and his master, made an effort to stave off a catastrophe by planning another trip. Wolfgang applied to the Archbishop for his discharge, whereupon Colloredo, who was not really anxious to lose the composer’s services, told the pair to “seek their fortunes where they pleased”—but at the same time would not permit Leopold to leave. The father thereupon decided that his son should go to Paris, perhaps to find some lucrative position at the French court, unless he should be lucky enough to discover one somewhere else. But since he was forbidden to go along he deputed his wife to go in his place and keep a careful eye on the impulsive young man.