194. "Dearest, best of friends!"
"Surely you will let me call you that? You can not hate me so greatly as not to permit me to be your friend, and yourself to become mine? And even if you do not want to be my friend longer, you can not forbid me to think kindly of you as I have been in the habit of doing. Consider well what you said to me today. Despite my entreaties you gave me the mitten three times and told me to my face that you would have nothing further to do with me. I, to whom it is not such a matter of indifference as it is to you to lose a sweetheart, am not so hot tempered, inconsiderate or unwise as to accept that mitten. I love you too dearly for that. I therefore beg you to ponder on the cause of your indignation. A little confession of your thoughtless conduct would have made all well,—if you do not take it ill, dear friend, may still make all well. From this you see how much I love you. I do not flare up as you do; I think, I consider, and I feel. If you have any feeling I am sure that I will be able to say to myself before night: Constanze is the virtuous, honor-loving, sensible and faithful sweetheart of just and well-meaning Mozart."
(Vienna, April 29, 1782, to his fiancee, Constanze Weber. She had played at a game of forfeits such as was looked upon lightly by the frivolous society of the period in Vienna. Mozart rebuked her and she broke off the engagement. The letter followed and soon thereafter a reconciliation. Mozart had said to her: "No girl who is jealous of her honor would do such a thing.")
195. "She is an honest, good girl of decent parents;—I am able to provide her with bread;—we love each other and want each other!…It is better to put one's things to rights and be an honest fellow!—God will give the reward! I do not want to have anything to reproach myself with."
(Vienna, July 31, 1782, to his father, who had given his consent, hesitatingly and unwillingly, to the marriage of his son who was twenty-six years old. On August 7 Mozart wrote to him: "I kiss your hands and thank you with all the tenderness which a son should feel for his father, for your kind permission and paternal blessing.")
196. "If I were to tell you all the things that I do with your portrait, you would laugh heartily. For instance when I take it out of its prison house I say 'God bless you, Stanzerl! God bless you, you little rascal,—Krallerballer—Sharpnose—little Bagatelle!' And when I put it back I let it slip down slowly and gradually and say 'Nu,—Nu,—Nu,—Nu;' but with the emphasis which this highly significant word demands, and at the last, quickly: 'Good-night, little Mouse, sleep well!' Now, I suppose, I have written down a lot of nonsense (at least so the world would think); but for us, who love each other so tenderly, it isn't altogether silly."
(Dresden, April 13, 1789, to his wife in Vienna.)
197. "Dear little wife, I have a multitude of requests; 1mo, I beg of you not to be sad.
"2do, that you take care of your health and not trust the spring air.
"3tio, that you refrain from walking out alone, or, better, do not walk out at all.