Life of Mozart

:^—;80 " LE NOZZE DI FIGARO."political, on the minds of men. The dialogue is undoubtedlyin many respects purer than in the comedy ; but the plotand its motives, the chief situations, the whole point ofview, become all the more decidedly frivolous. How cameit, then, that Mozart could choose such a subject for hisopera, and that the public could accept it with approbation ?It must in the first place be borne in mind that the facts onwhich the plot is founded, and the point of view from whichthese facts are regarded, had at that time substantial truthand reality ; men were not shocked at seeing on the stagethat which they had themselves experienced, and knew tobe going on in their own homes. A later age is disgustedby the contrast between semblance and reality, and at therepresentation of immorality in all its nakedness ; the tasteof the time demands that it shall be shown after anotherform and fashion. A glance at the entertaining literature,and even at the operas of the last half of the eighteenthcentury, shows clearly that representation of immoralityplays an important part therein in a form which bespeaksthe temper and spirit of the time ; and further, that a desirefor the representation of moral depravity is an infalliblesymptom of moral disease. It cannot, therefore, be wonderedat that a picture of the moral corruption whichpenetrated all classes, from the highest to the lowest, andwhich had brought all social and political relations to theverge of dissolution, should have been regarded \vith eagerapprobation and enjoyment. The age which produced andenjoyed "Figaro" took a lighter view of sensual gratificationand the moral turpitude connected therewith than thatwhich seems right to a generation grown serious by reasonof higher aims and nobler struggles. It need not here bediscussed how far manners and opinions which changewith the times are to be regarded as absolute moralitythe point we are proving is undeniable, and is apparent,often painfully so, in all the light literature and memoirsof the day. Caroline Pichler writes in reference to thisvery period8 Car. Pichler, Denkw., I., p. 103.