bad light before the world. The slanderous stories all came from
his enemies in Vienna, and a long time passed before their true
character was recognized. A great contribution to this end was
made by the publication of his letters, which disclose an
extraordinarily strong moral sense. The tale of an alleged
liaison with a certain Frau Hofdamel, as a result of which the
deceived husband was said to have committed suicide, has been
proved to be wholly untrue and without warrant.

It may be said, indeed, that Mozart was an exception among the
men of his period. The immorality of the Viennese was proverbial.
Karoline Pichler, a contemporary, writes as follows in her book
of recollections of the eighth decade of the eighteenth century:
"In Vienna at the time there reigned a spirit of appreciation for
merriment and a susceptibility for every form of beauty and
sensuous pleasure. There was the greatest freedom of thought and
opinion; anything could be written and printed which was not, in
the strictest sense of the words, contrary to religion and the
state. Little thought was bestowed on good morals. There was
considerable license in the current plays and novels. Kotzebue
created a tremendous sensation. His plays...and a multitude of
romances and tales (Meissner's sketches among other things) were
all based on meretricious relations. All the world and every
young girl read them without suspicion or offence. More than once
had I read and seen these things; 'Oberon' was well known to me;
so was Meissner's 'Alcibiades.' No mother hesitated to acquaint
her daughter with such works and before our eyes there were so
many living exemplars whose irregular conduct was notorious, that
no mother could have kept her daughter in ignorance had she
tried."