"Oh!" said I, "to puzzle me, I suppose?" Old Toeschi and Wendling
stood all the time close beside me. I gave them enough to laugh
at. Every now and then came a pizzicato, when I rattled the keys
well; I was in my best humor. Instead of the Benedictus here,
there is always a voluntary, so I took the ideas of the Sanctus
and worked them out in a fugue. There they all stood making
faces. At the close, after Ita missa est, I played a fugue. Their
pedal is different from ours, which at first rather puzzled me,
but I soon got used to it. I must now conclude. Pray write to us
still at Mannheim. I know all about Misliweczeck's sonatas [see
No. 64], and played them lately at Munich; they are very easy and
agreeable to listen to. My advice is that my sister, to whom I
humbly commend myself, should play them with much expression,
taste, and fire, and learn them by heart. For these are sonatas
which cannot fail to please every one, are not difficult to
commit to memory, and produce a good effect when played with
precision.



75.

Mannheim, Nov. 13, 1777.

Potz Himmel! Croatians, demons, witches, hags, and cross
batteries! Potz Element! air, earth, fire, and water! Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America! Jesuits, Augustines, Benedictines,
Capucins, Minorites, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carthusians, and
Knights of the Cross! privateers, canons regular and irregular,
sluggards, rascals, scoundrels, imps, and villains all! donkeys,