say 'How are you?' to every day. And that's the student who goes
to his lectures every morning, and sighs so tremendously as he passes
his cousin's window," etc., etc. And then all these people are to be
subjected to the spell of some Puck, in such fashion that what they set
to work to do under that influence, and all that happens to them, are
to affect us as if we were there on the spot, sharing their experiences
with them, under the influence of the same spell.'

"_Ludwig_. 'Exactly. And I scarcely need say that, according to my
principle, music adapts itself well to _opera buffa_, and that in so
adapting itself there results a certain special style which makes a
special impression of its own on the hearer.'

"_Ferdinand_. 'Do you think music can express all the shades of the
Comic?'

"_Ludwig_. 'I am quite sure it can; clever artists have proved it
scores of times. For instance, music can express the most delicate and
delightful Irony. That is the predominating element in Mozart's
glorious "Cosi fan tutte."'

"_Ferdinand_. That, by the way, leads me to the remark that, according
to your principle, the so-much disparaged text of that work is really
highly suitable for an opera.'

"_Ludwig_. 'That is exactly what I was thinking of when I said, a
little while ago, that for his classic operas Mozart always chose
really suitable texts, for "Le Nozze di Figaro" is more a Comedy in
Music than a true Opera. The nefarious attempt to turn pathetic dramas
into operas can never come to anything; our "Orphan Hospitals,"
"Oculists," and so forth, are sure to be soon forgotten. And what could
have been more miserable and opposed to the true spirit of opera than
all that series of _vaudeilles_ of Dittersdorf's? But on the other hand
I call such works as "The Sunday-Child" and "The Sisters of Prague"
admirable. One might style them true German _opere buffe_.'

"_Ferdinand_. 'They have always amused me greatly, at all events, when
decently given; and I have always thought of what Tieck makes his
"poet" say to the public in his "Puss in Boots": "If you want to enjoy
this thoroughly, you must divest yourself of whatever you may have
attained in the shape of cultivation and learning, and become wholly as
little children, so as to enjoy it as such."'

"_Ludwig_. 'Unfortunately those words, like many others of the kind,
fell upon stony ground, and could take no root. But the _vox populi_,
which is generally the _vox Dei_ in theatr