The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-11
MOZART AND MARIE ANTOINETTE

From the Musical Courier.
TT is well. perhaps, that none Of MS
can peer beyond the veil which
II hides the future from us. The In
scrutable pages of destiny can only be
guessed at And yet the widest and
most fantastic guesses would be as
near the truth as the soberest conclu-
sions in most cases.
Who could have foretold the TRACE
dies which were to end the lives of
Mozart and Marie Antoinette? The seer
who could have drawn aside the curtain
and revealed to the little. Austrian
princess the ignominious death await
ing her in Paris would have been in
carcerated as lunatie, and Mozart's s
brief existence would have been a hor-
rible nightmare If the, unhappy com
poser could have seen the shadowy man
with the scythe so, close behind him.
There was time, however, when
Mozart and the young princess were
happy children together. In 1852, when
the wonder child was years old, his
fame as performer on the harpsichord
and organ and his uncanny genius as a
composer reached the ears-of the EN-
peror of Austria. Mozart was taken to
the palace to play to the delighted
monarch, who called him little ma
gician" He behaved in every way like
an unsophjsticated child, jumping In the
Empress lap and throwing his arms
around her neck.
The chronicles OF the period tell us
that "all the ladies lost their hearts
to the little fellow"
The plebeian feet of the boy slipped
on the unaccustomed polish of the
palace floor one evening as he played
to the royal audience. Then it was that
the tot Marie Antoinette came to his
assistance She was years old and of
course felt a maternal sympathy for A
mere boy of 8. One unauthenticated ac-
count has 1t that Mozart, after the
manner Of musicians and poets, told
the little lady he loved her.
Now comes the parting of the ways.
Mozart ceased to be a wonder child.
His work was poorly paid and he could
not manage his affairs. Disappoint-
ments, cares, failures. the burden Of
an invalid wife, an occasional spell of
dissipation, overwork, all undermined
a constitution which was none too
strong even II the frail body had not
been weighted with the brain of a
genius.
In 1871 Mozart died of malignant
typhus fever, not quite SO years of age.
His burial service was held in the
open air, as was the custom with the
very poor who were inferred at the
city's expense. Around the bier stood
five of his friends, who accompanied
the remains to the city gates and then
turned back on account of the tempest.
The parochial officials took him to the
churchyard of St Marx and put him in
a paupers grave with the city's dere-
licts and castaways. The prince of har-
mony was buried with no music but
the drone of the rain and the stupend-
GUS bass of the thunderstorm. His
grave has never been known.
Marie Antoinette romped in the fields
and palace yards, growing up without
education and with little interest In any
subject but music. Gluck gave her
music lessons while she was girl, and
nobly she came to the support of her
old instructor later on when the musi-
cal world was between the rival ad-
herents of Gluck and Piccini was the
talk OF Paris. At 15 years of age the
high spirited and light hearted girl
was sacrificed to the political interests
of the courts of France and Austria,
and the weeping princess was sent to
Paris to be the bride OF the Dauphin,
the future King of France.
In 1774 Louis XIV, whose life had been
a scandal to the whole French nation died
from virulent smallpox, a hideous mass
of sores, and on the same day that a
British man of war sailed into Boston har-
bor to impose tax on tea, Marie An
toinette became Queen of France as the
wife of Louis XVI, the King. No fairer
face and softer crown of golden hair were
reflected from the miles of mirrors of the
palace of Versailles than when the daz-
zling Queen Of 20 passed like an embodf-
ment of loveliness through the corridors
and drawing rooms. Surely never lighted
OH this orb. which she hardly seemed to
touch, a more delightful vision" wrote
Burke. who had seen the Queen of France.
But envy and jealousy were at work.
And moreover, the good but dull wftted
King had come to the throne when the
ne tion was groaning under the burden re-
sulting from his fathers vices and his