W A Mozart to his father

Vienna, 9 Jun 1781

Well, Count Arco has managed things to perfection! So that

is the way to persuade people, to win them over, to refuse

petitions out of congenital stupidity, not to say a word to

your master for lack of spirit and love of sycophancy, to

keep a man hanging about for four weeks and at last, when

he is obliged to present the petition himself, instead of

arranging for his admittance, to throw him out and give him

a kick in the pants... I wrote three petitions, handed them

in five times, and each time had them thrown back at

me...and since the Archbishop was planning to leave on

the next day, I was quite beside myself with rage and wrote

another petition, in which I disclosed to him that I had had

a petition in readiness for the past four weeks! With that

petition I received my discharge in the most gallant way.

So seeing the reasons why I left him no father could be

angry with his own son.