At the second interview between the two the state of affairs is considerably modified. Zerlina has been warned by Elvira; she has just calmed Masetto's jealousy with some difficulty, and is aware that he overhears; she seeks, therefore, to repel
Don Giovanni, though conscious that he has lost none of his old attraction for her. He knows this, and answers her petition for mercy with her own motif, whereby the love-making is as delicately characterised as immediately afterwards his astonishment at finding Masetto in ambush, and the quick presence of mind with which he ceremoniously greets him, whereupon Don Giovanni's own phrase is mockingly repeated by Masetto. The orchestra, after accompanying the lovers with strains as tender as their own, here gives inimitable expression to suppressed scorn and resentment. The dance music is heard, however, and relieves the strain; all except Zerlina feel the relief, and hasten within. As the festivities proceed, and Zerlina, watched by Masetto's jealous eyes, endeavours to elude Don Giovanni's pursuit of her until he leads her to the dance and then carries her off,[163] the complicated situation is characterised, as a whole, with firm and distinct touches, and the individual points are allowed to fall into the background. When she has been delivered from Don Giovanni's hands her feelings for him have undergone a revulsion, and henceforward she is found among the number of his pursuers. Her passing inclination for the libertine has, however, roused into life a germ which is fostered and developed by her relations towards Masetto. At first her intercourse with her lover is unreserved and entirely happy. Masetto is represented as a course, jealous, but good-natured clown, and appears at a disadvantage when compared with Zerlina, Don Giovanni, or even with Leporello. Mozart has sketched his figure for us in simple graphic lines, never bringing him to the foreground, but always giving him his right place in the ensemble movements, to which he contributes his share of life and colour. He only asserts himself once in an air, when Don Giovanni is sending him away in order to be alone with Zerlina. This is of a decidedly buffo character, and, compared with the