Each line of the quatrain has the basic pattern of seven syllables, with a caesura occurring after the first four syllables.
That is a very simple little quatrain but it does seem to me that it might have a moral for us here to-day.
Mozart begins the first quatrain by depicting three separate emotional states in a strikingly discontinuous texture.
Quatrain 1 is stated in the tonic, quatrain 1 is repeated in the dominant, quatrain 2 is stated in the tonic, quatrain 1 is repeated in the tonic.
The courtiers' invasive gaze is mirrored on one level by the typographical intrusion - the stage direction that disrupts the conventional mise en page of the two quatrains.
In the exposition (bars 24-48) the two quatrains are set to tonic and dominant paragraphs respectively, with each line of text sung to a two-bar phrase.
The first quatrain, stated in the tonic, ends with a long passage of coloratura.
Cabalettas by tradition rarely exceed eight lines, usually divided into two quatrains.
