has longed for. The opera ends with a monologue of Morosus: " A rare delight it is to find a silent, beautiful girl, but it is more delightful when she belongs to another man". Stefan Zweig's adaptation of Ben Jonson The story line of an old man marrying a young woman who turns out rather differently to what he expected has its roots in classical antiquity: the play Casina by Plautus (251–184 B.C.) being an early example. Perhaps the closest progenitor is from the Declamatio Sexta, a Latin translation of mythological themes from the Greek sophist Libanius. Jonson's comedy had been used before as the basis for an opera: in 1800 Antonio Salieri's Angiolina ossia Il Matrimonio, and in 1810 Stefano Pavesi wrote the opera Ser Marcantonio which in turn formed the basis for Donizetti's Don Pasquale with characters based upon the Commedia dell'arte (thus Morose becomes Don Pasquale who is based on Pantelone). Later still, in 1930 there was Mark Lothar's Lord Spleen (in German). Zweig had discovered Ben Jonson sometime earlier, and had successfully adapted Jonson's Volpone for the German stage prior to being approached by Strauss for a libretto. Zweig used a German translation of Epicoene by Ludwig Tieck in 1800, with the subtitle Das Stumme Maedchen or das Stille Frauenzimmer depending on the edition. Zweig's libretto makes several major changes to Jonson's play. The most important is perhaps the character of Sir Morosus. In Jonson, "Morose" is not a sea captain, but merely a rich old man with a dislike of noise. Furthermore, Morose dislikes his nephew (Sir Dauphine) and plans to disinherit him through the marriage. Zweig on the other hand develops a much more sympathetic character. Sir Morosus is a retired naval captain with a distinguished career: the Barber explains to the others that an explosion on ship caused his aversion to noise (and his capture of Spanish galleons the source of his wealth). Sir Morosus also dismisses the barber's initial suggestion of marrying a younger woman: he is too old and besides, he doubts the existence of a "silent woman". However, the Barber's arguments do lead him to see the emptiness of living alone: "Every Day, every night with oneself at home, No son, no heir, no nephew, no friend, No-one in the world on whom to attend. Yes that would be good. To know there is someone for whom one is real,