Wagner and His Isolde

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Wagner and His Isolde

The German poet Mathilde Wesendonck (1828–1902), author of the texts
of the Wesendonck Lieder, was the wife of Wagner’s patron, the wealthy
silk merchant Otto Wesendonck. From 1852 until 1858, the Wagners lived
next to the Wesendoncks in Zurich and an intense relationship developed
between Wagner and Mathilde, subsequently reflected in the impossible
love at the heart of his opera Tristan und Isolde. Prepared by the American
musicologist Gustav Kobbé (1857–1918), who provides a helpful connecting
narrative, this 1905 translation of a selection of ‘the most intimate and
striking’ of Wagner’s impassioned letters to Mathilde charts the course of the
opera’s creation. Written between 1853 and 1863, the letters show Wagner
thinking aloud not only about Tristan but also the planning of Parsifal.
As Mathilde’s letters to Wagner were destroyed, the exact nature of their
relationship and of her inspiration musically will never be fully established.
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Wagner and His Isolde
Gustav Kobbé

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© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2015
This edition first published 1905

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isbn 978-1-108-07855-9 Paperback
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WAGNER AND HIS ISOLDE

MATHILDE WESENDONK
(1860)
After a Painting by C. Dorner

WAGNER
AND HIS ISOLDE
BY
GUSTAV KOBBE
Author of " Wagner18 Music Dramas Analysed,1
"Loves of the Oreat Composers" "Opera
Singers," "Signora," etc.
Illustrations
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1905

COPYRIGHT, 1905,
BY
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
Published September, 1905

To
HERMAN BEHR
Whose discernment and enthusiasm were a
guide and an inspiration to me while
writing this book

AUTHOR'S NOTE
ON reading, in the German original, the

letters and journals relating to one of the
most fascinating episodes in Wagner's ca-
reer, his romance with Mathilde Wesendonk,
who inspired his " Tristan und Isolde," it
seemed to me a foregone conclusion that the
book would be translated in its entirety. But
as a complete translation could result only
in a bulky and somewhat expensive publica-
tion, and as, in my judgment, there were
many portions which could be omitted with-
out lessening its interest for English readers,
it appeared feasible to take the most inti-
mate and striking passages as a basis for a
smaller volume. This I have done; and I
trust that, with the introduction and the
connecting narrative which I have supplied,
the story of Wagner and his Isolde has been
told without any serious omissions.
I have had the good fortune to obtain
from a New Yorker, who knew Mathilde
Wesendonk well, some delightful personal

AUTHOR'S NOTE
impressions of her, as well as the quaint and

charming photographs of herself and her
husband taken in Rome in 1861.
This book was written, set up and cast
before the complete translation by Mr. Ellis
was published.
GUSTAV KoBBE.
viii

CONTENTS
I
"TRISTAN UND ISOLDE" IN REAL LIFE
THE GREATEST PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANCE IN MUSIC 4
THE HEROINE OF A PASSION 5
WHO WAS MATHILDE ? 6
A FAMOUS GOLD PEN 7
MATHILDE AS A FRIEND RECALLS HER 8
ARISTOCRATIC, ETHEREAL, FAIRY-LIKE 9
MATHILDE INTERCEDES 10
TENDER MEMORIES 11
" BLESSED BE MATHILDE I" 13
HER " DUSK MAN " 13
STORY OF THE WALHALLA MOTIVE 14
FIVE PIANOS AND A FLUTE ! 15
ENTER WAGNER 17
A POLITICAL REFUGEE 18
HIS WIFE UN APPRECIATIVE 18
LONGING FOR WOMANLY SYMPATHY 19
THE FIRST LETTER 21
APOLOGIES TO MATHILDE 22
" KNOWEST THOU HOW 'TWILL BE ? " 24
THE WEAVING OF THE STRANDS 25
BRUNNHILDE SLEEPS 26
MOTIVE OF SYMPATHY 27
" I AM IN TROUBLE AT HOME " 30
" W H A T WOULD ' T A N T E ' SAY?" 30
MOURNS FOR HIS FAITHFUL DOG 31
THE VILLA ON THE GREEN HILL 33
ix

CONTENTS
MATHILDE " A LOVELY BEING" 34

NEARING THE DANGER LINE 35
" TROUBLING THOUGHTS" 37
" TRISTAN " TO THE FORE 38
THE ACCENT OF PASSION 39
" TRISTAN " IN FULL SWING 40
"DREAMS" 41
I N THE GREEN HOUSE 41
A TRIUMPH OF ART THROUGH LOVE 43
HIS MUSE AND H I S ISOLDE 44
A DEDICATION 45
" HIS EYES ON MINE WERE FASTENED I" 46
PREMONITIONS? 47
THE IVORY BATON 48
BUSY TONGUES 49
THE AWAKENING 50
ON THE BRINK 51
CATASTROPHE 52
WAGNER'S OWN VERSION 53
MINNA MAKES A SCENE 56
WESENDONK JEALOUS 58
FLIGHT 59
LAST MESSAGE FROM THE " RETREAT" 62
" PRAY FOR ME IN SILENCE " 65
" FAREWELL \" 66
II
A LONELY EXILE IN VENICE
" JOURNAL SINCE MY FLIGHT FROM THE RETREAT " 79
" THUS LOOKING UP TO YOU I DIED" 72
" INTO UTTER LONELINESS" 73
A DREAM PICTURE 75
WRITES TO FRAU WILLE 77
X

CONTENTS
" EVERYTHING STRANGE AND COLD \" 79

COMMUNINGS OF A STRICKEN SOUL 85
" THE BLISS OF BEING LOVED BY YOU" 87
" MY FATE, MY DESIRE MY LOVE " 90
*' I KNEW BUT THAT YOU LOVED ME " 91
" GOOD, PURE, BEAUTEOUS ONE I " 93
u
I WAS BORN AGAIN " 95
" T H A T DISTANCE W H I C H MUST BE NEARNESS" 97
'* DID I BRING MISFORTUNE ? " 98
" I N MY HEART I TREASURE HER SOUL" 100
" NATURE IS HEARTLESS" 101
" SPURN NOT MY P I T Y " 103
" THE WORLD DOES NOT SEEM TO WANT ME " ... 105
'* I LOOK UP TO Y O U " 107
" MY SWAN SANG TO YOU FROM AFAR" 108
" FOR YOUR SAKE I HAVE LET IT STAND " Ill
ff
T H E PROTECTING., REDEEMING HAVEN " 113
" WE HAVE NOTHING FURTHER TO LONG FOR " ... 114
" AS IF I N DREAMS" 116
" A N D SO, FAREWELL, MY H E A V E N ! " 117
III
THE MOAN OF A BREAKING HEART
" IT FILLS OUR SOULS FOREVER" 122
" MY LIFE DEPENDS UPON YOU" 122
" ALL IS ILLUSION, DELUSION I" 123
" POOR, SAD, CAST DOWN MAN THAT I AM '* ... 124
" I SHALL DIE IN YOUR ARMS" 125
" CONTINUE TO LOVE ME " 127
" A STRANGER I SLUNK THROUGH THE CROWD " ... 128
" WHAT MUSIC THAT IS GOING TO BE ! " 130
"' DREAMS ' HAUNTS IT" 131
" THE GRATEFUL DEW OF LOVE" 131
xi

CONTENTS
THE CORRESPONDENCE RESUMED 133

" AS IF BY MAGIC" 135
" A THOUSAND, THOUSAND GREETINGS " 136
" I WOULD KNOW MY FATE " 138
" NEVER UNTIL TOO LATE DOES THE WORLD BE-
COME INTELLIGENT" 139
" MY GOOD ANGEL BECKONS ME " 140
" ' PARZIVAL ' HAS OCCUPIED ME MUCH " 142
" THITHER WHERE THE LIGHT GROWS DIM " ... 143
TO MYRRHA 145
IV
AN INTERMEZZO AT LUCERNE
" A SCENE WITNESSED IN YOUR GARDEN " 159
" SOMETHING TREMBLED DEEP WITHIN ME W ... 153
AFRAID " TRISTAN " WILL DRIVE PEOPLE CRAZY ... 155
CONCERNING BEDSPREADS 156
ZWIEBACK AND A DRESSING GOWN 157
" THE DEVIL OF A FELLOW " 159
HUMOURS OF EQUITATION 159
AS TO SHAKESPEARE 160
A CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 161
" FRAGRANCE OF ROSES, AND FAREWELL " 162
" MINE IS SHE EVER" 163
SOLFERINO AND " TRISTAN " 165
" I AM THE MADDEST CREATURE IMAGINABLE " ... 166
V
VICISSITUDES IN PARIS
TRANSLATING " TANNHATTSER " 178
<f
ONLY THERE CAN SIEGFRIED AWAKEN BRUNN-
HILDE " 179
xii

CONTENTS
(i
A SURPRISING ADVENTURE " 180
A MEETING WITH BERLIOZ 181
" YOU WILL LIVE TO FULFIL YOUR MISSION " ... 183
" TRISTAN " PROOFS 183
"YOU WOULD THINK I STILL WAS IN THE ' RE-
TREAT '" 185
AN OPINION OF GOUNOD 186
" ENTIRELY BETWEEN OURSELVES" 187
" COMPLETELY ESTRANGED FROM THE WORLD " ... 189
FIRST CONCERT " UNENDING JUBILATION " ... 190
A TRIBUTE FROM A " PLAIN CITIZEN" 191
PARIS ACQUAINTANCES 193
GUSTAVE DORE 195
ROSSINI THE " OLD EPICURE " 196
DETAILS OF THE CONCERTS 198
'" GENUINE FESTIVALS" 199
" WHY HANG MY HEAD SO SADLY " 201
" ALL AGAIN IS NIGHT ABOUT ME " 203
" WHAT AM I WITHOUT MY WORK ?" 204
'* WHAT DO I CARE FOR MY EARLIER WORKS ?" ... 206
" I LOOK LONGINGLY TOWARD NIRVANA " 207
" I CANNOT DIE Y E T " 208
" I GRIMLY SHOW MY TEETH " 209
FRENCH MUSICAL TASTE 210
" YOUR WORK REJECTED,, WE ABANDON HOPE " ... 212
" THE SUREST GUARANTEE IS MY POVERTY" ... 214
GERMANY REMAINS SILENT 216
THE ARTIST A PLAYTHING 217
A HIT AT LISZT'S PRINCESS 217
HOW TO POSE FOR A PHOTOGRAPH 218
" ' TRISTAN * REMAINS A MIRACLE I" 221
" PARSIFAL" OUTLINED 222
" I AM LIKE ONE DEAD" 225
" FAME NO LONGER ATTRACTS ME " 227
" WHERE SHALL I FIND CONSOLATION? " 229
xiii

CONTENTS
" TRISTAN " WITH VIARDOT-GARCIA 230

" I AM TIRED OF BEING NOTHING BUT A NUISANCE " 232
HEARS " LOHENGRIN " FOR THE FIRST TIME ... 234
RETURNS TO PARIS 234
DEATH OF ANOTHER PET 235
THE MUSICAL LION OF WEIMAR 236
A PORTRAIT OF MATHILDE 238
" DREAMS" AGAIN 239
" THE GRAY HORIZON OF THE FUTURE " 240
ENTER THE " MEISTERSINGER" 241
" TRISTAN " I OWE TO YOU ,.. 242
VI
SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF
" A SILENT CHRISTMAS JOY " 2S3
" THE OLD LONGING" 253
" FOR I GLADLY SUFFER WITH YOU " 254
" DREAMS" 255
3riv

ILLUSTRATIONS
MATHILDE WESENDONK (1860) Frontispi&ce

After a Painting by C. Domer FACING
PAGE
THE WESENDONK VILLA IN ZURICH 34
OTTO WESENDONK 58
From a photograph taken in Rome in 1860
RICHARD WAGNER 86
From a photograph especially taken for
Mathilde Wesendonk
MYRRHA WESENDONK 144

(Afterwards Von Bissing)
MATHILDE WESENDONK 210

From a photograph taken in Rome in 1860
MATHILDE WESENDONK (1864) 246

After a Bas-relief by Joseph Kopf

'TRISTAN UND ISOLDE" IN REAL LIFE
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139940610.002 Published online by Cambridge University Press

T H E spell of romance long has linked the
names of Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wes-
endonk, but it has been a spell woven by hear-
say rather than by certain evidence. Hints
have been found in his correspondence that
she was the good angel of at least part of his
exile in Switzerland, but the full story of
the place this lovely woman occupied in
his heart, and the influence she exerted
over him and his art, still remained to be
told.
At last, however, the world has been taken
into the confidence of the great musical and
dramatic genius, and into that of the woman
who inspired his most impassioned creation,
his " Tristan und Isolde." Now that she is
dead, the letters he wrote to her have been
published—letters in which passionate long-
ing alternate with supreme effort at resigna-
tion, and in which he more than once invokes
blessings upon her as the inspiration of
his Isolde. These letters Wagner himself

WAGNER AND H I S ISOLDE
wished to have destroyed. Mathilde, however,

well divining their importance to posterity,
piously preserved them, and in her latter years
ordered and arranged them for publication,
so that in due time they might be given to the
world.
THE GREATEST PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANCE

IN MUSIC
How irretrievable would have been the loss
had she observed Wagner's wish and de-
stroyed them! What insight they give us
into the character of the great poet-drama-
tist and composer! Nothing he has written
about himself, nothing others have written
about him, show him in a light at once so
clear and so fine. They are worth the whole
vast volume of Wagner literature up to date.
They take us into his inner consciousness, dis-
close his heart to us, make us at home in his
very soul. Moreover, they form the greatest
psychological romance in the history of
modern music. " Tristan und Isolde " first
was performed on the stage at Munich in
1865; but long before that it was played in
real life at Zurich, and with the following
cast:
4

"TRISTAN" IN REAL LIFE
TRISTAN Richard Wagner

ISOLDE Mathilde WesendonJc
KING MARK Otto WesendonJc
BRANGANE Frau Wille
KURWENAL Jacob Sulzer
MELOT Everybody
The shepherd, the sailors were missing, but
their places, like Melot's, may be said to have
been taken by the gossips of Zurich. In
every affair of the heart there are gossips—
especially if the parties to it are the husband
and wife of somebody else.
THE HEROINE OF A PASSION

If these letters are a monument to Wagner,
they also are a monument to Mathilde and
Otto Wesendonk. In this great heart-crisis
of her Kfe Mathilde became the heroine of a
passion, but she did not allow herself to be-
come the victim of a liaison. I believe Otto
Wesendonk deserves some, possible much, of
the credit for this. He retained Mathilde's
confidence, and at the psychical moment man-
aged the affair with a combination of tact
and determination which sent Wagner off to
a second exile in Venice, while she remained,
faithful to her duties as wife and mother, in
5

Zurich. At the same time he was high-

minded enough not to break with Wagner;
and appreciating that it is the privilege of
genius to arrogate to itself more than a com-
mon mortal may dare aspire to, he remained
the composer's friend, and on several occa-
sions thereafter came to his aid, as he had be-
fore, in sore financial straits. Whoever reads
" Tristan und Isolde" aright as a drama,
not of consummation, but of renunciation, will
realise that while Otto was the King Mark of
the Zurich episode, there was this difference—
he stayed at home instead of going hunting.
WHO WAS MATHILDE?

Mathilde was born December 23, 1828, in
Elberfeld. She was educated partly in Dus-
seldorf, whither her parents had removed,
partly at boarding school. Her father was
Karl Luckemeyer, a wholesale dry-goods
merchant. On May 19, 1848, she was mar-
ried to Otto Wesendonk, who was a partner
of the New York silk importing house of
Loesching, Wesendonk & Co., and its foreign
representative. Later the firm became Kut-
ter, Luckemeyer & Co., so that both her own
family and that of her husband have had rep-
6

" T R I S T A N " IN REAL L I F E
resentatives in New York. In fact, the busi-

ness of the firm still is carried on by suc-
cessors, and children of Otto Wesendonk's
brother Hugo still reside in New York.
A FAMOUS GOLD PEN

In 1850, before they met Wagner, Otto and
Mathilde came to America, remaining most
of the time in New York, where they were
widely entertained, both for their own agree-
able qualities and because of the prominence
of the Wesendonk family in that city. In
connection with the Wesendonks' visit to
America it is interesting to note that an
American product was to stand in close re-
lationship to several of Wagner's greatest
compositions. For after he met the Wesen-
donks, Mathilde presented him with an Ameri-
can gold pen, with which, as he himself writes
to Liszt, he wrote the score of " Die Wal-
kiire," characterising it as a model of the cali-
graphic art. But this was not the only time
the pen was called into requisition. In a
letter written to Mathilde from Venice, Wag-
ner mentions " the same pen " as being used
by him on the " Tristan" score; and in a
letter to Wesendonk in 1870 (sixteen years
7

after the pen had been presented to him), he

states that he wrote the " Meistersinger"
score with it. While the only direct refer-
ences Wagner makes to this pen are in con-
nection with the " Walkiire," " Tristan " and
" Meistersinger" scores, it is not unreason-
able to suppose that " Siegfried," " Gotter-
dammerung," and even " Parsifal," may have
been written with it. But even without these
this American gold pen still would have a
remarkable record.
MATHILDE AS A FRIEND RECALLS HER
It gives added interest to the romantic

story of Wagner and Mathilde from the
American point of view to realise that the
woman who inspired Isolde once was here,
and that there are in New York people who
knew her and remember her. " Mathilde,"
said one of her American friends to me, " was
a woman of refined and poetic beauty; slender
and graceful and with a lovely winning smile,
the kind of woman who exercises a charm over
every circle she enters." My informant not
only knew Mathilde and her husband in New
York, he continued on terms of intimacy with
8

them, visiting them in Zurich in the very villa

which the Wagner episode has made famous,
and subsequently in their residences in Dres-
den and Berlin, and at their country seat on
the Traunsee in the Austrian Tyrol.
" Otto Wesendonk," he says, " was one of the
few men who, having been active in business
until he was forty-five years old, was able to
retire, display a lively interest in all branches
of art, and yet retain sufficient business
acumen to make investments which invariably
turned out well." The air of distinction
which my informant found in their home, he
believes to have been due to Otto as well as to
Mathilde, though more, it is true, to the latter
than to the former.
ARISTOCRATIC., ETHEREAL, FAIRY-LIKE

Mathilde he characterises as aristocratic,
ethereal, fairy-like, and with highly ideal
views of life and art—" always in the air,"
as he expresses it. In Berlin her aristocratic
appearance caused her to be known as the
" Princess." She went out little herself, but
distinguished people flocked to her house—
diplomats, artists, musicians, scientists.
When her daughter Myrrha, who had been
9

married to Freiherr von Bissing, died, three

empresses sent flowers for her bier—Augusta,
widow of William I, Empress Frederick, and
the present Empress. My informant liter-
ally became a " house guest" at the Wesen-
donk villa in Zurich, where he attended the
University. This was a little less than two
years after Wagner had left Zurich. In
1860 the Wesendonks made a trip to Rome.
While there they had their photographs
taken. These, with the place and year of
sitting inscribed in her handwriting, Ma-
thilde presented to my friend, through whose
courtesy I have been able to use them, as well
as the photograph of Myrrha, here.
MATHILDE INTERCEDES
Student-like, my friend was apt to " c u t "
such lectures as did not particularly interest
him, and Otto, as a sort of unofficial guard-
ian, sometimes took him to task for this, on
which occasions Mathilde graciously would
put in a good word for him. He was,
however, extremely interested in art and
regularly attended the lectures delivered by
Liibke, the famous author of the " History
of Art." One time when he was at the Wes-
10

endonk villa, the young student was intro-

duced to the famous professor, who turned
to Wesendonk and said, " I know this young
man well by sight. He always occupies one
of the front seats at my lectures." Mathilde
could not conceal her pleasure that for once
her husband had no chance to take my friend
to task for neglecting his studies.
I have said above that during the whole
Wagner episode Mathilde retained her hus-
band's confidence. Not only is this con-
firmed, as I shall point out later, by passages
in the correspondence, but my informant
states that, when Wagner began to interest
her deeply, and her husband became uneasy,
she told the latter that she always would be
faithful to her duties as a wife and a mother,
but that " Wagner had opened to her a hori-
zon such as no one else could."
The composer found her a placid, happy,
graceful creature. He left her with her
nature vibrant, uplifted, tuned to harmony
with the infinite; an aeolian harp, sensitive to
the most delicate breath of feeling.
TENDER MEMORIES
She herself says that when she met Wagner
11

in 1852 at the house of Dresden friends who

were living in Zurich, the family of the law-
yer, Hermann Marschall von Bieberstein, she
was as simple and untutored as a blank page.
It was quite characteristic of the composer
that he could not see a blank page without
wanting to write on it, and in his own way.
Before he left Zurich, in 1858, he had writ-
ten " Wagner " all over this one.
It was not until about a year after his
meeting with Mathilde that the intercourse
between the composer and her family became
more intimate. Wagner had been wonder-
fully attracted by her, and, finding the
" blank page" receptive to his ideas and
ambitions, he began to take her into his con-
fidence regarding the great works which he
had planned. At that time* he was largely
engaged in literary work, and having com-
pleted the " Nibelung" dramas, he de-
lighted her by reading them to her, and after
that she saw everything he wrote before it
was submitted to anyon'e else. He himself
was an ardent admirer of Beethoven, and
finding that she, too, was deeply interested
in the composer, he would play over the
sonatas for her; or if he had a concert to

conduct in which a Beethoven symphony

was on the programme, he would analyse it
for her beforehand, until she became as en-
thusiastic over the work as he himself.
" B L E S S E D BE MATHILDE!"
In 1854 he sent her the first composition
sketches of the " Walkiire." After the Vor-
spiel he wrote the letters " G. S. M.," which
stand for G(esegnet) S(ei) M(athilde)
(Blessed be Mathilde) !—Verily the page
was blank no longer.
In January of the following year he re-
wrote his " F a u s t " overture which he had
composed in Paris in 1840. He had intended
to dedicate it to her, but it suddenly occurred
to him that the motto quoted from Goethe's
drama which he had placed above the score
was too terribly gloomy, so he contented
himself with presenting her with the original
score, under which he wrote: " R. W., Zu-
rich, 17 January, 1855, a souvenir for a
dear woman."
HER "DUSK MAN"

Mathilde also notes down memories of a
trip to Brunnen, where at dusk he would play
13

passages from the " Eroica" and the C

Minor symphonies, while in the morning he
would awaken her with selections from
"Lohengrin." When he became deeply im-
pressed with the philosophy of Schopen-
hauer he explained that philosophers theo-
ries to her, and, in fact', always was careful
to draw her attention to every new light in
literature and science, reading the books or
communicating their contents to her. When
after this prolonged purely literary activity
he again began to compose, it was his cus-
tom to visit her toward evening and play for
her what he had written that day. Usually
it was the hour between five and six o'clock,
which led him to dub himself the " dusk
STORY OF THE WALHALLA MOTIVE
Occasionally his own musical setting of

some phrase would not suit him, and after
playing it for her he would seek then and
there to obtain a better version. This was
the case with the Walhalla motive in " Rhein-
gold."
"Master, let it stand as it is," she said.
14.

" No, no, I can improve it," he protested.

He paced the salon awhile, then abruptly
left her. The following afternoon he did not
appear, and also absented himself the sec-
ond and third day. On the fourth he stole
in and, seating himself at the piano without
a word, played the motive unchanged—just
as it had been the first day.
"Well? "she asked.
" Yes, yes," he said, " you were right. It
cannot be improved." A verdict in which
posterity agrees with him.
Mathilde says that he gave an added stimu-
lus to every circle he entered. If he came
into the room weary and unnerved by work,
it was beautiful to behold how, after a short
rest and distraction, the clouds lifted from
his face and a light passed over his features,
especially when he seated himself at the piano.
FIVE PIANOS AND A FLUTE!

His lodgings in one of the faubourgs of
Zurich were roomy and comfortable, but the
piano playing which went on about him was
a nuisance to him, especially when he com-
posed. (He himself mentions five pianos and
a flute going simultaneously.)
15

Mathilde tells us that there was a smithy

opposite, and that, when he was composing
the Forging of the Sword in " Siegfried,"
he made an arrangement with the smith not
to hammer in the morning. It was Wagner's
longing for a quiet spot where he could work
undisturbed which led Mathilde to offer him
through her husband a chalet on the grounds
of the beautiful villa which Otto Wesendonk
built on the Green Hill.
" Money affairs," according to Mathilde,
" he hated with his whole soul. In his inter-
course with me during countless beautiful and
consecrated hours, they never were referred
to."
Her life of ease and luxury Wagner turned
into a joke when one morning she appeared
at a concert rehearsal. " The very stones are
astonished," he exclaimed, " to see Frau Wes-
endonk in the streets at ten o'clock."
His intercourse with Otto was most agree-
able. When he received a diploma of honor-
ary membership in the Dutch Musical So-
ciety, for which he did not care a snap, he sent
it to Wesendonk with the admonition, " Hang
it up in your office " ; humorously adding, " It
may give you new strength and courage."
16

On the whole, however, there can be little

doubt that Mathilde was intellectually and
spiritually above her husband, something
which is amusingly shown in a casual sentence
of Wagner's friend, the author, Gottfried
Keller, who speaks of " Frau Wesendonk and
her husband and children " as being at a cer-
tain function, instead of saying " Herr Wes-
endonk and his family."
ENTER WAGNER
The above will have given some idea of who
Mathilde was and of the influence which Wag-
ner exerted upon her. But who was Wagner
at this period of his career? He was thirty-
nine years old, and so far as the opinion of
the world was concerned, a failure—but a
failure with enormous confidence in his ulti-
mate success. Except, however, for a very
small circle of the elect, most prominent
among them Liszt, people who paused long
enough to think of him at all thought of him
as a fit subject for a musical lunatic asylum.
His means were scant. Had it not been for
an annual stipend allowed him by Mme. Julie
Ritter, a Dresden admirer, and for money sent
IT

to him by Liszt, he would have been obliged

to live by absolute drudgery.
A POLITICAL REFUGEE
Owing to his participation in the Revolution
of 1849, he had been forced to flee from Dres-
den, where he was a conductor at the Opera.
Stopping over at Weimar with Liszt, he
learned that a police circular giving a de-
scription of him had been issued and that the
authorities were on his track. With money
which Liszt hastily managed to borrow from
his amie, the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Witt-
genstein, Wagner contrived to flee to Zurich.
Later he was joined there by his wife, the
money for her travelling expenses again be-
ing furnished by his fidus Achates, Liszt.
HIS WIFE TJNAPPRECIATIVE

Wagner's wife was Minna Plane, of Magde-
burg, whom he had married in 1836 at K6-
nigsberg, where he conducted the Opera. She
was an actress, without, however, any excess
of temperament, and far beneath him intel-
lectually. Accounts seem to agree that she
possessed personal attractions, but the life
she had led with Wagner had been one of
18

almost continual pecuniary difficulties and

privations, and she had aged rapidly. Un-
doubtedly she was an admirable helpmeet in
the household. Wagner himself acknowl-
edged that she would have made an excellent
wife for a commonplace man; but she utterly
failed to appreciate his genius. He was an
eagle, she a ground sparrow. Of his four
operas, " Rienzi," " The Flying Dutchman,"
" Tannhauser," and " Lohengrin," only " Ri-
enzi " was comprehensible to her. It had been
a success and brought in money. She could
not understand why he had abandoned this
brilliant style of composition for schemes like
his vast " Nibelung " dramas, which to her
seemed chimerical. She, too, was a " blank
page," but, unlike Mathilde, a blank page
which did not inspire in Wagner a desire to
exercise his chirography. It only required
the appearance of an Isolde upon the scene
to turn this difference into a tragedy and—
Isolde appeared.
LONGING FOR WOMANLY SYMPATHY

Wagner's letters to Liszt show how much
he longed for womanly sympathy, a sympa-
thy which his wife did not give him. " Let
19

WAGNER AND H I S I S O L D E
us look upon the world through the medium

of contempt alone; only the heart of a friend,
the tears of a woman, can dispel its curse."
And to another friend (Uhlig) he writes that
he could be inspired with new hope by the
" moist gleaming of a woman's eyes."
It is significant that he penned these sen-
tences after he had met Mathilde, the woman
who was to become the author of the " Five
Poems " which he set to music, and which in-
cluded the famous " Dreams," the germ of
the great love duet in the second act of
"Tristan." When "Dreams" was written
by her and composed by him, time already had
sufficed for the relation between this extraor-
dinary man and this lovely woman to ripen
from friendship to a companionship, which
in turn was to become a sympathetic union
of souls, a psychological romance which was
to find its consummation in that outpouring
of genius known to the world as " Tristan
und Isolde," but really the story of Wagner
and Mathilde.
I already have intimated that when Wagner
and Mathilde met his means were sparse.
The generosity of Frau Julie Hitter and
Liszt's unflagging interest, which led him to

respond as best he could to his friend's many

appeals for aid, should be placed to the ever-
lasting credit. There were royalties from the
performances of Wagner's works, but they
hardly would have sufficed for sustenance. He
lived in quarters which were luxurious for his
means, but doubtless he felt that his great
plans, which could not materialise for many
years, justified him in calling on his friends
for aid. However indifferent the world at
large remained to him, everyone who came in
contact with him seemed impressed with his
genius. Thus his landlady, Frau Stockar-
Escher, who was clever with her brush, painted
a portrait of him, which has several times
been reproduced and is considered one of the
best portraits of him at that period of his
life.
THE FIRST LETTER
But the admiration of a few of the elect
could not save him from moments of deep de-
pression. His " Lohengrin" produced by
Liszt at Weimar still remained a mute score
to him, and as a matter of fact, on account
of his exile, it was not until thirteen years
after he had composed it that he heard it per-
formed. His correspondence shows that he
21

appreciated how far in advance of the time

his " Nibelung " dramas were, and that often
he despaired of ever producing them during
his lifetime. Little wonder if on occasion he
felt that the world was against him, and that
he gave way to his moods.
APOLOGIES TO MATHILDE
Apparently, even the Wesendonks were not
spared such outbursts, for the very first letter
which he wrote to Mathilde, and which is dated
Zurich, March 17, 1853, is an apology to
her for his behaviour on the previous evening.
" Heaven protect you from any further
rudeness of mine," he writes; " for now you
must realise that it was no mere empty
caprice, if often my acceptance of your
friendly invitations were coupled with the
dread that my moodiness would make martyrs
of those who wished me well, in the same de-
gree as it tortures me. If hereafter I deny
myself the pleasure of this social intercourse
—and after occurrences like yesterday's,
should I not?—be assured that I do so only
in the hope of earning your forgiveness by
appearing before you in a more favourable
light.

" I hope to hear to-morrow from your hus-

band in Basle, that your equanimity, which
means so much to me, has not been more than
temporarily disturbed by my ill-natured talk.
With this heartfelt wish I commend myself
to your merciful forbearance."
The early letters are comparatively brief.
Indeed, the bulk of the correspondence dates
after Wagner's departure from Zurich—
after events had made it impossible for him to
retain his intimate footing in the Wesendonk
household.
Wesendonk was active in guaranteeing the
expenses of three concerts which Wagner
gave in May, 1853. This and the events
themselves which offered Mathilde an oppor-
tunity of hearing Wagner's music under his
own direction, a circumstance which was
likely to give added stimulus to her growing
appreciation of his genius, doubtless drew
them closer together. At all events, a billet
dispatched to her by Wagner on June 1 of
the same year is significant because of the
somewhat exaggerated expression with which
it closes. He asks Mathilde to come to his
lodgings in the evening (probably for music)
and adds: " I shall ask no one else, in order
23

that nothing may mar the sanctity of this

evening.'9
"KNOWEST THOU HOW 'TWILL BE?"

Besides the guarantee for the concerts, Wes-
endonk during June advanced money to Wag-
ner. It was in recognition of this that
Wagner composed the short "Album Sonata,"
which he sent to Mathilde, and on which he
wrote as a motto, " Wisst ihr wie das wirt? "
(Knowest thou how 'twill be?), the Norns'
question in " Gotterdammerung," and accom-
panied in the score by the motive of Fate, a
circumstance which may well be emphasised
here. For fate was beginning to interweave
the strands of these two lives.
One cannot well imagine Wagner a com-
poser of light dance music, but this mention
of the " Album Sonata" reminds me that,
when Mathilde's sister Marie was visiting her
in Zurich, he dashed off a trifle which he sent
to her under the title of " Zuricher Viellieb-
chen Walzer or Polka or anything else, writ-
ten by the best dancer from Saxony." Wag-
ner's genius occasionally found an outlet in
humorous sallies of this sort.
In the letter accompanying the sonata Wag-

ner says that it is the first thing he has

composed in six years, which was a slight ex-
aggeration. It was the first thing composed
by him in five years, which was quite bad
enough. He had been busy with the poems of
his " Nibelung" dramas and other literary
work. Later, during this same summer, he
applied to Wesendonk for another loan in
order that he might, through a change of
scene and air, be stimulated to take up com-
position again. Needless to say, this generous
friend complied with the request, and in Au-
gust Wagner started for Italy. In three
weeks he was back again in Zurich. The trip
was to have lasted much longer, but Wagner's
health did not seem to benefit by the change.
So he came home. Or was Mathilde the mag-
net that drew him back? Sunny Italy?—The
skies of Zurich with Mathilde were brighter!
THE WEAVING OF THE STRANDS

Short as it was, however, the trip had the
desired musical result. Wagner himself re-
ported (in a letter to Boito) that the open-
ing music of " Das Rheingold " came to him
during a sleepless night in an inn at Spezzia.
Thus the Wesendonks were instrumental in

stimulating Wagner's musical genius to take

up the composition of the " Ring." It does
not require a great stretch of the imagina-
tion to believe that Mathilde was not without
influence in persuading Otto to make the loan
which enabled Wagner to undertake the trip
that had the beginning of work on the " Nibe-
lung " music as its result. Indeed, the inter-
twining of the strands in the lives of this
inspired man and this spiritual woman became
closer and closer as their friendship pro-
gressed. Unconsciously at first, perhaps, she
grew to be the partner of his thoughts. He
initiated her into his ideas, his plans. His
inspiration was, so to speak, dissected for her
in advance by himself. What the famous gold
pen was to write she knew beforehand. What
it wrote she was the first to see. And what an
inspiration it is to know that a loving woman
is waiting eagerly for what you have written!
BRTJNNHILDE SLEEPS
Even the first pencilled composition sketches
of the " Ring " were presented to Mathilde
by the composer. She knew how to value
them. Carefully, line by line, dot by dot, she
went over them in ink, then had a small red
26

portfolio made in which she treasured these

rare mementos of the workings of a great
mind. Besides their incalculable value as such,
they hold the mirror up to the past, for Wag-
ner noted on them the precise dates of compo-
sition: " Rheingold," 1st November, 1853, to
14th January, 1854; " Walkiire," Act I, 1st
June to September, 1854; Act II, September
to November, 1854; Act III, 20th Novem-
ber to 27th December, 1854; " Siegfried,"
Act I, finished January, 1857; Act II, 22d
May to 30th July, 1857.
These sketches, up to and including the
second act of " Siegfried," were completely
worked out while Wagner still was in Zurich.
But the third act of " Siegfried " was only
sketched. For here the composition of the
" Nibelung " dramas was broken off. Sieg-
fried and Briinnhilde were thrust aside for
Tristan and Isolde.
" Briinnhilde sleeps," wrote Wagner to
Liszt. He might have added, " Isolde
awakens."
MOTIVE OF SYMPATHY
More, however, remains to be said regarding
Mathilde's relation to the "Nibelung"
27

dramas. " Come over for the last act of

6
Die Walkiire,' " Wagner writes; and at the
end of another epistle, which, like the one I
have just quoted from, is undated, he places
the Motive of Sympathy from the " Die Wal-
kiire," and significantly adds a question mark.
Note the meaning! The Motive of Sym-

pathy ! This is the brief phrase which in
" Die Walkiire " wells up from the orchestra
as spontaneously as pity mingled with sym-
pathetic sorrow wells up from the heart of a
gentle woman. Bear in mind the action which
it accompanies. The storm-driven Siegmund
has entered Hunding's dwelling to seek shelter
there. The door to the left has opened, and
Sieglinde has appeared. Hearing someone
enter, and thinking her husband has re-
turned, she has come into the hall to meet
him. In his stead an exhausted stranger has
thrown himself on the bearskin rug near the
hearth. She approaches and bends compas-
sionately over him. What was Wagner hint'
28

ing at? This compassionate action is ac-

companied by the Motive of Sympathy which
here is heard for the first time. Some com-
mentators have called it the Motive of Com-
passion, but I have preferred Sympathy as
expressing that subtle tie between two souls
which at first is invisible, even to those whom
it unites. At the time Siegmund and Sieg-
linde are strangers to each other. Yet as the
woman bends over the hunted, storm-beaten
fugitive it is that subtle sympathy which
causes her to regard him with more tender-
ness than she would bestow upon any other
unfortunate stranger. Her compassion, her
sympathy, are joined to a prescience which
she herself cannot explain.
Let me call attention to another passage in
" Die Walkiire," where this same motive ac-
companies the action, and to the " business "
of the episode. " She slowly raises her eyes
to h i s " are the stage directions. " Both
gaze long and silently at each other with an
expression of intense emotion."
What was Wagner hinting at, even before
" Tristan und Isolde" had taken shape in
his mind, when he sent the Motive of Sympa-
thy to Mathilde? For what is this motive in
29

the drama but the earliest premonition of that

love between Siegmund and Sieglinde which
sent them forth in ecstatic flight into the
Spring night?
" i AM IN TROUBLE AT HOME""

There is another undated note to Mathilde.
" My wife who is busy in the kitchen/' be-
gins Wagner. " My wife who is busy in the
kitchen!" We may be sure Mathilde never
was busy in the kitchen. We may be equally
sure that the Motive of Sympathy was not
shown to Minna. Poor meagre soul—she was
busy in the kitchen! One wonders what Wag-
ner would have done if she had not been. Pos-
sibly he would have dined at the Wesendonks.
" I am in trouble at home," he writes to
Mathilde on another occasion, " because you
spoke disrespectfully of ' Rienzi'! " But
after all was not " Rienzi " preferable to the
" Die Walkiire " from Minna's point of view?
There was no Motive of Sympathy in it.
" W H A T WOULD ' T A N T E ' SAY?"
Part of 1855 Wagner spent in London, as

conductor of the Philharmonic concerts. From
30

London he wrote Wesendonk an amusing let-

ter on the British passion for oratorio. " For
hours they sit there and listen to one fugue
after another, convinced that they are doing
something commendable, for which they will
be rewarded by going to a heaven where all
the music consists of Italian operatic airs.
Mendelssohn well understood how to take ad-
vantage of this pious impulse of the British
public, and composed and conducted oratorios
for its benefit, and therefore has become the
real Messiah of the English musical world.
" What would ' Tante ' say if I were to com-
pose an oratorio for Exeter Hall? "
This joke about his composing an oratorio
for Exeter Hall is quite as amusing as, in the
light of subsequent events, his allusion to his
future Isolde as " Tante." Aunt Isolde for-
sooth !
MOURNS FOR HIS FAITHFUL DOG
When Wagner returned to Zurich in July,
1855, a sorrow awaited him. He was a pas-
sionate lover of animals, and especially of
dogs. He had a dog, " Peps," to which he
was so deeply attached that Liszt desiring to
express his own friendship for the composer
31

once dubbed himself " Double P e p s " and

" Double extract of Peps." Minna and the
dog were left behind in Zurich when Wag-
ner went to London, and, on his return, he
found his four-footed friend ailing. The
faithful animal pulled himself together, gave
him a friendly greeting, and for a short while
under the excitement of his master's return
seemed to revive somewhat, but relapsed. The
Wagners had been invited to dine at the
Wesendonks' on the 9th of July, but Wagner
could not be persuaded to leave his sick ani-
mal friend.
" I fear my dear faithful friend—my Peps
—is going to die to-day. It is impossible for
me to desert the poor creature in his dying
moments. Do not, therefore, be annoyed if
we beg of you to dine without us to-day.
Surely you will not laugh at me
when I tell you that I am weeping."
Peps actually died that night. Wagner
was with him almost continuously, and he
buried the dog with his own hands in the
garden in the rear of the house.
Wagner's footing in the Wesendonk family
was becoming more intimate, a fact to which
he refers humorously in a letter in which
32

he transmits a copy of Grimm's " Fairy

Tales " to Mathilde.
" You see, you cannot rid yourself of me
so easily. I am so securely nested in your
house that even if you were to burn it down
a familiar voice would call out to you from
among the salvage, ' It was about time we
got out of this!' "
THE VILLA ON THE GREEN HILL

The Wesendonks entered into their beauti-
ful villa on the Green Hill overlooking the
lake of Zurich, on August 22, 1857. The
mutual friend of Wagner and Mathilde, Frau
Eliza Wille, a novelist, and the wife of the
philosopher and Orientalist, Francois Wille,
who lived in Mariafeld not far from Zurich,
has left a description of the hospitality which
prevailed at the villa. " It was a period of
almost clarified existence for all who met in
the beautiful villa on the Green Hill. Wealth,
taste and elegance served to beautify life
there. The host was unhampered in seeking
to advance everything in which he took an
interest, and full of admiration for the
extraordinary man whom Fate had led into
his circle.

" The hostess, young and tender-hearted,

and an idealist, knew no more of the world
and of life than if these had been the surface
of a gently flowing river. Beloved and ad-
mired by her husband, a young, happy
mother, she lived in the admiration of what-
ever was important in art and life, and of all
that power of genius which never before had
she beheld as now in the very act of inspira-
tion and creation. The arrangements of the
house, the wealth of its owner, made possible
there a social intercourse, to which every one
of those who were fortunate enough to enjoy
it ever will look back with delight."
MATHILDE " A LOVELY BEING"

Wagner's friend, Richard Pohl, says that
the composer was in daily intercourse with the
Wesendonks. He speaks of Mathilde as a
lovely being, a graceful, womanly and poeti-
cally inclined nature, who exercised a mani-
festly stimulating influence over the master.
He adds that compared with her, Wagner's
wife Minna, who had aged rapidly, naturally
was thrown into the shade; that in Wagner's
presence Minna usually was quiet, but freely
vented her opinions when he was not about.
34

; K rEi£<
ifjI^rT^f. ^
THE WESENDONK VILLA IN ZURICH

She could not understand why her husband

occupied himself for years with projects for
which there was not the slightest prospect
of realisation. Upon the " Nibelung " pro-
ject she based no hopes at all. She would
much have preferred compositions which
would have found easy acceptance every-
where and have brought in money. " That
there could be no harmony between two such
natures was manifest at a glance," says Pohl;
and he adds: " That sooner or later a separa-
tion would have to take place could be
prophesied without difficulty."
NEARING THE DANGER LINE

From these characterisations it is easy to
discover why Mathilde exercised such an in-
fluence upon the composer, and why he was
obliged to seek artistic sympathy outside of
his own home. But there is always a danger
line in such a proceeding, and both he who
was seeking sympathy and she who was
lavishing it upon him rapidly were nearing
that line.
Wagner moved into the chalet, which he
feelingly caUed his " A s y l " (Retreat) late
35

in April, 1857. " Ten days ago," he writes

to Liszt under date of May 8, " we took
possession of the little country house next to
the Wesendonks' villa, which I owe to the
great sympathy of that friendly family. At
first I had to go through various troubles;
for the furnishing of the little house, which
has turned out very well indeed and accord-
ing to my taste, took much time, and we had
to move out from our former quarters before
there was any possibility of moving in.
For ten days we lived at the hotel; and at last
we moved in here in very cold and horrid
weather. Only the thought that the change
would be definite was able to keep me in good
temper. At last we have got through it all;
everything is permanently housed and ar-
ranged according to wish and need; every-
thing is in the place where it is to remain. My
study has been ordered with the pedantic for-
mality and elegant comfort with which you
are familiar. My writing table stands at
the large window, with a splendid view of the
lake and the Alps; rest and quiet surround
me. A pretty and well-stocked garden offers
little walks and resting places to me, and will
enable my wife to occupy herself pleasantly,
36

and to keep herself free from troubling

thoughts about me."
" T R O U B L I N G THOUGHTS**
Attention may be called to two points in this
letter. He speaks of being indebted for the
chalet to the great sympathy of the Wesen-
donks. In point of fact, it was Mathilde who
really secured it for him, and I mention this
as an example of the tact which Wagner
always shows whenever he refers to women
in his letters. In the course of his life he
made numerous conquests of the heart, yet
in all his correspondence I do not know of a
single sentence in which he boasts of any of
these.
" Will enable my wife to occupy herself
pleasantly and to keep herself free from
troubling thoughts about me." Minna was
delighted with the chalet and its surround-
ings, and could have been happy there for the
rest of her life, but—she already was furi-
ously jealous of Mathilde. These were the
" troubling thoughts," and they played their
part in the catastrophe which followed. Wag-
ner believed he had found a permanent " Re-
treat " in this lovely demesne, but the tragedy
37

which again made him a homeless wanderer

for many years was only a little more than a
year in coming.
" TRISTAN " TO THE FORE

It has been seen that in July, 1857, having
completed the second act of " Siegfried," and
sketched out the third, Wagner definitely laid
aside " The Ring of the Nibelung," not to
take it up again until 1869. The reason?
Inspired by Mathilde, he threw himself heart
and soul into " Tristan und Isolde."
He had had the subject in mind before. In
1854 he touched on it in a letter to Liszt. " As
I never in life have felt the real bliss of love "
(this after eighteen years of matrimony!)
" I must erect a monument to the most beauti-
ful of all my dreams, in which from the begin-
ning to end that love shall be thoroughly
satiated. I have in my head ' Tristan und
Isolde,' the simplest and most full-blooded
musical conception, and with the 6 black flag '
which floats at the end of it I shall cover
myself to die." At the same time, however,
he states that he must finish his " Nibelung "
scores. " * Die Walkiire ' has taken so much
out of me that I must indulge in this pleas-
38

ure." At that time evidently " Tristan " was

not to interfere with the " Ring " and was
not to be taken up seriously until the last
stroke of the pen on " Gotterdammerung."
THE ACCENT OF PASSION

Mathilde's influence in 1854 was not as
potent as it had become in 1857. She did
not yet fill the vision of his soul so completely,
and the renunciation which was to be his lot
did not as yet cry out for the consummation
of that which he was obliged to renounce.
" Tristan und Isolde," as originally con-
ceived by Wagner, as he wrote to Liszt,
was to be a drama of satiety. Mathilde made
it what it is—a drama, the drama, of passion-
ate renunciation. For it is what we desire
but cannot possess that demands the accent of
passion, whereas possession gives repose. De-
sire is the red rose, possession the white.
Even before he definitely laid aside the
" Nibelung " compositions for " Tristan "
Wagner also had the " Parsifal" legend in
mind, as well as the material for a Buddhistic
subject to be called " Die Sieger " (The Vic-
tors). Parsifal, however, was not to be the
hero of a separate drama, but to figure in
39

" Tristan und Isolde," passing through

Kareol in his quest for the Grail, and paus-
ing at the couch of the wounded Tristan.
Later Wagner eliminated this episode and de-
cided to make Parsifal the subject of a drama
by itself. At that time, and for many years
later, he refers to the Grail seeker as Parzi-
val, and this spelling obtains until 1877,
when he finally settled upon Parsifal (liter-
ally meaning the "guileless fool").
" TRISTAN " IN FULL SWING

We have seen that Wagner moved into his
chalet late in April. A letter to Liszt, writ-
ten during the following month, shows
" Siegfried" abandoned and " Tristan "
already in full swing. The enthusiasm with
which he worked on this new conception proves
how much it engrossed his mind and heart.
He sketched out the entire story in prose, and
this first synopsis of the drama was duly pre-
sented to his Isolde. One can hardly believe
it, but, although this prose-sketch is dated
August 20, 1857, the drama in its poetic
form was ready to be presented to Mathilde
on the 18th of September! That it should
have been written apparently in less than a
40

"TRISTAN** IN REAL LIFE
month seems marvellous, the more so, as the

changes between this first manuscript and the
final form of the poem are very slight. Then
he began the composition of the music, and,
as it bloomed in his soul, flower after flower
of his muse was sent to her who inspired their
fragrance.
CC
DREAMS "
How did Mathilde respond? Was the sover-
eign need of love beginning to assert itself
in her? It would seem so. For in return for
the poem of " Tristan und Isolde " and the
music which pulsated with her own heart
beats, she sent Wagner five poems which she
had written and in which she seems to break
silence with herself and to give expression to
feelings long hidden in the depths of a soul
that yearned to respond to her Tristan's love
rhapsody. She, too, was moved to dare; yet
a secret presentiment appears to have warned
her of the consequences. It would seem to
permeate at least one of the poems :
IN THE GREEN HOUSE

High vaulted verdure, crowns of foliage,
Canopies of emerald, offspring of distant zones,
Tell me, why do you murmur?
41

Silently your branches droop, you trace in the air

unchangeable images.
Symbols of suffering, gentle perfumes
Rising from your chalices.
In the languor of your desire your branches open
like arms,
But you are captives of illusion, your embraces only
shadows and fears.
Ah, poor verdure, I too, know; we share the same

fate.
Not in this brilliant sunlight—our country is not
here!
The sun shines without regret in the splendor of a
desolate day.
He who suffers deeply is enveloped in shadow and
silence.
All is still, and chilling air touches the glass house.
On the edge of the tender leaves I see trembling
heavy drops.
Among these five poems was the famous

" Dreams." Wagner seized upon it with
avidity. Indeed, he threw himself heart and
soul into the musical setting of these lines.
It was this song which was destined to become
the foundation of the great love-duet in the
second act of " Tristan." Through it, and
thus through Mathilde, he discovered the
musical soul of " Tristan und Isolde," for
" Tristan und Isolde " is one great heart throb
42

up to the love duet, and, after it, one great

heart throb down to death.
A TRIUMPH OF ART THROUGH LOVE

" Dreams " was a triumph of art achieved
through love. How could it fail to make him
feel more ardently than ever what Mathilde
was to him? Not satisfied with setting the
poem to song, but desiring to render deeper
homage to the woman who had inspired his
music, he arranged it for orchestra, and on
the 23d of December, 1857, Mathilde's birth-
day, had it played for her in her house as a
morning greeting for the new year on which
her life was entering. Another such musical
tribute has not been laid at the feet of woman.
Even the " Siegfried Idyll," which years later
Wagner composed for Cosima, is not to be
compared with this burst of impassioned
song—the musical soul of a great tragedy.
" Dreams " and " In the Green House," Wag-
ner himself called studies to "Tristan und
Isolde."
The atmosphere between the chalet and the
villa was becoming more and more charged
with emotional electricity. Unspoken mes-
sages were flying thither and back long before
43

the days of " wireless." The beautiful woman

of the Green Hill was sensitised to every
thought and feeling of the genius in the
chalet. The relation was idealised. She was
uplifting and comforting a sorrowing soul.
But " Dreams ? "—She was caught in its
flood of music and almost swept away.
For from the moment " Siegfried " was laid
aside and " Tristan " taken up in earnest, one
can read the reason in the lines and between
the lines of every communication that passed
from chalet to villa.
Mathilde sent Wagner a silken pillow for
his couch.
" A h ! The blissful pillow!" he exclaims.
" So soft, so delicate! Tired and heavy as
my head oft is, I have not dared to rest it
there, not even when I have been ill;—only in
death. Then I may bed it in luxury, as if it
were my right! Then you shall smooth the
pillow under my head. There you have my
last will and testament."
HIS MUSE—AND HIS ISOLDE

She was at once his Isolde and his muse:
" And my lovely muse still remains distant.
Silently I await her visit; I do not wish to
44

disquiet her by petitioning her. For the muse,

like love, is a voluntary benefactress. Un-
happy fool he who would try to win her forci-
bly when she does not give herself up to him
of her own free will. You will not allow your-
self to be forcibly drawn to me. Is it not so?
Is it not so? How could love be muse if it
yielded to force? And my dear, sweet muse
still absents herself."
A DEDICATION
Then followed at various times brief an-
nouncements of the progress of " Tristan."
" The great duet, Tristan and Isolde's out-
burst," he writes her, " has turned out beauti-
ful beyond all measure. At this moment in
great joy over it."
On the 31st of December, 1857, she received
the entire musical sketch of the first act with
these lines:
"Through bliss elated,
Sorrow abated,
Pure and free
E'er to thee;
How sorely tried,
Whate'er denied,
Tristan and Isolden
In tones so chaste and golden,
45

Their tears and kisses sweet,

I lay them at thy feet,
That they, the angel seeing,
Praise thee who gave me being."
These verses are somewhat freely translated,

but that Wagner regarded Mathilde as one
through whom his soul had been born anew
is shown by a passage in one of his letters
recalling a certain moment that passed be-
tween them as " Life," whereas all that had
gone before was but the prelude and all that
had followed but the postlude of his life—
a passage, however, which I will not antici-
pate by quoting now.
" HIS EYES ON MINE WERE FASTENED! "

Well might Wagner call Mathilde his
"Muse," well might he write her the lines
which she received with the first act of
" Tristan." Not only did she write " Dreams,"
she also suggested to him one of the most
poetic changes which he made in the old
"Tristan" legend when he remoulded it in
the crucible of his genius. In the legend it
is the drinking of the potion which excites
the love of Tristan and Isolde. Mathilde, sen-
sitive, refined, psychic, saw in this a basis that
46

was too artificial. At her suggestion Tristan

and Isolde loved from the moment their
glances met for the first time. Wonderful
insight of woman!
PREMONITIONS?
Wagner and Mathilde were two> beings
hedged round by the conventions of the nine-
teenth century, yet daring to lay bare their
souls to each other. Their glances, too, had
met. Had neither of them a presentiment of
danger? Read " In the Green House," and
note the woman's premonition. There is some
evidence that Wagner too was aware of the
peril in which they stood; also that, feeling
himself bound to Mathilde's husband by ties
of gratitude and friendship, he endeavoured
to escape it. He made a hurried trip to
Paris, pleading business reasons which always
have seemed insufficient to justify his going.
Moreover he could ill afford the expense. But
through what we now know of Wagner and
his Isolde, the trip appears in a different and
more plausible light. It was an attempt to
remove himself from the danger zone. But
this effort to interne his heart on neutral ter-
ritory was futile. The longing for love was
47

irresistible. Liszt was telegraphed to for

money and Wagner hurried back to Zurich
and Isolde faster than he had left them.
THE IVORY BATON

Events now follow each other rapidly. The
air is charged with impending catastrophe.
There had not yet been at the villa a formal
house-warming, or as the Germans call it
more feelingly, Hausweihe (consecration of
the house). For this ceremony Wagner, at
the request of the Wesendonks, arranged a
concert, which took place on the 31st of
March, 1858, in the foyer of the villa art
gallery. The programme consisted of Bee-
thoven selections, Wagner conducted, and
there was an audience of about one hundred
people. One can readily imagine the numer-
ous meetings for the discussing of plans and
the thousand and one details connected with
the concert which constantly brought Wagner
and Mathilde together.
At the concert there was a presentation
ceremony, Mathilde presenting Wagner with
an ivory baton, which she told him she had had
made expressly for him in Paris. No tragedy
is wholly without its humorous side-play, and
48

this incident forms the one amusing touch

in the story of Wagner and his Isolde. Ma-
thilde was guilty of a little pious fraud in
the affair of the ivory baton. She well knew
her inspired friend's expensive tastes. Hence
the Paris version of the baton. Mathilde had
indeed ordered it especially made for Wag-
ner—but in Zurich.
BUSY TONGUES
The concert, the presentation, Wagner's re-
moval to the chalet, his constant visits at the
villa, his manifest intimacy there, the fre-
quency with which he was seen with Mathilde,
started all the gossips of Zurich going. In
the cafes Orsino and Riiden the nobility and
the professors of the University gloated over
the affair; in the Litteraire the German con-
tingent moralised over it in a heavy way; in
the Zunfthauser the men of Zurich looked wise
when it was mentioned; in their sitting-rooms,
their kitchens, and at chance meetings on the
lower bridge the women of the town, none
too blessed with good looks themselves, and
to whom " pretty 'Thilde of the Green Hill"
was an object of envy, tore her reputation to
tatters.
49

THE AWAKENING
Meanwhile what was transpiring in the

" Retreat," and in the villa? About this time
Von Biilow wrote to a friend, " From Zurich
comes hopeless news. Wagner is in terrible
financial straits. I imagine that something
has gone wrong between him and the Wesen-
donks."
This suggests that the query, " What was
transpiring in the ' Retreat,' and in the
villa?" should be changed to "What had
transpired in the ' Retreat,' and in the villa?"
In July, 1858, the exact date not having
been preserved, Wagner sent Mathilde these
lines—brief, but how significant: " What a
wonderful birth for our child of pain! [This
refers to " Tristan und Isolde."] After all,
it seems we must keep on living. Of whom
could it be demanded that he desert his chil-
dren? God be with us wretched ones! Or
are we too blessed? Are we the only ones who
can help ourselves ? "
Again, what had transpired on the Green
Hill? No biographer has been able to an-
swer that question until now. But if we look
ahead in the journal which Wagner kept after
50

he had fled from Zurich to Venice, a journal

destined for Mathilde's eyes, and hers only,
these hints are discoverable:
" A year ago to-day," he writes September
18, 1858, " I finished my ' Tristan' poem
and took the last act to you. You led me to
the chair near the sofa, embraced me and said
4
Now I have nothing more to wish for.'"
And again on October 1, 1858, he wrote:
" You, my child, I no longer pity . . .
No longer do you look upon your grief as
wholly your own, but as a part of the sorrow
of the world . . . But, ah! how I pitied
you at that moment when you had thrust me
from you, when no longer the victim of sor-
row, but of passionate desire, you thought
yourself betrayed and your noblest feelings
misinterpreted. At that moment you appeared
to me like an angel whose God had deserted
her."
ON THE BRINK
Mathilde and her poet-composer had faced
each other on the brink. Wagner says, in
so many words, that she thrust him from her,
that at the crisis of her life her purity saved
her—that she was like one " betrayed," like
51

" an angel whose God had deserted her."

However vibrant her soul, however keen in re-
sponse to Wagner's every thought and feel-
ing, she was a wife and mother- Wagner
may have been her passion—but, at the criti-
cal moment, her love harked back to Otto and
the children. Possibly, too, her aristocratic
instinct came to her rescue. Women of her
wealth and position are of two kinds. The
one sacrifices everything and goes forth into
the night. The other considers and waits for
daylight. May not Mathilde, in imagina-
tion, have heard the* door of the villa
close forever behind her, and in the click of
the lock discerned the note of warning that
her beautiful romance could end only in
poverty and a sordid struggle for existence?
I, for one (and I believe the world is with
me), am glad that we can remember her as
the proud mistress of the Green Hill, instead
of as the successor of Minna in the kitchen.
CATASTROPHE
What Wagner has hinted at was a catas-
trophe, but not the catastrophe. In that
Minna had a hand. Furiously jealous of
Mathilde, she broke through all restraints
52

and created a " scene " in the villa itself. It

resulted not only in Wagner's leaving Zurich,
but also in his separation from Minna. He
went his lonely way to Venice; she sought
refuge with his sister Clara in Dresden. For-
tunately it is possible to give Wagner's ver-
sion of the affair in his own words.
The separation was so sudden that he had no
time to more than merely apprise Clara that
she might expect his wife, consequently his
sister wrote to him, requesting a " brotherly
explanation." He replied in a long letter
dated August 20, 1858, and probably written
from Geneva, where he had stopped en route
for Venice. It is profoundly interesting be-
cause in it he analyses his relations with Ma-
thilde, and from his own view-point, of course,
Minna's attitude toward the affair.
WAGNER'S O W N VERSION
" What has preserved, consoled, and even
strengthened me during these last six years,
. • . has been the love of this young
woman, which, at first timorous, doubting,
hesitating, and bashful, at last went out
toward me with ever increasing directness and
certainty. As there could be no question of
53

a union between us, our deep affection par-

took of the character of that sad, sweet long-
ing which keeps everything vulgar and low
at a distance, and found its chief source of
compensation in our mutual welfare. From
the very beginning of our acquaintance she
has shown the most tireless and delicately ex-
pressed interest in me, and has courageously
interceded with her husband for everything
that could make life easier for me. This love,
which had remained unspoken between us,
finally had to show itself openly, when last
year I wrote ' Tristan,' and presented her with
the poem. Then for the first time she became
powerless, and declared to me that nothing
remained for her but to die!
" Imagine, dear sister, what this love meant
to me, after a life like mine of trouble and
sorrow, excitement and self-denial. But at
the same time we realised that such a thing
as a closer union between us was impossible,
and, smothering our selfish desire in a spirit
of resignation, we suffered, bore our burdens,
but—loved!
" With clever womanly instinct, my wife
seemed to understand how matters stood. At
times she was jealous, mocking, contemptuous,

but she tolerated our intercourse, which,

after all, did not violate the conventions and
only looked toward the possibility of feeling
that we were in each other's presence. There-
fore I concluded that Minna was sensible and
that she understood she had nothing to fear
because there could be no thought of closer
relations; moreover, that she deemed it ad-
visable, in fact, the best thing she could do,
to shut her eyes to what was going on. But
I was to find out how mistaken I had been-
Gossip was rife, and at last my wife so far
forgot herself that she intercepted one of my
letters and opened it. If she had been able
to fully understand this letter it would really
have given her the desired sense of security,
for our feeling of resignation was its theme.
But she had eyes only for the intimate ex-
pressions, and lost her senses. She met me in
a rage, and thus forced me to explain to her
with calmness, but determination, how matters
stood; that she had brought this misfortune
upon herself, in having dared to open such a
letter; and that if she did not contain herself,
it would be necessary for us to separate. On
this we agreed, I calmly, she angrily. But the
next day I felt sorry for her. I sought her
55

out and said, 4 Minna, you are very ill! Get

well and then let us talk this matter over
again.'
MINNA MAKES A SCENE

" We agreed that she should take the cure
somewhere. She seemed to quiet down, and
the time for her departure arrived. She in-
sisted, however, that she must have a meeting
with Mme. Wesendonk before leaving. This
I most decidedly forbade her. It was of the
highest importance for me to try to explain
to Minna gradually the exact nature of the
relations to which she objected, and to make
it clear to her that she had nothing to fear
so far as the continuance of our married life
was concerned, if only she would behave her-
self reasonably, and, in a high-minded way,
give up any idea of revenge, and avoid any-
thing like a scene.
" Finally she promised this, but she did not
rest. Behind my back she went to Mme. Wes-
endonk and—probably without appreciating
the consequences—insulted the refined woman
in a most abominable manner. When she said,
4
If I were an ordinary woman I would show
this letter to your husband!' there was no
56

other recourse for Mme. Wesendonk, who was

conscious of never having kept a secret from
her husband (which, of course, a woman like
Minna cannot understand!) but to tell him
at once of this scene and what had led to it.
The delicacy and purity of our relations hav-
ing thus been attacked in a rude and vulgar
wa
y> a great change became necessary. It
required a long time for me to persuade my
friend that a nature like my wife's could not
be made to comprehend such high-minded and
unselfish relations as existed between us, for I
was met with her earnest, deep-felt reproof,
that whereas she always had taken her hus-
band into her confidence, I had not done so
with my wife.
" Whoever can appreciate what I have suf-
fered since then (all this occurred in the mid-
dle of April), also can imagine what my feel-
ings must be now I realise that my strenuous
efforts to resume the disturbed relations have
been fruitless. For three months, while Minna
was taking the cure, I showed every considera-
tion for her peace of mind. In order that she
might quiet down, I refrained, during this
period, from all intercourse with our neigh-
bours. Concerned only for her welfare, I did
57

everything to bring her to her senses and to a

point of view that would become her and her
age. All in vain! She persists in the most
trivial misrepresentations, declares herself in-
sulted, and, while calmer at times, again
breaks out into rage as before. Last month,
Minna having returned because we had visi-
tors, it was necessary to reach some decision.
It was impossible that these two women could
continue living so near together, for Mme.
Wesendonk, on her side, could not forget that
the great sacrifices she had made for me and
the delicate regard she had shown me had been
repaid by me, through my wife, with a gross
insult."
WESENDONK JEALOUS
The guests to whom Wagner refers in this
letter were, oddly enough, the Von Bulows,
Hans and Cosima, the latter Liszt's daughter,
who, some years later, left her husband, cast
her lot with Wagner, and eventually became
the power behind the throne at Bayreuth.
They were witnesses of some of the violent
scenes which disrupted the Wagner house-
hold, but there is nothing in Von Billow's
letters to indicate that he appreciated the real
58

OTTO WESENDOXK
1860
From a photograph taken in Rome

" T R I S T A N " IN REAL LIFE
cause of the composer's leaving Zurich and of

his separation from Minna.
Interesting as is the letter from Wagner to
his sister as it stands in the German edition of
the Wagner-Wesendonk book, the editor has,
with too evident purpose, omitted several sig-
nificant passages, in which Wagner refers to
increasing jealousy on the part of Wesen-
donk, " with whom it finally became a ques-
tion of preserving the mother of his children,55
who, Wagner adds, were " unconscious obsta-
cles " between Mathilde and himself. The
outcome seems to prove that Otto managed
the affair with infinite tact. Instead of spoil-
ing matters by ill-timed displays of temper,
he awaited the right moment and then sent
Wagner flying, apparently with Mathilde's
consent. The woman who appears to her
lover " like an angel whose God has deserted
her,'5 is apt to be grateful when she discovers
that her husband hasn't.
FLIGHT
Wagner5s departure from Zurich was pre-
cipitate. In fact it resembled headlong flight
rather than premeditated departure. He had
59

no time to communicate with many of his most

intimate friends there and in the neighbour-
hood, like the Willes, Keller, and Herwegh,
the poet. He was expecting a visit from
Liszt on August £0, but although only three
days remained until that date, he fled—
August 17, 1858.
" When you can spare a quiet hour," Liszt
wrote to him on the £6th of the same month,
" let me know why you did not care to stay
a few days longer at Zurich where I intended
to visit you on the 20th inst. at the latest."
There is no evidence in the Wagner-Liszt
correspondence that the explanation was
forthcoming—another indication of Wag-
ner's delicate reticence regarding his affairs
with women.
Why did Wagner's efforts at smoothing
things over between the chalet and the Green
Hill fail? He even had called in the Princess
Sayn-Wittgenstein, Liszt's amie, and asked
her for advice. She, thinking Mathilde was
in the same boat as herself, wrote a decidedly
Delphic opinion on what she supposed to be
the situation. There is reason to believe that
Wagner's swift departure from the " Re-
treat," in which he had expected to pass the
60

remainder of his life in peace and comfort,

was due to the fact that the gossip of Zurich
became too much for Otto. The husband
always is the last person to hear the scandal
that affects his honour, but when he does, it
is not meted out to him on the instalment
plan. Finck, in his " Wagner and his
Works," which justly has been called a mas-
terpiece, says that Wesendonk ordered the
composer out of the chalet and out of Zurich.
Belart, who, before he constructed his bro-
chure, " Richard Wagner in Zurich," went
over the ground with a fine-tooth comb, gath-
ering up every detail that came in his way,
writes:
"A brief and vehement passage of words
between Wagner and Wesendonk, a few
sharp commands from the latter—so says
tradition—and Wagner's fate was sealed."
The composer's friend, Jacob Sulzer, an ex-
official of the town, and the Kurwenal of the
Zurich tragedy (Mathilde refers to him as
the " Getreuesten aller Getreuen "—the most
faithful of the faithful), loaned him money to
reach Geneva, where he borrowed the sum that
carried him to Venice, his efforts to raise the
necessary amount even leading him to apply
61

for a loan to a barber who had shaved him in

Zurich.
We know that Minna was furiously jealous
of Mathilde; but it is possible, also, to quote
in her own words her opinion of that lady. The
following winter, when the Wesendonks lost
their son Guido, Minna wrote this comment
to a friend: " The news of the death of little
Guido, youngest son of the Wesendonks, has
depressed me terribly. I believe it is but the
dispensation of Providence that God visits
affliction on this heartless woman spoiled by a
happy life. How many times have I hoped
that the Lord would bring about a change
in her through the sickness of one of her chil-
dren ; but see! I still tremble with the terror
of the thought." Minna once referred to
Tristan and Isolde as " a nasty, love-sick
pair."
LAST MESSAGE FROM THE " RETREAT "

Wagner's last messages to Mathilde from
the " Retreat" were inexpressibly sad. A
short time before the final break, but when he
must have realised that it was impending, he
wrote her a long letter, from which I quote
the most significant phrases:
62

" Surely you do not expect that I will allow

your wonderfully beautiful and glorious
letter to remain unanswered? Or should I
have denied myself the privilege of replying
to your noble utterance? Yet how can I
reply in manner worthy of you?
" The terrible struggles through which I
have passed, how could they end otherwise
than in complete victory over all longing and
desire?
" Were we not forwarned in the warmest
moments of mutual attraction that such would
be our ultimate goal?
" Surely, because it was so difficult, so un-
heard of—that was the very reason why it
could be attained only after the severest strug-
gles. Have we not now reached the end of
these? Or are there others still awaiting
us? Surely, I feel it deeply, they are at an
end!
" Only a month ago I told your husband of
my decision to break off all personal inter-
course with you. I had renounced you, but
I had not come to a complete understanding
with my own self. I felt that only through
a complete separation, or a complete union,
could we protect our love against the dreaded
63

contact that threatened it so recently. On

one side was the necessity for a separation,
on the other the possibility of a closer rela-
tion which, even if not desired, still lured our
thoughts. Herein lay the painful stress
which was too great for us to bear. I came
into your presence, and at once we realised
clearly and forever that that other possibility
would be an outrage which we ourselves should
not tolerate.
" Turn again to the world I cannot; that I
should settle for any definite length of time
in a large city is unthinkable; and should I,
on the other hand, seek for myself a new
' Retreat,' another hearth, when I am obliged
to leave in ruins behind me the one which
friendship and exalted love had provided for
me in this exquisite paradise? No!—For me
to go from here is to go under!
" With these wounds in my heart, I cannot
even attempt to found another home!
" My child, I can think of but one salvation
for myself, and this cannot be secured to me
through material surroundings, but must
come from the innermost depths of my heart.
It is repose of soul! Suppression of all long-
ing ! Quenching of all desire! Noble, worthy
64

* .
conquest of self! Living for others—for
others to our own consolation!
"PRAY FOR ME IN SILENCE**

" Now you will comprehend the grave, de-
cisive conclusion which, inwardly, I have
reached. It colours my whole view of life,
my whole future, everything I value—and so,
too, my attitude toward you, who are dearest
of all to me! Let it be granted to me that
thus from among the ruins of this world of
desire—I still may prove a blessing to you!
Behold, never in my life, under no circum-
stances, have I been forward, but on the con-
trary, almost too reserved. Now, for the first
time I shall appear too insistent of your wel-
fare in begging you to be inwardly reassured
concerning me. I shall not visit you very
often, for from now on you are to see me only
when I am sure that I can meet you with a
cheerful, calm countenance.—Formerly I
sought you out in sorrow and longing.
Whither I went for consolation, thither I
brought unrest and pain. Thus if you do not
see me during longer periods of time—pray
for me in silence—for know then that I am
suffering! But if I do come, then be assured
65

that I shall bear to you a gracious gift from

my inner self, a gift to bestow which is re-
served for me alone, who have taken upon
myself to suffer so much.
" My child, the latter months have percepti-
bly whitened the hair about my temples. A
voice within me calls me longingly to rest—
the rest which years ago I caused my Flying
Dutchman to long for. It was a longing for
—4 Home'—not for the ecstacy of sensuous
love! A woman, faithful, blessed, alone
could win that home for him. Let us offer a
sacrifice to that beautiful death which is the
refuge and amelioration of all our longing
and desire! Let us, calm and glorified, face
that blessed death with the blissful smile of
exquisite self-denial! And—no one will be
the loser if we—conquer! Farewell, my be-
loved, blessed angel!"
"FAREWELL!"
A little later she received this one line writ-

ten in English, " It must be so! " and, doubt-
less on his last evening in the "Retreat,"
though the exact date is missing, came his
last message to her from the chalet:
66

" T R I S T A N " IN REAL LIFE
" Farewell, farewell, beloved! I part in peace.

Wherever I am, there I shall be wholly yours,
Seek to preserve the * Retreat' for me.
Aufwiedersehen! Aufwiedersehen! dear soul of my
soul! Farewell! Aufwiedersehen!
Farewell! Aufwiedersehen!"
The following morning the door of the

" Retreat " closed behind him. He never set
foot in it again.
67


II
AFTER Wagner left Zurich no direct com-
munication passed between him and the Wes-
endonk family until the following January.
Soon after reaching Venice he wrote to Ma-
thilde, but the latter sent the letter unopened
to Frau Wille, who returned it to Wagner.
Yet relations were not wholly severed. Be-
ginning shortly after his flight from the
" Retreat," and after he reached Geneva,
Wagner started a journal or diary, in which
he put down his most intimate thoughts, and
which was intended for Mathilde. This
journal and a second one were, in fact,
eventually sent to Frau Wille, and by her
transmitted to the Green Hill. They have
been preserved with this correspondence. Ma-
thilde, on her side, also kept a journal, which
Frau Wille sent to Wagner, but which has not
been preserved. Wagner's journal not only
fixes the date of his departure from Zurich,
but also settles the point as to whether that
departure was voluntary or precipitate. Much
71

dust has been thrown in the public's eyes in

regard to this. Thus Glasenapp, Wagner's
official biographer, calmly states that the com-
poser left Zurich in order to settle in some
place where there would be greater oppor-
tunity of hearing his own music. Imagine
choosing Venice for that! Wagner wrote
these lines over his diary:
"JOURNAL
SINCE MY FLIGHT FROM THE RETREAT
nth August, 1858."
He himself thus characterised his departure
from Zurich as " Flucht " (flight).
Wagner begins his journal with a gloomy
analysis of his suffering during the last night
in the " Retreat," and follows it with a real-
istic description of his parting from Minna.
Altogether there are three entries in the jour-
nal dated from Geneva,
"THUS LOOKING U P TO Y O U I DIED"

Geneva, August 21, 1858.
The last night in the " Retreat" I went to
bed at eleven o'clock; I was to leave the next
morning at five. Before I closed my eyes I
72

A LONELY E X I L E IN VENICE
recalled how I had been accustomed to woo

sleep on this spot by making the mental
presentation that there I was destined to
breathe my last. Thus I would lie there when
you should enter to me for the last time, when
you, fearlessly before all, should hold me
close in your embrace and with my last kiss
receive my soul! This death was the most
beautiful of my imaginings, and I had pic-
tured it entirely with reference to the ar-
rangement of my bedchamber. The door
toward the stairs was closed, you entered
through the portiere of my study. And thus
you twined your arms about me, and thus,
looking up to you, I died.
And now? Even the possibility of thus pass-
ing away is taken from me. Chilled, and like
one hunted, I left this abode, where I had been
locked in with my evil spirit whom I no longer
could save by flight. Where—where can I
die now?—and so I fell asleep.
" I N T O UTTER LONELINESS"

. . . And now I had taken leave. Now
everything was cold and irresponsive in me—
I went downstairs. There my wife awaited
me. She offered me tea. It was a frightfully
73

wretched moment. She accompanied me. We

descended into the garden. It was a glorious
morning. I did not look about me. At the
final parting there was a burst of grief and
tears from my wife. For the first time my
eyes remained dry. I counselled her again
to bear herself gently and nobly, and to seek
Christian consolation. The same vengeful
violence again flared up in her. She is be-
yond saving, I was obliged to acknowledge to
myself. But—I cannot wreak vengeance
upon the unfortunate woman. Let her pro-
nounce judgment upon herself.—I was fear-
fully in earnest and bitter, and sad, but—
weep I could not.—Thus she journeyed away.
And behold!—I will not deny that I felt re-
lieved, that I breathed freely again.—I have
passed into utter loneliness.—There I am at
home; there where with every breath I may
love you!
Yesterday I wrote to my sister Clara, whom
you met two years ago. She requested a
brotherly explanation of me; for I had writ-
ten her and announced Minna's coming. I
gave her an inkling of what you had been to
me during these last six years, and still were;
the heavenly refuge you had vouchsafed me,
74

at the expense of what sacrifices and strug-

gles you have protected me; and what a
rough, rude hand had now been laid on this
wonder work of your noble and exalted love. I
am sure she understands me. She is an enthu-
siastic soul in a somewhat neglected frame.
I was obliged to make some explanation in
that direction, but how heart and soul
trembled as I wrote her these things, and was
enabled at the same time to touch delicately
upon your high-mindedness, nobility and
purity!—Surely we shall forget all this, and
find consolation for our grief, and only the
supreme consciousness will remain that here
was a miracle such as nature permits only
once in the course of centuries, and never per-
haps with such exquisite success. Away with
sorrow! After all, we are supremely happy!
With whom would we exchange?
A DREAM PICTURE
August 23, 1858, 5 a. m.
In my dreams I saw you on the terrace.
You were in male attire, with a travelling cap
on your head, and peering in the direction I
had taken, but I was approaching from
75

another point. Thus your eyes always were

turned away from me, while I was striving
to let you know that I was near. Softly I
called "Mathilde!" Then louder and
louder, till my bedroom re-echoed with the
cry, and my own shouts awoke me.—When
later on I again managed to get a little sleep,
and began to dream, I read letters from you,
in which you confessed a youthful love affair
to me.
You had renounced your lover, yet you
were praising his good qualities to me. I
felt as if I had been called in simply to con-
sole you—which rather piqued me. To avoid
the recurrence of this dream, I got up and
wrote these lines—during which a violent
longing and grievous impatience again have
taken possession of me.
August 24, 1858.

Yesterday I was in the depths of woe. Why
continue to live? Why live? Is it cowardice
—or courage?—Why does life raise us to
the heights of bliss only to steep us in the
depths of woe? I slept soundly this past
night—to-day things are better.—I have
had made for myself here a fine portfolio
76

with a lock and key, and solely for souvenirs

of you, and for your letters. It will hold a
great deal, and whatever goes into it never
shall be returned to the naughty child, so be
careful what you send me. You will get
nothing back—except after my death, and
then only in case you will not permit it to be
buried with me.
WRITES TO FRATJ WILLE
Venice was the objective of Wagner's flight.

There he hoped to find some consolation in
new impressions, and also quiet and leisure
to proceed with " Tristan.55
First, however, he was obliged to ascertain
whether it would be a safe refuge for him.
At that time Venice was an Austrian posses-
sion and there was danger that the Saxon au-
thorities, under whose ban he still was, might
seek and obtain his extradition. As the result
of inquiries instituted by Liszt, and inde-
pendently by himself, he felt assured of his
safety. The necessity of making these in-
quiries and of borrowing money detained him
in Geneva until August 25th. The first
Venetian entry in his journal is under Sep-
77

tember 3, 1858, and in it he mentions having

written to Mathilde on the previous day.
Before quoting from the journal, however,
it seems best, for several reasons, to give the
letter which he wrote to Frau Wille on Sep-
tember 30. The letter he had despatched to
his Isolde had been returned to him unopened
by Frau Wille. Evidently Wesendonk deemed
it best that, for the present at least, all direct
communication between his wife and Wagner
should cease. Therefore, the only way that
remained for him to let her know how he was
situated in Venice was for him to write to
their mutual friend in Mariafeld and trust
to the latter to get the letter into Mathilde's
hands. It must have reached her, otherwise
it would not have been included in the corre-
spondence.
This letter is extremely interesting because
in it Wagner gives, in addition to bitter com-
ments on the world in general and his own
fate, a description of his quarters in the
Palazzo Giustiniani, and also locates that
structure. This is of some importance, because
there were at that time four Giustiniani pal-
aces in Venice, and at least one of the leading
guidebooks has associated the wrong one—
78

that which subsequently became the European

Hotel—with Wagner's sojourn in 1858-59.
The composer's description shows clearly that
he resided considerably farther along the
Grand Canal, and on the opposite side of that
waterway, in the Palazzo Giustiniani which
adjoins the Palazzo Foscari. The letter also
gives in a few wonderfully poetic touches his
impressions of the city of the lagoons, the
concluding passages being simply exquisite.
"EVERYTHING STRANGE AND COLD!"
" The world merely looks on the practical

side of things," writes Wagner. " With me,
however, the ideal is so much the real that it
forms a reality I cannot bear to have dis-
turbed. Now at last, at the age of forty-six,
I am forced to acknowledge that my sole com-
fort is to be found in solitude and that I must
stand apart by myself.
" Everything around me strange and cold!
No soothing influence, no glance, no comfort-
ing voice. I have sworn that I will not even
keep a dog. Nothing that may become dear
to me shall be about me. She at least has
her children!
79

" That is no reproach! Only a plaint; and

I think she will gladly take me as I am, and
harken to my lament.
" She helps me so sweetly! What a heavenly
letter from her you sent me to-day! Dear,
lovely soul—may she be comforted! Her
friend is faithful to her, lives only through
her—and, for that reason only, is able to
bear up!
" My palace lies about halfway between the
Piazzetta and the Rialto, near the sharp bend
which the canal makes around the Palazzo
Foscari (now an armoury), next door to me.
Diagonally opposite me is the Palazzo Grassi.
. . . My landlord is an Austrian who, on
account of my famous name, received me en-
thusiastically, and is extraordinarily clever
and obliging in everything. (He it was who
caused my arrival here to be announced in all
the newspapers.) You probably have read
that my coming here is regarded as a political
chess move on my part, with the ultimate
object of cautiously working my way back
to Germany through Austria. Even friend
Liszt was of this opinion, and, at the same
time, warned me against relying, as he
thought I must, upon achieving any kind of
80

success with my operas in Italy; it was not

their terrain, and he expressed surprise that
I myself had failed to realise this.
" I still remain the only guest (tenant) in
my palace, and dwell in a spaciousness at
which, at first, I was frightened. But I
hardly could find anything less expensive,
certainly nothing more comfortable, and so
I moved into my grand salon, which is again
as large as that at the Wesendonks', with
passable frescoes, superb mosaic flooring and
magnificent acoustics for the Erard. I at
once fought a successful campaign against
whatever was stiff and uncomfortable in the
arrangements. The doors between an immense
bed chamber and a smaller room adjoining I
had lifted out and portieres hung in their
place, but not of such fine material as the last
ones in the * Retreat.' For the present cotton
stuffs had to suffice. They suggest stage
settings. They had to be red, because every-
thing else was furnished in that colour; only
the bed chamber is in green. A vast floor
space affords me ample room for a morning
promenade. One side borders on the canal,
with a balcony, the other on the court in which
is a well-paved garden. In these premises I
81

pass my day until about five o'clock in the

evening. My tea in the morning I brew my-
self. I have two cups, one of which I bought
here, and out of which I allow Bitter to drink
if I bring him home with me of an evening.
The other, which is very large and beautiful,
I use myself. I also have a fine pitcher, which
I did not buy here. It is white with golden
stars, which, however, I have not yet counted.
Probably there are more than seven! [An
allusion to the constellation of the Great Bear
in Wagner's adopted coat-of-arms.]
" At five o'clock the gondolier is summoned.
For I am so situated that whoever wants to
call on me has to come by water (which gives
me an agreeable feeling of isolation)!
Through the narrow alleys, right and left,
but (as you know) ' sempre dritto!' to the
Piazza di San Marco and the restaurant
where usually I meet Ritter. From there
* sempre dritto ' in the gondola toward the
Lido or the Giardino publico, where I gener-
ally walk awhile, then again in the gondola
back to the Piazzetta to saunter up and down
a little and take my ice in the Cafe de la
Rotunde and then proceed to the Traghetto,
which brings me back by way of the shadowy,
82

melancholy canal to my palace, where the

lighted lamp awaits me.
" The wonderful contrast between the grave
and silent dignity of my abode and its situa-
tion, and the ever cheerful brilliance of the
Piazza and all connected with it, the agree-
ably indifferent whirl of humanity, the quar-
relsome gondoliers, the quiet return in the
dusk and under the first shadows of night,
rarely fail to leave me untouched by a grate-
ful sense of repose. So far I have looked for
no other impressions. I have not yet felt any
urgent need of examining the works of art.
That I am putting off until winter. At
present I am glad to be able to derive satis-
faction from the unvarying routine of my
days.
" My lips are sealed save towards Ritter,
[Julie Bitter's son] who is close-mouthed and
never makes a nuisance of himself. He parts
from me every evening at the Traghetto and
rarely sets foot in my abode. I could not
possibly have chosen a place more in keeping
with my present requirements. In a small, un-
important, uninteresting locality the animal
craving for social intercourse would, in the
end, have been driven to seek opportunity for
83

its gratification, and such intercourse, grow-

ing out of such need, is the very thing sooner
or later that is bound to become distasteful,
whereas nowhere could I live in more complete
retirement than right here. For the life
about me which daily renews itself with
vividly contrasting impressions, as interesting
and fascinating as a theatrical show, does
not lure me to play an individual role therein,
for fear that my doing so would cause me
to lose my interest in the drama as an objec-
tive onlooker. And thus my existence in
Venice mirrors my attitude toward the world
in general, at least as it seems to me it should
and must be according to my own perception
and the requirements to which I am resigned.
How I am forced to regret the consequences
whenever I step out of it!
" The other evening on the Piazza di San
Marco, when the military band that plays
there on Sundays performed selections from
6
Tannhauser ' and ' Lohengrin,' it seemed to
me, in spite of the annoyance caused by the
dragging tempi, that really all this did not
concern me in the least.
" Evenings when I am on the water and look
out over the sea, which, clear and motionless
84

like a mirror, draws the sky down to the

horizon, the rosy light of parting day so
perfectly reflected in the water, that sea and
sky seem joined and cannot be distinguished
apart, I see in this a faithful picture of what
the present holds for me. Present, past and
future are as little to be distinguished from
one another as over there the sea and sky.
There are shadowy lines, too. These are the
low islands that stand out here and there. A
distant mast shows itself against the horizon.
The evening star twinkles, the stars beam, up
there in the heavens and down here in the sea.
What is the past, what is the future? I see
only the stars and the pure, rosy radiance;
and in between my boat glides silently to the
subdued cadence of the oar.—That may be
the present.
" Greet the dear angel for me many thou-
sand times; and let her not disdain the silent
tear that courses down my cheek!"
COMMUNINGS OF A STRICKEN SOUL
Nothing possibly could show more forcibly

Wagner's total abstraction from the world
than his unconcern over the indifferent per-
85

formance of his own works, which he notes in

this letter. I have ascertained that the band
which played them was Archduke Maximil-
ian's, who was then Governor of the Austro-
Italian provinces, and later became Emperor
of Mexico. Wagner was a lonely exile; Max-
imilian apparently the favourite of fortune.
Yet compare their ultimate fates—the bril-
liant career which the future had in store for
Wagner with the tragic death of Maximilian
in Mexico!
Often while in Venice Wagner felt the pinch
of poverty. Once he even was obliged to
pawn the only three valuables he possessed—
a silver snuff-box, which had been presented
to him by the Grand Duke of Weimar; a
bonbonniere, the gift of the Princess Sayn-
Wittgenstein, and his watch. On December
31, 1858, his means had dwindled to about
six dollars, yet, when on that evening a letter
arrived from Liszt in which that composer
spoke with enthusiasm of the first " Tristan "
proofs recently received by him, Wagner
hurried to the telegraph office and expended
a considerable part of what little money he
had left on a long telegram of thanks and
good wishes for the new year to his friend.
86

RICHARD WAGNER
From a photograph especially taken for
Mathilde Wesendonk

The journals which Wagner kept in Venice

mirror his life, his thoughts—secrets of his
soul that move us profoundly as we con-
template this great genius, alone, forsaken,
going his solitary way, stealing like a shadow
amid relics of former greatness, gliding like
a spirit over the melancholy lagoons. Here
are memories; protests—" you are resigned,
calm "—heartbreaking realisations of the
present; cries of revolt against a conventional
world, " where only the most commonplace
seems bent on enjoying existence"; plaintive
notes of resignation; resolves to resume work
on " Tristan " ; philosophical reflections; pre-
monitions that he and his Isolde shall meet
again, " like spirits once more drifting
toward the spot where they have suffered " ;
but always—always—the communings of a
stricken soul with the one being who can bring
consolation.
CC
T H E BLISS OF BEING LOYED BY YOU "
Venice, September 3, 1858.

Yesterday I wrote to you and to our friend.
Until now I have been occupied with my
journey, and with the arrangements here, but
87

from now on I propose to keep my journal

regularly. My route was over the Simplon.
The mountains, and especially the long Wallis
valley, oppressed me. I passed a beautiful
hour on the garden terrace of the Isola Bella.
A wonderfully sunny morning. I knew the
spot well and dispensed with the guidance of
the gardener, in order that I might be alone
there. A wonderful feeling of peace and ex-
altation came over me, so exquisite—that it
could not be of long duration. But what lifted
me out of myself, the lasting thought in me
and with me, was the bliss of being loved by
you.
I passed the night in Milan, arriving in
Venice on the 29th of August. During the
passage of the Grand Canal toward the Pia-
zetta, a touch of melancholy and sad reflec-
tions. Grandeur, beauty, decay, rubbing
elbows. Comforted by the thought that here
was no bloom of modern civilisation, there-
fore none of its bustling triviality.
Piazza di San Marco. Enchantment. A
bit of world, distant and extinct; in every
way congenial to my craving for solitude.
Nothing here suggests actual life. It touches
one objectively, like a work of art. Here I
88

desire to remain—hence shall do so.—Next

day, after much hesitation, engaged lodgings
on the Grand Canal, in a mighty palace, of
which, at present, I am the sole tenant. Spa-
cious, lofty chambers, through which I can
roam at will. My abode being an important
matter, because it houses the working ma-
chinery of my mind, I expend much care upon
it, so that everything shall be arranged to
my liking. I write at once for my Erard. It
should sound wonderfully well in my great
and lofty palace salon. The deep, peculiar
silence of the canal appeals to my mood. Not
until five o'clock in the evening do I leave
my residence for dinner. Then a promenade
toward the public gardens. A brief halt on
the Piazza di San Marco. Its individual
characteristics, its seething mass of humanity,
are truly foreign to me and wholly unsympa-
thetic, but serve to distract my thoughts
from myself, impressing me like a scene in a
theatre. Toward nine o'clock return to my
palace in a gondola. Find a lamp lighted,
and read a little until bedtime.
Thus my outward life will flow on, and thus
it suits me. Unfortunately it is becoming
known that I am here, and I have given orders
89

once and for all that no one is to be admitted.

This solitude, such as scarcely can be found
elsewhere—and so readily found here, soothes
me and inspires me with hope.
cc
MY FATE, MY DESIRE—MY LOVE
Yes, I hope to grow strong for you! To

preserve you for myself means to preserve
my art for myself. With it—to live to con-
sole you, that is my aim. That chimes in with
my nature, my fate, my desire—my love.
Thus I am yours; thus you too shall revive
for me. Here my " Tristan " shall be com-
pleted—though the whole world rage, and
with " Tristan," if I may, I shall return to
you, to see you, to comfort you, to bless you!
That I hold out to myself as my loftiest, most
sacred endeavour. Well then! Hero Tristan,
heroine Isolde! Help me! Help my angel.
Here ye shall bleed together. Here the
wounds shall be healed, and from here the
world shall learn the loftiest, noblest stress
of love ecstatic, the wail of most impassioned
bliss. A glorified life; and, angel, healed and
clarified, you shall see me once more, your
humbled friend.
90


The past night I was restless and had long
waking spells. My sweet child will not let me
know how she fares ? How wonderfully beau-
tiful the canal at night. Bright stars, waning
moon. A gondola glides past. In the dis-
tance gondoliers call to each other in song.
This is extraordinarily beautiful and impres-
sive. They no longer sing the stanzas of
Tasso, but the melodies undoubtedly are very
old, as old as Venice itself, and surely older
than the Tasso stanzas which no doubt merely
were adapted to them. Thus in the melodies
what was genuine has been preserved, while
the stanzas, like mere passing phenomena,
were taken up and finally lost in them. These
deeply melancholic melodies, sung with re-
sounding, powerful intonation, borne from
far across the water and dying away in the
farther distance, have moved me profoundly.1
CC
I KNEW BUT THAT YOU LOVED ME **
To-day I heard from Frau Wille. It was
my first news of you. You are resigned,
1 One of them suggested to Wagner the plaintive
Shepherd lay in the third act of " Tristan."
91

calm, determined to carry out the resignation!

Parents, children, duties.
How strange all this seemed to me in my
mingled mood of hope and sorrow.
Whenever I thought of you, parents, chil-
dren, duties—never entered my mind. I knew
but that you loved me, and that everything
in this world that strives for the sublime is
destined for unhappiness. Seen from this
height, it frightens me to have the cause of
our sorrow pointed out to me so clearly. Sud-
denly I see you in your beautiful home;—
see all that; hear of those by whom we ever
must remain misunderstood, who, though
strangers, yet are near to us and stand be-
tween us and our hearts' desires. An enraged
man puts this question: " Are you -to sacrifice
everything to those who cannot comprehend
or appreciate you, yet demand everything of
you? " I can and will not see or hear of such
a thing if I am to remain worthy of fulfilling
my mission. Only from the depths within can
I gather strength. Everything from without
that seeks to strengthen our resolution only
arouses me to bitterness.
You hope to see me in Rome for a few hours
this winter? I fear that I shall not be able to
92

bear the ordeal. To see you, and then, under

the smug supervision of another, part from
you!—Could I bear that so soon?—Hardly!
And you want no letters from me?
I have written you and—surely hope not to
be rebuffed by the return of that letter. Yes,
I am sure of your reply!
Away with these foolish fancies! I hope.

Yesterday I was quite ill with fever. In the
evening I received another letter from Frau
Wille;—in it my billet to you was—returned
unopened.
That should not have happened! Not that!
That you are recovering and growing strong
again is a comfort. I also find consolation,
a consolation that savours of revenge, in the
certainty that the time will come when you
will read the letter that has been returned
to me, and feel how greatly I have been
wronged by its return! And yet how often
I have suffered similar injustice.
PURE, BEAUTEOUS O N E ! "

I have been so depressed that I have not
93

cared to take even my journal into my confi-

dence. Then, to-day, your letter came—the
letter to Frau Wille. That you loved me I
well knew. You are, as ever, kind, sympa-
thetic, and thoughtful. I had to smile and
almost rejoice over this, my last misfortune,
since it is the cause of the exalted feeling
you have inspired in me. I understand you—
even in those matters in which I seem to con-
sider you somewhat unjust,—for toward me
there is injustice in everything that is palmed
off as a pretext to guard you against my
seeming importunity. At least I thought I
had proven by the terrible experience through
which I have passed in Zurich lately that I
—can yield; therefore have a right to feel
that to cast doubt on my spirit of resignation
and my delicacy of feeling is a deep injury.
But wherefore dwell on all this? The sublime
beauty of my exaltation has been marred, and
now my spirit again must strive to compass
the painful ascent of those heights. For-
give me, if still I stumble!—I will be cheerful
again—as much so as I can. Soon I will
write to Frau Wille; but even in my letters
to her I will be temperate. My God! AH
this is so hard to bear, and yet what is best
94

can be won only through moderation.—Yes!

'tis well, and all shall go well again. Our love
soars over every obstacle, and every restraint
makes us richer, more spiritual, nobler, and
more and more concerned with the spirit and
essence of our love, ever more indifferent to
the unessential. Yes, good, pure, beauteous
one! we shall conquer.—Even now we are in
the full flush of victory.

For the first time I freely breathe in this
equable, blissful, untainted air; the magical
" atmosphere " of the place casts its melan-
choly, yet cheerful spell over me and weaves
an ever beneficent enchantment. In the
evening when I am borne in a gondola to the
Lido, the sounds about me unite in a long
sustained, soft violin tone which I love and
with which I once compared you. Now you
can realise what my sensations are here in the
moonlight on the sea!
€C
1 WAS BORN AGAIN"
A year ago to-day I finished my " Tristan "
poem and took the last act to you. You led
95

• ii - i • .I i «
me to the chair near the sofa, embraced me

and said:
" Now I have nothing more to live for."
That day, that hour, I was born again.—
Up to that moment I had been in the before-
life. It passed, and the after-life began. For
only in that wonderful moment did I experi-
ence life itself. You will recall how it affected
me. Not passionately, stormily, ecstatically,
but solemnly, deeply moved, permeated by a
mild and grateful warmth, emancipated as if
forever, I gazed into the future.
Ever more sadly I had been withdrawing
from the world. With me everything had be-
come negation, declination. Even my art had
become painful to me. For it had grown to
be a longing, an unfulfilled longing for nega-
tion and renunciation—a search for that,
which, uniting itself with me, would affirm me
for its own. It was vouchsafed during that
moment, vouchsafed with such unerring cer-
tainty that a holy calm took possession of
me. A lovely woman, shy, retiring, launched
herself boldly upon a sea of suffering and
sorrow, that she might provide that glorious
moment for me, and say to me, I love you!—
And thus you consecrated yourself to death
96

that you might give me life, thus I received

your life that with you I might part from
this world, to suffer with you, to die with
you.—The dread sorcery of longing was dis-
pelled!—And this you too know, that never
since then have I been at odds with myself.
Confusion and torment might be our lot;
even you might be tempted to yield to the lure
of passion. But I—you well know it—I re-
mained ever the same, and my love for you,
however terrible the temptation of the
moment, never could lose its fragrance, aye,
not even the most delicate atom thereof. All
that was bitter had vanished from me. I
might err concerning myself, might experi-
ence sorrow and suffering, but it always was
clear to me, that your love was the noblest
thing in my life and that without it my ex-
istence would be a contradiction.
To you gratitude, you lovely, loving angel!
"THAT DISTANCE WHICH MUST BE

NEARNESS "

The pitcher and cup have arrived. They
are a friendly token, the first from the out-
97

side world. What do I say? From the out-

side world? How can anything- from you
come from the outside world? And yet—it
comes from that distance which must be near-
ness to me. A thousand thanks, sweetly in-
ventive being! Thus silently, yet how clearly,
we utter to one another words that must re-
main unspoken.
" DID I BRING MISFORTUNE? "

Now the waning moon is late in rising.
When it was in its full glory it afforded me
some consolation through agreeable impres-
sions of which I stood in need. After sunset
I regularly travelled toward it in my gondola
in the direction of the Lido. The struggle
between night and day was a wonderful spec-
tacle in the clear sky. To the right, in the
deep rosy heavens, twinkled the evening star,
serenely bright. The moon in all its splendour
threw its glittering net toward me across the
sea. Homeward bound, my back was turned
toward it. My gaze, ever wandering in the
direction where you abide and from where you
were gazing at the moon, was met, right
98

above the familiar constellation of the Great

Bear, gravely yet brightly, by the growing
light-trail of the comet.2 This held no terror
for me, as nothing does any more, since I no
longer have any hope, any future. In fact
I was obliged to smile at the superstitious
fright which people show over such phe-
nomena, and with a certain bravado I chose
it for my own constellation. I saw only
something uncommon, bright and wonderful.
Am I too a comet? Did I bring misfortune?
—Was it my fault?—I could not take my eyes
off it.
Silent and composed I arrived at the Piaz-
zetta with its bright lights and never-spent
wave of gaiety. Then along the melancholy
canal. Right and left superb palaces. Pro-
found silence. Only the gentle gliding of
the gondola and the swish of the oar. Ar-
rival at the silent palace. Broad chambers
and corridors, with myself as solitary tenant.
The lamp is lighted. I take up the book,
2 Professor Harold Jacoby, of Columbia University,

N. Y., informs me that this comet was discovered by
Donati at Florence, June 2d, 1858, therefore is known
as Donati's comet, and that it was the brightest comet
of the nineteenth century.
99

read a little, think much. Silence every-

where.
Ah, music on the canal. A gondola with
gaily coloured lights, singers, and players.
More and more gondolas with listeners join
it. The flotilla, barely moving, gently gliding,
floats the whole width of the canal. Songs
from pretty voices accompanied on passable
instruments. Everything is ear. At last,
almost imperceptibly, the flotilla makes the
turn of the bend and vanishes still more im-
perceptibly. For a long while I hear the tones
ennobled and beautified by the night, tones
which as art do not interest me, but which
here have become part of Nature. Finally
all is silent again. The last sound dissolves
itself into moonlight, which beams softly on,
like a visible realm of music.
Now the moon has set.
" IN MY HEART I TREASURE HER SOUL "
I have not been well for a few days and have

been obliged to omit my evening outing.
Nothing has remained for me but my solitude
and my futureless existence!
On the table before me lies a small picture.
100

It is the portrait of my father, which reached

me too late for me to show it to you. It is a
noble, gentle, sorrowful, yet intellectual face
that appeals to me strongly. It has grown
very dear to me.
Whoever enters here expects to find the picT
ture of a dearly beloved woman. No! I have
no picture of her. But in my heart I treas-
ure her soul. Let anyone who can, see that!
Good night!
CC
NATURE IS HEARTLESS

Again I have conceived a strong aversion
to youthful marriages. Except among wholly
commonplace persons I have not met with any
such union which in due time did not prove a
mistake. And then what misery! Soul, char-
acter, talent—everything, in fact, shrivels up
unless new and extraordinary relations, and
always highly passionate ones, are entered
into. Thus everything seems to me in a most
deplorable state—whatever lays claim to the
slightest importance suffering and helpless;
while only the most commonplace appears bent
on enjoying its existence. But what does
101

Nature care about all this? She pursues her

own blind mission, seeking nothing but self-
propagation, that she may ever renew life,
ever begin over again, ever spread, spread—
just spread. The individual upon whom she
unloads all the travail of existence is no more
to her than a speck of dust in this dissemina-
tion of sex, which, so long as she clings to her
theory of germination, she can replace thou-
sandfold, aye, millionfold. Therefore I listen
unwillingly if anyone appeals to Nature as
his authority. With the elect it is nobly
meant, but for that very reason a different in-
terpretation is placed upon it. For Nature is
heartless and unfeeling, and every egotist,
aye, every savage, can appeal to Nature more
securely and more understandingly than the
man of keen sympathies.
What kind of marriage is that, upon which,
in the enthusiasm of youth at the first prompt-
ing of sex, we enter for life? How rarely
parents take counsel of their own experience.
Instead, if they have managed to find refuge
from their misery in a kind of tolerant in-
difference toward each other, they forget all
about it, and allow their children to rush
headlong into the same rut! , There again
102

Nature, as everywhere, metes out to the indi-

vidual misery, despair, death, leaving it to
himself to rise above these only by resigning
himself to the inevitable. That at least
Nature cannot prevent; and then she looks on
with astonishment and possibly says to her-
self, " Is that really what I have been trying
to accomplish? "
I am not wholly well yet, but hope much
from to-night if only I can count on tranquil
sleep. That you surely do not grudge me?
Good night!
CC
SPURN NOT MY PITY"
Venice, October 1, 1858.
You, my child, I no longer pity. Your
journal which you lately have sent me, your
latest letters, breathe a spirit so lofty, so
loyal to its ideals, so purified and clarified
by suffering, so master of itself and of the
world, that I can only rejoice with you,
honour you, worship you. No longer do you
look upon your grief wholly as your own,
but as part of the sorrow of the world. In
fact you cannot regard it in any other light
than that of the universal world-sorrow. In
103

the noblest sense of the word you have be-

come a poetess.
But, ah, how I pitied you during that
moment when you had thrust me from you,
when, no longer the victim of sorrow but of
passionate desire, you thought yourself be-
trayed and your noblest feelings misinter-
preted. At that moment you appeared to me
like an angel whose God had deserted her.
And, swiftly as your distress brought me to
my own senses, it made me equally swift in
bringing comfort and refreshment to your
perturbed spirit. I found the friend whose
privilege it has been to be consolation, in-
spiration, alleviation and reconciliation to
you. Behold, pity did that! Verily, I thrust
self aside, renounced forever the joy of seeing
you, of being near you, could I but know you
tranquil, cheerful, fully yourself again.
Wherefore spurn not my pity when you see
me offering it, since now my only feeling
toward you is one of rejoicing with you! Ah,
this is the highest exaltation, it can exist only
between those who are in fullest sympathy.
From common souls, upon whom I may be-
stow my pity, I am forced to turn quickly
as soon as they demand that I rejoice with
104

them. This was the ground of my last dif-

ference with my wife. She, unfortunate one,
had construed in her own way my decision
never again to enter your house, and inter-
preted it as a breach with you. Hence, on
her return, she expected that, as between her
and myself, all would again be agreeable and
intimate. How terribly I had to undeceive
her! And now, rest! Rest!—Another world
opens up before us! Be blest to me in it, and
doubly welcome as a sharer in our common
" T H E WORLD DOES NOT SEEM TO

WANT "

After all, my lot is pretty hard! When I
pause to consider the vast amount of sorrow,
impatience and torment I am obliged to
undergo in order to secure now and then a
little leisure for myself, I feel ashamed at my
efforts to force myself upon the world, since,
all things considered, the world does not seem
to want me. To be always and eternally en-
gaged in a struggle for the necessaries of
life, often compelled for a long period to
105

think only of how to make a beginning, how

to secure material respite for myself and
what is needed for actual existence, and to
be obliged for this reason to disguise my real
self and appear like another person to those
to whom I have to be beholden for these
things—that really is revolting; and to cap
the climax, I must be the very one who is so
constituted that he feels the humiliation more
keenly than anyone else. . . .
The shocking thing about all this is that no
one—especially no man—is deeply and seri-
ously interested in me, so that, with Schopen-
hauer, I begin to doubt the possibility of a
real friendship, and class what goes by that
name with the fables. One has no idea how
little capable a " friend " is of putting him-
self in the situation, let alone of adapting
himself to, the moods of another. But this
can readily be explained. In the very nature
of things such a friendship can only be an
ideal, while Nature herself, this cruel creator
and egoist, can, with the best disposition (if
ever she can persuade herself to be well dis-
posed), see nothing more in each individual
than a medium for her own exploitation, and
recognises any other individual only in so
106

far as he flatters her self-delusion in this re-

spect. 'Tis thus! And yet we cling to life!
Heavens, what must that be worth for which,
in spite of this consciousness, we still hold
out!
fC
I LOOK U P TO YOU"

My child, the great Buddha well knew what
he was about when he placed a strict ban
upon art. Who can realise more clearly than
I that it is this unhappy art that ever makes
return to me with all the sorrows of life and
all the contradictions of existence? Were it
not for this wonderful gift, were it not for
my dominating creative imagination, I could,
according to my guiding light, follow the
urging of my heart and become a—saint;
and as saint I could say to you, " Come,
ignore everything that would hold you back;
throw off the shackles of Nature. At this
price I will show you the open road to salva-
tion.'5 . . .
That I may not sink under I look up to you.
But the louder I call, " Help me, stay with
me!" the farther you seem to vanish. And
the answer that comes drifting back to me is,
107

" In this world, where you have taken this

burden upon yourself in order that you may
realise your ideals; in this world—she does
not belong to you! On the contrary, whatever
mocks you, whatever tortures you, whatever
eternally misinterprets you, also encompasses
her, holds her in its grasp and claims her for
its own. Then why does she rejoice in your
art? Because art belongs to the world, and
she, too—belongs to that world."
CC
MY SWAN SANG TO YOU FROM AFAR "
My grand piano has just arrived, been un-
packed and set up. While it was being tuned
I reread your spring journal. The Erard
is mentioned in that. I have been profoundly
affected by its arrival. A significant cir-
cumstance is connected with this instrument.
You know how long I wished for it in vain.
When I went to Paris last January—you
know why?—it is quite remarkable that it
should have occurred to me to put forth
special efforts to secure a grand piano like
this one! I had no serious purpose in any-
thing I did; everything was indifferent to
108

me; there was not even the semblance of zeal

in anything I undertook. But with my visit
to Mme. Erard it was different. Upon this
meagre, wholly commonplace individual I ex-
pended all my enthusiasm, with the result, as
I learned afterwards, that she was completely
carried away. I got the instrument in a jiffy,
almost as if it had been a joke. Wonderful
instinct of Nature which asserts itself in each
individual, according to his idiosyncrasies,
merely as an impulse to provide the means of
existence!
But the importance of this clever stroke
soon was to become clear to me. On the £d
of May, shortly before you, too, were to
leave on your " trip of diversion," and I was
to be completely isolated—the long expected
instrument arrived. While it was being set
up the weather was disagreeable, raw and
cold. I was obliged for that day to give up
the hope of a glimpse of you on the terrace.
The piano had not entirely been set up when
—suddenly you stepped out of the billiard
room upon the front balcony, seated yourself
upon a chair and looked over in my direction.
By this time everything was in order. I
opened the window and struck the first chords.
109

You did not even know that the Erard had

arrived.
After that I did not see you again for a
month, and during that time it became clearer
and more certain to me that from now on we
would have to remain apart! That should
have been the end with me of all desire to live.
But this wonderfully soft, melancholy, and
sweet instrument lured me back into the realm
of music. I called it my swan that had come
to bear poor Lohengrin home again! Thus
I was led to begin the composition of the sec-
ond " Tristan" act. Life again began to
weave itself into a dreamlike existence. You
returned. We did not speak, but my swan
sang to you from afar.
Now I am far, far away from you. Heaven-
high the Alps roll between us. It becomes
clearer to me how all this must eventuate;
and that life in its true meaning no longer
exists for me. " Alas! " I often thought, " if
my Erard only were here. That would help,
and help must come! " Long, long I had to
wait. Now at last it is here, this work of art
with its lovely tone, which I won for myself
at the time when I realised that I must lose
you. How clearly the symbolism of my
110

A LONELY E X I L E IN V E N I C E
genius, my Daimon, speaks to me from it!

How unconsciously I stumbled upon this
piano. But my sly instinct knew well what
it was after!—The wing-shaped piano! Yes,
a wing! Would it were the wing of the angel
of death!
" FOR YOUR SAKE I HAVE LET IT STAND "

At last I have begun.—With what?
I had only slight pencil sketches of our
songs, in many cases incomplete and so in-
distinct that I feared they would entirely slip
my memory. First of all I went to work to
play them over and recall them to memory.
Then I wrote them out carefully. Now it
will not be necessary for you to send me your
copies. I have them myself.
And so that has been my first work. With
it I have tried my wings.—Anything finer
than these songs I never have composed and
there is very little in my works worthy of com-
parison with them.
"And solves your riddle!
Holy Nature."
I should like to rechristen " Holy Nature."
Ill

The sentiment is right enough, but not its

expression, since nowhere is Nature holy save
when she conquers self and abdicates. But—
for your sake I have let it stand.
" THE PROTECTING, REDEEMING HAVEN **

My mode of life up to the time when I found
you, and you at last became mine, lies clearly
before me. I had withdrawn more and more
from my relations to the world, whose trend,
so wholly opposed to mine, affected me ever
more painfully and inconsolably, without it
being possible for me as an artist and as a
man standing in need of help, to break all
ties that held me to it. I kept aloof from
people because contact with them only grieved
me.
Persistently I sought solitude and retire-
ment, nourishing only, but for that reason
all the more ardently, a longing in my heart
that in a predestined individual I would find
the protecting, redeeming haven which would
welcome me freely to its refuge, and which,
in the nature of things, only could be a
loving woman. This, my poetically-prophetic

A LONELY E X I L E IN Y E N I C E
genius enabled me to comprehend even before

I had found her, for the most unselfish efforts
of men to befriend me had shown me how im-
possible it was that the friendship of any man
could offer me what I longed for.
Never, however, had I the slightest presenti-
ment that I should find what I sought for so
completely, so aptly created to soothe my
longing and comfort my desires, as I found it
in you. Once more:—That you could per-
suade yourself to brave all world-sorrow in
order to say to me, " I love you!"—that has
proven my salvation, and has won for me that
blessed feeling of repose which has given to
my existence a wholly different signifi-
cance.
But this bliss has been attained only through
all possible love-grief and suffering. We have
drained them to the dregs!—And now that we
have passed through everything, now that
nothing has been spared us, the germ of that
higher life, which we have achieved in the
pangs and suffering attendant on its birth,
manifests itself. In you this germ lives on
so pure, so secure, that I can only let you
see, to your joy, to our mutual joy, how it is
developing in me.
113

HAVE NOTHING FURTHER TO

LONG "
The world has been overcome. Through our

love, our sorrow, it has overcome itself. It
no longer is an enemy before which I flee, but
an object wholly indifferent and unessential
to which I can turn without fear or pain;
therefore, even without any real disgust. This
I realise all the more because, theoretically,
my impulse to withdraw from the world no
longer is as strong as formerly. Until now
that impulse was the result of unstilled long-
ing, seeking and yearning, which have now—
I feel it—been assuaged. The later develop-
ments as between ourselves have made me
fully conscious that we have nothing further
to seek, nothing further to long for. Con-
sidering how completely you have given your-
self to me, I cannot characterise my feeling
as resignation, least of all as despair. This
daring interpretation of my state of mind
appeared to me formerly as an impossible
result of my yearning quest. Now, made
happy by you, I am absolved from it. A
holy peace is mine. The impulse is dead be-
cause it has been satisfied.
in

This calm state of mind (the result of in-

numerable struggles with the world, and
finally of my salvation through your love),
probably will lead me eventually to settle in
some spot where the means of exploiting my
art will be at my disposal, something that will
be a sore trouble to me (since the game no
longer seems worth the candle), so that, ac-
cording to my humour or caprice, I can
arrange for occasional and at least tolerable
performances of my works. Of course any-
thing like a position or an appointment does
not enter my mind. Moreover, I have not the
least preference for one place or another, for
—nowhere would I seek anything definite or
individual, and least of all intimate. I am
free of any such desire! On the contrary, I
will grasp only at that which will enable me
to maintain the most ordinary, indeed super-
ficial, relations with my surroundings, and
this may prove the easier the larger the place
is. The possibility of falling back upon some
intimate relationship such as I might estab-
lish in a place like Weimar, I do not for a
moment consider. Such an idea is decidedly
repulsive to me. I can show due regard for
my deep-rooted prejudice against the world
115

only by dealing with humanity in its totality,

without any closer, individual relationship.
An effort, like that in Zurich, where I sought
to attract everyone toward me, I never
could be capable of making again,
" A S IF IN DREAMS"
Such is the groundwork of my present dis-
position. How it will eventually result out-
wardly I cannot—as I have said—state with
certainty. That, moreover, is a matter of
total indifference to me. Of anything perma-
nent regarding my future I have no thought.
I am, while striving for a permanency, so
accustomed to change, that I now give it
full play, the more willingly the less it con-
cerns me.
How our personal relations to one another,
yours and mine, will develop—the one con-
sideration that still affects me painfully—
we, too, beloved, must leave to fate.
And herein lies the pang, the thorn of sor-
row and of bitterness against others who seek
to make the divine comfort of approach im-
possible for us, without in the least benefit-
ing themselves thereby! Here we are not
free, and depend upon those toward whom
116

with the greatest sacrifice in our hearts, we

must turn in order to bestow upon them the
first rites of pity. You will bring up your
children—and with my blessing full upon
you! May they prove a joy and a noble in-
spiration to you! I shall look on with pro-
found satisfaction.—Probably we shall see
each other again, but, I opine, in the near
future, as if in—dreams, solitary spirits
drifting toward the spot where they have suf-
fered, that once more they may find in a
look, in a pressure of the hand, the consola-
tion that lifted them above this world and
vouchsafed them a glimpse of heaven.
" A N D SO, FAREWELL, M Y HEAVEN!"
Should I—through the deep sense of repose

that has come o'er me—be preserved to beau-
tiful and clarified old age, I would wish that
you might again be quite near me, all suffer-
ing, all jealousy allayed. The " R e t r e a t "
might then become a reality. I might even
require care and nursing. Surely these would
not be denied me. Then, perhaps—you would
after all appear in the green workroom to
take me in your arms and with the parting
117

kiss receive my soul.—Then my journal would

leave off where it began.—Yes, my child, let
this journal end here! It offers you my grief,
my exaltation, my struggles, my outlook upon
the world, and everywhere—my abiding love
for you! Accept it kindly and forgive me if
anywhere it opens a wound.
And so, farewell, my heaven, my salvation,
my blessed, pure, lovely woman! Farewell!
In the deepest sanctuary of my heart I bless
you!
118

THE MOAN OF A BREAKING HEART

Ill
WITH these wonderful introspective pas-
sages Wagner closed his first journal. The
letters from Mathilde to which he refers must
have been written to the faithful Brangane
(Frau Wille), and by her forwarded to him;
so, too, Mathilde's journal.
He began his second journal on October
18,1858, and the last entry is dated January
1, 1859. On January 19 he begins writing
to Mathilde direct, the ban on letters evi-
dently having been removed. His second
journal is in part even more rhapsodical,
more despairing, than the first. A highly
dramatic passage in it shows that at one time
suicide was in his thoughts. Besides great
depression of mind and soul, Wagner was far
from well physically, and there is a gap in
the journal of over a month (November 1 to
December 8) occasioned by severe illness.
Nevertheless there are, in spots, glimpses of
his old brave self afforded by references to
his work on " Tristan."
" I shall live forever in it. And with

It is easy to supply the blank; and the

passage, though brief, points eloquently to
the source of his inspiration.
rr
I T FILLS OUR SOULS FOREVER **
A year ago we passed a beautiful day at
the Willes'. . . . As we were returning from a
walk toward the height your husband offered
Frau Wille his arm. That left me free to
offer you mine. We spoke of Calderon.1—
What a good subterfuge he was!—Returned
to the house, I seated myself at the new
piano.—Even I was surprised at my beauti-
ful playing.—It was an exquisite, all-satis-
fying day. Have you celebrated it to-day?
—Ah, this period had to bloom for us at
least once; now 'tis past. But its flower has
not faded. It fills our souls forever with its
fragrance,
ff
MY LIFE DEPENDS UPON YOUM
Do you not realise, my child, that my life
depends upon you—upon you alone? That
l In Zurich "Wagner and Mathilde had read several
of the Spanish dramatist Calderon's plays together.

MOAN OF A BREAKING HEART
the mingled cheer and seriousness with which

the journal I sent you closed, merely mir-
rored the beautiful spirit that I have caught
from you? Oh, think me not so great that
by myself and of myself I could be what I
am and as I am. I feel that most deeply
now. Unspeakable sadness and grief cleave
me to my innermost.—I receive your missive,
your journal, read your answer!—Are you
really still in ignorance that I live only
through you? Will you not believe it, though
I have assured you of it so recently? To be
like you, to be worthy of you—that is the
goal of my endeavour! Do not scold me if I
tell you that I am wholly like you, have the
same feelings with you, share your moods,
your most exquisite grief, not only because
it is yours, but also because it has become
clear to me that it is mine as well!
" A L L IS ILLUSION, DELUSION!"
Do you still remember when I was in Paris,

how we wrote to each other, and after we had
enthusiastically communicated our noble res-
olutions to each other, broke out, as if by
common impulse, into a paroxysm of grief?
123

So it is, and so it will ever be!—All is illusion,

delusion! We were not created to rearrange
the world according to our liking. Oh, dear,
bright angel of truth! Blessings upon you
for your heavenly love! Oh, I understand it
all! What anxious days I have passed!
What ever-growing anguish! The world
became clogged, and I could breathe only
when I felt your breath upon me.
"POOR, SAD, CAST DOWN MAN THAT
Oh, sweet, sweet woman mine! To-day,

poor, sad, cast down man that I am, I have
no consolation to offer you! I have no balsam
to give you, nor—any healing for your sor-
row. How should I be able to heal your
sorrow? My tears flow freely in bitter
streams—will they make you whole?—I know
they are tears of love, such love as never was
loved before; into their stream is poured all
the sorrow of the world. Yet they give me
all the joy I would know this day; a deep and
inward certainty, an inalienable right that
cannot be torn from me. They are the tears
of my everlasting love for you. Could they
124,

make you whole?—Heavens! more than once

I was on the point of leaving here and going
to you. Did I desist out of consideration
for myself? No! Surely no! But out of
consideration—for your children!—There-
fore—once more—and always, hold fast!
fast! The time is not yet ripe. It seems—
it seems—to me—as if the time would come
when I can meet you—in a manner more dig-
nified, more consonant, more worthy of you;
and this I would so love to do!—Yet, how
weak is all endeavour!
No, no, sweet child! I know all, under-
stand all!—I see everything with a clear
vision, as clear as the sun! I am going
mad!—Let me stop here! Not to seek repose,
but to drown myself in the ecstasy of my
grief!—Oh, lovely one!—No! No! He will
not betray you.—Not—he!
"l SHALL DIE IN YOUR ARMS'"

Venice, November 1, 1858.
This is All Souls' Day!
I have awakened after a brief but profound
slumber, and after terrible suffering such as
I never have endured. I stood on the balcony
125

and gazed down into the black flood of the

canal. A storm was raging. A leap, a fall,
and none would have been the wiser. Yes, a
leap, and all my suffering would be at an
end. Already I had my fist doubled to draw
myself up to the rail. But could I—with the
vision of yourself—of your children before
me?
And now All Souls' Day has dawned!
All souls! Peace be with ye!
Now I know it is decreed that I shall die
in your arms! Now I am sure of it! Soon
I shall see you again, surely in the spring;
perhaps even in the middle of winter.
For, my child, the last thorn has been
drawn out of my soul! . . . I can
bear all now. Soon we shall meet again!
Lay but little stress upon my art! I have
realised that it offers neither consolation nor
compensation; but forms only the accompan-
iment to my deep harmony in you, and the
nourishment of my desire to die in your
arms.
When the Erard came it sufficed to caress
me with hope only because, after the storm,
your deep, unalterable love shone for me more
surely, more brightly than ever. With you
126

I can achieve everything;—without you,

nothing! Nothing! Do not allow yourself
to be deceived by the mingled mood of cheer-
fulness and sadness with which my last
journal closed. 5Twas but the reflection of
your own beautiful, grave exaltation.
Everything crumbles into ruin before my
very eyes, if ever I perceive the slightest
spiritual disagreement between us. Trust
me, only one! You hold my fate in your
hands, and only with you can I perfect
aught.
And so, after this terrible night, I be-
seech you: Have faith in me, unquestion-
ing, infinite faith! And this means only:
Be convinced that with you I can accomplish
everything, without you nothing!
"CONTINUE TO LOVE ME""
Oh, believe me, believe me, you are all that

is serious with me! During this past night,
when I drew back my hand from the balcony
rail, it was not my art that stayed me! In
that dread moment the real axis of my life
around which my decision to die revolved
back to renewed desire to live appeared

before me with almost visible certainty. It

was you! You! Like a smile the thought
came over me—would it not be more blessed
to die in her arms?
It is hard, so hard for us, dear child! But
for this very reason we are so rich that we
are able to discharge every debt of life and
yet reserve to ourselves its greatest treasure.
But, dearest, please—you will not remain
silent? And, if I cannot "make you all
whole," you will at least not disdain the
" balsam " I can offer?
We shall see each other soon!
Farewell!
AU Souls' Day!
Farewell!
And continue to love me!
cc
A STRANGER I SLUNK THROUGH THE
CROWD JJ
Venice, December 8, 1858.

To-day I was able for the first time to go
again into the open air, but I am not quite
well yet. This last illness, during which I
was quite helpless, because I was unable to
move, has nevertheless, through the expe-
128

riences that have come to me, cleared up many

things regarding myself. Karl Hitter left
nearly three weeks ago. Accordingly there
has been no one to speak to save the physi-
cian and the servants. Strange that I should
not have felt the slightest desire for other
company.
On the contrary, when a Russian prince
whom I could not well disappoint, and who
is, besides a most intelligent person, in a
musical way, too, came to call upon me, I
really was heartily glad when he left. I
always feel that it is a useless, inconsequen-
tial effort to converse with anyone. On the
other hand I enjoy having the servants about
me. They, with all their faults and virtues,
at least are naive. Then too, they have
tended me with more than care, with devo-
tion. I am grateful to them. Kurwenal
appeals to me more than Melot.
In addition to this there was a complete
cessation of communication from the outside
world. The postman hardly allowed himself
to be seen at all. To-day when I reached the
Piazza in my gondola the great and brilliant
wave of humanity swept to and fro. I have
chosen a time for eating when I am sure of
129

being quite alone in the restaurant. A

stranger, I slunk through the variegated
crowd, back to my gondola, and passed along
the silent canal to my solemn palace. The
lamp is lighted. Everything about me is so
silent, so grave. And inwardly I have the
firm and unmistakable feeling that this is my
life, from which I cannot withdraw without
pain and self-deception. I am happy in this
conviction. The servants often find me in a
cheerful mood and ready to joke with them.
" W H A T MUSIC T H A T IS GOING TO B E ! "
Since yesterday I have been working on

" Tristan " again. I still am on the second
act. But—what music that is going to be!
I could devote my whole life to working only
on this score. How profoundly beautiful it
is, and how pliantly the most sublime wonders
adapt themselves to one's inspiration. I have
accomplished nothing like it. My whole
being is dissolved in it. I shall not ask
to hear a note of it, if only I can finish
it. I shall live forever in it. And with
130

'— — ^ — — — — — — — — .
" * DREAMS ' HAUNTS IT "
Venice, December 2£, 1858.
An exquisite morning, my dear child!
Three days I had been at the passage,
" Whom you embraced, whom you have
smiled upon," etc. There was a long check
to my inspiration, and, in trying to compose
the passage, I could not recall just how I had
planned it. I was upset; I could not con-
tinue.—A little goblin knocked at my door
and appeared to me disguised as the lovely
Muse. In a moment the problem was solved.
I went to the piano and wrote out the passage
as rapidly as if I had it by heart. Whoever
listens to it critically will discover something
familiar in it. " Dreams " haunts it. But
you will forgive that, dearest!—No, do not
repent having loved me! It is heavenly!
"THE GRATEFUL DEW OF LOVE*'
Venice, January 1, 1859.

No, do not repent those caresses with which
you have adorned my barren life! Never
before had I known them, those beautiful
flowers blooming in the heart of purest love!
What as poet I had dreamed was made
131

reality through a miracle. Upon the com-

mon clay of my earthly existence there de-
scended gently and beneficently the grateful
dew of love. Never had I hoped for it, yet
now it seems as if it had fallen to my lot,
after all. I have been ennobled, admitted to
the highest order of knighthood. On your
heart, in your eyes, through your lips—have
I been exalted above this world. Every inch
of me is free and ennobled. With a sacred
dread of my own glory I tremble at the con-
sciousness of having been loved by you so
completely, with such rare delicacy, and yet
with such exquisite chastity!—Ah, I breathe
again the enchanted fragrance of those
flowers which you plucked for me from your
heart. They were not germs of life. Thus
bloom the wonder flowers of heavenly death,
of life in eternity. In olden times they scat-
tered them over the body of the hero before
it was consumed into divine ashes. Into this
grave of flame and fragrance she who loved
him threw herself that her ashes might mingle
with his. Thus they were one! One element!
Not two living beings; one divine element of
eternity! Nay, repent not these flames, they
burned so lustrously, so pure, so clear! No
132

dark glow, no dust of ashes, no fearsome

vapours ever sullied the bright, chaste flame,
that never has burned so pure, so glorified,
for anyone as for us, wherefore none other
may know it.—Those caresses—they are the
crown of my life, the blessed roses that
sprung into bloom out of the crown of
thorns, which alone once wreathed my brow.
Now I am proud and happy! No wish, no
desire! Joy, sublime consciousness, power
and capacity for everything, to meet every
storm of life! No! No! Regret them not!
Regret them not!
THE CORRESPONDENCE RESUMED

Otto Wesendonk, being a sensible man, evi-
dently concluded that Wagner and Mathilde
might as well write to each other direct as
to despatch letters and journals through the
medium of Frau Wille, and on January 19,
1859, we find the correspondence resumed.
In one of these letters from Venice (March
2) is a remarkable passage regarding
" Parsifal," in which Wagner mentions " a
strange creation, a wonderfully demoniacal
female (as Grail messenger)." This, of
133

course, is Kundry, an entirely original con-

ception with the composer. The " Parsifal "
drama was not written until 1878-79. Yet
twenty years before, Wagner, although in the
midst of " Tristan," was developing the sub-
ject in his mind—a sufficient answer to those
who have claimed that " Parsifal" was an
afterthought designed merely for the pur-
pose of giving Bayreuth a production some-
what similar to the " Passion Play" at
Oberammergau.
Among the letters is one addressed to the
Wesendonks' little girl, Myrrha. Purport-
ing to be a letter of condolence on the death
of her brother Guido, it advances a philo-
sophical theory of the survival of the dead in
the living—that her little brother Karl really
is Guido, " only with another face." Though
written to Myrrha, this letter doubltess was
intended for her mother's eyes too.
Interesting also is a passage in the first
letter in which Wagner states that while his
other works came to him wholly from within,
and without a suggestion of personal expe-
rience, " Tristan" is drawn from his own
life.—It is easy to guess who the Isolde was.
While Wagner was in Venice he received
134

the first printed copies of his " Tristan"

drama. One of these he promptly sent to
Mathilde. On the fly-leaf she wrote Isolde's
lines:—
Mir erkoren—
Mir verloren—
Heil und hehr
Kuhn und feig—
Todgeweihtes Haupt!
Todgeweihtes Herzl
(Won for me—

Lost to me—
Brave and bright
Coward knight—
Death-devoted head!
Death-devoted heart I)]
""AS I F BY MAGIC^
Venice, Janaury 19, 1859.

Thanks for the lovely fairy tale, my friend !2
It is easy to understand how everything that
comes from you carries with it a certain
symbolic meaning. Thus yesterday your
greeting arrived at just the right hour, the
right moment. I was seated at the piano;
the same gold pen was weaving the last mesh
2 " The Strange Bird," from " Fairy Tales and Fairy
Plays " written by Mathilde Wesendonk for her family
circle.
135

over the second act of " Tristan," and lin-

gering over the fleeting bliss of the first
meeting again of that loving couple.
My poetic creations always have been so
far in advance of my own experiences that I
may regard my moral development as almost
wholly due to them. " Flying Dutchman,"
" Tannhauser," " Lohengrin," " Nibelung,"
Wodan,—all these were in my head before
anything in my own life had led up to them.
But you can readily comprehend in what
wonderfully close relationship I stand to
" Tristan." I confess freely, if not to the
world, at least to a consecrated soul, that
never before has a theme been so fully devel-
oped from actual life. In it the proportion
between inspiration and experience is so finely
balanced that a commonplace effort to adjust
it would only mar it.
"A THOUSAND, THOUSAND GREETINGS!"
And now I will keep right on complaining.

—My dwelling is large and beautiful, but
frightfully cold. I have frozen before—
that I know—but only in Italy, never in the
villa Wesendonk, and least of all in the
136

MOAN OP A BREAKING HEART
" Retreat." Never in my life have I been

on a footing of such intimacy with the stove
as in lovely Venice.
A wonderful sadness and longing come
over me when, in very clear weather, I see
from the public gardens the Tyrolese Alps
in the farthest distance. At such times a
dream of my youth comes over me and draws
me toward the mountain summit where the
fairy tale has conjured the stately palace and
the lovely princess therein. 'Tis the rock on
which Siegfried found his sleeping Briinn-
hilde. The long, smooth plain that sur-
rounds me here, what is it but a symbol of
resignation.
Ah! you come to my aid so graciously;
and, when you do not, I aid myself through
you.
Would you like to know how I accomplish
this? I heave a deep sigh until I begin to
smile. Then a rare book—or to work. Then
all vanishes, for you are near me and I am
with you.—If you will opportunely send me
some book that you have read, I will accept
it with the deepest gratitude. I read, indeed,
very little. But, when I do, I read thor-
oughly, and you will hear from it every time.
137

There, where lies my crown of thorns, there

too my roses, never fading, give forth their
fragrance. The laurel has no charm for me,
—and if I am to crown myself before the
world let it be with the palm!-
Peace! Peace be with us!
A thousand, thousand greetings!
" I WOULD KNOW MY FATE"

Venice, February 22, 1859.
According to the law of the gloriously per-
fected Buddha the penitent confesses aloud
and in the presence of the whole congrega-
tion. You know how I become a Buddhist
in spite of myself. Unconsciously, too,
I always have believed in the Buddhistic
beggar maxim. A grand maxim it is too.
The devotee goes out into the cities and upon
the streets of men, and shows himself naked
and in penury, and by his very appearance
affords believers the opportunity of perform-
ing a noble and deserving office in minister-
ing to his needs. His acceptance of them is
a bestowal of visible grace wherein the givers
are blessed. He had no need of what they
gave, for he had voluntarily given up every-
138

thing only that he might refresh these souls

through the acceptance of their charities.
I would know my fate to the minutest
details. Not to circumvent it, but to stand
undeceived by it. For my future I have no
need. My greatest need—you well know—
I must put aside. How could I be flattered
into satisfaction with any other disposition
of fate ? My hopes centre only on others;
should such hopes prove incapable of fulfil-
ment I will have learned how to resign them
also. For in all finality each one's blessing
comes to him from his own inner self. Medi-
cine is humbug.
Does this sound serious and sad? And yet
I say it to console you. I know your need
of consolation, because you need to be reas-
sured regarding myself. And now we will
strive in the sweet exercise of mutually con-
soling each other.
"NEVER UNTIL TOO LATE DOES THE

WORLD BECOME INTELLIGENT"
Germany I renounce with a calm, cold heart,
for I know that I must. For the future I
have decided nothing,—save—that I must
complete " Tristan " !
139

Some day of course the world will wonder

that I, of all men, should have been forced to
convert my works into articles of commerce.
Never until too late does the world become
somewhat intelligent, and even then forgets
in its childish self-deception that it still is
the same senseless, heartless world. But so
it is, and we cannot change it. You have
passed the same comment on people in
general. In fact, I remain about the same
too.
I still have my little weaknesses, enjoy a
pleasant dwelling, am fond of carpets and
pretty furniture and, when at home and at
work, take pleasure in wearing silk and vel-
vet, and—for that reason have to write
letters!
If only " Tristan " will turn out well; and
he will, as never another!—Is my little hob-
goblin reassured by that and my friend con-
soled?
GOOD ANGEL BECKONS
Venice, March 2, 1859.

I am in good humour over my success with
the second act. Last night, Hitter and
140

Winterberger 3 persuaded me to play some of

the principal passages. Well, that was a
nice thing to do! All my other works, poor
things, were thrown aside for this one act!
Thus I rage against myself and ever am
murdering my own offspring, save the
last.
Good heavens! You know what I seek! It
is transparently clear to you when you hold
the crystal ball above me!
Friend, how hard it is for me, oh,—how
hard! But my good angel beckons me now
and then. She consoles me and gives me peace,
and always when I need her most. Therefore
I thank her and say to myself, " These things
had to happen in order—that this might
be!"
Only he who has borne the crown of thorns
appreciates the palm which lies so ten-
derly in the hand or hovers so lightly
above it, and spreads overhead like the most
buoyant of angel pinions gently fanning the
air and gratefully cooling it for us!
I had a visit from a Prin»ce Dolgouroki, an
amiable, thoroughly cultured and intelligent
person. I was glad when he came, and even
3 Alexander Winterberger3 a pupil of Liszt's,
141

gladder when he went. I am more contented

when I am not entertained or disturbed.
" ' PARZIVAL ' HAS OCCUPIED ME MUCH "

Then too I have dipped much into philos-
ophy, and have arrived at important results
which supplement and rectify my friend
Schopenhauer. But things like these I prefer
to evolve in my mind rather than write them
out. On the other hand poetical projects
have engaged my attention in the liveliest
manner. " Parzival " has occupied me much,
especially a strange creation, a wonderfully
demoniacal female (as Grail messenger) that
assumes shape ever more vividly and con-
vincingly in my mind. If ever I carry out
this poetic conception I surely shall have
accomplished something highly original.
Only I do not quite know how long I shall
have to live if I am to carry out all my plans.
If I took much pleasure in life I might assure
myself a long existence through these many
projects. But that does not necessarily fol-
low.—Humboldt tells us that Kant had
intended to develop a mass of ideas in detail,
but at his age was quite naturally prevented
from doing so by death.

I perceive in this a possible fatalistic

obstacle to the completion of " Tristan,"
which, however, does not move me to work
more rapidly on it. Quite the contrary. I
am composing it as leisurely as if I had
nothing else to do for the rest of my life. For
this reason it will turn out to be more beauti-
ful than anything I ever have done; the
shortest phrase signifies as much to me as a
whole act. I work it out so carefully. And
as I chance to be referring to " Tristan," let
me tell you that I take pleasure in making you
a gift of one of the first printed copies of the
poem which I myself only just have received.
" T H I T H E R WHERE THE LIGHT

GROWS D I M "
As I still am under the weather, without

being really ill, I decided the other day to
take a little outing in the country. My
intention was to go to Vicenza, but the train
went in another direction and so I arrived
at Treviso. After a wretched night I started
at sunrise for a good tramp of about fifteen
miles.
Passing through the gate I walked straight
143

toward the Alps, which in their beauty and

pride resembled a huge chain that would
bar my path. It gave me much to think
about. Tired out, I returned in the evening
to the city of the lagoons and asked myself
what was the chief impression this outing on
firm soil had made upon me. I was so de-
pressed that all I could remember was the
dust and the wretched, cruelly tormented
horses, which I saw again. Sadly I gazed
upon my silent canal. " Dust " and " poor*
tormented, miserable horses "—well, they are
not here?—but they exist.—With that I
extinguished my lamp, prayed my angel to
bless me,—with that the light within me went
out,—dust and torment vanished.
Next day to work again.
And then I had letters to write. But I
have told you about that. To-morrow I plan
more work. This .letter, however, had to be
written first. With it I glide into the be-
yond, thither where the light grows dim,
where dust and torment vanish.
To you, child, thanks,—for being my
guide. Who would grudge it me?
A thousand greetings! A thousand rarely
beautiful greetings!
144

MYRRHA WESENDOXK
(Afterwards Von Bissing)

TO MYRRHA
Venice, March 10, 1859.

That really was a wonderfully well written
letter I have received from you! Whoever
doubts this should take a look at it himself!
My dear child, I myself cannot write so beau-
tifully; I am much too old for anything of
the kind! Therefore, if there is anything in
my reply which you are unable to decipher,
ask your mother, who has been so successful
in teaching you how to write, to help you
read it. No doubt there are many things
which you can read without mother's help.
That I do not doubt for a moment. But a
letter of mine is something quite different
and far more difficult, for the very reason
that I never had a Myrrha to instruct in
writing. That is the reason I have formed a
habit of writing quite in my own way and
which will not be easy for you to make out.
But let mother help you.
I was glad to hear from you that Karl is
growing so finely. Just because he doesn't
happen to have the same features as dear
Guido, don't let that deter you from believ-
ing that he really is Guido, after all. Believe
145

me, he is quite the same Guido over again—

only with a different face. Because he hap-
pens to have different features he may grow
up to regard the world from a different point
of view than Guido's would have been. But
that will be the only difference, and, after
all, it is not as important as people seem to
think, even if it leads to a little confusion
because people see each other with different
faces, and therefore believe themselves differ-
ent and each the right one. That, however,
won't last, and, when it comes to the main
point, weeping or laughing, any of us can
weep or laugh as well with his face as
another's, and if we die, as may happen
too, we may all be glad, if we have as hand-
some a face as your father writes me dear
Guido had. Therefore, be assured that Karl
is Guido. The latter merely wanted to bring
his features into that state of blissful repose
which most people are able to acquire only
after much weeping and laughing and other
facial distortions. In the end we all acquire
it, especially if we have been thoroughly kind
and cheerful. Karl wants to have his due
share of weeping and laughing, he has under-
taken that for Guido, and for that reason he
146

has different features. I wish for him with

all my heart that he will use them to laugh
with, for the tears will come of themselves
anyhow, and the ability to laugh heartily will
help over many; obstacles. Take my word
for that!
147


IV
WAGNER had intended to remain in Venice

until the summer. Instead, however, he left
there in March and went to Lucerne. Several
of his biographers have stated that the
activity of the Saxon authorities in en-
deavouring to secure his extradition led him
to seek refuge once more in Switzerland. In
point of fact, however, Archduke Maximilian
pigeon-holed the Saxon papers.
It appears rather that Wagner, when Guido
died, wrote a touching letter of sympathy to
Otto, which caused the latter to relent toward
the composer and to consent to his taking up
his residence, if not in Zurich, at least in some
spot reasonably convenient to that place.
Moreover, the thought that, when Wagner
had asked, " Whither I go, wilt thou, Isolde,
follow?" Isolde had elected to remain be-
hind must have proved somewhat mollifying
to King Mark.
On his way to Lucerne Wagner stopped over
151

at Milan, from where he sent Mathilde a

highly poetic letter. Once in Lucerne, he
was not long in seeing the Wesendonks again.
His impressions of his first meeting with Ma-
thilde after such a long lapse of time he
noted in his journal, where it forms the last
entry. The letters which followed are
noticeably less pessimistic in tone than those
from Venice. Though he did not set foot in
the " Retreat," and was not restored to the
old-time intimacy and familiarity with the
family, he visited the villa on the Green Hill,
and in every way his position was less deplora-
ble than it had been in Italy.
" A SCENE WITNESSED I N YOUR GARDEN "
Milan, March 25, 1859.

A few nights before I left I had a wonder-
fully sweet dream, so beautiful that I must
tell you about it, although it really was too
beautiful for description. So much of it as
I may venture to describe was about as
follows: A scene I witnessed in your gar-
den (which, however, did not seem quite
the same). Two doves flew over the moun-
tain. I had despatched them to announce my
152

arrival. There were two doves; why two?

That I cannot explain. The two flew close
together, as mates. As soon as you saw them
you rose in the air to meet them. A huge,
bushy laurel wreath swung in your hand, and
with it you caught the pair of doves and drew
them, fluttering, after you, playfully waving
the wreath with the captives hither and
thither. Suddenly, like the sun breaking
through the clouds after a thunderstorm,
there fell upon you such a blinding light that
I was awakened by it.—Now you may say
what you will, that was what I dreamed, ex-
cept that it was infinitely more beautiful and
enchanting than I can describe it. My poor
brain surely could not have invented anything
like it!
ce
SOMETHING TREMBLED DEEP
WITHIN "
Lucerne, April 4, 1859.

And so we have dreamed the dream of meet-
ing again, and have met. After all, was it
not but a dream? Wherein lay the difference
between the hours I have passed in your
house and that other dream which vouchsafed
153

me a gracious vision of my return? I see it

almost more distinctly than the serious, sad,
longing vision that persistently declines a
niche in my memory. I have a feeling as if
I really had not seen you quite distinctly. Be-
tween us hung a heavy mist which the sound
of our voices barely penetrated. I feel as if
you, too, had not seen me, as if, instead of
myself, a spirit had entered your house. Did
you recognise me?—Heavens! I recognise it.
"Tis the road to salvation! Life, reality, ever
more dreamlike; the feelings dulled; the eye
—wide open—no longer sees; the ear gladly
misses the sound of the present. Where we
meet we do not see each other; only where we
are not our glances meet. Thus the present
no longer exists for us, and our future is
nought.—Is my work really worth so much
that I should strive to keep alive for
it?—But you?—Your children?—Are we
alive!
Then as I perceived in your face the traces
of deep suffering, as I pressed your emaciated
hand to my lips—something trembled deep
within me and a voice summoned me to a
noble duty. The wondrous power of our love
has helped us thus far; has strengthened me
154

and made it possible for me to see you again;

has taught me this dreamlike unreality of the
present, in order that I might be near you
and yet unmoved; has banished ill-will and
bitterness, so that I could kiss the threshold
over which I am permitted to pass into your
presence. And I trust this power. It will
teach me to see you even through the veil
which—we penitents—have thrown over our-
selves, and to show myself to you in a clear,
true light!
Heavenly saint, rely on me!
I shall compass it!
cc
AFRAID TRISTAN" WILL DRIVE
PEOPLE CRAZY
Lucerne [undated, probably April 10-15,

1859.]
Child! This " T r i s t a n " is getting to be
something terrible!
This last act!
I am afraid the opera will be suppressed—
provided the whole thing is not turned into
a parody by bad performances; only medi-
ocre performances can save me! Perfect ones
would drive people crazy. I cannot imagine
155

any other result. Things have come to such

a pass as this with me! Alas!
I have been in full swing!
Adieu!
Lucerne, April 15, 1869.
If Wesendonk should not have returned, let
me know at once by telegraph. If I do not
hear from you during the morning, and this
bad weather continues, I will telegraph him
and ask him, if it is not too much trouble,
to have the coupe meet me at the railroad
station. Then we will see how we can manage
to get rid of this bad weather together on
Sunday. Is that agreeable?
CONCERNING BEDSPREADS
Lucerne9 April 26, 1859.
Now there is another thing, but for heaven's
sake don't let Wesendonk know about it.—I
am accustomed always to take my own bed-
spreads and mattresses along with me—
pampered creature that I am!—The silk
covers have become so terribly dirty that I
am ashamed to have the chambermaid see
them. Could you opportunely find some
material for me in Zurich? They were green,
156

• • •
but, if necessary, could change to red, like

the autumnal foliage.
ZWIEBACK AND A DRESSING GOWN
Lucerne, May 9, 1859.

With the arrival of the zwieback I at once
became aware of what had been the matter
with me. The local zwieback is too sour to
inspire anything reasonable. But the sweet
zwieback, to which I am accustomed from
formerly, dipped in milk, at once set every-
thing going the right way. And so I threw
elaboration aside, and went on with compo-
sition, beginning with the reference to the
" distant comforter." Now I am happy. The
transition has succeeded beyond all expecta-
tion with a wonderful blending of two themes.
Heavens, how much one can accomplish with
the right kind of zwieback! Zwieback! Zwie-
back! thou art the medicine for distressed
composers,—but it must be of the right kind!
Now I have an ample supply of it; as soon
as you have reason to think that it must be
giving out, be sure to replenish it. I note
that it is an important remedy for composers
in the dumps.
157,

Nothing has occurred. While you have

allowed yourself to be interned " vers les
Wille's," I have been amusing myself from
my balcony with the people of Lucerne, who,
with genuine fanaticism, make the most of
the advantage they have over you, in being
able every day to admire my new dressing
gown. It must be simply stunning.
Lucerne, June 3, 1859.

Friend! I do not think that I can possibly
find it agreeable to meet you next Sunday at
the Willes', therefore I enclose a few lines
excusing myself to Madame Wille and dated
from Kissingen. I suffer so at times from
the cowardice of my friends, that I almost
think it is better not to rely on friends at
all—at least not until the ability to deceive
one's self again manifests itself and makes
it possible to believe that the whole world
seems to contain nothing but dear friends.
That feeling is sure to return! Until then,
my regards to the Wille household.
Loving thanks for the lovelier letter! More
about it verbally.
Heartfelt greetings to all at home.
158

DEVIL OF A FELLOW^

Child! Child! Dear child! Here is a
terrible story. The master has done well
again!
I have just finished playing over to myself
the completed first half of my act, and I had
to say to myself what the Almighty said, as
he looked about Him and remarked that all
was good!
I had no one to praise me, just as was the
case with Him—about six thousand years ago
—and so I said to myself among other things,
" Richard, you are the devil of a fellow!"
HUMOURS OF EQUITATION

A few hasty lines before dinner and after
work. My best thanks for the ornament you
have mended. I have just gotten off the first
manuscript instalment of the third act to
Leipzig.
Something old—it is raining.
Something new—since three days ago I have
been riding.
159

Riding! I go out every morning. My

doctor insisted on it. I am expecting fine
results from it.
But do not say anything about it to Wesen-
donk, otherwise he will seal up all his horses
should I go to Zurich.
AS TO SHAKESPEARE

I have grown passionately fond of horse-
back riding . . . and could keep on
writing about it at much greater length. But
I must guard myself against becoming too
passionately attached to horses, otherwise I
shall again have to learn to give up some-
thing I have set my heart on.
And I have given up so many things in the
course of my life—and, after all, the Wan-
dering Jew is not allowed a horse.
I had to laugh over a line from Shakespeare,
which brought me again to one of my favour-
ite themes, intercourse with great minds,
which, after all, is the best thing to lift us
above the troubles of the world. This won-
derfully witty smile of Shakespeare's ! This
divine contempt for everything worldly—
160

really it is the greatest height to which man

can swing himself up from misery. Genius
cannot accomplish anything greater. Only
a saint could! And he no longer would have
any use for wit.
A CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION

This morning the Almighty was bustling
about the streets here. It was Corpus Christi,
and the whole town, led by the priests, who
had put on gold dressing gowns, held
procession past the empty houses. Neverthe-
less the passage of the Capuchin monks
affected me deeply—in the midst of this un-
speakably distasteful, tinselled religious com-
edy, a touch of melancholy. It was fortu-
nate that I did not watch them from too near
by, although I have observed several simple,
honest physiognomies among the local Capu-
chin monks. Futhermore, I am always deeply
impressed by the crucifix. Yesterday even-
ing when these sly fellows had concluded from
the direction of the wind that we would have
fine weather to-day, they gathered the chil-
dren into the churches, to pray for it, so that,
161

after all, this wonderful, cloudless morning

was only part of the comedy. Nevertheless
I enjoyed it, and well knew that the weather
really was made for me;—also who had
brought it about. My best thanks!
<C
FRAGRANCE OF ROSES, AND FAREWELL "
Lucerne, July 1, 1859.

I once told you something about the East
Indian women who threw themselves into the
fragrant sea of flames. Extraordinary, how
odours can recall the past. A short time ago,
while I was out walking, I suddenly per-
ceived a strong fragrance of roses. There
was a little garden beside the road and the
roses there were in full bloom. They recalled
to me the last days in the " Retreat." Never
have I loved roses as much as I did then.
Every morning I plucked one and placed it
in a glass on my work table. I knew that I
was taking leave of the garden. This fra-
grance of roses to-day wove itself into this
memory; sultriness, the summer sun, fra-
grance of roses and—farewell. Such was the
mood in which I once sketched out the music
of the second act.
162

IS SHE
Lucerne, July 9, 1859.

I know nothing at all about what is going
on in the world! Nobody takes the slightest
interest in me, and I am beginning to
find the situation rather agreeable. Heavens,
how many things one can dispense with!
The only thing I miss is your compan-
ionship, my child, for I know of no one
to whom I would so love to communicate my
ideas. With men that isn't possible, for even
if they are friends they always are on their
guard lest they should lose their identity, and
are always concerned to maintain their per-
sonal opinion, therefore allow themselves to
be influenced as little as possible. That is
quite natural—man lives for himself. But
when I stop to consider how much that
is good you have lured out of me, I can
only rejoice that, although you never went to
work with any set purpose, you always suc-
ceeded in drawing from me what was best.
How I did enjoy myself when a short time
ago I introduced you to Sebastian Bach!
Never before had I myself experienced so
163

much exaltation from him, and never felt my-

self so close to him. But I never think of
anything like this when I am alone. When
Liszt and myself made music it was something
quite different. That simply was music;
and technique and art in general played
their great roles. . . .
It is a fine thing that my bodily needs seem
to grow less and less. I am living almost
entirely on air, and my heart bleeds every time
I am obliged to pay my landlord for board,
as if I were maintaining an English appetite.
I also am able to derive pleasure from what
is really cheerful. Just think of it, lately
when I was working out the joyous shepherd
melody which is heard when Isolde's ship
heaves in sight, I gave the air a sudden turn
which was more jubilant, almost heroically
jubilant, and yet quite in folk tone. I was
on the point of completely changing every-
thing when I suddenly became aware that the
melody did not belong at all to Tristan's
shepherd, but to none other than Siegfried.
At once I looked up the last lines of the
Siegfried-Briinnhilde scene and recognised
that my melody went with the words:
164

"Mine is she ever,

Forever mine
Own and owner,
My all in all," etc.
It will turn out incredibly bold and jubilant.

And so I found myself suddenly in the midst
of " Siegfried." Ought I not to gain new
confidence in life—in my capacity for en-
durance?
J3
SOLFERINO AND " TRISTAN
Lucerne, July —, 1859.

Things cannot have gone worse at Solferino
than with my work. While there the blood-
shed has ceased, I continue the terrible havoc.
To-day I killed off Melot and Kurwenal. Come
quickly if you want to look over the battle-
field before they are all buried. Thousand
greetings!
Lucerne, July 24, 1859. Evening.

I have read the beautiful fairy tale to my
Erard, which shows through its doubly beauti-
ful tones that it comprehends everything. On
the same day you must have received my
sketches. Fair exchange! I am so passion-
165

ately taken up with my work that I regard

it as a moral victory over myself when I
break away from it and give up a page for
a day. What will be my feelings when it is
all finished! I still have about thirty-five
pages of the score to compose. I think this
will occupy me about twelve days. Then what
will happen to me? I think that at first I
will feel somewhat exhausted. Even to-day
I am a little dizzy. And how I do depend
upon the weather! If the air is clear and
bracing I am amenable to everything, espec-
ially if one is nice to me; if, on the other hand,
the atmosphere is oppressive I can bid it de-
fiance, but it is difficult for me then to achieve
anything really beautiful.
" I AM THE MADDEST CREATURE

IMAGINABLE ""
Lucerne, August £4, 1859.
But, child, what are you thinking of to re-
gard me as a sage, or even to wish I were one?
Why, I am the maddest creature imaginable.
From the standpoint of a sage I must appear
like a criminal, and for the very reason that
I know so much and on such a variety of sub-
166

jects, and especially because I am aware what

a desirable and admirable thing wisdom is.
But that puts me in just the right humour to
lift myself over abysses which a sage would
not even notice. For that very reason I am
a poet and—what is far worse—a musician.
Now think how my music, with its subtle,
mysteriously flowing rills, penetrates the finest
pores of sensitiveness to the very marrow of
life, in order that there it may overpower
whatever there is of wisdom and carefully
wrought out endurance, sweep aside every-
thing that belongs to the illusion of personal
self, evoking only the wonderfully deep sighs
and confessions of impotence:—how can I be
a sage, who feel myself wholly at home only
amid such freaks of madness?
167

VICISSITUDES I N PARIS

T H E proximity of Lucerne to Zurich and the
Green Hill may have been agreeable to Wag-
ner; on the other hand it is conceivable that
it may have been simply aggravating—" so
near and yet so far." Moreover, there was
no opportunity of producing his works in
Lucerne. Whatever indifference Wagner
may have assumed at times on this point, the
genius who creates for the stage needs the
stimulus of occasionally seeing and hearing
his own productions. The composer of
" Tristan " had nothing so much at heart as
to see that work produced,—he would offer his
life as a sacrifice, he wrote Mathilde,—and
in the autumn of 1859 he went to Paris,
secretly hoping that something might be done
there toward placing his music drama oh the
stage. He remained in Paris nearly two
years, and, although he did not succeed in
producing " Tristan," events so shaped them-
selves that he became the musical lion of the
French capital.
171

Money for the trip and for at least part of

the sojourn came from Wesendonk, who, on
August 24, offered to make Wagner a loan.
The composer at first declined it, because he
was in negotiations with Breitkopf and
Hartel for the sale of the " Nibelung " rights.
Four days later he learned that the matter
had fallen through, whereupon he applied to
Wesendonk for an advance of the amount he
had expected from the publishers, making
over to him as security the publishing rights
and handing him the completed " Rheingold "
and " Walkiire " scores. Otto's liberality did
not stop here. During the second year of his
stay in Paris the composer was taken seriously
ill and threatened with brain fever. His wife
rejoined him temporarily and nursed him.
Afterwards when he desired to send her to
Soden for the cure, Mathilde's husband
promptly supplied him with the means. While
on this subject, it might be well to add here
that Wesendonk again helped him out with a
loan in 1862, when the Schotts of Mayence,
who were publishing his " Meistersinger," re-
fused him further advances; and that, in
1870, when Wagner asked him to present the
manuscript score of " Die Walkiire," written
172

V I C I S S I T U D E S IN PARIS
with the American gold pen, to Louis II. of

Bavaria, Otto did so and received from the
king an autograph letter of thanks.
When Wagner went to Paris there was
already in that city a small band of enthu-
siasts with whom the study of his scores was
a passion, in spite of the fact that there prac-
tically were no public performances of his
music. The composer appears to have known
nothing of these admirers. He was greatly
surprised when, on thanking a customs official,
who had been untiring in his efforts to aid
him in passing the furniture he had brought
with him, this official replied that he was only
too glad to have been of service to so great a
musical genius.
The young man turned out to be Edmond
Roche, the poet, who became the translator
of " Tannhauser," and who died of a broken
heart soon after the failure of that work at
the Opera. In a preface to Roche's collected
poems written by Sardou, the latter relates
the customs house anecdote, the truth of which
now is borne out by Wagner's own reference
to it in one of his Paris letters to Mathilde.
These letters contain interesting character
sketches of the admiring circle which Wagner
173

drew around him, or rather which insisted on

being drawn around him. They touch upon
Berlioz, who was " devoured by envy";
Gounod, " agreeable, but hardly of very great
talent," a sufficiently amusing qualification,
considering his subsequent fame as the com-
poser of " Faust " and " Romeo and Juliet " ;
Gustave Dore and many others. Mention
also is made of Rossini, " the old epicure,"
who was reported to have served one of Wag-
ner's admirers with fish without sauce as
symbolising harmony without melody, but
who publicly denied any enmity toward
Wagner.
In order to attract attention, Wagner (as-
sisted by Biilow) gave three concerts at the
Theatre Ventadour, January 25, 1859, and
February 1 and 8,1860. To make up for the
deficit which resulted, he repeated them in
Brussels, with the mortification of adding to
the deficit, which, however, was met by his
friend, Countess Kalergis, a niece of the
Russian statesman, Nesselrode. The concerts
were, however, much talked about, and finally
through the efforts of Princess Pauline Met-
ternich, wife of the Austrian Ambassador,
and an intimate friend of Empress Eugenie,
174

Napoleon ordered that " Tannhauser" be

produced regardless of expense and under
Wagner's supervision at the Opera. As is
well known, the production, which was made
on March 13, 1861, was a failure, owing to
the opposition of the members of the Jockey
Club, who were enraged because Wagner de-
clined to introduce a ballet into the second
act. After two more performances the com-
poser himself withdrew the work, in spite of
the fact that the receipts promised an un-
usually brilliant financial success. Wagner
deemed it an insult to art to allow perform-
ances to proceed amid such a hubbub that it
was almost impossible to hear what was going
on on the stage.
His letters to Mathilde give what is un-
questionably the most vivid picture of this
period of his life—the whirl of activity into
which he threw himself in preparing for the
concerts and for the opera, the reaction and
the depression of spirits which resulted from
failure; his illness, his financial straits and
the manner in which his money troubles
hampered his freedom to think of work. Then
there is a subtle dissertation on French musi-
cal taste, an outline of much of the first act
175

of " Parsifal" (remember this was years be-

fore the subject was worked out by him), and
an explanation of the reasons which governed
him in rewriting the Venusberg scene in
" Tannhauser." These reasons are set forth
at length, but I shall do no more than refer
to them in this place, since the Paris version
long has been accepted here as final.
During this Paris sojourn Wagner made
several trips. One of these was to Baden
Baden to present his thanks to the Princess
of Prussia, who had obtained permission for
him to re-enter Germany, except Saxony,
which later also raised the ban; another to
Vienna, where for the first time he heard a
performance of his " Lohengrin "—thirteen
years after he had composed it! He returned
from Vienna to Paris to settle up some affairs
there, and then again went to the Austrian
capital, where hopes of producing " Tristan "
had been held out to him. From Vienna he
took a trip to Venice, where the Wesendonks
chanced to be, and the meeting awakened
many sad memories. When, after his return
to Vienna, he found, while looking over one
of his portfolios, the pencil sketch of
" Dreams," from which he had developed
176

the great love duet in " Tristan," he wrote to

Mathilde:
" Heaven knows this song pleases me more
than the proud scene itself! It is more beau-
tiful than anything else I have created! "
Again, writing from Paris, December 21,
1861, he exclaims, " That I should have com-
posed * Tristan' I owe to you,"—which is,
perhaps, the most significant sentence in the
whole correspondence. In the same letter is
a reference to " Die Meistersinger," show-
ing that that work was beginning to take
shape in his mind. Though the fact is not
stated in the correspondence, it seems that
during his visit to the Wesendonks in Venice,
when he was downcast over the poor outlook
for producing " Tristan," Mathilde reminded
him of the " Meistersinger " sketch which he
had presented to her in Zurich. He at once
asked her to send it to him. Curiously
enough, when he received it he wrote her
that it contained little that was of value to
him. But on comparing the sketch (which
has been published in a German musical
periodical) with the completed drama, it will
be found to contain the germs of some of the
finest scenes.
177

TRANSLATING " TANNHATJSER JJ
Paris, September 23, 1859.

Friend! Only these last years of my life
have ripened me Into real manhood. I now
feel myself in full harmony with my own
self, and whenever truth is at stake I am sure
of myself and at one with my own will. As
regards life in general I allow myself to be
guided by my instinct. Fate has designed
for me something that is higher than the
worth of my own personality. The con-
sciousness of this has become so much a part
of myself that I rarely question, and then
only with a smile, whether I shall do a certain
thing or not. The wonderful genius which
for the rest of this life will serve me, looks
after that, and that genius desires that I
shall accomplish whatever I can. Therefore
everything within me is perfect peace.
The ripples on the surface do not stir my
depths. I am—what I may be! Thank you,
friend.
Now I sit every morning with my young
poet and go over " Tannhauser " with him
line for line, word for word, syllable for syl-
lable; often strive with him by the hour to
178

hit on the best word; sing a passage for him

and thus give him insight into a world which
up to now has been entirely hidden from his
view.
I take pleasure in his zeal, his grow-
ing enthusiasm, his frank confession of his
former blindness—and—we shall see! At
least, I know that I am caring for the future
of my child as best I can!
THERE CAN SIEGFRIED AWAKEN

BRUNNHILDE "
Paris, September £4, 1859.

As regards my material circumstances,
things are turning out quite tolerably. In
that respect I am advancing, and lately it
seems as if I were advancing quite rapidly
and as though it depended entirely upon
myself how soon I can make my fortune in
Paris—at least since my conversation yester-
day with the Director of the Theatre Lyrique
(really an agreeable and very decent fellow).
Now may everything come to my aid so
that all may go well this winter in order
that in the spring I may be able to return
to my beloved Switzerland again. For only
179

there can Siegfried awaken Briinnhilde! That

hardly could happen in Paris.
SURPRISING ADVENTURE**
Paris, October 10, 1859.

To-day I had a surprising adventure. I
inquired in the customs house after my things
that had arrived from Lucerne. The entries
were in the books, but not my name. I showed
my passport and gave my name, whereupon
one of the officials arose and said: " Je con-
nais bien M. Richard Wagner, puisque j'ai
son medallion suspendu sur mon piano et je
suis son plus ardent admirateur." " Quoi? "
" Ne soyez pas surprise de recontrer a la
douane de Paris un homme capable de gouter
les incomparables beautes de vos partitions,
que j'ai etudiees toutes." I was like one in
a dream. An enthusiast in the customs house,
and at the moment when I had expected to
meet with so much difficulty in getting my
furniture!
The good fellow jumped up, ran about, and
helped me. He insisted that he would have
to visit me in order to pay his respects to me.
He has a wife who plays the piano very
180

well. He aspires to be literary and helps

out his income through his official position.
He told me about quite a wide circle here
which had been formed through the growing
acquaintance with my works.
People here play portions of " Tannhauser "
and " Lohengrin " for me, although unable
to understand a word of the text. That they
do not understand German does not appear
to bother them in the least. Moreover, the
Director of the Theatre Lyrique announced
that he was coming for a repetition of
" Tannhauser " by myself. They all met
and I was obliged to give them a careful
explanation of the text in French. (You can
imagine the effort!) Then to sing and play!
But it seemed to open their eyes and to make
a remarkable impression. Never have I had
such an experience as I am having with these
Frenchmen.
A MEETING WITH BERLIOZ

Paris, October 21, 1859.
DEAR CHILD: Since last All Souls' night
the master has again looked upon death, but
this time as a friendly comforter.
Not long ago I looked up Berlioz. I found
181

him just as was coming home, and in a

wretched state of health. He had been tak-
ing electrical treatment as a last resort for
his frightful nervous condition. He described
his sufferings to me, which, beginning on his
awakening, ever become worse. I recognised
my own condition, and the causes which
develop a similar condition in a most exag-
gerated manner, among which I count the
nervous exertions connected with conducting,
and other emotional experiences, which are
wholly unknown to ordinary people. I felt
that my condition would become even worse
than Berlioz's if it were not that I expose
myself to such exertions only very rarely, for
I feel that now their effect upon me would
be even more ruinous. With Berlioz, his
digestion is already partially affected and—
trivial as it may sound—Schopenhauer is
right, after all, when he demands among other
necessary physiological needs of genius a
good digestion. Through my own extraordi-
nary abstemiousness I at least can claim this
serviceable requisite.
But I saw in Berlioz's suffering what prob-
ably was destined for me, and I left the poor
fellow with a feeling of dread.
182

" Y O U WILI, LIVE TO FULFIL YOUR

MISSION!"
Paris, November 11, 1859.
I too, am slowly convalescing and—I will
confess it now—from a severe illness. Ten
years ago—and in Paris—I had a bad attack
of rheumatism, and the doctor insistently
advised me to make every effort to prevent
the attacks from reaching the heart. And
now all the sorrows of my life seem to ac-
cumulate and threaten to culminate in my
heart.
This time I thought that I really would suc-
cumb, but once more all this is to be driven
out and I will endeavour through some nobly
diverting activity to relieve the pressure at
the heart. Help me in this, will you not, my
friends ?
" T R I S T A N " PROOFS
The first good news came through myself.
The proofs of the third act of " Tristan "
arrived unexpectedly. You can feel with me
how greatly a look into this, my most lately
completed work, revived, strengthened,
thrilled and inspired me. Such joy hardly
183

could come over a father even at the sight of

his child. Through a flood of tears—why
deny the weakness?-—a voice called to me:
" No, the end is not yet. You will live to
fulfil your mission! He who has created
such a work is still full to overflowing!
And so be it!
Then I had a sad task of love to perform.
I suddenly received news of the fatal illness
of my dear, fatherly Fischer1 of Dresden.
You will remember my telling you often of
his wonderful faithfulness and devotion. An
affection of the heart threatened him with
death. When my wife entered his room he
broke out, amid terrible sufferings: " Oh,
Richard! Richard has forgotten me and
thrown me aside." I had expected him last
summer in Lucerne, but had not written to
him again.
As soon as I heard of his condition I
wrote to him, and now I receive the news
of his death. My letter did not reach him in
time for him to read it. These last days I
have been writing an envoi to the memory of
this dear friend.
1 Wilhelm Fischer, chorus master at the Dresden
Opera. One of Wagner's earliest adherents.
184

"YOU WOULD THINK I STILL WAS

IN THE * RETREAT ' "
At last I have my little lodging in order.
If you were to enter you would think that I
still was in the " Retreat." The same fur-
niture, the accustomed writing table, the same
green portieres, engravings, everything—as
you remember it. But the rooms are smaller
and I have to divide them up. My miniature
salon contains the Erard, the green sofa, with
the two fauteuils which formerly were in the
tea-room; hanging from the wall the Kaul-
bach, the Cornelius and the two Murillos;
besides these a little cabinet with bookcase,
work table and the well-known causeuse (of
Lucerne memory). My bedroom I have had
done in pale violet paper with a few green
stripes to set it off. The Madonna della
Sedia forms the only decoration. A very
small room next to it contains the bath. This
is the last time I shall furnish a place for
myself.
As you know, I can hold to what I seriously
decide upon. Well—never, never again will
I settle anywhere. Heaven knows what this
last attempt at settling down will end in. But
185

. • •
I know it will come to an end some time before

I die, and I know further that never again
will I arrange a nest for myself, but simply
await without any earthly possessions the
time when someone shall close my eyes.
AN OPINION OF GOUNOD
A few days ago I was invited to a musical

soiree, where sonatas, trios, etc., from
Beethoven's last period were played. I was
greatly provoked at the conception and inter-
pretation of these, and am not to be caught
again soon. Still, I had a few experiences. I
sat next to Berlioz, who introduced me after
a while to his neighbour, the composer,
Gounod, an artist of agreeable appearance
and honest endeavour, but hardly of very
great talent. As soon as it became known
that I was present there was pressure from all
sides upon Berlioz to be introduced to me.
Curiously enough, they were all enthusiasts
about me, although they had studied my
scores without understanding German. I am
quite confused by all this. I am threatened
with several visits. I shall have to be on
my guard.
186

"ENTIRELY BETWEEN OURSELVES""

Nothing remains for me now but to make a
final energetic effort and brush aside what
has been an eternal obstacle in my path.
However desolate and mismanaged my affairs
may have been, I realise that much might
become bearable and even acceptable if I
could provide myself with the necessary
material means so that at all times I could
regulate my mode of life, my purposes, what-
ever I wish to undertake or to omit, accord-
ing to my artistic requirements and judg-
ment, without being eternally hampered by
the lack of the one thing which in these days
gives freedom and the possession of which
makes it unnecessary for one to hesitate what
to attempt or what to leave untouched. Lately
I have realised this more strongly than ever
—and yet I really always have felt it—that
I can remain contemptuously indifferent to
every failure, disappointment and lack of
prospects, aye, to everything, everything of
that kind; but that this plague to which I
have referred revolts me and well-nigh drives
me distracted.
187

To despise everything, to let nothing pol-

lute the pure, inner source of my inspira-
ation, to be willing to dispense with rec-
ognition, even the possibility of having
my works produced under my own direction,
and then with gnashing teeth to strike my
feet and wound them against this club which
fate throws across my path in order to trip
me up along the quiet, solitary way I am
pursuing, that I cannot alter. I am and
shall continue to be in a state of revolt
against it, and, if I am to hold out at all,—
being as I am and unable to change myself,—
I must protest violently against such condi-
tions, and stake everything on kicking this
club out of my way once and for all. Fortu-
nately I am in the humour just now to
persuade myself that for a while at least it
will be consonant with my disposition to
devote myself to my material affairs. Doubt-
less you are not deceived by this; and if you
opine that I would far prefer to seek the
inward repose I long for in agreeable retire-
ment among those in whom I can confide, with
you, f. i., and devote myself to the creation of
new works—remaining indifferent to their
fate—let me tell you that you are quite right.
188

(Which of course you understand, is entirely

between ourselves!)
"COMPLETELY ESTRANGED FROM THE

WORLD "
Paris, January 28, I860.
No experience that I have had so far can
be compared with what I observed and dis-
covered at the first orchestral rehearsal for
my concert, because it will have a determin-
ing influence upon my course for the rest of
my life, and I shall be tyrannically governed
by the consequences. I had my prelude to
" Tristan " played for the first time; and—I
realised, as if scales suddenly had fallen from
my eyes, how completely I have become
estranged from the world during the last
eight years. This little prelude seemed so
incomprehensibly new to the players that I
was obliged to go over it note for note with
my people as if I were guiding them to the
discovery of precious stones in the shaft of
a mine.
Biilow, who was present, confided to me that
the performances of this piece which had
been attempted in Germany had been accepted
by the public simply on trust; but in itself
189

it had remained wholly incomprehensible. I

succeeded, however, in making the prelude
understood both by the orchestra and the
public—indeed, I am sure that it produced
a profound impression. But do not question
me how I brought it about. Enough that I
now fully realise how impossible it is for me
to think of creating further works until I
have filled up the terrible chasm which yawns
behind me. I must first produce my works
under my own direction. And you know what
that involves?
Child, that means that I must throw myself
into a whirl of suffering and sacrifice in
which the chances are that I will go under.
Everything, yes, everything can be made
possible, but only by having plenty of time
and leisure for everything; by going step by
step with singers and players; by never hav-
ing to hurry, by never having to stop on
account of lack of time, and by having all
the proper means right at hand.
FIRST CONCERT—" UNENDING
JUBILATION "
And now a few words about superficial
occurrences. After the most unheard-of
190

labour, pains and torture I put through my

first concert last Wednesday. The event was
a festival. I cannot characterise it otherwise.
I had already inspired the orchestra to the
highest pitch of enthusiasm, and it hung on
my eye and on my slightest beck and call.
It and the public received me with unending
jubilation, and, " brilliant, astonishing, rav-
ishing," was the verdict on each of my pieces
on the programme. The whole affair created
tremendous surprise. Wonderful experiences,
conversions, feuilletonists (Patrie) all rush-
ing up to me to kiss my hands. I was almost
dead with exhaustion. That night was my
last consecration of sorrow; but I must, I
must go on.—It is my supreme duty.
The flower shall unfold itself to the world
and perish; you shall keep the chaste bud.
Many kind greetings for Otto! Tell him
that I love him! Farewell, dear, noble child!
Live on gently and beneficently, and so
strengthen me too!
A TRIBUTE FROM A " PLAIN CITIZEN""

Paris, March 8d, I860.
First of all I will describe to you the
object that stands on my mantel-piece in
191

place of a clock. It is a wonderful affair.

On a stand covered with red velvet rests a
silver shield, the edge of which is covered
with devices symbolic of my poems from
" Rienzi" to " Tristan und Isolde." On
the shield lies, in a silver wreath, one branch
representing laurel, the other oak, a large
leaf of silver sheet music, half rolled up
and bearing in notation the principal motives
from my operas.
A beautiful silver pen is placed across the
music page, each end resting on a branch
of the wreath. These branches are tied to-
gether with a gold ribbon, upon which is
written:
"The heart of a right-minded man must overflow,

before the sunny heights of great men. Dedi-
cated to the great master with sincere admira-
tion from Richard Weiland."
This Richard Weiland is a plain citizen of

Dresden, whom I never met there, but who
called on me one morning in Zurich—in the
" Retreat"—and showed me the amusing
critique of the Prague production of " Tann-
hauser," with the simple statement that the
overture, which under my own direction in
192

Dresden took only twelve minutes to play,

had lasted twenty minutes there.—The gift,
accompanied by a most modest letter I found
here one evening on my return, tired out,
after arranging for my choruses.—I now
have the baton and this piece of silver plate.
PARIS ACQUAINTANCES
Through my concerts I have come in con-

tact here with several deeply devoted and
very intelligent people.
Gasperini, a sensitive, highly intelligent and
gifted physician, who, however, expects soon
to give up his whole time to literary and
poetic pursuits, a man of refined and hand-
some appearance and of profound sympathies,
without, however, much original energy,—
was mine even before I arrived, and is now
the most ardent, persistent champion of my
cause, for which he has found an opening in
the Courier dw Dvmanche.
An admirable thinker and an unusually cul-
tivated, unprejudiced, clear and refined intel-
lect I have gained in Villot. This individual,
who a short time ago married off a son, is
curator of the Museum of the Louvre, a posi-
193

tion which places him in charge of all the

works of art there. In a monumental work
which cost him fifteen years of unintermittent
industry, he has written a history of the
Louvre collections. Now try to realise that
this man—long before I knew him—owned all
my scores, had studied them carefully, and is
happy that through my mediation he has been
able to procure from the Hartels a score of
my " Tristan." He has greatly surprised me
through the keenness of his judgment, espec-
ially, however, as regards the capacity of his
own nation, to which he completely belongs
as regards the manner in which he expresses
himself, while intellectually he is far above it.
He is of rare and refined intelligence. His
offer to show me the treasures of the Louvre
under his own guidance I have not yet availed
myself of, and probably shall not be able to
for a long, long time to come. Among others
I may now mention to you the novelist
Champfleury, whose pamphlet written on
first impressions I have sent to you. He has
thoughtful, friendly, yet wistful eyes. His
intimate friend, the poet Baudelaire, has
written me two wonderful letters, but does
not wish to be introduced to me until he has
194

finished several poems which he intends dedi-

cating to me.
I have told you about Franck-Marie. He
has written some significant things about me;
but still is a stranger to me personally.
GUSTAVE DORE
Then there is a young artist, Gustave Dore,

who already enjoys a great reputation here.
He has made a drawing for VIllustration,
in which he shows me conducting an orchestra
of spirits in an Alpine region. Then there
are many musicians and composers who have
declared themselves enthusiastically for my
cause, among them Gounod, a gentle, kind
man, and clearly gifted, although not highly
so; Louis Lacombe, Leon Kreutzer, Stephan
Heller.
Important as a deep thinking musician
is Sensale, who in future will play my
scores for me. A M. Perrin, well known as
a painter, also formerly director of the Opera
Comique and probably a future director of
the Grand Opera, is devoted to me and has
written beautifully about me in the Revue
Europeene.
195

" BERLIOZ DEVOURED BY ENVY"

Berlioz is devoured by envy. My efforts
to keep him for my friend have come to
naught, because he cannot bear the brilliant
reception that has been accorded my music.
In truth, his own interests have been consid-
erably prejudiced by my appearance in Paris
on the eve of the production of his " Trojans."
Moreover, his ill luck has given him a bad
wife, who allows herself to be bribed into
annoying her much suffering and weak hus-
band. His attitude toward me has been a
constant wavering between friendly regard
and a rebound from one he envied. Very
tardy atfd yet so timed that he was not
obliged to refer to having heard my music
again, he published his critique, which you
probably have read. I felt myself justified
in answering his ambiguous, in fact malicious
reference to the " music of the future." You
will find this reply in the Journal des Debats
of February 22.
ROSSINI—THE "OLD EPICURE "

Rossini has behaved better. A joke about
my lack of melody had been attributed to him
196

and was eagerly spread by the German

papers. Now he himself has 'dictated a
denial, in which he declares that the only
music of mine with which he is familiar is
the " Tannhauser" march, which pleased
him greatly; moreover, that from all he
knows about me he has great respect for me.
This zeal on the part of the old epicure has
surprised me.
Lastly let me announce another conquest, in
the person of Marshal Magnan.2 He attended
all three concerts and manifested the deepest
interest. As—unfortunately—it is impor-
tant for me to have a man like him who moves
in certain circles well posted about me, I
called on him and really was surprised at his
expressions of enthusiasm. He had been
putting up a good fight for me and could not
understand how anyone could hear in my
music anything except just music, such as
Gluck and Beethoven wrote, only with the
characteristic stamp of genius " of a
Wagner."
1 cannot scare up any of my concert pro-
2 Barnard Pierre Magnan, b. 1791, d. 1865. Fought
at Waterloo and figured prominently in the coup
d'etat of 1851.
197

grammes to-day, but you shall have one. You

will observe that I have not made them too
intimate. Your own doubts on that point
decided me. Even the words to the " Tristan "
selections contained only some explanation of
the subject.
DETAILS OF THE CONCERTS
I will add a few words regarding the con-

certs. The string instruments were excel-
lent; thirty-two violins, twelve violas, twelve
violoncellos, eight double basses—an uncom-
monly sonorous body which you would have
listened to with pleasure. But the rehearsals
were insufficient and I could not secure the
correct piano effect. The wind instruments
were efficient only in part. All of them were
wholly lacking in energy, and the oboe espec-
ially remained always pastoral in character
and at no time struck a note of passion. The
horns were wretched and cost me many a
sigh.
The unhappy players excused themselves
for their frequent wrong entrances, with
the nervous effect which my manner of
giving them their cues had upon them.
]9S

Trombones and trumpets were utterly with-

out brilliance. All this was made good,
however, by the really great enthusiasm which
took possession of the whole orchestra from
the first to the last player, and which mani-
fested itself so continuously and so strikingly
during the performances that Berlioz is said
to have been considerably surprised by it.
" G E N U I N E FESTIVALS"
The three evenings developed into genuine

festivals, and so far as evidences of enthu-
siasm are concerned the Zurich festivals were
thrown completely into the shade. I held the
attention of the audience from the outset.
For the overture to " The Flying Dutch-
man " I have written a new close, which I like
very much and which made a decided impres-
sion on the listeners also. Childish jubilation
broke out immediately after the graceful
melody in the " Tannhauser " march, and on
every recurrence of the melody the explosion
was repeated. This spontaneous childish-
ness really affected me agreeably, for I never
have heard expressions of delight which mani-
fested themselves so immediately. The first
199

time the Pilgrims' Chorus was sung it was

hesitating and made no effect. Later it went
better. The " Tannhauser " overture, which
was played with great virtuosity, always
resulted in many recalls. The " Tristan "
prelude was not played to my liking until the
third concert. On that evening it gave me
great delight. The public too seemed much
affected by it, for when—the applause hav-
ing subsided—an opponent ventured to hiss,
there broke out a storm, so fierce, of such
long duration, and always beginning over
again, that poor me at my stand really be-
came embarrassed, and I sought to indicate by
gestures that I must ask them for Heaven's
sake to stop, that I was fully satisfied; but
that only seemed to add to their zeal, and the
storm broke out anew. In short, I never have
had such an experience.
All the selections from " Lohengrin " 3 made
an uncommon impression from the Very out-
set; orchestra and audience bore me, figura-
tively speaking, on their hands, and I cannot
describe matters otherwise than by saying
that—they were beautiful evenings.
3 Prelude, introduction to Act III., and Bridal
Chorus.
200

"WHY H A N G M Y HEAD SO S A D L Y ? "
And now the child may well ask, with aston-

ishment, why, instead of being satisfied with
such exquisite experiences, I should hang my
head so sadly?—Yes, that is a peculiar cir-
cumstance, and all I can say is that festivals
are easy!—and I do not need them. Such
evenings remain something quite outside
myself. They are dissipations, nothing more,
and they leave the effect of every dissipation
behind them; although, if I were differently
constituted, it would be well enough. After
all, perhaps I have accomplished much. I
could rest in peace now, wait comfortably for
what might turn up and for what I am as-
sured must follow—glory, honour and Heaven
knows what not. But what a fool I would be.
Imagine, even at the first concert I was dis-
trait because a certain Receiver-General had
not yet arrived from Marseilles. And what
part was he to play?—He was the wealthy
man who, according to Gasperini's assur-
ances, took a lively interest in my project
for the performance of my operas in France,
and who could easily be persuaded to aid me
energetically in carrying it out.
201

I had thought of the possibility of a first

performance of " Tristan" with German
singers in Paris during May. That was the
only goal toward which I was steering, and
for which I was doing all this, and, above all,
making insane efforts to put through these
three concerts. My wealthy man was to
come from Marseilles; the success of my
music was to persuade him to declare himself
ready to furnish the necessary guarantee for
the operatic enterprise which I had in view.
At last he arrives for the third concert, but
has on this evening an engagement for a big
dinner at Mires, finds time, however, to visit
the concert for an hour—is a superb French-
man who expresses himself as greatly pleased,
but later on considers that an attempt to give
German opera here would be a doubtful enter-
prise, etc. And so that turned out to be
another childish effort on my part!
And really I know all these things before-
hand, and yet one hopes—and strives—
because there is a goal, and a goal which it
seems so necessary for me to reach. For,
after all, I am here in this world, and my life
has its meaning only in my ever having this
goal in view and overlooking all else that lies

between me and it. Only with it in view is my

life worth while. How can I go on living if
I turn my eyes from my goal and lower them
to the chasm that parts me from it!
"ALL AGAIN IS NIGHT ABOUT ME !
Aye, indeed, others should do that for me,

and keep me in the free air. But who has a
right to demand that of anyone? Does not
everyone live with some object in view, only
that it does not always chance to be an eccen-
tric object? And so it has happened, child,
that the stupid master once more has been
obliged in his solitude to look deep and long
into that chasm.—Ah, what feelings come
over him then. No landscape in Dante's
" Inferno" has such frightful abysses!—
Enough of this!—And the goal?—Still re-
mains the only thing that gives me life! But
how to reach it?
Aye, friend, so it goes! All again is night
about me! If I no longer had any ambition
it could so easily be otherwise. Now after
unspeakable labour and torture I am obliged
anew to work my way up out of the chasm,
into which again I have plunged myself
203

almost purposely and blindly. As yet I can

not even see the height from which once more
I may allow my gaze to rest upon my goal.—
Recently when I saw the absolute necessity
of making every effort, to secure above all
a production of " Tristan," I said to myself,
" Now all is right. With such an ambition
there can be no more humiliation for you!
There can be nothing disgraceful in whatever
you do to secure the power and means to suc-
ceed, and to everyone who does not compre-
hend you as he sees you going an unaccus-
tomed way, you can cry out, ' What know
you of my goal? ' "—for he alone can com-
prehend me who comprehends this.
"WHAT AM I WITHOUT MY WORK?"

Every day brings new plans. This,
that and the other possibility is dangled
before my eyes. I am so insepara-
bly knit to this work, for which—and I
say this in all seriousness—I gladly would
offer my life as a sacrifice and willingly
swear not to live a day longer after I had
produced it. It may well follow from this that
I am now full of the idea that instead of
204

enduring all the labour and humiliation to

which I will be exposed in seeking the means
for " Parisian " successes, I should take upon
myself the torture, which seems easiest to
endure, and return to Dresden, be placed on
trial there, condemned and—so far as I am
concerned—pardoned, so that I will be able
without let or hindrance to look up the best
German theatre, wherever it may be, bring
out " Tristan " there and thus lift the sor-
cerous enchantment that now holds me in its
thrall. There is nothing else that seems to
me worth while. It appears to be about the
most sensible thing to do, and I reckon it an
unpardonable love of self for me to try to
avoid any suiFering or humiliation that would
lead to the salvation of my work. For what
am I—without my work? Moreover, there is
another . consideration! I have no faith in
my opera in France. Everything I do for
it here is undertaken against the inner voice,
which I can silence only through folly and
force. I have no faith in a French " Tann-
hauser," nor in a French " Lohengrin," let
alone in a French " Tristan." Fortune re-
fuses to smile on whatever efforts I make in
this direction.
205

• —_____——____^—————•»^———^__ .
" W H A T DO I CARE FOR MY

EARLIER WORKS?"
A daimon—my own, doubtless—is opposed

to everything. Only through the command
of a despot would it be possible to overcome
all the obstacles which would be interposed
between me and the stage of the Paris Opera.
I have no real desire to overcome them. First
of all, what do I care for my earlier works
that have become almost indifferent to me? I
surprise myself in an utter lack of interest in
them. And then the French translations! I
must regard them as absolutely impossible.
The few stanzas that were translated for my
concert caused me unspeakable trouble, and
were execrable. In spite of everlasting
efforts, not one act of my operas has been
translated as yet, and what has been done
on them disgusts me. The strange language
doubtless is the chief reason that everything
here remains essentially foreign to me. The
torture of a conversation in French revolts
me. Often I break off in the midst of an
exclamation like one in despair, who says to
himself, " After all, it is not possible, and all
this is vain!" At such times I feel myself
206

wretchedly homeless. And if I ask myself,

"Where do you belong, anyhow?" I can
name no country, no city, no village.
" I LOOK LONGINGLY TOWARDS NIRVANA "
All is foreign, and often I look longingly

toward the land of Nirvana, but Nirvana
soon turns into " Tristan." You know the
Buddhistic theory of creation; a breath
clouds the crystalline clearness of the
heavens, it swells, assumes shape, and at last
the whole world stands before me in its impen-
etrable mass. Such will ever be my fate, as

long as I have these unshriven spirits about
me!
Something homelike I have with me in
Biilow, but him, too, I soon will lose. The
poor youth is working himself to death here,
and I have seen little of him. He cannot
visit me often, but it is agreeable to me to
know that he is here. Heavens, it is such a
4 The Isolde motive.
207

pleasure to be able to speak naturally, and

he is the only one with whom I can do this.
He is, and continues, wholly devoted to me,
and often I am touched when I learn by the
merest chance of all the secret trouble he is
taking for me. He grows very sad when I
say to him that, in the end, all this will prove
useless, but before he goes I will give him
pleasure by telling him that you greet him
through me.
fr
I CANNOT DIE YETW
And now I must see that something is done
for me in the way of business, in an effort
to make up for the terrible devastation which
the expenses of my concerts have left in their
wake. It is proposed that I shall give the
same programme three times in Brussels
under conditions which assure me some slight
compensation. I suppose I will have to do
this. You may expect to hear from me from
there. London has also been suggested. 'Tis
sad, but then, you know, I cannot die yet.
And now, friend, it is just as well that I
close. Nothing very agreeable can come out
of this, and already I have allowed myself
to continue beyond all bounds. But at least

it helps to lift the weight from my heart that

I have been able to write to you again.
Thank you for this boon! Many fine greet-
ings to Otto and the children. Let me know
how you all are! With faithful love.
"i GRIMLY SHOW MY T E E T H "

Paris, April 10, 1860.
You naughty child! Your last letter, too
•—and that was long ago—told me so little,
hardly anything about yourself. Is my own
silly fate always to be considered the only
thing worth talking about! I am quite in
doubt as to whether these lines will find you
still in Rome. It would be just like you to
leave there without saying a word about it
to me, or letting me know when and whither
you go! You see I am scolding; a few days
ago I would have been more gentle about it,
but now, day by day, it annoys me more and
more. Please write me at length how you are.
About all the things you are seeing. Your
daily life. The acquaintances you are mak-
ing, and the state of your health, and every-
thing of that sort.
You promised that now and then I might
have a look into your stereopticon. Have I
209

suddenly been wholly excommunicated? Oh!

one can tell where you are!
For once I really ought not to talk about
myself at all, but what do I know about you!
Nothing, except that I know nothing. Truly
philosophical knowledge this! And about
myself? Dearest child, no one will ever be
able to make anything in reason out of me.
Above all, no one with any intelligence. For
instance: Just now I am being congratu-
lated by all intelligent people, and everyone
thinks I must be soaring among heights of
bliss and delight because I have obtained the
incredible promise that one of my operas is
to be performed in Paris. " Can he ask any-
thing more? " they say. And now picture
this to yourself—never have I found the
whole thing more tiresome than just now,
and to everyone who congratulates me I
grimly show my teeth. I happen to be built
that way!
FRENCH MUSICAL TASTE

Whoever stands by quietly and watches the
life of a nation as gifted, and also as incredi-
bly light-hearted as France, and is able to
interest himself in everything that may serve
210

MATHILDE WESENDONK
1860
From a photograph taken in Rome

for its development and progress, cannot be

blamed if he sees in the manner in which a
French " Tannhauser" may be received, a
critical test of the capacity of this people
for artistic advancement.
Consider the wretched state of French art
at this moment; that poetry is something
wholly foreign to this nation, and that in its
place it substitutes rhetoric and sonorous
phrases. With the French language com-
pletely centred upon itself, and its resulting
incapacity to take over the poetic element
which it lacks from another language, the
only method which remains is to have poetry
influence the French through music. The
truth is, however, that the French lack origi-
nality in music, and that all their music has
come from elsewhere. From the outset French
musical taste has been formed by the con-
tact of Italian and German music, and really
is nothing more than a meeting point of these
two schools.
Gluck, critically considered, only taught
the French how to bring music into harmony
with the rhetorical style of French tragedy.
With real poetry we are not concerned in his
case at all. That is the reason why, since

then, the Italians have occupied the field

almost exclusively, for it always was a matter
of rhetorical method of expression, rather
than of music itself, let alone poetry. What
utterly hopeless conditions have resulted, and
still result from this, is incredible. Lately,
in order to gauge the singers at the Opera,
I was obliged to listen to a new work by a
Prince Poniatowski.5 What an experience!
What a longing came over me for the plainest
Swiss mountain valley! I felt as if I had
been assassinated when I reached home, and
all hope of accomplishing anything had
vanished. Since then, however, I have learned
how opposing influences may gather strength
and impetus from such horrible conditions.
" Y O U R WORK REJECTED,, W E

ABANDON H O P E "
" You see," people say to me, " how mat-
ters stand and what we expect and demand of
you! " This is said to me by people who have
not attended the Opera for twenty years,
5 Probably " Pierre de Medicis." After Sedan,
Josef Poniatowski, Prince of Monte Rotondo, fol-
lowed Napoleon III. into exile and died at Chisel-
hurst, Eng., in 1873.
212

and who have confined themselves to attend-

ing the concerts and quartettes at the Con-
servatoire, and finally—without any personal
acquaintance with me—made a study of my
scores. They include not only musicians, but
painters, scientific men, and even—states-
men. They say to me, " Nothing in the least
like what you are bringing to us ever has
been offered to this public, for with music
you bring us poetry in its highest form. You
bring it complete, and wholly in your own
way, and independent of every influence
such as has been exerted by our institutions
upon the creative artists who desired to pro-
duce something for us. You bring it entire,
and with the greatest power of expression.
Even the most ignorant Frenchman would
not desire to change anything in your work.
He will be obliged to accept it or reject it,
just as it is, and herein lies the vast impor-
tance which we attach to the impending
event. Your work rejected, we will know
where we stand, and abandon all hope; ac-
cepted, and that at once (for the Frenchman
cannot be influenced in any other way), all of
us will breathe freely again. For neither
science nor literature, but theatrical art
213

alone, with its instantaneous and universal

effect, can exert a strong influence upon the
genius of our nation, and change its point
of view. Finally—we have confidence in the
greatest and most lasting success for your
undertaking!"
It is a fact that even the director of the
Opera, now that he has become thoroughly
acquainted with the subject, goes about tell-
ing everyone that in " Tannhauser " he at last
can count upon a real " succes d'argent."
" T H E SUREST GUARANTEE IS M Y

POVERTY "
Meanwhile, in Brussels, I have had con-
siderable intercourse with a remarkable man,
an aged, knowing, clever and uncommonly
experienced diplomat,6 who strongly advises
me not to underrate the French. He argues
that, whatever people may think or say, it
yet remains an incontestable fact that at the
present time the French are the real proto-
types of European civilisation, and that to
make a deep impression upon them means to
have made a deep impression upon all Europe.
6 State Councillor Klindworth, a relic of the Met-
ternich period.
214

All this sounds very encouraging, and I see

that I cannot rid myself of the important
role I am to play in the world. Curiously
enough, however, I do not seem to care a rap
either for Europe or for the world, and at
the bottom of my heart I keep saying to
myself, "How does all this concern you?"
But I realise, as I have just said, that I can-
not break away from it; my daimon will take
care of that. The surest guarantee that I
am bound to influence Europe is—my
poverty!
I make this confession to you in order that
you may not reach any wrong conclusions
about me, and above all that you have no fear
lest this conceited assumption about myself
lead me to something rash, something
that really lies beyond me. These Paris con-
certs have placed me in a difficult position.
I undertook Brussels only to help myself in
my plight, but with just the opposite result,
so that when I left there I said to myself,
" Si jamais on me prend a faire de Pargent
(just as Rossini once said, after the failure
of an opera on the score of which he had
worked very carefully, " Si jamais on me
prend a soigner ma partition " ) •
215

GERMANY REMAINS SILENT

The German attitude toward me is one of
complete silence, and if ever I am to meet
my Tristans and my Nibelungs in this life,
I shall be obliged to perform a miracle, and
walk the waves of this holy existence. There-
fore, I accept the hopes of my Parisian
friends, and especially of my Opera director.
But at present, as everything that is glorious
unfortunately keeps one waiting for its con-
summation, I am not at all indisposed to sell
myself to a Russian general, who soon is ex-
pected here, in order to persuade me to under-
take a " Tannhauser" expedition to St.
Petersburg. Join with me in laughing over
this, I beg of you. It is the only way one
can help me with these ridiculous burdens,
which a world in need of salvation loads upon
the back of its expected Saviour!
Yesterday they sent me from Brussels my
photographic likeness. It seems to have
turned out very well. At once I thought of
you. If you will soon send me a pretty letter
and tell me when you are returning to Zurich,
I will send a copy to Mr. Stunzig, or to any-
one else whom you designate, so as to let you
216

know what I look like nowadays; and it should

be hung in the gallery over the piano.
As you have taken all your personal be-
longings with you to Rome, there will be no
friend to greet you on your return unless I
am there, even if only in the gallery.
THE ARTIST A PLAYTHING

Paris, May 2, 1860.
And the artist?—Poor fellow! He is the
plaything of his own inner consciousness, and
yet he is so ridiculously constituted that he
can stand out against this eternal opposition.
Yes, always to be in opposition, never to find
complete inward repose, always driven, lured,
and then rejected, that really is the ever-
seeming process of his life. I t makes his in-
spiration bloom like a flower of despair—I
know that from experience, and I know you
feel this in sympathy with me! But who
would be other than he is?
A HIT AT LISZT'S PRINCESS

Paris, May 23, I860.
Liszt has become wholly unreliable, so far
as keeping a secret is concerned, and this, not
217

from inward conviction, but because through

his manifestly abused good-nature, he has
been brought to an unlovely state of depend-
ence. But I have let him—or, rather, unfor-
tunately both of them—know decidedly that
I no longer can correspond with him (or
them).7 The poor fellow silently sacrifices
everything, and suffers, and believes this can-
not be changed, yet he continues to love me,
and always will remain to me a noble and very
dear man. You can imagine then how touch-
ingly a greeting occasionally finds its way
to us. We discover the means now and then
to press each other's hand in confidence, like
a loving couple that has been parted by the
world. Thus yesterday, there arrived by tele-
graph the warmest congratulations upon my
birthday. I smile inwardly over such occur-
rences and am rejoiced.
HOW TO POSE FOR A PHOTOGRAPH
You will receive my portrait just as soon as

I know when I can address it to Zurich. It
7 This is a hit at Liszt's amie, the Princess Carolyne
Sayn-Wittgenstein, and explains the practical cessa-
tion of the Wagner-Liszt correspondence.
218

is the best I have had taken. This seems

especially remarkable to me, because it has
turned out so well in spite of most unfavour-
able circumstances, and especially because
such a quiet, unaffected expression has been
secured. I was greatly put out, and genuinely
plagued by the Brussels musicians, to leave a
photograph behind me as a souvenir. It was
raining (Otto knows it always rains in Brus-
sels), and I had not intended to go to the
studio. Finally, late in the day they fetched
me. I had no umbrella, was obliged to con-
duct that evening, had to climb up five flights
of stairs, and I expressed to the artist my in-
dignation that he should attempt to achieve
anything tolerable under such circumstances.
The confidence with which the artist (an ex-
cellent one, to be sure) met my objections put
me into good humour, and with the declara-
tion, " It really will be remarkable if it turns
out well," I took up my position in astonish-
ment at the whole proceeding, simply think-
ing to myself, " Well, for the Brussels folk
the result may be good enough! " Now, how-
ever, I can remember that Lbecame conscious
with what incredible swiftness the brain is
guided by certain moods, and leaps from
219

things at hand to circumstances quite re-

mote.
Shortly before this I had been photographed
in Paris, and the barbarian who called himself
an artist had thought it well, before I my-
self had become aware of it, to place me in a
most affected pose, with eyes turned side-
ways. I am disgusted with the portrait which
resulted, and have declared that it makes me
look like a sentimental Marat. This unfortu-
nate counterfeit was used for & Illustra-
tion and—with further distortion—is mak-
ing the rounds of all the illustrated papers
(at the present time in England). My dis-
gust with it unconsciously persuaded me at
the Brussels sitting to seek an entirely dif-
ferent and more decent expression, so that I
would present a natural, calm, and intelligent
appearance. The irony of the whole proceed-
ing put me, quick as a flash, into the right
mood. Everything seemed to vanish, and I
looked calmly out upon the world, as if it did
not concern me at all. Possibly I may have
entertained the wish to look at Jupiter. Per-
haps it will seem to you as if Jupiter really
had shone for me for a few moments.
220

"* TRISTAN' REMAINS A MIRACLE!"
Paris, early August, I860.

What a poet I am! Heaven help me for
making such a claim.—This wretched trans-
lation of " Tannhauser " has made me so con-
ceited. Just now, when it is necessary to go
over it word for word, I appreciate for the
first time how compact and incapable of being
changed the poem is. A word or phrase
dropped, and both my translator and my-
self are obliged to confess that something
which cannot be spared has been sacrificed.
At the beginning I believed that a few slight
changes might be made, but we were obliged
to give up all of them as impossible. I was
quite astonished, and found when I compared
myself with others, that there are very few
whom I could credit with an equal gift. In
short, I have been obliged to acknowledge to
myself that the poem could not have turned
out better. What do you say to this? I
could more easily improve the score. Here
and there, for instance, are passages for the
orchestra that might be more expressive and
richer.
" Tristan " is, and remains a miracle! How

I ever created such a work becomes more and

more incomprehensible. In reading it over
again I open eyes and ears wide! How fright-
fully I will have to expiate this work if I try
to have it performed. I clearly anticipate
the most unheard-of suffering from it, for I
do not attempt to conceal from myself that
in the demands it will make upon the per-
formers, it goes far beyond anything that
now is even dreamed of as possible. Remark-
ably sympathetic artists who are entirely
equal to such a task are born but rarely into
this world, and yet, even while listening only
to the orchestra, I cannot resist the tempta-
tion of trying to have it produced.
" PARSIFAL," OUTLINED

" Parzival" again has been awakening
within me. I see the subject more clearly
before me. If once it ripens to fruition, the
execution of this poem will become an un-
speakable joy for me. But many years may
pass before that consummation! This time,
too, I should like to have the poem stand by
itself. I shall hold off as long as I can, and
occupy myself with it only when it takes com-

plete possession of me! Then the wonderful

process of creation will enable me to forget
all my misery.
Shall I gossip a little about it? Did I ever
tell you that the fabulously wild messenger
of the Grail is to be one and the same being
with the seductive woman of the second act?
Since I have had that inspiration, everything
connected with the subject has become clear
to me. This wonderfully terrible creature,
who serves the Knights of the Grail with the
tireless zeal of a slave, executes the most
unheard-of commissions, lies in a corner,
awaiting only the command to carry out
something uncommonly laborious—at times
disappears utterly, no one knows how or
whither.
Then suddenly she reappears, but fearfully
exhausted, wretched, pale, and gruesome, yet
just as tireless as before, and serving the Holy
Grail like a dog, although her attitude
towards the Knights seems to be one of secret
contempt. Her eyes seem ever to roll rest-
lessly in search of the right one.—She has
been deluded more than once—has not found
him. She herself does not know just what she
is looking for, she is guided only by instinct.
223

When Parzival, the Fool, arrives in this

domain, she cannot take her eyes off him.
Wonderful things must be transpiring within
her; what, she knows not herself, but she re-
mains near him. She is repellent to him—
and yet she attracts him, but he comprehends
nothing. (This means—work for the poet!
Only the way the thing is done can make it
plain!) But let me try to explain it to you,
and listen to me as Briinnhilde listened to
Wotan.—This woman is in a constant state of
restlessness and excitement. The old esquire
often has observed this on former occasions,
shortly before her disappearances. This time
she seems under a terrible strain. What is
passing through her mind? Is she dreading
another flight? Does she desire to be spared
it? Has she hope—to be able to end every-
thing? With what hope has Parzival in-
spired her? Manifestly she is directing a
silent appeal to him.—But everything re-
mains dark and obscure. No clear percep-
tion, only impulse and mental dusk. Crouched
in a corner, she watches the painful scene of
Anfortas. She bestows a wonderfully search-
ing (sphinx-like) gaze on Parzival, but he,
too—is stupid, comprehends nothing, only

wonders—remains silent. He is ejected. The

messenger of the Grail collapses with a shriek.
A moment later she vanishes. (Again she is
obliged to wander.)
Now can you guess who is the wonderfully
enchanting woman whom Parzival finds in the
strange palace to which his knightly love of
adventure leads him? Imagine what happens
there, and how everything turns out. But
for the present I will enlighten you no
farther!
Paris, August 10, 1860.
Meanwhile, Queen Victoria has taken it into
her head that she would like to hear " Lohen-
grin " this winter. The manager of Covent
Garden has looked me up. He says the Queen
would like to have "Lohengrin" given in
English—some time in February. As yet I
know nothing about particulars. How comi-
cal it would be if I were to hear this work for
the first time given in English.
rr
I AM LIKE ONE DEAD"
Another bulletin, my child! I am improv-
ing—but slowly and tediously. The weather

does not favour me at all, but keeps putting

me back all the time. Nevertheless, I have
attended to a little piece of business, the first
since I have been convalescing. I have been
to the bookbinder. The piano score of
" Tristan" has at last been published. I
have ordered the Hartels to send several copies
to Zurich direct; also one for Mme. Wille,
but for my friend I want something special.
I have had a copy sent to me here. I am going
to have it bound according to my own taste,
and I shall transmit it to you myself. Un-
fortunately the copy arrived here at the worst
period of my illness. You can imagine my dis-
tress. I was obliged to see it lying there
without being able to do anything about it.
Now at last I have been to the bindery.
Whether the thing turns out as I would like
it, I must, I am sorry to say, doubt. People
here are so lacking in imagination and origi-
nality.
Probably I shall have to put up with some-
thing wholly commonplace, and you must
make allowances for my good intentions.
Some time may elapse before it is finished,
and you will be obliged to accept it as a birth-
day and Christmas gift in one.
8S6

As regards things in general, I am like one—

dead! I hardly can describe my state of
mind differently! I keep perfectly quiet, like
one who has lost all interest in life. Future
performances of my latter works, nothing but
mist and dreams. No zeal, no desire!
" F A M E NO LONGER ATTRACTS ME"

For the %3d of December.
I chance to find just now a sheet of paper
of my colour, and on it I send you, my friend,
my birthday congratulations.
What shall I wish for you, what offer to
you? A life of endless trouble and restless-
ness persuades me that the thing most to be
desired is—perfect peace! I myself have
such a deep longing for it that I invoke it for
others, and especially for her who is every-
thing to me, as the greatest of all gifts. It
is something so difficult to attain. One who
is not born with it rarely achieves it, and only
a total conquest of self will yield it to him as
the prize of victory. Whoever adjusts his
life thus, and so shapes his character in rela-
tion to this life, he will be able, on the whole,
to view it in perfect calmness; although the
227

trifles that keep coming up from day to day

will excite his spleen, and make him impa-
tient and restless.
In what a strange condition I am! Every-
thing, almost without exception, which sets the
world in motion, leaves me cold and untouched.
Fame no longer attracts me; success only so
far as it may keep me from want. To under-
take anything serious from either cause never
would be possible for me. Whether I am in
the right or not is a matter of indifference to
me, since I know from experience how in-
credibly small is the number of those who
are so constituted as even to understand
another.
My most natural and pardonable desire to
bring about a fully commensurate perform-
ance of my various works has cooled off con-
siderably, and especially during this last
year. Meddling with musicians, singers, etc.,
again, has caused me many a sigh, and
strengthened my feeling of resignation in
this direction.
I am forced to realise more and more how
completely my art creations have estranged
me from the rigid art conditions of these
modern times. I am free to acknowledge that

now—if I suddenly look at my " Nibelung "

or " Tristan "—I awake with a start as if
out of a dream and say to myself, " Where
have you been?—You have been dreaming!
Open your eyes and acknowledge that you are
face to face with reality! "
Yes, I no longer will deny the fact that I
consider my last works absolutely impossible
of performance. If the impulse still lingers
within me to bring about their performance,
this again becomes possible only by allowing
my mind to wander through the realms of
dreams.
"WHERE SHALL I FIND CONSOLATION?"
Oh! my child! where shall I find my sole,

sole consolation?—Once, indeed, I discovered
the heart and the soul which, in moments like
these, wholly understood me, and to whom I
was dear because it was her privilege to under-
stand and comprehend me so completely! See,
then, to this soul I fly; like one completely
exhausted my limbs give way under me, and I
allow myself to sink into the delicate ether
of her friendly spirit. All my experiences,
my unheard-of emotional distress, cares and

sorrows, are like refreshing dew distilled from

a storm-flower to cool my burning temples.
In it I find refreshment and finally a sense of
repose, sweet repose. I am loved—under-
stood !
And this peace I bring to you! May you
find in the sweet consciousness of what you
are to me—my angel of peace, the guardian
of my life—the noble spring which purls over
all that is arid in your existence! Share this
feeling of peace with me, and receive it from
me to-day in the fulness of the blessing it
confers upon me as I lose myself wholly in
you!
"TRISTAN" WITH VIAHDOT-GARCIA
Paris, February 12, 1861.

Among those in so-called high society, there
is a lady with whom I formerly had a slight
acquaintance, and who has attracted my at-
tention to a greater degree than formerly. She
is the Countess Kalergis, the niece of the
Russian Minister of State Nesselrode, whom
I have told you of before. Last summer she
spent some time in Paris, looked me up and
persuaded me to have Klindworth come from
230

London in order to have some music with her.

I sang the second act of " Tristan" with
Viardot-Garcia; quite among ourselves, only
Berlioz was present. We also had some things
out of the " Nibelung," for the first time
since I have been away from you. My atten-
tion was drawn to this lady by observing her
peculiar weariness, contempt for the world,
and disdain, which might have remained a
matter of indifference to me if I had not
observed in addition her manifestly deep long-
ing for music and poetry, which, under these
circumstances, seemed to me somewhat sig-
nificant.
However great her talent in this respect,
she herself became an object of interest
to me since she was the first person I had met
who surprised me by a most spontaneous and
really grand comprehension of my unfortu-
nate situation.
Shall I conceal from you that everything
gives way to the one thought of being able
to see you again, if only for an hour? No,
my child, I will not conceal this from you.
And even if you came at the risk of not see-
ing me as I really am, and as I would be when
with you, yet I—egotist that I am—would
231

bless the hour during which it would be

vouchsafed me to gaze into your eyes once
more.
" I AM TIRED OF BEING NOTHING BUT

A NUISANCE "
Paris, April 6, 1861.
Really I am growing tired of always being
nothing but a nuisance to my friends. This
bitter feeling is all that remains to me of the
Paris adventure. The mischance itself has
left me quite indifferent. If I had looked
only to a material success I might have gone
about many things differently; but that is—
the very thing I do not care for. The only
kind of material success I could wish for is
that which results from an artistic one. The
possibility of securing a really fine perform-
ance of one of my works nerved me to the
effort. But when I realised the impossibility
of this, I was through with the whole thing
and defeated in advance. What then hap-
pened to me was nothing more than just
punishment for indulging in another illusion.
I cannot say that it touched me deeply. My
work as it was performed seemed to me some-
thing quite so unfamiliar that what happened
232

V I C I S S I T U D E S IN P A R I S
to it did not concern me at all and I regarded

the whole affair simply as a great hubbub. If
the occurrence have consequences or not leaves
me cold. The only feeling I have in regard
to it is—weariness, disgust.
My child, whither have flown the happy Cal-
deron evenings? What sinister planet has
robbed me of the " R e t r e a t " I had earned?
Believe me, whatever others may say,—from
the moment I left the " R e t r e a t " my star
was doomed to wane. All that is left to it
now is to fall.
My best regards to Otto. His presence here
in these bad times was more of a grief than
a joy to me, although I must give you my
word that his sympathy and interest, indeed
his whole attitude, touched me deeply. But
I could be so little to him personally. There
was constant hurry, and the final failure of
my enterprise became a certainty just at the
time he was here. During the rehearsals,
when my own work became more strange and
unrecognisable to me, I suffered most.
The performances, on the other hand, had the
effect of physical blows that awakened me
from my inward suffering to a consciousness
of sad reality.

WAGNEB AND HIS ISOLDE
HEARS " LOHENGRIN " FOR THE

FIRST TIME
Vienna, May 11, 1861.
I have just been attending a rehearsal of
" Lohengrin." I cannot keep to myself the
incredibly deep impression of this first hear-
ing of my work under such beautiful and
sympathetic conditions, both from an artistic
and a human point of view. I lived twelve
years of my life over again!—such years!
You were right in so often wishing that this
joy might be mine! But nowhere else could
I have found it so completely as here. Ah!
if you could only be here to-morrow!
A thousand tender greetings!
RETURNS TO PARIS
Paris, June 15, 1861.
Ah! my child! if I did not have you, things
would go badly with me. Hold to that, and
consider that, in saying this to you, I have
said everything! But really I no longer can
say that I live! Some time, perhaps, I shall
again take pleasure in something—if ever I
get away from here; that would be the first
step!
234

• — — — i I,,. ,
DEATH OF ANOTHER PET

Paris, Prussian Legation,
July 12, 1861.
As for myself, I never expect to settle down
again anywhere. This conclusion I have
reached after my last sad and infinitely
wearying experience. It is not ordained for
me ever to woo my muse in the lap of cheerful
domesticity. From within and without every
attempt to gratify this desire, which is such
a strong trait of my nature, comes to nought
with ever-growing certainty, and is thrown all
into a heap by my daimon, whenever it
beckons me alluringly. I t is not for me, and
the quest for rest always becomes in my case
a cause of pain and sorrow. And so I conse-
crate the rest of my life to wandering. Per-
haps now and then it will be vouchsafed me
to rest and refresh myself awhile in the shade
of some quiet spring.
This is the only blessing that still seems
reserved for me.
Finally the little dog which you sent me,
from your own sick-bed, died, suddenly and
strangely. I t seems as if he must have been
run over on the street, and have received some
internal injury. After five hours, during
235

which the sweet, friendly creature lay before

me without so much as a plaint, but growing
weaker all the time, he silently breathed his
last. Not a rod of earth belonged to me in
which I might bury this dear little friend.
Partly by diplomacy, partly by force, I
secured a spot in Stunner's little garden,
where I myself secretly interred my poor dead
pet under a bush.
With this dear little dog I buried much!—
now I will wander, and in my wanderings I
no longer will have a little companion.
THE MUSICAL LION OF WEIMAR

Vierma9 August 19, 1861.
Of course, rest and enjoyment were out of
the question in Weimar. From near and far
everybody seemed to throng about me, in
order to see me again, or just to see me.
Really, I was obliged every half hour to re-
late the story of my life to this or that per-
son. At last despair yielded to my old mad
humour, and everyone here was greatly elated
by my sportiveness. I could not allow myself
to be serious. In fact, I no longer can, with-
out running the risk of being completely
236

overcome by my feelings. This is a tempera-

mental failing of mine which is gaining the
upper hand more and more. I guard against
it as best I can, for it seems to me some-
times as if I simply must flood away in
tears.
And so I took a friendly farewell of Weimar.
Above all I have borne away with me a de-
lightful souvenir of Liszt, who now intends
to leave Weimar, where he was unable to plant
anything, and, so far as the near future is
concerned, go into the unknown. His
" F a u s t " really gave me great pleasure, and
the second part (Gretchen) made a deep and
unforgettable impression upon me. I was
greatly grieved that it was impossible to
have the work produced except in a most
mediocre manner. Everything had to be
ready with one rehearsal. Hans, who con-
ducted, performed a miracle in his endeavour
to have the performance at least tolerable.
And so this was the goal of all the sacrifices
made by " lucky " Liszt—that he could not
even wring from this wretched world the. most
ordinary means to a good performance of his
work! How this experience strengthened me
in my own spirit of resignation!
237

A PORTRAIT OF MATHILDE
Vienna, September 28, 1861.

Oh! noble, splendid child! To-day I really
should add nothing more to this exclamation.
All else that I can say seems null! Music
has converted me into an explosive creature,
and the exclamation point is really the only
punctuation mark that suffices for me when-
ever I turn over my music! But, after all, that
is the old enthusiasm, without which I could
not exist. For suffering, sorrow, even anger
and ill-humour, take this enthusiastic turn
with me—which probably is the reason why
I am such a bother to others.
How much one can accomplish in Zurich!
One might rummage through Vienna, Paris
and London without finding anything as suc-
cessful in the photographic line as this pro-
duction of Herr Keller's. Child, how beauti-
ful you are! Words cannot express it!—
Heavens! In such a heart everything must be
regally up-borne. The most wretched beggar
whom it admits into its communion must soon
feel his head touching the clouds!—Then, too,
the birth-pangs of exalted regeneration are
stamped upon these features which once wore
238

so child-like a smile!—Aye! God now dwells

in the child!—Bow your heads!
" D R E A M S " AGAIN
Then, too, I got out the large green

portfolio for the first time. I had kept
it locked since my departure from Lu-
cerne. Now I produced the key in order
to have another look at its treasures. Heav-
ens, how they affected me! Two photographs,
the birth place of " Tristan "—the Green Hill
with the " Retreat," and the Venetian palace.
Then, too, the birth certificates with the first
sketches, wonderful germs; also the verses of
dedication with which I sent the pencilled
sketches of the first act to the child. What
joy these verses gave me! They are so pure,
so genuine!—I also found the pencilled leaf
of the song from which I developed the night
scene. Heaven knows this song pleased me
more than the proud scene itself. Heavens,
it is more beautiful than all else that I have
created. I tremble to the very depths of my
being when I listen to it! And how can I
allow these memories to conjure up the past
in my heart without a feeling of infinite bliss!
239

How should this be possible?—I closed the

portfolio again. But the last letter with the
picture I opened once more, and cried out,
" Pardon! Pardon!—I will not invoke you
again!"
** THE GRAY HORIZON OF THE FUTURE **

Paris, December 21, 1861.
I had to break out into loud laughter as I
looked up from my work and saw the Tuile-
ries and the Louvre opposite! For know that
I am now rummaging about in Nuremberg,
and in company with square, solid people.
My only resource was to mingle with such
folk. The return journey from Venice to
Vienna was very tedious. Two long nights
and a day I sat helplessly hemmed in be-
tween the past and the present, and travel-
ling toward the gray horizon of the future.
I must work on something new—or—there
will be an end to everything. Unfortunately
my visual horizon is contracting. Nothing
suffices to claim my attention, and anything
of local interest, or connected therewith, even
the greatest pictures in the world, cannot
draw me out of myself or interest me. I can
24,0

merely differentiate between day and night,

light and darkness. Really it is a kind of
death outwardly, and toward everything
without; I see only inward pictures, and they
demand to be expressed in music.
ENTER THE " MEISTERSINGER "
But no pictures of passion could I conjure

up within me during that gray journey. The
world seemed to me like a toy. That re-
minded me of Nuremberg, where I spent a
day last summer, and where much that is
pretty is to be seen.
It echoed in my memory like an overture to
the " Mastersingers of Nuremberg." After
reaching my hotel in Vienna, I worked out
the plan with extraordinary rapidity, and it
was a pleasure for me to realise while doing
so that my memory was absolutely clear, and
how readily my imagination worked hand in
hand with my inspiration. It was my salva-
tion, the kind of salvation that incipient in-
sanity sometimes affords. I immediately put
all my other affairs in order, shot a year-
long bolt in front of " Tristan," and de-
clined with thanks invitations to triumphs in

several cities of my glorious German Father-

land ; then came here in order " to forget that
I am alive."
And now be tolerant of my Nuremberg
mastersingers! They will turn out very
decent fellows, and probably as early as the
beginning of next winter will make their ap-
pearance on the German stage, after which
I shall pay little heed to them.
"TRISTAN" I OWE TO YOU

To produce " Tristan " continues the main
object of my ambition. That once accom-
plished, I shall have little more to do in this
world, and shall gladly go to rest with master
Cervantes. That I should have composed
M
Tristan " I owe to you, and I thank you
from the depths of my heart in all eternity.

SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF

VI
Like so many of his hopes, Wagner's dream

of " Tristan" in Vienna came to nought.
The " Meistersinger " project was, however,
taking shape. He arranged with the Schotts
of Mayence to publish it, and in order to be
conveniently near them he settled in Febru-
ary, 1862, in Biebrich, on the opposite bank
of the Rhine. From Paris he had sent the
manuscript of the completed drama to Ma-
thilde. In a letter from Biebrich, March 12,
1862, he calls her attention to the fact that
this is the first time she has been obliged to
become acquainted with a poem of his through
her own reading, instead of having it read
to her by himself.
On one occasion, when the Schotts appear to
have refused him a further pecuniary advance
until more of the manuscript of the score had
been turned in, he indirectly invoked Ma-
thilde's aid. Bethinking himself of her poems
which he had set to music, he went over them
245

with a Mayence singer; then a party consist-

ing of himself, the vocalist (Fraulein Genast),
the Biilows, who were visiting him, and his
friend, Wendelin Weissheimer, a conductor at
the Mayence Opera, drove across the Rhine
bridge at Castel and through Mayence to the
Schotts' villa at Laubenheim. There, with
Biilow " at the piano," Fraulein Genast sang
the five songs, " Dreams " included, for the
benefit of the head of the house of Schott, who
is represented by Weissheimer as gleefully
rubbing his hands as he walked up and down
the room while listening to the music, and
finally taking the manuscript from Wagner
and carefully locking it in a closet.
The remaining letters are interesting, for
everything Wagner wrote is characteristic.
But it was already noticeable in the Paris
letters that, while these teemed with graphic
descriptions of people and events, they were
not, on the whole, as introspective or as
deeply steeped in the psychological romance
of which Mathilde was the heroine and he the
hero as his journals and letters from Venice.
The letters become fewer, and there is even
less of this fascinating introspective quality
in the correspondence which follows the Paris

MATHILDE WESENDONK
(1864)
After a Bas Relief by Joseph Kopf

T H E FABRIC OF DREAMS
period. Wagner kwas at work again, and on a

thoroughly sane topic, the " Meistersinger " ;
since leaving the Green Hill he had seen Ma-
thilde but rarely, and—Cosima had appeared
upon the scene. Wendelin Weissheimer says
significantly, with reference to certain epi-
sodes of the Billows' Biebrich visit to Wag-
ner, " coming events cast their shadows be-
fore." In fact, the heart, the soul, of the
correspondence lie in the passages I already
have given.
r
ONE LOVES BUT ONCE **
Once more indeed the old love flared up in

clear flame. I t was at Penzing, near Vienna,
in June, 1863. Harassed by debts, Wagner
seems to have sought relief from his misery
by writing to Frau Wille, pleading that he
could not write to Mathilde for fear his sur-
charged heart would lead him to say too
much.
** Again," he writes, " I have been looking
through the green portfolio which she sent
me when I was in Venice. How much suffer-
ing I have experienced since then! And
now once more the old enchantment hovers

about me! Sketches for 6 Tristan ', for the

music to her poems! Ah! dearest! one loves
but once, and however intoxicating and allur-
ing whatever may come to us thereafter, I
now well know that I never shall cease to love
her alone. You will understand how to
honour the innocence of this assurance, and
to pardon the frankness of my confession."
THE VILLA CLOSED TO H I M
Frau Wille, being a novelist, knew her cue,

and she must have sent this letter to Mathilde
just as she had done with the one which Wag-
ner wrote her from Venice five years before.
Otherwise neither of these epistles would have
been found in this correspondence. Never-
theless, when, in April, 1864, the composer's
creditors in Penzing threatened him with ar-
rest, and he let drop a hint that he would like
to find refuge from them on the Green Hill,
this was not found " convenient." While
Wesendonk had allowed Wagner to correspond
with his wife, the meetings between Wagner
the composer and Mathilde had been few,
and Otto doubtless did not care to start up
the gossips of Zurich again by having him
248

in his villa or even in the " Retreat" for any

considerable length of time. In consequence
he applied for refuge to Frau Wille, who
received him and cared for his comfort as
gladly and as tenderly as if she had been the
Isolde instead of only the Brangane of
the Zurich romance. She had her reward,
for her reminiscences of this visit are among
the most interesting things that have been
published about Wagner. Moreover, when,
after about a month's stay at Marienfeld, he
went to Stuttgart, where the emissary of
King Louis found him, it was to her he wrote
announcing the wonderful change which thus
had been wrought in his fortunes.
KIND REGARDS FROM COSIMA
Minna Wagner died in Dresden in 1866.

Cosima secured a divorce from Von Biilow in
1869 and married Wagner the following
year. His first visits with her were to Frau
Wille and to the Wesendonks. The com-
poser's last letter to Mathilde was written
July 28, 1871, from Tribschen near Lucerne,
and in the last sentence he sends her greet-
ings from his wife. "Kind regards from
249

Cosima " would be a prosaic ending for the

story of Wagner and his Isolde, but, for-
tunately, something still remains to be said.
MATHILDE HIS GREATEST INSPIRATION

Mathilde was the inspiration of all the great
works which Wagner created after " Lohen-
grin." "Rheingold," "Walkiire," "Sieg-
fried," " Gotterdammerung," " Tristan und
Isolde," " Meistersinger," even " Parsifal,"
to all these, in one way or another, she stood in
intimate relationship. The first inspiration for
the " Rheingold " score came to him on that
tour in search of health which he made with
money furnished by Otto, doubtless on Ma-
thilde's urging. Note by note she watched the
" Nibelung " scores develop, until, again in-
spired by her, Wagner turned from "Sieg-
fried " to " Tristan." Needless to repeat
here that she was his Isolde. It can be read
in line after line of the foregoing letters and
journals. "Meistersinger?" Was it not
she who recalled the subject to his mind?
" Parsifal? " He outlined it for her when it
first began to take shape in his mind as " Par-
zival!" " Gotterdammerung? " It was not
250

completed until years after Wagner's flight

from Zurich; yet what is it but a continua-
tion of the scores which Mathilde's " dusk
man " played for her in the music-room of the
villa on the Green Hill? She even knew
something of his plans for " The Victors,"
which he did not live to carry out. Even
when Wagner reached back into the past and
rewrote the Venusberg scene in " Tannhau-
ser," he was not content but that his plan
and the reasons for it must be communicated
to her in detail, in order that she might have
a share in that work too! Mathilde Wesen-
donk was not a genius. But she inspired
the mightiest efforts of the greatest musical
genius who, as yet, has appeared upon the
scene.
She herself has said of the Zurich period:
" Out of it sprang ' Tristan und Isolde.' The
rest is silence and bowing one's head in rev-
erence." Yes—before Tristan, but no less
before his Isolde.
In 1872 the Wesendonks left Zurich and
settled first in Dresden, later in Berlin.
Their country seat on the Traunsee was pur-
chased in 1878. Wagner sent them the
scores of " Die Meistersinger," " Siegfried,"
251

and Gotterdammerung," with inscriptions

testifying to his feelings of friendship and
gratitude. When Siegfried Wagner was
studying in Berlin he was a welcome guest
at the Wesendonk house. Otto died in
1896, Mathilde, August 31, 1902, in the
Traunsee villa after an illness of only a few
hours. It was during the last years of her
life that she harked back to the romance of
which she was the heroine and the greatest
of musical geniuses the hero, and pre-
pared the correspondence for publication.
She well knew that it only needed to be read
to place in its proper light a relation which
even in her later years had furnished occa-
sion for malicious comment. The Wagner
estate, which had a proprietary interest in
the letters, consented to forego its rights, and
the correspondence was issued for the ben-
efit of the Bayreuth fund.
In the book are a few letters from Mathilde
to Wagner, none later than 1865. Intel-
lectually they are not remarkable, but they
show a tender concern and gentle sympathy
for his misfortunes. I will quote three
characteristic extracts:

THE FABRIC OF DREAMS
• — m
"A SILENT CHRISTMAS JOY"

December 25, 1861.
A silent Christmas joy to which I had in-
tended to treat myself, you have brought to
nought. On my birthday you were to have
received a letter—it is lying in Vienna. On
Christmas you were to have been surprised
with a little box of trifles in various ways
associated with our companionship. The
task of gathering them was a joy to me, and
I accomplished it with uncommon celerity and
ease, secretly fearing that I might be too
late. Doubtless the box soon will be returned
to me from Vienna.
"THE OLD L O N G I N G W
January 16, 1862.

I have just been reading Schopenhauer's
biography, and feel myself indescribably at-
tracted by his character, which seems to have
so much in common with yourself. The old
longing came over me to gaze again into
those beautifully inspired eyes, into the deep
mirror of nature that is akin to genius. I
thought much of our companionship. The
rich world that you spread out before my
253

child-like mind lay before me. My eyes

rested with ecstasy on the magic structure.
Faster and faster my heart beat with deep
gratitude, and I felt that nothing of this
would ever be lost to me. So long as I breathe
I will strive, and that I owe to you.1
U
FOR I GLADLY SUFFER WITH Y O U "
Schwalbach, August 9, 1863.
Your sad letter sank heavily into my
heart. Yet I do not protest against the
grief you have caused me by writing thus.
For I gladly suffer with you. My whole
being feels ennobled in being permitted to
share your grief. However sadly the letters
stare at me up from the paper, when I ask
their meaning, they take on a dear, familiar
aspect when I say to myself, " They were
written by him for you alone!"
This last letter would form a fitting ending
to this story of Wagner and his Isolde. But
there is an ending even more appropriate—
l Besides poems, Mathilde wrote several dramas,
("Gudrun," "Edith, or the Battle of Hastings,"
"Frederick the Great") fairy tales, puppet plays,
and legendary stories. Doubtless Wagner gave he*
the initial stimulus to literary work,
254,

that poem which Mathilde sent to him and

in which he discovered the musical soul, the
Eternal Feminine, of " Tristan und Isolde ":
"DREAMS"
Tell me what these dreams of wonder
Round my soul their magic weaving,
Not like bubbles, burst asunder,
Naught but void behind them leaving?
Visions, every hour bringing

Heaven's message near and nearer,
Blossoms, from a heart upspringing.
Radiance shedding ever clearer.
Visions ever wider ranging,

Glorious as a sun ne'er setting,
Ecstasy complete, unchanging,
All-remembering, all-forgetting!
Visions like the voices calling

In the springtime, clear and sweet,
Mind and heart and soul enthralling,
As the newborn day they greet;
And each flower's tender blossom,

While exhaling fragrant breath,
Like a twilight in thy bosom,
Fades to silent, rapturous death!
255

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CAMBRIDGE LIBRARY COLLECTION

Books of enduring scholarly value

Wagner and His Isolde

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© in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2015

This edition first published 1905

isbn 978-1-108-07855-9 Paperback

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Published September, 1905

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ON reading, in the German original, the

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impressions of her, as well as the quaint and

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MATHILDE " A LOVELY BEING" 34

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" EVERYTHING STRANGE AND COLD \" 79

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THE CORRESPONDENCE RESUMED 133

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" TRISTAN " WITH VIARDOT-GARCIA 230

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MATHILDE WESENDONK (1860) Frontispi&ce

MYRRHA WESENDONK 144

MATHILDE WESENDONK 210

MATHILDE WESENDONK (1864) 246

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wished to have destroyed. Mathilde, however,

THE GREATEST PSYCHOLOGICAL ROMANCE

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TRISTAN Richard Wagner

THE HEROINE OF A PASSION

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Zurich. At the same time he was high-

WHO WAS MATHILDE?

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resentatives in New York. In fact, the busi-

A FAMOUS GOLD PEN

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after the pen had been presented to him), he

MATHILDE AS A FRIEND RECALLS HER

It gives added interest to the romantic

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them, visiting them in Zurich in the very villa

ARISTOCRATIC., ETHEREAL, FAIRY-LIKE

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married to Freiherr von Bissing, died, three

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endonk villa, the young student was intro-