THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
RICHARD WAGNER'S PROSE WORKS.
VOLUME I. THE ART-WORK OF THE FUTURE.
,, II. OPERA AND DRAMA.
III. THE THEATRE.
,, IV. ART AND POLITICS.
V. ACTORS AND SINGERS.
VI. RELIGION AND ART.
,, VII. IN PARIS AND DRESDEN.
VIII. POSTHUMOUS, ETC.
Price \2s. (>d. net each volume.
I 849 : A VINDICATION, a short account of the Dresden insurrection
and Wagner's attitude thereto. By WM. ASHTON ELLIS. Stiff paper
covers, 2s. 6a. ; cloth, y. 6d.
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD., LONDON.
LETTERS OF RICHARD WAGNER TO O. WESENDONCK ET AL.
EMIL HECKEL.
Translated by WM. ASHTON ELLIS. Cloth, gilt tops, $s. net each.
GRANT RICHARDS, 9 HENRIETTA STREET, LONDON, W.C.
LIFE OF RICHARD
WAGNER:
BEING AN AUTHORISED
ENGLISH VERSION BY
WM. ASHTON ELLIS
OF C. F. CJLASENAPP'S
"DAS LEBEN
RICHARD WAGNER'S."
VOL. I.
LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
1900.
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH
L,
f. /
PREFACE.
PREFACES seem to be falling into general dislike in
England. At times, however, they are necessary evils.
I will endeavour to make the present ill as brief as
possible.
There is absolutely no need to dwell upon the lack of a
full and authoritative English " Life of Wagner," forpace
Mr H. T. Finck's two entertaining volumes the thing has
never yet been seriously attempted. The same might be
said with regard to every country, save for one exception :
even in Germany, the Bayreuth master's native land, there
exists but one biography of him that aspires to the com-
pleteness of a standard work ; it naturally has both fed
and swallowed up the rest. That biography is the incom-
parable work of Carl Fr. Glasenapp. Originally published
in 1876, for the opening of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in
1882 (the year of Parsifal] it was brought down to date
by a second edition with a supplemental section ; then
came a pause. Richard Wagner died in 1883, and it
might have been thought advisable for Herr Glasenapp
to hasten forward yet a third edition, with a second supple-
ment ; but he felt, and rightly, that no further edition ought
to be issued before time, research and meditation should
have enriched his work with riper thought and a far larger
body of material. Meanwhile appeared the shorter mono-
graphs of Wilhelm Tappert and Richard Pohl ; supplying
valuable information in many respects, however, they
made no pretension to that monumental character Herr
Glasenapp had prefigured as his own ideal. At last in
1894 the first volume of his third edition saw the light ;
containing in itself almost as much matter as both the
volumes of its predecessor (1882), it was practically a new
.
VI PREFACE.
production. The German preface to that volume, ac-
knowledging indebtedness to right and left (an indebted-
ness really quite insignificant in comparison with the
author's own rich stores and private sources of information),
foreshadowed the work's completion in two additional
instalments. Two further volumes have since, in fact,
appeared, taking us to the Spring of 1864 (when Richard
Wagner was summoned to Munich). A fourth, to conclude
the Life, is not as yet to hand ; but by the time I have
caught Herr Glasenapp up, I have every confidence that,
despite the smallness of his leisure for literary pursuits, he
will not have kept us waiting.
Having managed to introduce myself into the question,
I had better proceed at once to make a clean breast of it,
and confess that this is not a literal translation of Herr
Glasenapp's work. After commencing the task of trans-
ference to our own vernacular, I felt that I should do the
author far more justice by allowing myself a change of
phrase or sequence here and there ; that a paragraph
might be slightly re-arranged upon occasion, a footnote
lifted into the text, or even omitted, a comment varied for
the English reader, and so on. Not that anything of a
material nature would suffer change, but merely that the
shade of difference in the spirit of two allied languages,
and their literature, should be taken into consideration.
Were I to call the plan which I deemed requisite and
have adopted a " free translation," I should be conveying
a false impression ; for page after page is in strict
accordance with the German original. " An English
revision " would be nearer the mark, and express the
fact that in all essentials I have closely followed Herr
Glasenapp's text, but from time to time I have made a
little verbal or constructional alteration. To this, I may
add, I have Herr Glasenapp's full and free consent.
As to the present volume : Objection may be taken, in
some captious quarters, to the devotion of so much space
to Richard Wagner's ancestors and other relations. It
must be remembered, however, that in the case of any
PREFACE. Vll
notable phenomenon scientific inquiry positively demands
some knowledge of the antecedent conditions ; individual
biology is sterile unless it can trace, however imperfectly,
the germs bequeathed to the scion by his stock. Then
again, the life of boy and youth is far more largely repre-
sented by impressions received, than by actions done ; the
influence of the family surroundings forms an important
factor in future evolution. And when we come to the
doings of the hero's brothers and sisters (in all but one
instance, his seniors), we have both lines of interest con-
verging : on the one hand they distinctly shew what must
necessarily have been reflected upon the juvenile mind, on
the other they help to account through consanguinity for
the bent of his own nature in this case most strikingly,
as almost every one of Richard's father's children except
himself became an actor, or what is still more to the
purpose, a singing actor.
This volume brings our story down to 1843, an important
era in Richard Wagner's life, with his entry, as composer
of two successful operas, upon a so-called " practical "
career at one of the principal German theatres. How
he fared there, how he turned his back on Dresden and
all office-bearing, and how he planned and actually
commenced his great artistic reformation, will form the
subject of Volume II. (to appear, as I hope, in 1901).
Volume III. will follow his changing fortunes, through
the last two-thirds of his exile, down to his rescue by
King Ludwig. This, I trust, will be ready in 1902 ;
whilst, subject to Herr Glasenapp's state of forwardness,
I expect to complete the Life by a fourth volume in
1903.
As I fancy I heard the bell ring, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I withdraw to let the curtain rise.
WM. ASHTON ELLIS.
Horsted Keynes,
August 1900.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
PR^NATALIA (1769-1813).
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY ....... 3
I. FAMILY HISTORY. Excise-officer Gottlob Friedrich Wagner
and his forefathers " Urahnherr war der Schonsten hold."
Leipzig after the Seven-years War. Friends and de-
scendants of G. F. Wagner ..... 7
II. ADOLF WAGNER. Years of study at Leipzig and Jena.
Friendship with Arnold Kanne and Joh. Falk. "Two
Epochs of Modern Poetry." Personal and literary con-
nections : August Apel, Wendt and Brockhaus. Apel's
"Polyidos." Translations and original poems . . 17
III. FRIEDRICH WAGNER. Birth and childhood. Impres-
sions derived from Schiller's works. Legal studies and
general culture. " Gerichtsaktuarius " Wagner in Leipzig
amateur theatricals. Marriage with Johanna Bertz.
Friends of the house. A quiverful. The "Maid of
Orleans " and " Bride of Messina " . . . .27
IV. LUDWIG GEYER. Friendship of F. Wagner and L. Geyer.
Geyer's youth : taste for painting. Talent for play-
acting. Years of wandering, with military interludes :
Magdeburg, Stettin, Breslau. Return to Leipzig ; engage-
ment in the Seconda company. Relations with the
Wagner family ...... 36
FIRST BOOK : CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH (1813-1833).
I. THE YEAR 1813. The King of Prussia's call to arms and
Germany's uprising. Birth of Richard Wagner. E. T. A.
Hoffmann at Leipzig. Geyer at Dresden and Teplitz. The
October-days: ''Napoleon without a hat." Friedrich
Wagner's death. Jean Paul's prophecy . . .47
X CONTENTS.
PACK
II. REMOVAL TO DRESDEN. Fresh troubles. Geyer weds the
widow. Removal to Dresden. Dresden's pigtailery.
Company at Geyer's house : puppet-plays and comedies.
Debuts of Louise and Rosalie. Richard's infancy . . 54
III. GEYER'S LAST YEARS. Relations with K. M. v. Weber.
The " German Opera." Starring at Prague and Leipzig.
Occupation as painter. Comedy "The Slaughter of the
Innocents." Albert and Rosalie. Failing health. Repre-
sentation of his comedy. Journey to Breslau. Illness and
death ........ 63
IV. RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD. First journey. Impres-
sions of Eisleben. Return to Dresden. Admission into
the Kreuzschule. The new suit. Sister Cacilie as play-
fellow. Dread of ghosts. Loschwitz : tale of a pumpkin.
Love of Nature and dumb animals. " The history of my
dogs." Affection for his mother . . . -73
V. THE KREUZSCHULER. Enthusiasm for classical antiquity.
Adventure on the roof of the Kreuzschule. Weber and
" Der Freischiitz." First music-lessons. Hankering after
theatricals. Clara's d^but as singer. First attempts at
poetry. Weber's death. Homer and Shakespeare. Con-
firmation. The great Tragedy. Changes in the household . 83
VI. LEIPZIG. Quarters in the " Pichhof." Louise's artistic
successes. She marries Friedrich Brockhaus. Uncle
Adolf and aunt Sophie. The S. Nicholas School. Beet-
hoven's Symphonies and "Egmont" music. Richard re-
solves to become a musician. Intercourse with uncle
Adolf. Reading Hoffmann. First lessons in harmony . 97
VII. LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION.
Court - theatre at Leipzig. Goethe's Faust : Rosalie
Wagner as Gretchen. Auber's Muette : Rosalie as
Fenella. Rossini's Tell. The July Revolution makes
Richard " a revolutionary." Leipzig riots. From the
Nicholas to the Thomas School. Overtures for grand
orchestra. Performance of the "big drum" overture at
the Court-theatre. Transference to the University . 107
CONTENTS. XI
PAGE
VIII. THE STUDENT OF Music. The university. A "smollis"
offered to the Senior of the Saxonia. Student excesses.
Return to music. Study with Weinlig : his method.
Immersed in Beethoven. Personal relations. Three over-
tures. Polish emigrants. Overtures in D minor and C at
the Gewandhaus . . . . . .120
IX. THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. Composition of the Sym-
phony in C : its construction and themes. Journey to
Vienna: " Zampa" and Strauss's waltzes. Prague: Dionys
Weber has the Symphony played by his Conservatoire
pupils. Mozart traditions. Tomatschek ; Friedrich Kittl.
"Die Hochzeit." Return to Leipzig. Heinrich Laube.
" Kosziusko " text. Performance of the Symphony at the
Gewandhaus. Departure for Wiirzburg . . 1 34
SECOND BOOK: STRAYINGS AND WANDERINGS
(1833-1843).
I. WURZBURG: "DIE FEEN." Albert Wagner. Richard as
Chorus-master. Birth of "Die Feen" ; text and music.
"You have only to dare!" The "Vampyr" aria. Per-
formances at the Wurzburg Musical Union. Completion of
"Die Feen." Return to Leipzig . . . .157
II. " DAS LIEBESVERBOT." Return to Leipzig. " Feen "
negotiations. Director Ringelhardt and Regisseur Hauser.
Representation postponed. Schroder-Devrientas Romeo.
Article on "German Opera": against "learnedness in
music." Relations with Robert Schumann. Poem of "Das
Liebesverbot " written at Teplitz. Off to Magdeburg . 170
III. MAGDEBURG. Lauchstadt and Rudolstadt. Symphony in
E. Magdeburg. Apathy of the Public. Last fortunes of
" Die Feen." New Year's music. Columbus-overture.
Betrothal to Minna Planer. The " Schweizerfamilie " at
Nuremberg. Death of uncle Adolf. Auber's " Lestocq."
Performance of " Das Liebesverbot " . . .186
Xll CONTENTS.
PAGE
IV. ROSALIE WAGNER. External straits. Leipzig : attempts
to get " Das Liebesverbot " accepted. Solicitude of sister
Rosalie. Her temporary eclipse as actress. Rosalie's
marriage with Oswald Marbach : birth of a daughter, and
the mother's death . .... 205
V. KONIGSBERG. Berlin disappointments. Konigsberg.
Letter to Dorn. Draft of "Die hohe Braut" despatched
to Scribe for Paris. Marriage with Minna Planer. " Rule
Britannia" overture. Concerts in the crush-room. In-
cidental music to a play. Relations with A. Lewald.
Dresden: Bulwer's " Rienzi " . . . . .212
VI. RIGA. First impressions. Dorn, Lobmann, Karl von
Holtei. Wagner's endeavours to obtain good performances.
Amalie Planer. National hymn "Nikolai." Bellini's
"Norma," and reflections thereon. Removal to the suburbs.
Concert in the Schwartzhaupter Haus. " Comedians'
ways." Longing to escape from narrow bounds . . 227
VII. " RIENZI, DER LETZTE DER TRIBUNEN." " Rienzi " as
drama. Impressions during the first spell of composition :
Me"hul's "Joseph." Dorn on the inception of the Rienzi-
music. Dorn's " Schoffe von Paris." Letter to August
Lewald. Loneliness at Riga ; compassion for a young
delinquent ; the Newfoundland dog Robber. Wagner
replaced by Dorn ...... 246
VIII. FROM RIGA TO PARIS. Difficulties of leaving Russia.
Last performances at Mitau. Crossing the Russian
frontier. Embarcation at Pillau. Norway : the Sound and
the " Champagne-mill." London. Arrival at Boulogne.
Meyerbeer. Paris at the end of the thirties . . . 262
IX. FIRST PARISIAN DISAPPOINTMENTS. Introductions.
Meeting with Laube ; dinner at Brocci's ; Heinrich Heine.
Pecht, Kietz, Anders, Lehrs Grand Ope*ra and Theatre
des Italians. Conservatoire de Musique : Ninth Symphony.
Scribe and Berlioz. Composition of French romances.
Fortunes of the " Liebesverbot " at the Renaissance theatre.
A " Faust " overture. Removal to Rue du Helder.
Bankruptcy of the Renaissance .... 271
CONTENTS. X1I1
PAGE
X. COMPLETION OF " RIENZI." Return to " Rienzi." Musical
hack-work. " Der fliegende Hollander" for the Grand
Opera. Friendship of the needy : evening reunions at
Wagner's. Contributions to the Gazette Musicale. Meet-
ing with Liszt. "Rienzi" finished. More journeyman-
work. Napoleon's re-interment. New Year's eve. . 293
XL "DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER." " An End in Parish-
Failure of the Columbus-overture. News-letters to the
Abendzeitung. Projected Life of Beethoven. Henri
Vieuxtemps, Schindler, Liszt. In the country near Meudon.
The " Freischutz " in Paris. " Rienzi " accepted at
Dresden. Poem and music of the " Flying Dutchman."
Return to Paris : efforts to get the " Dutchman " accepted
at Leipzig, Munich, Berlin. "Die Sarazenin." "Tann-
hauser und der Sangerkrieg auf Wartburg." Return to
Germany ....... 308
XII. DRESDEN. Arrival in Dresden. Summer at Teplitz.
Rehearsals and production of "Rienzi." Excerpts at the
Gewandhaus. " The Flying Dutchman " produced at
Dresden. Offer of the Kapellmeistership : hesitation about
accepting. Trial-performance, Weber's " Euryanthe."
Trip to Berlin. Wagner becomes Kapellmeister . .341
APPENDICES.
I. GENEALOGICAL TABLE ..... 365
II. FAMILY CHRONICLE, 1643-1813 .... 364
III. SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES ..... 372
INDEX ........ 386
PR^ENATALIA.
(1769-1813.)
However lofty a figure be, it never stands entirely
detached from its surroundings; in some one thing
each German is akin to his great Masters, and this
something by the German's very nature is capable
of great, and therefore needs a slow, development.
RICHARD WAGNER.
INTRODUCTORY.
With Bach the German Spirit was born anew, from out
the inmost mysteries of Music. When Goethe's " Goetz "
appeared, the joyful cry went up, " That's German!"
RICHARD WAGNER.
KITING from Berlin in 1750, Voltaire might well
say: "I am living here in France; one knows
no other tongue than ours. German is for none
but the horses and soldiers."
These insolent words of the emissary of French
civilisation throw a lurid light on the state of German culture at
the time. In the lethargy of profound exhaustion the nation had
been all but robbed of its last possession, its native tongue.
Latin was the scholar's language, Italian the singer's and
musician's, French the noble's and courtier's; the conversation
of the burgher world was tricked with French fal-dals; the
mother-tongue fled scared away to nook and corner, field and
hamlet, within the workshop and behind the plough. And just
as this extirpation of the German name and nature seemed sealed
for good, Sebastian Bach, the Leipzig Cantor, forgotten, lonely
and weighed down by life's sore trials, forever closed his weary
eyes against the poverty and want in which he left his loved ones.
Of him says Wagner, that he represents "the history of the
German Spirit's inmost life during the cruel century of the
German folk's complete extinction."
To such a hidden refuge was consigned that remnant of the
German Spirit which lingered on despite the bloody wars of
creeds. In deep enfeeblement, both inner and outer, the
German had acquired the fatal virtue of endurance. He had
learned to trim himself to the unworthy thing, to face oppression
with the passiveness of dogged patience. Confronted with the
braggart splendour of his Princes' courts, and their selfish policy
that spread such boundless misery throughout the land, he still
4 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
preserved undying confidence in his " beloved and honoured
rulers," even when they sold their subjects to the foreign foe.
But already on the Prussian throne there sat the man with
great grey eyes of fire, whose cane was soon to teach all Europe
to respect. On the battlefield of Rossbach the friend and pupil
of French culture, the patron of French taste in literature, first
shewed the world again the German's strength. " The first true
gust of higher life was brought into German poetry through
Frederick the Great and the deeds of the Seven-years War," says
Goethe of him ; and just as in the " War-songs of a Prussian
Grenadier" the German muse addressed herself once more
directly to the Folk, however clumsily and scantly, so German
sense and German speech began to reassert their sway in the
reviving institutions of the Burgher class. "Whereas the folly
of high quarters, disowning home for foreign dictates and French
influences, fell victim to a ghastly impotence, the educated
Burgher world took an active interest in the rewakening of
German Literature, enabling it to follow the unmatched upsoar-
ing of the German spirit, the feats of Winckelmann, Lessing,
Goethe, and lastly Schiller" (Richard Wagner's Prose Works,
V. 330-
Thus the reviving " German Spirit " obtained withal the friendly
soil wherein to thrust and spread its roots. At the very time
when the foreign spirit of Romanic Gaul was celebrating its
triumphs over a trampled nationality, a GOETHE was already
born, and with that birth the genius of the German Folk acquired
a pledge of its renascence : the force deep-buried in the giant
Bach was urging grandly outwards. A youthful stress beyond
compare, a universal receptivity, were striving to present the
whole phenomenal world within the beautifying form of ideal art.
On the opposite pole stood BEETHOVEN, who sought indeed the
form at bottom of Bach's wonder-mine, but solely to inspire it
with an ardent soul, and thus dissolve it from within.
The genius of SCHILLER, keen to ennoble what it found at
hand, bent from the open folk's-stage toward the listening
comrades of his time, to draw them step by step through his
creations from " Don Carlos " to the " Bride of Messina," into his
realm of the Ideal. And this was at the German Theatre, that
same raw German Folk's-stage which, in the hands of a Gottsched
and under the influence of misconstrued French exemplars, had
INTRODUCTORY. 5
just presented such a strange distortion. " We see the raw Folk-
theatre, entirely neglected by the higher-cultured of the nation,
fall into the experimenting hands of beaux esprits in the first half
of the eighteenth century; from these it escapes to the well-
meaning care of an honest but narrow-minded Burgher world,
whose fundamental note becomes its law of Naturalism " (Prose
Works, V. 185). From the simple naturalism of the Burgher-play
to the lofty ideality of the Bayreuth Biihnenfestspiel, leads on the
path pursued in the development of German Art. How many
were the crossings of this path, how often has its settled trend
been made un traceable ; how frequently in later days have sapient
critics trumpeted its last surrender, at the very time the mightiest
artistic genius was holding it with all the unmoved sureness of the
magnet.*
Of all to whom was set the grand example of Schiller's efforts
to uplift the German Theatre inch by inch, to form a truly German
art at once ideal and popular, Karl Maria von WEBER was the only
one to follow it with like devotion in the German Singspiel.\ Nor
was he spared from suffering the poet's outward lot; toward
both these men the German courts and world of fashion stayed
cold and distant, though in every stratum of the Folk itself both
found unfailing tokens of a German instinct going out especially
to these its masters. The heritage of both, the prosecution of
their task, was to be taken up in time by RICHARD WAGNER.
From the Freischtitz to Euryanthe, Weber had gone the same
road as Schiller from his Robbers to his Bride of Messina, the
road of " idealising the drama " : this ideal character was to be
given it in the one case by choosing subjects from the realm of
history and legend, instead of from domestic life, and finally by
summoning the antique chorus to form a living breast-work
against " naturalism " ; in the other, by invoking the magical aid
of music from the first. After Beethoven's world of Tone, well-
nigh unknown to Schiller, had shewn the wondrous power of
German Music, the road itself could no longer stay in doubt,
though only for the tread of genius. Upon the Bayreuth hill
now stands its goal and record.
* Cf. Hans von Wolzogen's "Die Idcalisirung des Theaters" Leipzig, 1885,
C. F. Leede.
t A form of stage-play, with songs, c., strewn among the dialogue.
W. A. E.
6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
But the journey was long, and, properly to follow it, we
must turn for awhile to the heart of that German burgher-
life which in the second half of the eighteenth century begins to
beat with freer pulse. Kindled by the pioneers of the awaking
" German Spirit," there pierces through the mists of apathy a
light, a warmth, the like whereof had not been felt for five wan
generations. " In some respect each German is akin to his great
Masters " : in the attempt, however incomplete, to follow up our
hero's ancestry, the profound truth of these words of Wagner's
may be illustrated by the picture of a family in whose own
evolution the national development is mirrored past mistake.
I.
FAMILY HISTORY.
Excise-officer Gottlob Friedrich Wagner and his forefathers
" Urahnherr war der Schbnsten hold" Leipzig after the Seven-
Years War. Friends and descendants of G, F. Wagner,
Our new Jewish fellow -citizens may decorate themselves
with foreign names as startling as delicious ; we poor old
burgher and peasant families have to rest content with
"Smith" "Miller" " Weaver," " Wainwright" and so
forth, for all time.
RICHARD WAGNER.
ON a September day of 1769 a simple wedding was celebrated in
the little parish-church of Schdnefeld, near Leipzig. The happy
bridegroom bore the name of Gottlob Friedrich Wagner, and filled
the post of Receiver of taxes for the Electoral Excise at Leipzig.
The blushing bride was Johanna Sophia Eichel, only daughter of
Gottlob Friedrich Eichel, the master of a charity-school. A
modest event enough, in no way attracting the notice of the
contemporary world, or even of fellow-townsmen beyond the
immediate circle of acquaintances. But the blessing of the
renascent Genius of the German nation was on this union, and
filled it with import to remotest times.
The scene of this country wedding, a pleasant spot barely three
miles distant from the city and a favourite summer resort for the
inhabitants of Leipzig, was gay with all the bravery of autumn
tints on field and hedge. Forty-four years later it became dis-
tinguished in the War of Liberation, a scene of cruel havoc ; just
about that time was born our RICHARD WAGNER, a grandson of
this bridal pair.
Not till quite recently has any light been thrown on the ancestors
and previous history of Gottlob Friedrich Wagner. The family
traditions did not go back beyond the grandfather ; Richard
Wagner's own knowledge here found its limit, and, ever striving
8 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
toward the future, his genius had far more serious work to do
than hunting up his personal pedigree. " Forget your ancestors,"
he cried in 1848 to a puffed-up aristocracy, "and we promise to
be generous and strike away all memory of ours. Reflect that,
else, we too must recollect our forefathers; whose deeds and
good deeds too have not been treasured up in household
archives, but whose sufferings, thraldoms and oppressions of all
kinds, are written on the great unerring records of the history
of the last millennium." So speaks a sterling scion of the German
Folk, who feels his blood and spirit one with the free Germanic
hero-dom of old, and needs no other patent of nobility. Yet if
sturdy manliness makes out the kernel of true heroism, we well
may look to meet it in the forbears, sprung mostly from the
peasant class, of these " ancestorless " German heroes of the
mind. A heroism made strong by toil and hardship, by work
and strife; even though that strife at first be nothing beyond
the struggle to bring the native soil to fruitful bearing, a rooting
out, a clearing, ploughing and sowing. When men begin to
group themselves into communities, and distinctive names of
families arise, in the very name of "Wagner" we have a hint
of the old Aryan, the ur-Germanic occupation of its earliest
bearer.* And when the hero of the German Reformation, a
son of miner and peasant folk, claims from the nobles of the
German nation, the dignitaries of every German city, the teaching
of the poor neglected people, the founding of schools and churches
in town and country, to German men there opens out a new wide
field for struggle and endeavour. However insignificant its out-
* See Hans von Wolzogen's Urgermanische Spuren: "As the old Aryan
stock begins its wanderings, and history commences to evolve, men build and
fit the -wagon, to carry wife and children, goods and chattels, to a new home
beyond the ancient confines. The ox-drawn wain is just as characteristic of
the Aryan, as the tent-bearing camel of the Semite. Like our shepherd's
cabin, the hut he next erects is but this wandering wagon brought to rest.
Whithersoever his journeyings took him from the East, through Russia up to
Norway, or downward to the Alps, to this day we find these wagon-huts set
high on stones, in lieu of wheels, to ward him from the torrent's rage. Thus
with the first migration of our race appears the art of the ' Wagner' (wain-
wright), as the manly art, beside the womanly domestic art of the ' Weber '
(weaver) ; and it is truly touching to see the earliest handicrafts of our fore-
fathers giving their names to those families whence the Germanest masters of
the most German art were later to arise : families of calling, from out the
primal family of blood" (Bayreuther Blatter, 1887, pp. 267-68).
FAMILY HISTORY. 9
ward aspect, this struggle is a veritable fight with dragons, housed
in the caves of ignorance and superstition. The village School-
master becomes the actual guide and Christian educator of the
Folk : a notable and typic figure in seventeenth century Germany,
down to its tiniest hamlet ; for the most part cantor, organist, nay,
sacristan in one, and withal the friend and counsellor of the whole
countryside, the link between the populace and culture of his
times ; nay more, the only prop of " Deutschthum " against the
overbearing Romanism of courts and high society.
In this humble educational work the ancestors of Gottlob
Friedrich Wagner had shared through many generations ; from
father to son and grandson we meet them as simple, pious
folkschool-teachers in various nooks of Saxony, and mostly, too,
as organists and cantors of the parish church. From the same
rank sprang great Sebastian Bach, and never left it till his death.
" Behold this master dragging on his half-starved life as ill-paid
organist and cantor now of this, and now of that Thuringian
parish puny places scarcely known to us by name," says Richard
Wagner of him ; yet the influence of men like these upon the
people's inner life, midst all the nation's outward powerlessness,
he shews us in an earlier article : " Go and listen one winter-
night in that little cabin : there sit a father and his three sons, at
a small round table ; two play the violin, a third the viola, the
father the 'cello ; what you hear so lovingly played, is a quartet
composed by that little man who is beating time. He is the
schoolmaster from the neighbouring hamlet, but the quartet he
has composed is a lovely work of art and feeling. Again I say,
go to that spot, and hear that author's music played, and you
will be dissolved to tears ; for it will search your heart, and you
will know what German Music is, will feel what is the German
spirit "(P. W. VII. 86-7).*
Our hero's first discoverable progenitor is Samuel Wagner,
appointed schoolmaster of Thammenhain near Wurzen in the
Leipzig circuit, hard by the present Prussian boundary, but then
in the very heart of Saxony. He was born in 1643 > but where
his cradle stood we cannot definitely say, as the whole preceding
quarter of a century had been occupied by the unrest and havoc
* For sake of brevity, quotations from Richard Wagner's Prose Works will
in future be indicated in the manner above. W. A. E.
IO LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
of the Thirty- Years War. Most probably his father, like himself,
was a simple folkschool-teacher ; but neither register nor archive
makes mention of his name or origin. The father's calling seems
indicated by the scriptural fore-name of the son, which would
hardly have been chosen by burgher or peasant. It remains a
special favourite through several generations of the Wagner
house; repeatedly we find three Samuels at one time, a father,
son, and grandson, or uncle and nephew; and if one dies, the
next-born is christened after him.
It is in his twentieth year that we find our Samuel Wagner
entering on his duties at Thammenhain,* and by his side his
newly-wedded Barbara. His eldest son is Emanuel Wagner,
born in August 1664, sire of the stock whose destinies we are
about to follow; but the very next son receives the father's
Christian name, and succeeds to his post of organist and school-
master when death takes the older Samuel, at sixty-three, after
more than forty years of tenure. The first-born, Emanuel, also
remains faithful to his father's calling. Like him, he early enters
office at the neighbouring Colmen (Kulm) near Thalwitz, and
at Kiihren in 1688 he marries Anna Benewitz, aged eighteen
years, daughter of schoolmaster and tax-gatherer Ernst Benewitz.
What higher talents he may have possessed, his narrow round of
life and duties prevents us from discovering. About 1702,
already blest with a little daughter Anna Dorothea, he removes
from Colmen to Kiihren, the birthplace of his wife, to fill a
similarly modest station; at Kiihren a year later, the i4th of
January 1703, his first male offspring, Samuel Wagner, comes
into the world. It would seem that Emanuel was not spared his
share of trials ; several of his children must have died in infancy ;
his faithful helpmeet goes before him to the other world in the
prime of life, dying at the age of eight-and-forty. He lives to see
his eldest daughter married at Kiihren to a master-tailor, Joh.
Miiller of Altenburg, and departs this life in his sixty-second
year.
Not long after his father's death we meet with the younger
* The name " Thammenhain " has been interpreted as " Damian's grove " ;
but in the year 1284 it appears in the form of ' ' Tannenhain, " or " Fir-grove,"
so that our hero's oldest ancestor presents himself as a genuine Tann-hauser.
The parish, still fairly flourishing, lies on the Thorgau road, in a hilly and
well-wooded country of pines there is no lack ; to the north-east rises the
Schildaer Berg, and to the east begins the Sitzeroder Heide.
FAMILY HISTORY. 1 I
Samuel Wagner at Miiglenz, two leagues north-east of Wurzen,
as assistant to the schoolmaster of the place, after having given
proof of his powers by singing in church on St. John's day, 1727,
" to the satisfaction of the Herr Pastor and assembled congrega-
tion" taking us quite into the first act of Die Meistersinger ;
though the worthy Masters themselves are lacking, the minister
and congregation play the role of " marker " and prize-adjudgers.
His deed of appointment, executed by Administrator, Liege-lord
and Justice, Rudolf von Biinau,* has come down to us in the
original. In it he is solemnly pledged, as substitute during the
life of the "emeritus," and principal after the latter's death,
"truly and with all diligence to discharge God's service in the
church with song, with lection, prayer and organ-playing; to
bring the school-children to a proper fear of God in the orthodox
religion, and particularly in the Catechismo Lutheri and other
Christian teachings and virtues ; as also, assiduously to instruct
them in singing, reading, writing and arithmetic; and, should
plague arise, which God in His mercy forfend, to abide and not
forsake his post," etc., etc. The Emeritus having meanwhile
been retired on account of age and illness, a second and still
more elaborate decree, dated the i4th August of the same year,
confirms Samuel Wagner's definite appointment to the rank of
Miiglenz Schoolmaster with assurance of a full yearly wage "and
all other benefits and customary accidencies enjoyed by his
antecessors."
Barely half a year later, on the loth of February 1728, he
brings a wife to his Miiglenz schoolhouse, Anna Sophia the orphan
daughter of Master Christoph Rossig, late tenant of the flour-mill
at Dahlen. His path in life seems to have been comparatively
free of thorns ; nevertheless he lived to no old age, but died of
some disorder on the 22nd November 1750, after two-and-twenty
years of married happiness, leaving his widow with five surviving
children, among them three daughters : Johanna Sophie, Christine
Eleonore, and Susanna Caroline. Of these children the fourth
in seniority is our Gottlob Friedrich Wagner, born at Miiglenz on
February 18, 1736. His younger brother, Samuel August, was
* See Prose Works IV. 126 : "It was a Saxon Count Biinau under whose
protection our great Winckelmann enjoyed his earliest freedom from the
common cares of life, and leisure to push his free researches in the region of
artistic learning."
12 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
hardly five years old at the time of their father's death ; two other
children had died in earliest infancy.
Gottlob Friedrich was now just fourteen years of age; his child-
hood had been passed in the open scenery round Miiglenz, with
many a ramble along the banks of the Losse or among the foot-
hills of the Hohberger Gebirge. A good share of his education
he owed to his father himself, and then apparently perhaps
even in his father's lifetime to some higher school in Leipzig.
At such a school, at any rate, probably the Thomana, founded in
1728, he must have ended his period of secondary education.
Whether of his own inclination, or at his parents' wish, he was to
proceed to holy orders, and on March 16, 1759 (the year of the
battle of Kunersdorf, of Schiller's birth and the death of Ewald
von Kleist) we find him inscribed on the books of the Leipzig
University as " Student of Theology " ; but we meet him ten years
later as excise-officer, and our happy bridegroom of Schonefeld.
What may have happened to the student of theology in the
interval, to make him abandon a career to which he had devoted
several years of study whether some inner doubt or conscientious
scruple, such as frequently crops up at the last moment, a de-
ficiency of worldly means, or what not we have no reliable
grounds for judging. The data about his life are scanty, present-
ing us with merely a vista here and there, omitting whole stretches
of his history, and leaving gaps which it is no easy matter to fill
with any certainty. In the year 1765, about the time when
Goethe, just sixteen years of age, was removing from Frankfort to
Leipzig, the " town of fashion " on the Pleisse, and taking up his
abode in the " Feuerkugel " on the Neumarkt, we find Gottlob
Friedrich once more expressly mentioned as student of theology.
Certainly the means with which he was furnished for the battle of
life were none too ample, consisting rather in real estate of head
and heart than in personal property. Perhaps, therefore, we may
assume that, to find the wherewithal for the completion of his
studies, he followed for awhile the traditional calling of his
ancestors, the example of so many an impecunious Theologian,
and temporarily filled the post of teacher; helping, let us say,
his future father-in-law, Schoolmaster Eichel, in his functions at
one of the Leipzig schools ? We find him while still a student in
close relation with Eichel, more especially with his fair daughter
Sophie, and whereas we are vouchsafed no other clue to his
FAMILY HISTORY. 13
quitting Theology for a practical civic career, one notable and
perhaps determinant fact is yet on record. In the grandsire of
our master, for all the narrowness of burgher life, it betrays an
ardent temperament " Urahnherr war der Schonsten hold "
("Forefather won the ladies' hearts" Goethe). Alike the
charms of the schoolmaster's nineteen-year-old daughter, and her
inclination to the hot-blooded young student, must have been
potent enough; for even before the Eichelin had become a
Wagnerin in the eyes of the world, Johanna Sophia presented the
elect of her heart with a love-pledge. On March 23, 1765, the
child was baptised in the church of St Thomas with the names of
its father and maternal grandfather ; * but, no further notice of it
having come to us, we must assume that it was never granted to
repay its mother's shame and suffering by the joy of seeing it
grow up to strength and manhood.
Whether it be that even in the sparkish Leipzig of last century,
with its notoriously free manners and lenience toward the
gallant vices of polite society, such an irregularity was rigorously
visited on the head of a young plebeian aspiring to serve the
Church or School ; or whether our Gottlob Friedrich had inner
reasons for bidding farewell to Theology, it is about this time
that he must have taken the decisive step, and chosen a career
that offered speedier prospects of the material independence
needful for riveting in permanence the bond already knit by love.
Such are the only antecedents, known as yet, of the wedding-
feast at pleasant little Schonefeld in 1769.
Gottlob Friedrich Wagner had found the desired means of
sustenance for himself and his in the administrative department
of the Electoral Saxon General Excise. As early as the i6th
century a system of territorial taxes had been adopted in Saxony
and other German countries, together and almost simultaneously
with imposts upon the consumer ; but at the beginning of the
1 8th a total change was introduced by the establishment of a
so-called "General- Konsumtions-Accise." The incidence of taxes
was more evenly distributed, and a far larger body of consumers
laid under contribution. At the entrance to every town a duty
* The godparents are recorded as: Maria Christina Lutz, daughter of
journeyman-mason Johann Georg Lutz; Johann Reisser, market-help;
Johann Friedrich Teicher, silk -worker ; all of this place.
14 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
was levied on all raw materials, manufactured goods, and food-
stuffs ; at Leipzig, where the matter was in the hands of the town
authorities, there were at that time four such entrances, the
Rannstadt, the Halle, the Grimma and the Peter Gates. Gottlob
Friedrich Wagner was stationed at the first-named, the Rann-
stadter Thor, leading to the Briihl with its eventual birthplace of
Richard Wagner, the house of the "white and red lion." To
every incomer on foot or wheels, along the paved Rannstadter
highway from the old "Water-gate" outside, he had to address
the regulation "Quis? Quid? Unde? Cur?"; he inspected
travellers' passports, and levied the gate-dues not wholly
abolished until 1824. That he had an "education far beyond
the level of a civil-servant of those days," is attested by a note
in the Litterarischer Zodiakus und Konversationslexikon der
neuesten Zeit und Litteratur of September 1835, in course of an
article on Adolf Wagner ; and so diligent and faithful was he in
the discharge of his official duties, that we find the Assistant-
exciseman of 1769 made five years later a Superintendent (Ober-
Einnehmer), a position not merely lucrative, but also of some
civic dignity, for in smaller Saxon towns we often meet it in
combination with that of the presiding Burgomaster.*
The establishment of G. F. Wagner's household took place at
a time when the blessings of peace were doubly welcome. Six
years had passed since the signing of the Peace of Hubertsburg,
and the town of Leipzig was just beginning to recover from the
devastations of war, the forced contributions levied by Frederick
the Great, the shameful coinage operations of Ephraim Itzig &
Co. at Castle Pleissenburg.t "Von aussen gut, von innen
* On Feb. 2, 1702, at Pirna there died the Electoral Excise-receiver and
ruling Burgomaster, Johann Gottlieb Wagner, born in 1654, a son of the
Pirna Town-councillor and merchant, Johann Wagner. This family, how-
ever, does not appear to have been connected with the line of Emanuel
Wagner; its origin was in Bohemia, where Johann Gottlieb's grandparents
on both sides ' ' left their fair property of real estate and chattels, through the
troubles of the anti-reformation, to turn their exiled steps toward Pirna."
Thus an old obituary notice of this Pirna Excise-receiver and Burgomaster,
which closes with an oration for the soul of "Wagner passing from us on the
soft and blessed wain of death": "his death -wain," so runs the old printed
document, " was a veritable car of triumph ; but godless men and unbelievers
shall have far other wagons, to roll them into Hell."
t Frederick the Great had farmed alike the Berlin mint and that of Saxony
to Court-jeweller Ephraim Itzig, and grain by grain this man so lowered the
FAMILY HISTORY. 15
schlimm; von aussen Friedrich, von innen Ephraim," this folk-
rhyme (quoted at Wahnfried in the master's last years of life)
long preserved the memory of those Prussian ducats, even after
Friedrich August the Just had sought with some success to
mitigate the effect of all these ills. Now a time of peaceful
expansion and adornment was commencing for the Linden-city,*
which impressed young Goethe in comparison with his native
town by its lack of ancient monuments, but wealth of tokens of
material prosperity and social animation. The founding of many
an art-institute, the housing of rare collections, the installation
of new buildings and gardens, contributed no little to confer on
Leipzig its sobriquet of " Paris minor." The Frankfort student
was struck above all by "those gigantic buildings with fa9ades
on either side, enclosing in their heaven-scaling courts a world of
citizens, more like huge castles, nay, in themselves half-cities."
Thus on the Rathhaus Place stood the palatial Hohenthal and
Apel houses, with the Auerbachischer Hof, celebrated not more
for its " cellar " than for the abundance of all conceivable wares
for dress and personal adornment in its countless stores and
shopfronts, of which latter alone it contained six-and-forty down
to the year 1799: a favourite rendezvous for the fashionable
world, particularly at fair-time, and sung by many a poet.
Among the recent embellishments of the town not the least
noteworthy was the new Playhouse, built close beside our Gottlob
Friedrich's dwelling, on the site of the former bastion of the
Elector Moritz, and founded by the liberality of a wealthy
merchant. The actor's art usurped the habitat of war, a pledge
and token of reviving ease. The house had been opened with
Schlegel's patriotic " Hermann " and no small ceremony on the
6th of October 1766, and within its roomy walls the skilful hand
of Oeser had painted the new drop-curtain while the Frankfort
student read aloud to him the proof-sheets of Wieland's
" Musarion."
In the absence of definite evidence, we may assume that the
receiver-of-customs took pleasure in the art which won such lively
interest from his fellow-townsmen ; we have no hint, however, of
monetary standard that at last the "mark fine," worth 14 thalers, had come
to be the equivalent of 45. Of these ' ' Ephraim ites " seven-million thalers-
worth were sent into the world.
* The name of Leipzig is derived from the Slavonian " lipa lime-tree."
1 6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
any personal leaning or relation toward the drama. In his house-
hold intercourse, so far as ascertainable, we are not taken beyond
the strictly burgher circle of comrades of like standing with
himself. We meet no Leipzig Garrick or Roscius there, but the
worthy supervisors of the Land-Acrise, Heinrich Baudius and
Johann Georg Reinicke with wife ; the gate-clerk, Karl Gottfried
Korner; shopkeepers Adam Horn and Joh. Gottfried Sintenis,
with their ladies ; Despatcher of the Electoral imposts, Karl
Friedrich Ferber, et al. A well-to-do "burgher and vintner"
Adolf Volbling is found among them ; he stood godfather to the
second son born to G. F. Wagner in wedlock, Gottlob Heinrich
Adolf, commonly known by the last of these three names. Before
Adolf, his elder brother Friedrich had been born in 1770, the
year of Beethoven's birth ; after him, Frau Johanna Sophia
presented her husband with yet a daughter, Johanna Christiana
Friederike, born 1778, whose memory Richard Wagner cherished
to his dying day as his maiden " Aunt Friederike."
Beyond the testimony of that notice above-quoted, Gottlob
Friedrich's bent toward higher culture is proved by the careful
education he gave to his two sons, Friedrich and Adolf Wagner,
in whom it is still more plainly manifested. That bursting away
from the stifling materialism of our modern culture into the open air
of art-creation, which we find so amazingly illustrated in the pre-
eminently artistic mind of Richard Wagner Nature seems to
have already been trying for it in his uncle and his father ; together
with the most untiring diligence, she planted in the one the
passion to assimilate the intellectual gains of every age and
people, in the other that predilection for theatric art which runs
as a scarlet thread through all his life. We will first direct
attention to the younger brother, and thereafter pass with the
older to the earliest impressions brought to bear on Richard
Wagner.
II.
ADOLF WAGNER.
Hears of study at Leipzig and Jena. Friendship with Arnold
Kanne and Joh. Falk. " Two Epochs of Modern Poetry" Per-
sonal and literary connections: August Apel, Wendt and Brock-
haus. ApeVs " Polyidos." Translations and original poems.
His name is an honoured one in that group of men of
mind and character who partly by creative force have
founded a new epoch in any branch of mental culture, in
part by zeal and diligence have helped to cherish and
mature the intellectual gains of Germany ; in union with
the best of his age and nation he ever battled valiantly
against the vulgar, bad and superficial, in Life and
Literature.
NECROLOGUE ON ADOLF WAGNER.*
In all that falls from mortal benches there needs must
be much dross and shavings. Good, if a silver-gleam
shews here and there, and the king of metals has not
vanished quite away ! This, I may hope, I have
preserved.
ADOLF WAGNER.
THIS chapter is devoted to the life and mental evolution of one
who formed a prominent and familiar figure in our hero's earlier
surroundings, who presents many a feature in common with his
great nephew, and whose memory was honoured by Richard
Wagner to his latest days.
" A mind better adapted for assimilating the most diverse
forms of human knowledge can scarcely ever have been bred,
yet scarcely ever concentrated on so little use," says an old
writer.! " He eagerly stretched out his hand to every detail,
* From an old collection entitled " Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen "
(Weimar, Voigt), xiii. 649-51.
t The anonymous author of the Necrologue cited in our motto perhaps the
aesthete Amadeus Wendt himself.
B "
1 8 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
since all things interested him, and in his mobile brain he had an
implement for each ; but never did he satisfy himself in his work,
or do justice to his own original nature in what he wrote."
Furnished with this many-sidedness, Adolf Wagner came into
the world on November 15, 1774. From the age of nine he was
educated at the Leipzig Thomana, where he soon evinced a bent
toward philologic studies. At eighteen he was entered for the
Theologic Faculty at the Leipzig University, though from the very
beginning of his student-days he was more attracted by the lore of
classical antiquity. In this he was encouraged by the example of
the most eminent among his theologic teachers, Chr. Daniel Beck,
one of those astoundingly learned Germans of days gone by,
who, starting from old Roman Law, had urged through Exegesis
and the Fathers to the field of Universal History, distinguished
himself as an expert in historic regions partly opened for the first
time by himself, and yet whose native soil remained old-classical
philology. To train young philologians to be teachers in the
higher schools, was one main object of his energy; thus he wished
to attach young Adolf Wagner to the university for good. But
the inner inclination of this gifted pupil met the wish with an
insuperable obstacle ; his eager thirst for knowledge was coupled
with a keen desire of independence, for whose sake he preferred
all kinds of sacrifice to entering an academic life.
Besides his theological and philologic studies, Adolf was
powerfully attracted by the revival of German philosophy. In
this respect, however, he had to depend much more on private
reading, than on public lectures. He was also drawn toward
modern languages, particularly the Italian and its literature in
the event a chief department of his scholarship.
Having rejected many an inducement to assume a definite
official standing, the death of his father soon made it a
necessity for him to put alike his knowledge and his indepen-
dence to the test. It was Jena more than any other place,
that now attracted our young friend; Jena at that time the
home of German letters, where Fichte, Schelling, Steffens, the
two Schlegels, Gries and Brentano were revolving round "the
triad constellation" Goethe, Schiller and Wieland. With a
friend, and not without adventures, he journeyed thither in
1798, made the acquaintance of Schiller, and was welcomed
almost daily to the poet's hospitable house until Schiller himself
ADOLF WAGNER. 19
removed to Weimar. He also attended the lectures of Fichte,
who, called to Jena four years earlier, had begun to found
his own philosophic system while forming the amorphous minds
of students. Everybody has heard of Fichte's troubles, due
to misunderstandings of all kinds, disunion with his colleagues,
and lastly to his native headiness and obstinacy; he was accused
of atheism, and Adolf had to see his much-prized teacher in-
dignantly hand in his resignation and find it promptly ratified.
But here again A. Wagner gave more time to private studies
and the vital stimulus of personal intercourse, than to attendance
at academic lectures. In company he was "an amiable and
charming figure, and tasted the sweets of life in many an
attractive relation." His modest wants he satisfied by literary
work, translations from all manner of languages, contributions
to critical and other journals, etc., while he bore the pinch of
outward straits with the calm indifference of a lofty mind.
One boon-companion and life-long friend secured at Jena was
Arnold Kanne, the scholarly and ill-starred explorer of Ety-
mology and Myth. Neither difference of disposition, nor
Kanne's restless love of roaming, could dissipate this friend-
ship. In the summer of 1806, when war broke out with
France, Kanne entered the Prussian service, and was taken
prisoner by the French after the disaster at Jena. Through
twenty raw November days he had to march in his light
uniform, with insufficient food. One night-march through the
forest near Vach he managed to escape, and found shelter in
the nearest village upon producing from his breeches-pocket
two letters that proclaimed him not a soldier, but a literary
man and author : the one was from Jean Paul, the other, but
a few months old, from Adolf Wagner. Thus he arrived at
last at Meiningen, a beggar where a few years previously he
had been driving with its Duke ; but since he was barred by
French and German troops from access to the town, he entered
military service again, and this time with the Austrians. How
he quitted it, he tells us in his autobiography. He was down
with fever in the lazaretto at Linz, despairing of life and fate :
"Suddenly," so he relates, "there came an unawaited aid. I
had written to my friend Adolf Wagner in Leipzig, the only
one with whom I kept up correspondence, whatever my lot,
and who loved me as faithfully as I loved him. Scarcely four-
2O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
teen days had I left the hospital, when as if dropped from the
skies a man arrived as envoy from bookseller Hasslinger of
Luu, and bade me to the latter's house. It was a matter of
buying me out, and in effect I became a free man for 160
guldens. For long I believed that Hasslinger himself had
done it, upon hearing that I was author of the just-published
Erste Urkunde der Geschichte. It seemed all the more probable,
as Hasslinger had neither wife nor child, and said nothing to
undeceive me. But from recent information I now am certain
that President Jakobi of Munich was my liberator, and Jean
Paul, to whom Adolf Wagner had written, must have supplied
the first incentive. My friend had moved every stone, and
even petitioned the Austrian Minister of War, von Dohm, to
save me from my awkward plight." In other pages of his
memoirs, too, Kanne speaks with the deepest gratitude of his
"dear friend Adolf Wagner, who was much too good for me,
and took no stock of my great failings." The appendix to a
Mythological Survey in Kanne's "Chronos" describes their
mutual relations and development in common. A "Pangloss''
shewing the unity of Religion and Speech was to have been
published, Kanne collecting the material to be worked up by
Wagner, who had already begun a philosophic introduction in
Latin for sake of wider circulation ; but the work was abandoned,
as Kanne took a turn toward mysticism at Erlangen, and fanati-
cally committed the manuscript to the flames. Notwithstanding
Wagner's difference of opinion on this point, and the many
arguments to which it led, the good-feeling of the two friends
remained the same; merely their epistolary correspondence
grew scantier as the years rolled on.
Adolf Wagner experienced a similar inner change on the part
of another Jena friend, Johannes Falk, whose first satiric poems,
published in the Deutscher Mercur under the auspices of Wieland,
had enjoyed the wellnigh enthusiastic praise of the aged poet :
" the spirit of Juvenal seems to have been so abundantly poured
into him, that not even the fate of the Roman poet could avail to
scare him from his course." * This young satirist's revolt against
* Falk had given proof of his fearlessness at Halle, in a satirical puppet-play
whose dramatis personse took the form of horn-owls, screech-owls, night-owls
and ravens ; the performance was witnessed by a crowd of professors and
representatives of every class, and set the whole city by the ears owing to its
ADOLF WAGNER. 21
the spirit of his times is expressed in his poems " Die Helden "
and " Die Graber zu Kon," but in later life his mind was tuned
to kindlier feelings toward mankind at large ; having lost his own
children, he founded an institute at Weimar for technical civil
education of orphans of the slain in war the horrors whereof he
himself had often witnessed in the years 1806 and 1813. It was
for the benefit of this institute that Adolf Wagner edited in 1819
a three-volume selection from the best works of one whose temper,
honesty and sacrifice, had won his high esteem.
Schiller having left for Weimar, Fichte having resigned his post,
and Adolf's room-chum having gone to Vienna in pursuit of other
studies, after a year of residence in Jena young Wagner returned
to his native city, which he now made his permanent abode, though
the next few years were marked by trips to various other cities,
in particular to Dresden, Berlin and Breslau. Of the splendid
buildings of the place last-named, its ancient churches, beautiful
gardens such as the Ziegelbastei, and surrounding scenery, the
Morgenau and blue chain of the Riesengebirge, he speaks with
affection in later years. In Dresden, to which his visits were
more frequent, he became a close friend of Ludwig Tieck, whose
acquaintance he had already made towards the end of his Jena
period, and for whom he cherished a vast respect throughout his
life.
Among the philologic works that arose under the influence of
Beck belongs his earliest essay, De Alcestide Euripidea (Leipzig
1797), which he followed up with a complete edition of the
Alcestis after his return from Jena. Twenty years later he
returned to this subject, with his revision of Seybold's translation.
A translation of " Caesar's Annals " may be mentioned on account
of its having appeared at Bayreuth in 1808; more important is
his German version of Sophocles' GEdipus Tyrannus, with a
lengthy introduction of his own. In the first years of his return
to Leipzig we also have a German rendering of the " Discourses
of Ulrich von Hutten," followed by a whole series of popular
histories of the Reformers (Zwingli, Leipzig, 1800 ; Wycliffe,
open allusions to personages of the day, prote'ges of the all-powerful Wollner.
An anonymous letter from Berlin advised immediate flight, as it needed but an
order of the Cabinet to clap him into prison. Falk remained, and the
Cabinet-order stayed away.
22 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
1801 ; Erasmus, 1802; Hutten, 1803 ; Jerome of Prague, 1803 ;
CEcolampadius, 1804). At like time he busied himself continually
with Italian literature, and became such a master of the language
that he was equally expert in translating into, as from it.* Thus
it was a special joy to him, to have been the first to render the
euphony of Fouque's charming " Undine " into the melting
accents of the South. When Weigl's opera Die Schweizerfamilie
was to be made presentable at the Dresden Court by turning it
into Italian, there was nothing for it but to apply to Adolf
Wagner, who thus became entrusted with the task of Italianising
a German work for a German Residenz-theater, " da rappre-
sentarsi nel teatro reale di Sassonia," as it runs on the title-page.
The first performance of this harmless sentimental work in the
German language did not take place at Dresden until long there-
after, under K. M. von Weber and on Richard Wagner's fifth
birthday, May 22, 1818. Just as gradual was the passage of
Mozart's works into the domain of German Opera (founded by
Weber), after having been confined for long to Italian singers
and the Italian tongue, t
One fruit of Adolf Wagner's saturation with the spirit of Italian
poetry was his larger treatise styled " Zwei Epochen der modernen
Poesie, dargestellt in Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Goethe, Schiller
und Wieland " (Leipzig, Breitkopf und Hartel, 1806). The avowed
object of this work was " to select two principal groups from the
* His admirable translation of Gozzi's dramatic fairy-tale "The Raven"
(Leipzig 1804) was the first to aim at an exact reproduction, and not a free
adaptation, giving iambics where the original has iambics, prose where it has
prose ; previously there had been none but Werthes' rendering of Gozzi's pieces
a rendering employed as basis of Schiller's " Princess Turandot." Mention
may also be made of his collection of tales called " Scherz und Liebe, in
italienischen Novellen."
fin her Souvenirs "Daniel Stern" (the Comtesse d'Agoult, mother of
Frau Cosima Wagner) recalls the time of Charles X. , when the families of the
Faubourg St Germain would not allow their daughters to go to the Play, but took
them to the Italian Opera, for two sufficient reasons : " les chanteurs italiens
n'taient point excommunie's, et 1'on ne comprenait pas les paroles." The
case was still worse in the capital on the Elbe, for not only the " daughters,"
but the whole population until the time of Weber were restricted to Italian
Opera, and took the unintelligibleness of the words as a main essential.
Three quarters of a century later Richard Wagner declares that, apart from
the very nature of the current German translations of Mozart's operas, other
means had been adopted to make the text quite unintelligible, and consequently
harmless to " uncorrupted youthful hearers of the female sex " (P. W. VI. 151^,
ADOLF WAGNER. 23
picture of the modern world, and see if they would not shew the
inner harmony of the whole great canvas." What strikes one
most in this "Two Epochs" is the penetration with which its
author contravenes the insane attempt to stamp the work of
Goethe and Schiller as an epoch rounded in itself, a kind of
" golden age " like the s&cle d'or of the French, instead of seeing
therein "the nucleus of a new world of concentration of forces
hitherto dispersed." For we now know what that " new world "
needed for its full development, the new inspiring might of
Music.
Let us turn for awhile to the surroundings that influenced the
inner and outer life of the young scholar in his native city. As
he himself has said, "our surroundings lend us colour, though
their harmonising is a matter of our freedom," and certainly his
Leipzig milieu embraced the ablest talents of his day. In the
front rank we have the noted Councillor August Apel, a man of
many gifts, born of a patrician family, living in affluence, staunch
and true in word and deed. Of him Adolf Wagner says: "He
was a man of open mind. Delighting in nothing but what sprang
from one's own efforts, he looked askance at the mere gifts of
Fortune, and thus seemed cold and distant to the superficial
observer. But see him on his own estate, where he passed the
summer months in the society of his friends and the poets of past
or present ages; then you find in him a noble, generous, high-
minded man, nay, rather a playful child, who loves to hide his
seriousness behind a sportive mask." In times of war he rendered
many a service to his native city through his keen forethought,
cool judgment and swiftness of resource ; yet, just as in his
poems (notably the "Freischiitz" and "Das stille Kind") there
is evinced a trend towards the weird and spectral, so in his
private life we find a certain tinge of superstition. The following
story is told of him by Adolf Wagner : when standing godfather
to the infant daughter of a friend, he made the child a present of
a cask of wine, to be kept for her wedding-day, but with the
stipulation that it must then be drained, or his ghost would
appear as a guest at the wedding.
Another friend was Amadeus Wendt, who had taken up his
residence in Leipzig since 1808, thereafter to be summoned to
Gottingen ; Adolf Wagner exerted a decisive influence on his
career, for it was he who directed his thoughts to philosophy and
24 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
aesthetics, and thus laid the foundation of his future fame. Yet
another was the " Hofrathin " Minna Spazier, who had settled in
Leipzig since the death of her husband (the founder of the much-
read Zettung fur die elegante Welt); her beauty and amiability
made her a great favourite in rather exclusive circles, where she
often met both Apel and A. Wagner. She was on the best of
terms with her two brothers-in-law, Jean Paul and Mahlmann,
who assisted her from time to time in her editorial labours ; A.
Wagner also contributed many an article to her Taschenbuch fiir
Liebe und Freundschaft, and it was through Minna Spazier that he
made the acquaintance of the rising young publisher Friedrich
Brockhaus, who mentions both Wagner and Wendt in a letter as
among his " dearest acquaintances." Once, when offering a hand-
some prize for a long epic poem for his journal the Urania, he
named Apel, Wendt and Adolf Wagner as the judges ; before its
publication, however, they insisted on submitting their verdict to
Goethe (the prize falling to Ernst Schulze's "Bezauberte Rose").
Brockhaus also secured A. Wagner as one of the first contributors
to his Konversationslexikon, commenced in 1812.
His popularity, and the esteem in which he was held in so
many circles, are sufficiently explained by the high qualities of
his mind and character and his eminently social gifts. A con-
temporary sets his personal and literary traits in somewhat crying
contrast, saying that in all that he wrote he merely brought forth
chips and splinters of the rich mine of thought within him ; that
by wishing to give out too much he often gave too little, and
constructed for himself a German style whose curiously suggestive
hieroglyphs too frequently involved one in a battle for life or
death : " but when he spoke, he altogether cast away this inter-
woven stiffness, and never have I heard a German who expressed
himself with a nobler flow of melody in thought and language ;
added to which, though fond of leading the conversation, he
always preserved the greatest unassumingness of manner." More-
over he possessed a rich and sonorous voice, which made him
rank beside his famous friend Tieck as a favourite reciter.
One day at Apel's country-seat A. Wagner was reading to an
intimate audience the former's just-completed ^schyleian poem,
the "Polyidos." The poet was surprised to find his friend stop
short from time to time without adducing any other reason than
a certain idiosyncrasy of rhythm ; which gave the first impetus to
ADOLF WAGNER. 25
Apel's well-known theory of " Metrics." A private performance
of this tragedy in the year 1806, conducted by Adolf Wagner
after the manner of the ancients, confirmed his first impression :
Apel found that the rhythm of the verses, constructed on the
customary rules of metre, underwent all sorts of changes as it
passed from mouth to mouth ; the beat was found to be the only
possible, but indispensable bond of union. The poet's thorough
knowledge of music had made him partly guess at this before ;
so now, at Wagner's instigation, he devoted nearly ten years of
unwearied research to perfecting a system of metrics that was
already complete in all essentials when death removed its author.
Prejudice, ignorance of music, and professional spite, made the
new theory distasteful to the guild of philologians, at whose head
stood Gottfried Hermann ; but even during Apel's lifetime some
of his discoveries were smuggled into the second edition of his
chief opponent's " Doctrina Metrica."
It was this private performance of Apel's "Polyidos" that
prompted Adolf Wagner's own German rendering of Sophocles'
"(Edipus Tyrannus." The translation cannot be said to rank
very high among its author's many kindred works, and it has
been severely dealt with by his adversaries. In its preface,
however, while the author protests against the "Hellenising
spirit" of his times, he gives us the guiding principle of his
literary career : namely, that " Art is a world-growth whose
component parts are formed of various peoples ; beneath the
influence of light it springs from earth, it blossoms, bears its
fruit, and fades ; and thus it has its history like every other
mortal thing, or rather every fallen thing divine." Against the
pseudo-Hellenism of Schlegel's " Ion," as compared with Goethe's
" Iphigenia " and Schiller's " Bride of Messina," Adolf Wagner
had already taken the field with a satirical burlesque " Der
Biihnenschwarm, oder das Spiel der Schauspieler " (1804), in
which he contrasted the " new Italian Grsecomania " with the older
" naturalism " of Iffland's moving pictures from domestic life.
But to that "world-tree" and the changeful story of its many
branches he was never tired of returning from his diligent
researches in so many realms of knowledge. To this we owe his
translation of Gozzi's " Raven " already-mentioned, as also the
much later one of Byron's " Manfred." Thus, too, in an essay
called " Theater und Publikum : eine Didaskalie von A. Wagner "
26 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
(Leipzig, Weygand, 1826) he gives us a review of the Drama's
evolution among the various European peoples, with the expressed
desire " to free the German Theatre from its present subservience
to mere luxury and ennui, and point it to a mission worthy of
the stage, the audience, and good taste." Here, with thorough
German universalism, he recommends a systematic presentation
of the dramatic works of every age and people, insisting for
instance, quite in the manner of his friend Tieck, on a literally
unaltered reproduction of Shakespeare. As might have been
expected, this rather pedantic than practical conception of the
Theatre was met by volleys of abuse.
Finally we have to record a collection of dramatic efforts
under the title " Theater," consisting of four original comedies :
"Umwege" (in five acts), " Liebesnetze, " " Ein Augenblick" and
" Hinterlist " (one act each). The well-known authority H. Kurz
considers that in the " Umwege," a dramatisation of an Italian
novel of Bandello's, A. Wagner was shipwrecked by the in-
appropriateness of the subject-matter, whereas the " Augenblick "
and " Liebesnetze " are far more successfully handled, and written
in a clearer, tenderer vein.* In spite of the tardy appearance of
this collection (1816), we believe that its constituents all date
from A. Wagner's first period, perhaps a little later than his
" Biihnenschwarm." In this connection we may also note a
novel entitled "Liebestand und Liebesernst" (Jena, 1818); a
book, however, which no efforts have enabled us to get sight of.
The above review of Adolf Wagner's literary doings, in the way
of both erudition and belles lettres, may serve as indication of
his constant labour to assimilate the remotest products of the
human world, alike in the domain of History as in that of
Thought. This strong-marked bent to universality gives us a
lively foretaste of the spirit of his own great nephew; yet the
outward compass of his field of vision, and the mass of objects it
embraced, had to be allied with an incomparably greater power
of intentness, to lead that nephew to triumphant revelation of the
German Spirit's universal scope.
* H. Kurz, Geschichte der deutschen Lttteratur, vol. iii., p. 395.
III.
FRIEDRICH WAGNER.
Birth and childhood. Impressions derived from Schiller's works.
Legal studies and general culture. " Gerichtsaktuarius " Wagner
in Leipzig amateur theatricals. Marriage with Johanna Bertz.
Friends of the house. A quiverful. The ''Maid of Orleans" and
"Bride of Messina"
If was a time of noble promise when the classic spirit of
antiquity rewoke in the poetic warmth of our great masters,
and from the stage the ' ' Bride of Messina " re-aroused
both young and old to study of the mighty Greeks.
RICHARD WAGNER.
As we are unable to commence this chapter with a picture of
domestic life in the Excise-officer's lodge by the Rannstadt Gate,
we will rescue a couple of sober dates from the dust of parish-
registers. According to these, our hero's father was born on June
the 1 8th, 1770, the year of Ludwig Beethoven; the first-fruit of
the marriage of his parents, concluded in the previous year, he
was baptised two days afterwards with the names Karl Friedrich
Wilhelm. Besides his maternal grandfather, schoolmaster Eichel,
the godparents were gate-clerk Karl Gottfried Korner and Christina
Elisabeth Wahl, wife of Joh. Friedrich Wahl, inspector of the
Barenburg mill.
We know very little for certain about his youth. However, his
first twenty years of life coincided with many an event in the
Leipzig chronicles of art and culture that cannot have remained
without influence upon the growing lad. A " privileged " theatre
had recently been established, where Dobbelin's troupe gave per-
formances of German plays and singspiels, to the public's great
delight ; as already stated, it stood quite close to his father's
house, and needs must have entered largely into the impressions
of his earliest childhood. Although the Court's original intention
28 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
to found a German Theatre at Dresden and Leipzig had been
abandoned owing to its contract with the Italian Pasquale
Bondini, who scarcely knew three words of German, yet under
Bondini's own management the taste for German Burgher-drama
began to make headway through the production of Lessing's
pieces and the early works of Schiller ; * and it is significant that
most of Schiller's works came to an earlier hearing at Leipzig
than at Dresden, since one had to reckon with the wishes of the
Public here, but there with those of the Court. Bondini was
succeeded by his former secretary, Franz Seconda, whose brother
Joseph was manager of the Italian Opera at Dresden ; and for
some time the two Secondas took turn about with one another,
the Opera coming to Leipzig, the Play going to Dresden, and
vice versa. At this epoch (1781) occurs the removal of the
so-called "Grand Concerts," Leipzig's most important musical
institution, from the quondam "Apel's house" to the old
" Gewandhaus," whose large hall had been refitted for the purpose,
and its ceiling embellished with allegoric paintings. Within
these walls young Richard Wagner was one-day to drink his first
draught of Beethoven's Symphonies (not a note of which had
been written as yet) ; here too, soon after, he was to make his first
bow to the public of his native town, and next owing to a sudden
turn in the tide of musical taste to find those Concerts shut
against him for the remainder of his life.
In what degree the institution last-named may have affected
Friedrich Wagner we have no direct evidence, though his younger
brother Adolf displays a taste for music at every period. Certain
it is, that dramatic art roused Friedrich's enthusiasm at an early
age. Step by step was he a witness of the great advance of
German poetry from the " Messias " to " Gotz," from the
" Robbers " to " Wallenstein." We may imagine the twelve-year-
old Thomanian attending the first Leipzig performances of the
" Robbers," and thence deriving the incentive to his later passion
for the theatre and personal veneration of the poet. Not long
* It was the same in other places : for instance Prague, whose German
theatre was first brought to a degree of brilliance by the Italian Domenico
Guardasoni through the engagement of firstrate talents such as Esslar.
Nothing, in fact, could be done without Italians, particularly where German
Courts were concerned. " At these Courts, whenever Art and Music formed
the topic, the first thought flew to foreigners, black-bearded for choice"
(P. W. VI. 8).
FRIEDRICH WAGNER. 29
thereafter followed " Kabale und Liebe," which Richard Wagner
characterises as that work of Schiller's which supplies " perhaps
the strongest proof, as yet, of what could be done in Germany by
a full accord between Theatre and Poet" (P. W. IV. 88). At
Leipzig the piece had the same immense success as everywhere
else, Friedrich Wagner was just fifteen years of age. Then the
young poet came himself, in answer to an invitation from
Korner's enthusiastic band of friends, and stayed for some months
in the town on the Pleisse. During his stay the " Fiesco " attained
its first Leipzig performance ; the effect was weaker than that of
" Kabale und Liebe," and naturally, for Schiller tells us that seven
of his scenes had been expunged, the denouement altered, and
several of the actors utterly ruined their parts. Finally " Don
Carlos " ; but again under great disadvantages, for, in addition to
the impertinences already practised on " Fiesco," the actors posi-
tively refused to declaim in verse : a curious result of that natu-
ralistic tendence of the Burgher-drama from which so much good
had sprung. Schiller himself had to consent to turn his work
into prose for Leipzig, at the remuneration of sixty thalers ; had
he declined, it would simply have been put in the hands of some
literary hack. In effect, Goethe's " Mitschuldige " had first been
given in a prose rendering by Dr Albrecht ; a fate which
" Clavigo " and the " Geschwister " fortunately escaped by
anticipation.*
In his twentieth year Friedrich Wagner appears to have attended
the University of his birthplace as a student of Law, brother
Adolf had not yet left the Thomas-school. In the event he
became a sound and practical official in power of his manly,
energetic nature : how far he may have distinguished himself in
his student years by a knowledge of legal theory, beyond the
requirements of his future calling, we do not know ; but we can
assume no particular liking for the dry bones of professional study
in one so keenly alive to art and literature. As to his early
* Rightly to judge of this, we must take into consideration the state of the
German theatre at that time. "Brought up in the school of so-called
Naturalism, the actors believed it impossible to master these rhythmic verses
save by reducing them to prose," says Richard Wagner (P. W. IV. 203) ; and
Genast, an ear-witness, tells us that in the opposite event the accented syllables
were so intolerably drawled that you might fancy yourself listening to a saw-
mill. As a consequence, it was with ever greater reluctance that Schiller
consented to make over his works to the theatre.
3O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
devotion to general culture, on the other hand, we have among
other things the evidence of a well-stocked library of classical and
contemporary authors, collected in the course of many years ; a
library which after his death becomes the object of epistolary
negotiations between the eldest son Albert and his uncle Adolf.
That the warm-hearted young man found many comrades among
his fellow-students, will be easily understood, and we may probably
date from this period several of those lasting friendships which
we meet in later years, such as that with his official colleague
Gottfried Karl Barthel.
In September 1794, father Gottlob Friedrich Wagner cele-
brated his silver wedding in the bosom of his family ; six months
later (March 21, 1795) he died in the prime of life. The bereave-
ment fell too late to exercise any decisive influence on Friedrich's
outward circumstances : whilst the grown-up sister remained with
the mother, who survived her husband by fully nineteen years,
and Adolf was still at his philologic studies under Beck in the
Leipzig University, young Friedrich was already on his own feet,
and able to assist in the support of his relatives. He had lately
entered the service of the State, as deputy - registrar (Vice-
Aktuarius) at the Leipzig Town-court, and his clear intelligence,
unselfishness and candour soon won him the respect alike of his
superiors and fellow-townsmen. Yet he still maintained a lively
interest in the mental activity of his age and surroundings, and
refused to let his official duties numb his taste for poetry and
dramatic art. Thus he took part in private theatricals on an
amateur stage from time to time, playing, among others, in a
performance of Goethe's " Mitschuldige."
As there was no standing company at Leipzig then, but
Seconda's people left for Dresden every winter, not to return
before Easter, the theatre-lovers of the former city had frequent
recourse to this form of entertainment. Its chief locality was
that mansion on the Rathhaus Place to which Goethe still refers
in his Leipzig reminiscences as " Apel's Haus," but which had
subsequently passed into the possession of Electoral Commissary-
of-the-Exchequer Andreas Friedrich Thoma, and at this time was
commonly known as the Thoma'sches Haus, the property of
Jungfer Jeannette Thoma, unmarried daughter of that wealthy
merchant, herself a great friend of both the brothers Wagner and
their sister Friederike. Massively constructed, four storeys high,
FRIEDRICH WAGNER. 31
with a piazza above the highest, sixteen windows broad, and of
considerable depth from front to back, it was no unfit palace for
reception of the Electoral family, who made its state-apartments
their regular abode whenever they stayed in Leipzig. Among its
hinder buildings was a roomy hall, with a ceiling painted by some
unknown hand to represent Olympus. In earlier times the
Leipzigers' especial pride, the aforesaid "Grand Concerts," had
had their home here j since their migration to the Gewandhaus,
the hall had still more frequently been used for amateur
theatricals. Friedrich August himself was partial to this form
of diversion, as also were Princes Anton and Max, and whenever
the Elector came to Leipzig there was sure to be an amateur
performance. On such occasions men like Lembert and Gubitz
repeatedly appeared as actors; young people who proposed to
walk the stage, here made their bow ; and here police-actuary
Wagner gave personal proofs of his ardour for the theatre.
Three years after his father's death Friedrich Wagner set up
house for himself, bringing home from Weissenfels on the Saale
his bride Johanna Rosina Bertz,* a charming girl of nineteen
years (June 2, 1798). "From her pleasant birthplace, where the
echoes of a former Court had long since died away,f she brought
with her neither a profound nor a many-sided culture ; but she
owned something better : a kindly gaiety, a swift instinctive grasp
of the situation, and a practical talent for making the best of
everything," it is thus that she lived in her children's recollec-
tion. Endowed with such gifts, she proved a faithful helpmeet
to her husband, a loving mother to her numerous progeny.
To take a glance at Friedrich Wagner's private life, we find
* The name is also spelt " Berthis," in which form it appears in the attesta-
tion of Cacilie's christening. Pronounced "Perthes," in dialect, it is the
patronymic genitive of the man's name Berth, Brecht, or Precht, which
means " the shining."
t The many-windowed Schloss Neu-Augustenburg, standing high above
Weissenfels, was the Residency of the Dukes of Sachsen-Weissenfels down to
1746. The characterisation of Johanna Wagner, printed above, is taken from
the introduction to Prof. Gosche's work, Richard Wagner's Frauengestallen.
Her grandson F. Avenarius describes her as "A pretty little woman, with a
practical eye and keen mother-wit, whose natural gifts made up for any lack
of thorough culture. The spelling in her letters is often faulty ; not so their
evidence of knowledge of the world. In everyone of those addressed to her
we may trace the high respect in which she was held by all, and not the least
by her great son, to her dying day " (Augsb. Allg. Zeitung, 1883).
32 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
him surrounded by a numerous circle of friends, for the most
part from the legal and mercantile sections of Leipzig society,
but also drawn from the theatre and allied regions. At christen-
ings and other family-feasts the hospitable house on the Briihl *
would entertain, besides the already-mentioned Town-clerk Barthel,
Advocate and Excise-inspector Gottlieb Haase and wife, Con-
sistorial-advocate Dr Karl Christoph Kind (son of the celebrated
translator of Plutarch, and elder brother of the future librettist of
Der Freischiitz), Advocate Heinrich Karl Elias Schulze, Soap-
boiler Joseph Gottfried Topfer with his wife Maria Regina, Dr
Friedrich Ernst Gerlach, and many another. In later days they
are joined by the art-loving tradesman Adolf Trager (an intimate
of Adolph Wagner's too), Town-Registrar Paul David Pusch,
and young Advocate Dr Wilhelm Wiesand ; whilst a frequent
"baptismal witness" (1803, 1807 and 1809) was the aforesaid
Jeannette Thoma. Among the most prominent members of the
Seconda troupe who were intimate friends of Friedrich's house-
hold we have the talented Wilhelmine Hartwig, nee Werthen, a
native of Leipzig. In 1796, at the age of nineteen, she had
entered the Seconda company in place of Schiller's friend Sophie
Albrecht, and particularly charmed the Leipzig public by her
truth and naturalness of expression and gesture as Louisa in
" Kabale und Liebe." An enthusiastic eye-witness writes of her
in 1799, " Her beautiful brown eyes have a magic all their own ;
one must have no heart, not to feel moved to one's depths when
those eyes are filled with tears of gentle grief, or lifted heavenward
in quiet resignation, or fixed in the wild glare of madness."
Perhaps we may detect an echo of this " Louisa " in the fact of
* It was called "The White and Red Lion," two houses having been thrown
into one in the year 1661. The "Red Lion" is mentioned in documents of
1535, when Vincent Schb'pperitz took it over from the heirs of Matthes
Cleemann ; the "White Lion" portion was so called until 1590, when it was
changed to the " Three Swans," but seventy years thereafter it resumed its
name in combination with the other " Lion." A huge lion over the entrance
distinguished this birthplace of Richard Wagner until 1885, when the building
was condemned as unsafe and pulled down. The door leading from Friedrich
Wagner's living-room into the bedroom where Richard was born is now in
London, having been presented by the Leipzig purchaser to the late Julius
Cyriax, the well-beloved Secretary, and thereafter Treasurer, of the London
Wagner Society ; this precious relic, through which the little Richard must so
often have passed, Mr Cyriax had fitted to a cabinet for the preservation of his
other Wagner treasures.
FRIEDRICH WAGNER. 33
Friedrich Wagner's having chosen the name for the baptism of
his second daughter; as indeed, after her father's death, that
daughter became the special protegee and pupil of this excellent
woman and artist.
The first issue of F. Wagner's marriage was a son, Karl Albert
(born March 2, 1799), whose striking likeness to his famous
youngest brother in voice, gesture and gait, has often been
remarked on. It is to his tenacious memory that we owe so
many a tradition of the family-history and our hero's earliest
childhood. As first-born he proved himself a true son of his
father by his later choice and successful exercise of histrionic
art, though a preponderance of practical sobriety outweighed his
artistic impulses.
Karl Albert was followed by Karl Gustav, born on the 2ist
July 1 80 1 ; Johanna Rosalie, born March 4, 1803 ; Karl Julius,
August 7, 1804; Louise Constanze, December 14, 1805; Clara
Wilhelmine, November 29, 1807 ; Marie Theresia, April i, 1809 ;
Wilhelmine Ottilie, March 14, 1811. Such a rapid succession
necessarily brought the parents cares as well as joy. Two of the
eight children above-named, the boy Gustav and the girl Therese,
were carried off by illness at a tender age, the latter ere com-
pletion of her sixth year ; the rest grew up in health and strength.
If we examine the progeny of Friedrich and Johanna Wagner
from the point of view of the conditions antecedent to the birth
of genius, we are struck by the fact that it was at the end of a
long series, as it were of preliminary attempts on the part of
Nature, that the subject of our biography was born (1813); also
that he was preceded since 1804 by none but sisters, as if Nature
had been husbanding her virile force for one in whose tempera-
ment it was to be so strongly manifested just as in the case of
Schiller, Mozart, Goethe, Schopenhauer and others, we find that
they had sisters indeed, but either no brothers at all or merely
weaklings whom death soon claimed.
However, we must not forestall events, but return to the order
of our chronicle.
We have already alluded to the constant grotesqueries of
rendering, on the part of German actors, which drove the two
chief German poets into greater and greater estrangement from
the actual theatre. Since his experiences with Don Carlos and
Wallenstein, Schiller grew less and less inclined to expose his
C
34 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
works to such distortion ; when putting his final touches to the
"Maid of Orleans" a thorough stage-piece, if ever there was
one he wrote with bitter resignation to friend Goethe, " After
long deliberation I have decided not to let the piece be acted."
Nevertheless it was, and at Leipzig too. Here in September
1 80 1, on his way from a visit of several weeks to the Korner
family at Dresden, the poet attended the first performance of his
latest work.* Korner came with him. Actuary Wagner (then
thirty-one years old) and his young wife were among the spectators,
who faced round at the end of the first act towards the box in
which the poet and his friends were seated, and shouted an
enthusiastic "Vivat Friedrich Schiller." Trumpets and drums
joined forces with the cheers of hearty acclamation. At close
of the performance everyone rushed to the doors to see the
author come out ; bare-headed and in reverent silence the crowd
cleared a passage for him, while fathers and mothers held their
children high above the heads of those in front. According to
Albert this first performance of the " Jungfrau " long ranked as an
event in the Wagner household, and the i8th of September 1801
as a red-letter date. Frau Hartwig had put forth all her resources
in the role of Johanna, and won the author's full approval ; in
fact the memory of her performance of that night still lingered in
the mind of many an eye-witness even under the later impression
made by the gifted Sophie Schroder. Yet the most affecting
tokens of enthusiasm on the part of the audience could not blind
the poet to the general faultiness of this representation of his
work, and at a conference in the theatre a few days afterwards
he complained of the "horrible maltreatment of his iambics,"
even the eminent Leipzig " Talbot," Ochsenheimer of whom it
was said that " without either hands or feet he would still have
remained a great actor," so expressive was his play of features
not escaping the wholesale condemnation. What else was to be
expected at a theatre where Iffland and Kotzebue, as everywhere
in Germany, were the life and soul of the repertory ?
In June 1803 Friedrich Wagner and his wife went for a summer
trip to Lauchstadt, at that time a favourite watering-place with
the neighbouring nobility and the best families of Leipzig.
* This was the very first performance of the Jungfrau von Orleans on any
German stage ; Berlin followed on the 23rd November, but Weimar not till
April 23, 1803 !
FRIEDRICH WAGNER. 35
Schiller had arrived with the Weimar stage-company. Though
he carefully sought out the most secluded walks, he was mobbed
wherever he went, and indescribable enthusiasm attended the
Lauchstadt performance of the "Bride of Messina," notwithstand-
ing that a thunderstorm rattled over the roof with such violence
that for a quarter of an hour at a stretch it was impossible to hear
a word the actors uttered.
Meanwhile dark clouds were gathering above the German
horizon. The Peace of Luneville had transferred Belgium and
the whole left bank of the Rhine to France ; three years later, on
May 20, 1804, Napoleon was proclaimed hereditary Emperor of
the French; at Cologne, on his triumphal progress through the
Rhinelands, German citizens went so far as to take the horses
from his carriage and drag him in it to the palace. If many a
German Prince before had cast in his lot with France, to gain
aggrandisement at the cost of his compeers, this happened now
to a still more infamous extent: the ruin of all national in-
dependence was threatening Saxony as well.
IV.
LUDWIG GEYER.
Friendship of F. Wagner and L. Geyer. Geyer's youth : taste
for fainting. Talent for play-acting. Years of wandering, with
military interludes: Magdeburg, Stettin, Breslau. Return to
Leipzig ; engagement in the Seconda company. Relations with the
Wagner family.
His taste for painting was the earlier, and the more
pronounced. Had he been permitted to devote his whole
energies to portrait-fainting, quite apart from their
marketable value as good likenesses, the works of his brush
would have been treasured up in galleries as true art-
products.
K. A. BOTTIGER on L. GEYER.
WE have deferred all mention of a peculiarly important tie of
friendship, uniting police-actuary Friedrich Wagner to the painter
and comedian Ludwig Geyer, ten years his junior, that we might
give the reader a more connected account of one whose destinies
were so bound up with those of the Wagner family.
Ludwig Heinrich Christian Geyer, the eldest of three brothers,
was born on the 2ist of January 1780 in the little Luther-town of
Eisleben, where his father acted as Actuary to the Overseer-in-
chief. The father having been transferred to the Lower Court at
Artern soon after Ludwig's birth, the family removed there, and
young Geyer passed his first years of boyhood in that charming
tract of green Thuringia, the basin of the " Goldene Aue," where
the Unstrut flows clear between vineyards, fruit-laden orchards
and grain-bowed cornfields, while the distance is encircled by a
belt of amaranthine hills, their clasp the fabled Kyffhauser.
Here the boy's love of Nature throve apace, and with it his power
of observation and gift of reproduction. Swift was his eye to
seize each likeness, and not a characteristic trait escaped him. A
painter from Leipzig soon taught the eager pupil all he knew, and
36
LUDWIG GEYER. 37
day by day his passion for the brush developed. But the father,
not approving of a breadless art, intended him for jurisprudence,
and despatched him at the age of fourteen to the Gymnasium at
Eisleben. Thus Geyer returned for awhile to his native town, and
his favourite pastime had to yield to serious studies. He next
removed to the University of Leipzig, to devote himself to Law
in fulfilment of his father's wish. An unexpected blow cut short
his course at its commencement. The father had been nominated
to a more lucrative post at Dresden, and set off to complete the
requisite arrangements on the spot; on the return-journey the
overloaded coach in which he was travelling turned over on one
of the proverbially villainous Saxon roads.* He arrived at
Leipzig, only to succumb to the results of the accident in the
loving arms of his sons. This meant a time of great anxiety for
Ludwig; robbed of the means of pursuing his own studies, he
found the burden of providing for his family at like time thrown
upon his shoulders. It was well for him now, that he had never
quite left off the cultivation of his early taste ; it became a means
of livelihood, and while attending a course of finishing lessons at
the Leipzig Academy of Drawing he was able to satisfy immediate
needs by executing little portraits, in which his native gift of quick
perception was his principal instructor. For the next two or three
years he travelled from one small provincial town to another, and
" painted young ladies and old gentlemen at the watering-places."
About 1 80 1 he returned to Leipzig, where he commenced his first
acquaintanceship with Friedrich Wagner.
From their earliest meeting F. Wagner became his friend and
adviser. It was his encouragement that induced the young painter
to cultivate another gift, previously confined to the amusement of
his intimates, a talent for play-acting. The eye of his experienced
friend, to whom the artist always attributed the most powerful
influence on his theatrical career, had been the soonest to
discover it.
* " By the violent jolting of my carriage I know that I am on Saxon soil.
The vileness of these Saxon causeways is a standing theme for the Jeremiads
of a thousand travellers. The Elector has put aside 70,000 thalers for building
new roads, and one is already commenced at Ziegelrode, in the vicinity of
Artern. ' Things will mend in time ; they always move slowly with us in
Saxony,' as you may hear from the Saxon himself, whom one would scarcely
have credited with even that much power of reflection " (Letter from Saxony,
in the Berlin Freimiithigt of 1805).
38 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
At Wagner's instigation Geyer made his first attempt at the
aforesaid private theatre in the Thoma house. His acting pleased,
and he adopted the profession with a will, yet without bidding
farewell to painting. His appearance was greatly in his favour :
of faultless medium build of body, his features were eloquent and
refined, as shewn us in a portrait painted by himself in riper years.
Add to these an expressive and musical voice, not to be despised
in lighter song, and a power of mimicry that enabled him to
reproduce a characteristic as easily by facial play as on the canvas.
Finally, a temperament of true artistic fibre, sensitive to the faintest
change, and passing from the highest frolic to the deepest gloom.
" He had no need to pinch himself, to find his humour," says a
very good judge ; yet it is distinctive of his twofold nature that,
besides the spirited creations of his comic muse, he was peculiarly
at home in the embodiment of crafty "villains" such as lago,
Franz Moor, Marinelli, the President in Kabale und Liebe, and
the Duke of Alba in Egmont, a line which afterwards became
his speciality. At the beginning he tried his hand on lovers and
young cavaliers, his first part being Don Carlos ; only gradually
did he find his province ; but in every role his eye for psycho-
logical expression stood him in good stead, and as his portrait-
painting gained him entrance to the most exclusive circles, where
he learnt the manners of polite society, it was all the easier for
him to reproduce them on the stage. Self-conceit was foreign to
him throughout his life; he asked and heeded the advice of
experts, and pleased himself the least of all.
In the next few years we meet him on various minor stages.
At the Magdeburg house, then beginning to rank high among the
provincial theatres of Germany, with a good ensemble that even
ventured tasks like "Tell," he was classed as one of the most
valued accessions. It was here that he heard, to his deep sorrow,
of Schiller's death. The first Magdeburg performance of the
Bride of Messina was changed into a threnody. At 6 o'clock,
the hour of the poet's death, it began with mourning music ; the
stage, all hung with black, displayed a lofty catafalque with a
black sarcophagus, over which the Genius of Germany extin-
guished a burning torch in an urn; the chorus of assembled
actors intoned a dirge; all eyes were filled with tears. Then
followed the representation of Schiller's work, in which the little
Magdeburg stage eclipsed the fame of many a better-favoured.
LUDWIG GEYER. 39
During thejsuramer closure, from July to August, the Magdeburg
company betook itself to Brunswick, whose Ducal theatre was
served at that time by a French troupe. Here, too, it won the
praise of " its object not being mere pecuniary gain, but some-
thing higher," and Geyer's fancy and originality, especially in
high comedy, were warmly recognised.
The same autumn, 1805, Geyer went to the newly- founded
Stettin theatre. For years the citizens of Stettin had applied in
vain for permission to have a standing theatre of their own, but a
privilege long since conferred on Dobbelin's strolling company
had stood in the way. The opening of this " standing " theatre
was therefore a rather brilliant affair. However, the young
artist's Stettin episode was of somewhat brief duration. The
year of Germany's profoundest shame had tolled with the forma-
tion of the Rhine-League. In vain Prussia's ill-starred rising
against a usurper to whom she had previously truckled ; the
spirit of great Frederick had flown from council-room and army ;
all was lost with the defeat at Jena and the surrender of the
Silesian forts. A few days after the fall of Erfurt and Spandau,
walled Stettin was given over (Oct. 29, 1806) in coward fear,
without a blow, at the first demand of a detachment of French
light cavalry, though the commander had a garrison of sevenfold
strength and a hundred and twenty cannon ! The disgraceful
example of Stettin was followed by well-nigh impregnable
Kiistrin, and with incredible swiftness by the remaining for-
tresses. The King had to sign a peace whereby the victor gave
him back his kingdom's half as act of grace. Prussia's disaster
was the ruin of the scarcely inaugurated Stettin stage; Geyer
again had to pick up his staff to woo fortune at Breslau.
His heart full of longing for Saxony and his distant friends, he
arrived at the Silesian capital just after it had capitulated (Jan.
5, 1807). During his two years there he formed a close friend-
ship with the musical conductor Gottlob Benedikt Bierey, a
fellow-countryman from Leipzig, who preserved a true affection
for him long after they had parted.* Besides his work as actor,
Geyer still diligently plied his brush, as we may gather from a
* Thus in later years, when Director of the Breslau theatre, he took young
Albert Wagner under his wing on his debut there ; to which Adolf Wagner
refers in a letter to his nephew (after Geyer's death) as "this resurrection of
the father's love, its legacy."
4O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Breslau letter printed in the Freimiithige of August i, 1809:
" Hen Geyer, that excellent artist, whose acquisition would be a
boon to any theatre, even the largest, has left us. He is also a
talented portrait-painter, and Breslau's inhabitants are very loth
to lose him." But this city, whose manners and customs were
always somewhat strange to him, at whose weekly marts he saw
Jewish and Sarmatian faces, and heard the Polish tongue, could
not attract him long. The old home-sickness came back with
added strength; he sought renewal of his Leipzig ties. Here
the Weimar troupe had been engaged for awhile, in place of the
Seconda ; but the latter had now returned again, while the enter-
prising impresario had secured the title of " Royal Saxon Court-
Players " for himself and company, despite its remaining a purely
private undertaking. Through the influence of his Leipzig
friends, and Franz Seconda's complaisance, Geyer obtained a
temporary engagement for the coming Michaelmas. He left
Breslau as early as July, for a personal interview with his new
Leipzig patron, the "little doubled-up old man, of the terribly
thick head and protuberant glassy eyes," as E. T. A. Hoffmann
describes Seconda. Still with his buckle-shoes and knee-breeches,
his pigtail and powdered perruque, he struck Weber and Genast
a few years later as the ghost of a long-buried past. " The in-
timate of lackeys and ladies-in-waiting ; servile or rude, according
to the favour in which you stood at court ; the type of a subal-
tern office-bearer of those days, he passed for a man of some
tolerable influence."
After so long a parting, Geyer was rejoiced to meet his Saxon
friends once more. Much had altered in his five years of absence,
since the fatal peace concluded by Saxony with the insolent
conqueror. Jurisdiction alike and administration had been
transformed into a thorough despotism ; the Code Napoleon
had become the book of civil law. Actuary Wagner was among
the few local officials who had sufficient mastery of the foreign
tongue to act as intermediaries between the town-authorities
and the French staff; he was therefore entrusted by Marshal
Davoust, Commander of Leipzig, with the reorganisation of
the legal system, and made provisional Chief of the "Police
of Public Safety " : with the instinct of a Napoleonic general
the dreaded Commander had recognised the advantages to be
drawn from employing such a man. Years after, F. Wagner's
LUDWIG GEYER. 4!
voluminous copy of the Code is mentioned as no longer of
use in a letter of Adolf to Albert Wagner concerning an
inventory of the father's library.
Many an extra load had thus been laid on Wagner's back, and
not without visible effect ; but his welcome to the wanderer was
none the less cordial. Geyer's first public appearance in Leipzig,
as Philipp von Montenach in Kotzebue's " Johanna von Mont-
faucon," was attended by the desired success. In an account
dated Oct. 6, 1809, we read: "He has greatly pleased, and will
be an acquisition to any theatre, as he possesses distinguished
talents suitable for a number of parts." The result of this
good impression was his definite entrance into the Seconda
company, and with it into the sphere of action to which he
remained true to the end. Then, as before, they played at
Leipzig till the autumn, and spent the winter at Dresden ; at
the latter city in Feb. 1810 they lost a most eminent member,
the talented Opitz, whose portrait was engraved on copper after
a capital likeness by Geyer.* Geyer's manysidedness was now
invoked to fill the place of the deceased, whose forte had been
cavaliers and ardent lovers, such as Tellheim and Fiesco, and
heroic parts like Wallenstein ; so that he was driven once more
to a line not quite his own. He distinguished himself as Hamlet
and Max Piccolomoni ; but his real ability not seldom came out
in lesser roles, where his knowledge of portrait-painting would
help him to the ingenious devising of a 'masque.' Thus in a
report on an altogether insignificant farce, " Der Schauspieler
wider Willen," we find him praised for his " marvellous versatility in
the various disguises which the part entails. He varied the differ-
ent characters, alike in appearance and bearing, voice and delivery,
to such a degree that the audience was left in serious doubt as
to the actor's identity " (Ztgf. d. elegante Welt, March 9, 1810).
During this winter at Dresden he had ample opportunity of
observing the heartless parade of the titled world in that period
of subjection to foreign rule. Immediately after the battle of
Jena, Napoleon had declared that he had no quarrel with
* In collections and catalogues of portraits, this engraving (by Arndt) is still
to be met with. When E. T. A. Hoffmann visited Seconda's office at Dresden
in 1813 he found Signor Franz's cabinet adorned with likenesses of Opitz,
Ochsenheimer, Thering, etc., "all very well painted in oils." Hoffmann, a
talented draughtsman and painter himself, had the keen eye of a connoisseur,
and beyond doubt the portraits he approved were from Geyer's hand.
42 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Saxony: the Elector Friedrich August had become King,
joined the Rhine League, and been forced to share in the war
against Prussia. At the time of Germany's deepest humbling,
while Prussia lay crushed beneath the Peace of Tilsit, the
festivities at the Saxon court formed an unbroken chain with
those at the houses of ministers, ambassadors and peers, more
especially of Cabinet-minister Senft of Pilsach and the Austrian
envoy, Prince Esterhazy ; pomp and pleasure outvied each other
in a riot of luxury and feasting. Particularly was this the case
each time Napoleon stayed at Dresden. Shameless was the
adulation of the foreign tyrant. At a pageant arranged in his
honour, between the lofty columns of a temple stood altars
with the names of Caesar, Alexander, Miltiades, Scipio and
Achilles ; to strains of music an Italian singer, dressed as Fame,
inscribed in flaming colours on an unnamed altar in their midst
the name " Napoleon " ; a brilliant light was flashed upon the
letters, and at the same moment the names of the ancient heroes
vanished. " Of Dresden's wretchedness you have no conception,"
writes Geyer in a letter to his Leipzig friends ; " people here
have no heart left to live, yet go in daily dread of death, though
they could really do nothing more agreeable than to die. For
myself, I should like to be a marmot, at least for this winter;
but I have resolved to fight with might and main against this
world-irony whose fools we are, and if it is a proof of worldliness
to grin and bear it, I shall make free to give my face a pleasant
smile, to boot, which ought to suit me admirably."
There was more enjoyment in the shift to Leipzig from Easter
to Michaelmas of every year. The old house on the Briihl
received him as an almost daily guest. Two flights of dark and
narrow stairs led up from the dim entrance-hall to the none too
roomy, yet sufficient dwelling of the Leipzig Gerichtsaktuar and
provisional Chief of Police. Without the means for ostentatious
patronage, Wagner had something better to offer the buffeted
man : a house and home where he was always welcome, and
many a valuable hint for his artistic development. Their evening
chats, as Avenarius tells us, would last so long that it was quite
late at night before the older friend could return to his official
papers. For the first time, after all the chance and changes of
his homeless life, the wanderer had found the comfort of a family
circle. By side of the open-hearted, well-read husband stood his
LUDWIG GEYER. 43
cheery spouse, Johanna Wagner, just turned thirty ; a capital
housewife, full of spirit and natural feeling, untouched by any
false pretence to literary or aesthetic culture. An oil-portrait from
Geyer's hand shews her in the full bloom of youth, with finely-
moulded features, eyes ready at each instant for a friendly jest ;
the jaunty cap with band beneath the chin, her favourite wear, so
admirably setting off the perfect oval of her face. Of the children,
Albert was now at the Royal school at Meissen ; the eldest
daughter, Rosalie, not ten years old, was growing up to maiden
charm ; below her ranged a sturdy troop of youngsters, Julius in
his eighth year, the lively Louisa in her seventh, and so on.
Here Geyer felt himself no interloper, but a friend and comrade
prized and understood as rising artist. As he wrote after one of
these Leipzig sojourns, " The company of faithful friends, their
hearty sympathy in joy and sorrow, their fond endurance, con-
stitute one of the highest blessings in life." Who could dream
how near was the shipwreck of this household happiness itself,
that the longed-for end of political thraldom would coincide with
the impending collapse of this peaceful home ?
FIRST BOOK.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
(1813-1833.)
Ich liebte gluhend meine hohe Braut,
Sett ich zum Denken, Fiihlen bin erwacht,
Seit mir, was dnstens ihre Grosse war,
Erzdhlte der alien Ruinen Pracht.
Mein Leben weihte ich einztg nur ihr,
Ihr meine Jugend, meine Manneskraft ;
Denn sehen wollf ich sie, die hohe Braut,
Gekrbnt als Konigin der Welt!
(RiENZi, act v. sc. 2.)
I.
THE YEAR 1813.
The King of Prussia's call to arms and Germany's uprising.
Birth of Richard Wagner. E. T. A. Hoffmann at Leipzig.
Geyer at Dresden and Teplitz. The October-days: "Napoleon
without a hat" Friedrich Wagner's death. Jean Paul's
prophecy.
When German princes -were no longer merely servants
to French culture, but vassals to French despotism, then
was the German Stripling's aid invoked, to prove with
weapons in his hand the mettle of the German Spirit
reborn in him. To the sound of Lyre and Sword he
fought its battles. Amazed, the Gallic Casar asked why
he no longer could beat the Cossacks and Croats, the
Imperial and Royal Guards ?
RICHARD WAGNER.
Da er mich zeugf und starb
(TRISTAN, act iii.)
ON the broad snowfields of Russia, in the ravenous flames of
Moscow, the swing of a mighty pendulum was bringing round
the Year of Liberation. The tidings of the rout of the Grand
Army, of the ruinous retreat over the Berezina, the Emperor's
sledge-flight from Warsaw via Dresden to Paris, the news
spread from mouth to mouth, from land to land ; the down-
trod everywhere took heart. True, after a few more months
the mighty man stood again at the head of a host of two hundred
thousand ; but circumstances had entirely altered : the all-dreaded
no longer could rank as invincible. The Prussian King's appeal
"To my Folk" filled every heart with inspiration; death-daring,
the flower of German youth assembled beneath the flag of
Liitzow's corps ; even stay-at-home greybeards armed for the
" Landsturm."
In February, while Geyer was still with the Seconda troupe at
Dresden, Friedrich August had to flee alike his palace and his
47
48 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
land; a Commission of Regency was appointed. Four weeks
later the united forces of Prussia and Russia trooped into the
city under Bliicher and Wittgenstein; trim Prussian volunteers
and bearded Cossacks poured through the Old Market ; the in-
habitants scarce knew if they were greeting friend or foe. Barely
a week after the " Baptism in blood " of the new-born German
army at Mockern, the fourteen-year-old Albert Wagner, then in
the third class of the Meissen Royal-school, was confirmed at
the church in the Friedrichstadt (Dresden) on April n in the
presence of Geyer, who meant to conduct him to his parents
at Easter. But the incalculable tide of war changed everything :
the company was forbidden to take its yearly trip to Leipzig, and
Geyer not only had to forgo the prospect of seeing his friends
once more, but also to go short of a third of his salary. On the
26th of April the sovereign allies, King Friedrich Wilhelm and the
Czar Alexander, made their entry into Dresden ; that evening the
Court-theatre gave " Minna von Barnhelm, or the Soldier's For-
tune," Geyer playing the part of the landlord " with every cunning
artifice of mien and gesture." Meantime Napoleon had got
his fresh army together, and while the Russian main body was
advancing but slowly, and Prussia still busy equipping its " Land-
wehr," the battle of Liitzen made him master of Saxony once
more. The " soldier's fortune " had not come true ; yet the eyes
of all Europe were centred on this Saxon land, for here the
decisive struggle must soon come to grip.
Thus stood affairs at sunrise on the 22nd of May, when the
youngest son of Police-actuary Wagner greeted the light of this
turbulent world with his earliest cry, in the house of the White and
Red Lion on the Briihl at Leipzig. The cannon thunder of the
two preceding days had scarcely rolled away from the field of
Bautzen : Napoleon had been left with a barren victory, a loss of
25,000 in killed and wounded, and neither prisoners nor field-
guns taken. Just as little had he been able to prevent the Allies,
whose loss was scarcely half so great, from withdrawing to Silesia
in good order. He marched after them indeed, but his each
attack miscarried, and again he suffered serious losses ; thus on
the evening of May 22 he lost his faithful friend, Grand Marshal
Duroc, struck by a cannon-ball. The following day was a Sunday;
on this Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock a remarkable man came
from Dresden "on a comedian's adventure" right through the
THE YEAR 1813. 49
swirl of war, with a wife severely injured in a postchaise accident,
through the gates of what had become the town of Richard
Wagner's birth, since the day before, came the "romanticist"
E. T. A. Hoffmann. He had just been called to Dresden as
musical conductor of Joseph Seconda's Italian operatic com-
pany, but looked for it in vain there. The same dislocations,
that had detained Franz Seconda and his acting troupe at
Dresden, had interfered with the movements of his brother's
alternant opera-company; it was stranded at Leipzig, and its
new conductor must go there after it. On the morning of the
24th, the day after his arrival, Hoffmann held his first pianoforte-
rehearsal, the next day the first band-rehearsal of a new opera,
and became installed as conductor of a theatre quite strange
to him. To be sure, the Leipzig operatic enterprise could make
but little headway in those days of storm ; the theatre was nearly
empty, sometimes unusable at all, for Alarm would often be
drummed just before opening time and the doors must be
barred. So the manager saw himself compelled to beg leave to
return to Dresden, and four weeks later Hoffmann was rumbling
his way back to the capital.*
In the meantime, after concluding a truce of several weeks,
Napoleon also had made his entry into the Saxon capital, and
taken up his residence in the palace of Count Marcolini in
the Friedrichstadt. Once again Dresden became the scene of
reckless gaiety. Besides Joseph Seconda's Italian Opera, the
actors of the Theatre Francois had been summoned hither,
* Hoffmann gives us a most animated account of these Leipzig days, on one
of which, " relying on his swiftness of foot," he had even witnessed a skirmish
at close quarters : "It was the affair that took place on June the seventh at
9 A.M. hard by the gates of Leipzig. The next day Herr Seconda coolly
declared that he must close the theatre, and we all might be off where we
would. This came on us as a bolt from the blue ; every representation was in
vain, even the offer of a loan of 1000 reichsthalers by a tradesman friend of
our buffo Keller, a man much liked at Leipzig, Seconda was inflexible. So
the company put their heads together, and decided, after reducing the ex-
penses as much as possible, to play for at least a fortnight on their own
account, leaving Herr Seconda to keep the books. The Leipzig Town-
council was so obliging as not only to raise no obstacles, but considerably
to reduce the rent of the house. Fortune favoured us ; our two operas,
Sargines and Figaro, the very reverse of new, but excellently performed and
vociferously applauded, we were able to give three times apiece to full houses.
We were already preparing an extension of our programme, and boldly
D
5O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
among them Napoleon's special favourite, the far-famed Talma,
and the much-prized Mme. Georges * ; during the truce they
divided their favours between the Court-theatre and a private
stage improvised for the Court proper in the orangery of the
Marcolini palace. As this meant a double provision for the
theatric entertainment of the capital, Geyer's summer outlook
was poor indeed. The wisdom of the Director, rejecting Leipzig,
had decided that the company should go to Teplitz in Bohemia,
still at peace. " The journey to Leipzig would have delighted
me ; Teplitz is indifferent to me, I might almost say distasteful,"
writes Geyer to his friends on June the 6th, "but the hope
of spending the last months of summer at Leipzig shall conquer
my revolt. In no summer have I so yearned for Leipzig as in
this one, when it is only from a distance that I am permitted to
take part in its summer diversions at pleasant Stotteritz, think
of me at times there, as I shall think of my beloved Leipzig
when I climb the hills of Teplitz." He goes on to say that
the truce just proclaimed gives hope of peace indeed, but, as
usual, a peace of such a nature that another war lies hidden
in its clauses. "Napoleon has promised to convert Saxony
into a paradise ; the prospect is truly excellent, for we are
already reduced to our shirts, and its fulfilment will restore us
altogether to a state of innocence."
In the delightful highland nest of Stotteritz, not far from the
Thonberg, and close to the base of operations of the approaching
Leipzig battle, little Richard still nameless, since still unnamed !
thinking of getting up the Vestalin t when Herr Seconda's star most unex-
pectedly began to rise. Through the intervention of his brother Franz he had
received permission to play at the Court-theatre in Dresden ; so he naturally
resumed the helm, and on June 24 we took our departure in nine vanloads,
an amusing journey that would afford me matter for the most comical tale.
In particular a Hamburg charabanc, containing the lower staff, offered such a
spectacle that I never failed to be present at its loading and unloading. On
a careful computation it held the following : a stage-hairdresser, two scene-
shifters, five maids ; nine children, of whom two newly born and three still
sucking ; a parrot that swore unceasingly and to the point ; five dogs, among
them three decrepit pugs ; four guinea-pigs, and a squirrel."
* See C. W. Bottiger's Geschichte des Konigreichs Sachsen, II. 252 : " Talma,
Fleury, Mmes. Mars and Georges, had arrived for the French play in Dresden ;
talents to which Friedrich August had moreover to pay 1000 ducats travelling-
money." In 1841 we hear of Mme. Mars in R. Wagner's "Correspondence
from Paris" (P.fV.VUI. 119).
THE YEAR 1813. 51
passed a portion of his first month of life. Here Friedrich
Wagner completed in mid-June his forty-third year, full of life
and vigour, without one premonition that it was to be his last.
Geyer had proposed a summer-trip to Teplitz, such as his friend
would seem to have been fond of taking with his wife ; instead of
that, Wagner soon had cause to hasten his own return to Leipzig.
Napoleon was not the man for idle dalliance, and least of all at
such a crisis ; in July he could no longer keep quiet at Dresden :
to hold a grand review he came to Leipzig, where he quartered
himself on the Thoma house in the Rathhaus Place, and Jungfer
Jeannette again had to put up a royal guest in the state-apart-
ments last tenanted (1809) by Ex-King Jerome of Westphalia.
On August 15 the truce expired. For Geyer it had the dis-
agreeable sequel, that next day all strangers in Teplitz received
strict orders to cross the frontier within forty-eight hours. With
the rest of the company he had to leave Bohemia, sent back
once more to Dresden.
The same day, Monday the i6th August, there was a christen-
ing in St. Thomas's church at Leipzig, under Deacon Mag.
Eulenstein ; delayed by various causes in that year of war, at
last the name of Wilhelm Richard Wagner was given to the
delicate but well-proportioned child. The godparents, according
to the parish archives (which also contain the "declaration of
birth" in the father's handwriting), were Dr Wilhelm Wiesand,
advocate of the Higher Court and Consistory ; tradesman Adolf
Trager ; Jungfrau Juliane Henriette SchofTelin, orphan daughter
of the late tradesman Heinrich Gottlob Schoffel (subsequently
Frau Hofrathin B. of Stuttgart) owing to illness, her place on
this occasion was filled by Jgfr. Johanna Henriette Louise Mohl.
Five years later Dr Wiesand was entrusted by Arthur Schopen-
hauer, who had fallen out with his publisher Brockhaus on the
eve of a journey to Italy, with the as yet unprinted final third of
the manuscript of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, together
with full authority to recover the stipulated fee. The Trager
family is repeatedly mentioned in the letters of Geyer and Adolf
Wagner ; for Trager himself Geyer had painted a portrait of the
actor Christ during his stay at Leipzig.
And so the rite through whose postponement Richard's Chris-
tianity fell three months short of his Germanity came at the very
beginning of the renewal of bloodshed. On August 22 the
52 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
cannons on the walls proclaimed the victory just won by Bona-
parte at Lowenberg in Silesia ; a few days later he won his last,
near Dresden. Prussians and Austrians retired with jeopardy to
Teplitz, so lately left by Geyer and his colleagues. At the same
time the army of Macdonald was beaten and dispersed by Bliicher
at Katzbach. On September 19 Richard's mother kept her five-
and-thirtieth birthday : the decisive blow was near at hand.
Every preparation for the final battle had been made, when the
King of Saxony arrived at Leipzig on the i3th of October, and
alighted at the Thoma house. The Allies invested the city ; at
eight in the morning of the i6th over a thousand cannons were
belching thunder, shattering all the windows in the town. At
three in the afternoon Napoleon's runners came in with news of
victory ; the bells in every steeple were set ringing. The follow-
ing day, a Sunday, was a day of rest ; the victor's peace-proposals
were not so much as honoured with an answer. Thus on Monday
the 1 8th, again at 8 A.M., commenced the last murderous bout :
half-way through the engagement the Saxons went over to the
Allies ; by evening the French had been driven back to close
beneath the city's gates. On Tuesday the suburbs were bom-
barded, alarms of fire set the Briihl in commotion. About 10
o'clock Napoleon left the city, after bidding farewell to Friedrich
August. Richard's mother would often tell the growing boy how
the emperor fled hat-less down the Briihl that day, under the very
windows of the White and Red Lion where he was lying in his
cradle. At midday entry of the Allied Sovereigns ; from every
window white flags waving to them. The King, who had plunged
his country into the deepest misery through his crass dependence
on the foreign tyrant, was made a prisoner of state ; in the same
apartments of the Thoma house, which had lately formed his royal
lodging, the Russian Prince Repnin took his provisional seat as
Governor General of Saxony until the occupation of Dresden.
By Richard's cradle his mother had trembled for the fate of
their fatherland, and now she cried for joy at its salvation. But
Friedrich Wagner had sterner work before him. The aspect of
the town was terrible : the avenues hewn down, the promenades
laid waste, outlying houses demolished ; at every step in the outer
city one trod on dead bodies of men or horses. The spectacle
of devastation is preserved to us in a well-known woodcut of the
view around the Rannstadt Gate in those eventful days of October.
THE YEAR 1813. 53
The fatal consequences of preceding panic and the accumulation
of dead and wounded round the walls, nay, within the city's very
streets and squares, were not slow to present themselves. An
epidemic nervous fever (hospital-typhus) took toll of the inhabi-
tants, among them Friedrich Wagner. Worn out by incessant
exertions, he was snatched from the bosom of his family on the
22nd of November, after a few days' illness, in the full vigour of life.
Richard's half-year birthday was the death-day of his father.
We need not dwell upon the mother's grief at this calamity.
Acute was her anxiety about the maintenance of her young family,
for Friedrich's sudden death had left his dear ones with no assured
provision. However, there was no lack of sympathetic friends to
smooth the earliest difficulties. It would appear that Geyer rushed
over from Dresden, to help bury his friend and comfort the
mourner. Arrangements were soon made for bringing up the
children; Albert remained at his Meissen school, Rosalie was
entrusted to a Dresden lady-friend of Geyer's, Louise was adopted
by Frau Hartwig, under whose motherly care she completed her
eighth year of life on the i4th December at Dresden. In a letter
of the 22nd, Geyer gives the mother an account of the presents
and preparations for the two Dresden children's Christmas, and
begs her to light a fine tree for the " Cossack " (Richard), whom
he " so gladly would dandle awhile on the sofa." As for himself,
he says he is living " buried like a badger, pacing his lonely room,
and at the utmost slipping round to Frau Hartwig's to see how
the foster-daughter is doing."
In the same Leipzig in which Johanna Wagner was troubling
for the weal of Richard and his brothers and sisters, at the Golden
Heart in the Fleischerstrasse on New Year's Eve Hoffmann, but
lately returned there, completed the manuscript of his fantastic
masterpiece, the tale of the " Golden Pot." It was intended for
printing with the " Phantasiestiicken in Callot's Manier," to which
Jean Paul had written on November 24 (two days after Friedrich
Wagner's death) a preface containing the prophecy in reality
aimed at Hoffmann : " Hitherto the Sun-god has cast the gift of
poetry with his right hand, of music with his left, to two such
widely-distant beings that we still are waiting for the man who
shall both write and set the poem of a genuine opera."
Strange that this presage should have come from Bayreuth
in the natal year of the Bayreuth master !
II.
REMOVAL TO DRESDEN.
Fresh troubles. Geyer weds the widow. Removal to Dresden.
Dresden's pigtailery. Company at Geyer's house : puppet-plays
and comedies. Debuts of Louise and Rosalie. Richard's infancy.
All paltry calculation was silenced by trust in God and
his talent, when he gave his hand to the wholly impe-
cunious widow of a friend proved trite to death, and thus
became the father of seven orphans.
K. A. BOTTIGER (Geyer's necrologue).
WITH the bitter loss that year of great events had brought
her, the time of trial for the sorrowing mother was not yet over.
Towards its end, the oldest son fell likewise sick of nervous
fever ; and Richard's health was ominously feeble. She came
near to sink beneath the load ; but Geyer's faithful voice revived
her from afar : " Pluck up heart, and, however fiercely Fate
assails you, don't dwell too much on trouble ; remember that you
still have pressing duties in the world, that you are a mother and
your children need you." His New Year's greeting announced
that the Dresden children were well : " May Albert and Richard
soon be also." Yet there was to be many a night of anxious
vigil, ere the state of the first-born took a turn for the better.
Then on the 26th of January 1814 came the death of the grand-
mother Johanna Sophia (ne'e Eichel) at the age of all but
seventy, the last link, for the present, in a long chain of
misfortunes.
For the recuperation of the much-tried mother a brief trip to
Dresden next was planned. The yellow Saxon coach that plied
between Leipzig and the capital brought her safely to her des-
tination ; again she saw her absent children, and found them
thriving. But something else was settled between her and the
trusty friend : in Geyer's honest heart a most worthy resolve had
54
REMOVAL TO DRESDEN. 55
been forming in the months since the death of his lamented
comrade; it ripened now to clearness, and the widow quietly
became his wife. After a little while she returned to Leipzig,
whither he followed her about Easter with good news of a
change in his fortunes : the Seconda troupe was about to convert
its precarious toleration into a guaranteed engagement by the
State, under favourable conditions.* With this encouraging
assurance of his future livelihood was coupled the agreeable
prospect of the company's nomadic roaming between Dresden
and Leipzig soon drawing to an end. The latter, indeed, was
not to be for a year or two yet ; only in the year 1816 did the
Royal Court-players come to Leipzig for their last Easter term ;
on the 2oth October of that year they said good-bye to it for ever
with a performance of Lessing's " Emilia " in which Geyer played
Marinelli and Frau Hartwig the Orsina; at its close this able
actress spoke the farewell epilogue.
Meanwhile the family's removal to Dresden had already taken
place ; once more it was a settled home in which the little Richard
struggled up. Brother Albert was just about to leave his Meissen
school and attend the university for the study of medicine ; sister
Louise still remained in the loving care of her foster-mother, who
would not relinquish her charge so soon ; Rosalie, on the other
hand, had returned to her parents immediately after they settled
in Dresden ; of the others, Therese had succumbed to an illness
at the age of five, but her place had been filled by a little dark-
haired daughter, Augusta Cacilie (born Feb. 26, 1815), the only
fruit of Richard's mother's second marriage.
Their dwelling lay in the Moritz-strasse, the corner-house next
the passage through the Landhaus to the present Landhaus-strasse.
Geyer was not overburdened with professional work now that his
* It was a bad affair, though, for poor Franz Seconda. In the first place
he had the personal misfortune to be taken for a French spy on the very day
of his company's arrival at Leipzig, and to be dragged before the Russian
Governor Prince Repnin ; he had a narrow escape from death by shooting,
and was sent to the Dresden police-court under military arrest. Not till five
days later, and after his case had been twice heard, was he set at liberty.
Then, through the incorporation of his acting-troupe with the Italian Opera
as a state-establishment, he was completely dethroned and his contract an-
nulled, though it still had several years to run. In the event, under Theodor
Hell as temporary Intendant, he obtained a modest provision for his declining
years as business-adviser of the full-fledged Court-theatre.
56 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
engagement as actor had been restricted to Dresden ; with a salary
of 1040 thalers (about ^156), he mostly had to appear but twice
a week, and in frequently recurring roles. Nevertheless it needed
unflagging industry, to provide for the support and education of a
growing family ; so he diligently devoted all his leisure to portrait-
painting, and his studio was often quite full of would-be sitters.
His energy was great, and his health more promising than ever ;
the happiness of domestic life had increased the natural cheerful-
ness of his temper.
For the rest, the state of the Saxon capital was little calculated
to inspire so vivacious an artistic nature as Geyer's. After the
return of its legitimate king (June 7, 1815) the Dresden of those
days remained as if there had never been a War of Liberation ; a
veritable colony of " Hofraths from first class to fourth," in the
heyday of its pigtail-age. Among Cacilie's godparents we find a
" Counsellor " (Hofrath Theodor Hell, whom we shall meet again),
a " Court-painter " (Georg Friedr. Winkler), and a " Court-player "
(Friedrich Canow). Everything emanated from the "Court," and
as of old its order of the day was suffocation of each breath of true
Germanityin life and art. Even as regards the confession of faith,
every person attached to the court or standing in the remotest
relation to it, from the Hofmarschall and Master of the Cere-
monies down to the Court turnspit and scullery-maid, was expected
to share in the Royal family's adhesion to the Roman Church. A
sickly note of sugar was the distinctive mark of Dresden's literary
lions, at their head the polymorphic scribbler who went by the
pen-name of "Theodor Hell," the noted Hofrath Winkler, so
busy as adaptor and translator, critic, prefacer and editor,
manager of the Italian Opera, Maecenas and adviser to a swarm
of minor spirits, factotum of sundry clubs and unions, surpassing
all the beaux esprits of Dresden in virtue of an ugliness that had
moved Tieck to depict him in his Puss-in-boots as a scare-crow of
burnt leather. Around him the ever " unrecognised," but all the
more self-conscious poet, Friedrich Kind, and a whole troop of
sentimental novelists and saccharine lyrists who had made Hell's
Abendzeitung their head-quarters. Richard Wagner's subsequent
characterisation of this epoch as " quite openly avowing itself a
paper one " is fully borne out by other accounts of the extraordinary
bibliomania then raging in Dresden ; the whole city read, and
"even the red-coated Grenadiers, with their legs hanging out of
REMOVAL TO DRESDEN. 57
the palace windows, had a novel on their lap as they knitted
stockings." *
The nimbus round the King and Court attached to their lowest
dependent; thus it happened (according to M.M. v. Weber) that
an excellent chamber-musician subsequently Weber's valiant
friend was particularly prized because his brother was a Royal
valet ! Soft speech, respectful manners, distinguished the
Dresdener ; at the theatre itself one feared to shew approval by
noisy demonstration. Concerning a performance of Geyer's as
Jefferies in Zeigler's " Parteienwuth," when he was loudly called
before the curtain despite the public's' naive detestation of the role
of villain, we read in the Freimiithige of Feb. 6, 1816 : "To have
roused our public to such a pitch, is saying a good deal, and could
have only occurred on a Sunday ; on weekdays, when the Court
honours the house with its presence, it is not considered seemly
to behave like that, as the King objects to demonstrations."
With Geyer " Art was earnest, life a sport, so long as life ran
lusty in his veins," as Bottiger puts it in his Necrologue (Dresden
Abendzeifung, Nos. 259-60, 1821). His hospitable home in the
Aloritz-strasse was ever a favourite meeting-place for merry spirits,
himself the life and soul of every party. To this sociable circle
belonged, among others, the jovial War-counsellor Georgi, chief
friend of the house, recollection of whom was preserved by
Richard Wagner to the end ; the versatile Ferdinand Heine, at
first a bandsman in the Dresden Hofkapelle, thereafter one of the
Royal Players, devoted to the family from first to last, and
especially to Richard from his childhood up ; Geyer's colleagues,
Christ and Haffner, both veterans from the old Seconda days ; the
hero-player Fr. Julius, Geyer's former comrade at Breslau, whose
time-honoured Tellheim and Romeo eventually won the unstinted
praise of Tieck himself. Then we have Frau Hartwig, with the
elasticity of youth so well conserved that at the age of forty she
was able to personate a girl of sixteen with all due freshness and
vivacity. It certainly was hard on her that short-sighted Herr
Bottiger, Dresden's loquacious art-critic and archseologic authority,
should have presented her on her birthday, as symbol of her
never-aging youth, with a rose whose petals he had stripped away
in the fervour of oratory ; she was equal to the occasion, however,
and replied that at last she realised how blind love makes.
* F. Pecht, in his sketch of Gottfried Semfer.
58 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
In this lively circle the family-feasts at Geyer's house not
seldom took the form of puppet-shows, or even full-fledged
dramatic representations, in which he had arranged the whole
himself, from verse to costumes. Thus arose full many a bright
occasional product of his fancy, spiced with witty allusions to
local topics and celebrities. Among these fugitive compositions,
a number of which have been preserved to this day, belongs his
satirical comedy originally a puppet-play " Die neue Delila," *
in which Richard Wagner (speaking in 1878) remembered having
seen the shepherds Damot and Philemon played by Geyer himself
and Kriegsrath Georgi. " His crams are worse than Bosenberg's
of Drasen," Geyer makes the shepherd Damot say of the Viking
braggadocio Sigurd Rottenbrecher, alluding to his colleague the
irrepressible low-comedian Bosenberg, born in 1750, who cele-
brated his jubilee as actor soon after the commencement of the
new Dresden era, and was noted for the Miinchausenesque
reminiscences which he retailed for the benefit of the green-room.
Ample matter for his fanciful skits was afforded by the Fate-
Tragedy (" Konig Ygurd," " Die Ahnfrau," etc.) then prevalent at
the Play, and at the Opera the court's affection for Rossini's
Gazza Ladra (Germanice "die diebische Elster") and Tancredi,
in which last the celebrated male soprano Sassaroli sang the title-
part and Signora Sandrini the part of Amenaide. The pushing
maestro he treats as follows :
Rossini ! ruft die Welt Rossini, nie, nie, nie
Kommt wieder solch Genie : di tanti palpiti
Hat ihn beriihmt gemacht, muss ihn unsterblich machen.
Rossini ringt, auch wenn der Erde Pfosten krachen,
Die "Elster" in der Hand, kiihn mit dem Weltensturz
Und was den Larm betrifft, da kommt er nicht zu kurz.
Ere long the opportunity of turning his poetic gift to some
practical use was furnished by the debuts of his step-daughters
Louise and Rosalie. A friendly rivalry existed between Frau
Hartwig as foster-mother of the first-named, and Geyer as foster-
father of the second ; but the man was against their making too
* It was printed twice, but not till after Geyer's death : first in 8vo, "The
new Dalilah, a pastoral and heroic play, merry at the beginning, but most
tragic toward the end," Leipzig 1823 ; and secondly in i6mo, in a continua-
tion of the " Kotzebue-almanac of dramatic pieces for the entertainment of
country-houses," 2ist year of issue, Leipzig, P. G. Kummer.
REMOVAL TO DRESDEN. 59
early a public appearance. In the case of Rosalie, it had been
the expressed wish of her father Friedrich Wagner that she should
enter the career of a player, with the proviso that she was not to
tread the boards before her fifteenth or sixteenth year ; it was for
this reason that Geyer had declined to trust her education to his
valued lady friend, as he feared a contravention of the limit. In
the case of Louise, he had been powerless to prevent her appear-
ing in a tiny child-role in a one-act comedy even at the premature
age of ten, but at least he claimed the privilege of writing a
suitable piece for her next appearance in the following year: a
comedy in rhymed alexandrines entitled " Das Madchen aus der
Fremde," * given out under the assumed name of E. Willig. He
himself played a part in it, with great success ; by his side Louise
enacted the role of a girl of ten years old, to general satisfaction.
For Rosalie's first appearance Geyer waited out the term appointed
by her father. In the charming piece he wrote for her, " Das
Erntefest," her role is named after herself, and Geyer's own
fatherly love to the winsome fledgeling finds full expression.!
This time his real name was announced on the programme, but
he did not play a part ; the principal characters were sustained
by his colleagues Julius, Burmeister, and Frau Hartwig. The
reception by public and critics was most friendly and sympathetic ;
due in part to the author's po'pularity, in part to the charm of the
youthful debutante.
Rosalie's debut took place on the 2nd of May 1818 ; two days
later she entered her sixteenth year. In her uncle Adolfs letter,
* It was under this title that the piece was first performed at Dresden on
May u, 1817, though it is also cited as "Braut aus der Fremde" in the
Dresden Abendzeitung of Oct. 30, the same^year. The plot of the innocent
two-act play is briefly as follows : A young officer picks up a little girl of ten
years old from the field of battle, and teases his betrothed by writing her,
without further particulars, that he has a maiden always with him whom he
loves and kisses etc. Thereupon the father of the bride-elect challenges
the father of the officer to a duel, but all ends happily after the necessary
explanations. The subsidiary characters are also well drawn : a pretender
to the fiancee's hand, whose name of Baron von Hopfensack denotes his
rustic style and manners ; a spiteful stepmother, who rules the good-natured
father in his own house ; the officer's trooper servant, and so on.
t This piece also is mentioned under a different title, "Der Erntekranz" ;
but it was performed, and printed, (in the Kotzebue Almanac for 1822), under
that quoted above. As the work is out of print, and rare, we give a summary
of it as well. Count Werben had wedded Therese ; in his absence his proud
6O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
conveying his birthday wishes, we find them accompanied by the
hope that " the life of show and dissembling which she has chosen,
or rather found, may not cheat her of her veritable treasure, a pure
and humble heart, full of modesty, love and piety." To under-
stand this solemn warning amidst all the preparations for Rosalie's
future, we must recall Adolfs rooted dislike of the stage as a
profession. Almost predestined for the theatre by Friedrich
Wagner's predilection, the growing family had been brought into
somewhat too close a contact with its perilous attractions through
Geyer's direct connection. In this sense the uncle brother-in-law
had looked askance at the widow's second marriage; nay, his
advice, if asked, would have been dead against it, however much
he valued Geyer as man and artist. Against the daughters' train-
ing for the stage he had openly protested from the first. " With
any deeper glance into this calling," he was wont to say, " I
cannot but consider a life devoted to it as thrown away. Who-
ever knows the actor's life at all, does not need much telling
how it burns a man out, makes him shallow and empty; how
it leads to so-called fortunes and adventures, too insignificant
to mend the manners of a male, but serious enough in any case
to mar the manners of a female. The whirl and scurry of the
outer life, alike with the mendacious juggling of the inner, form
too sharp a contrast, too severe a strain, not to derange at once
and dislocate a woman's nature." Indeed Geyer's own opinion
of his calling was not so very different, for he once described it
as a career that " he would gladly abandon any day, as it robbed
mother had got the marriage set aside, and Therese had departed with her
hope and sorrow. Werben has been unable to trace her until, despatched
as envoy to a foreign land, he believes he recognises the features of his long-
lost wife in a girl of fourteen years Rosalie whom he meets there. His joy
is crushed by information that the girl is daughter of an " Oekonomierath "
Ehrenberg, for he can but imagine that his wife must have contracted a
second union. Yet he is conquered by the longing to see his beloved once
again, and he decides to accompany the child to her parents, to disclose his
story to the husband, and implore him to yield Therese to him. Rosalie
is not the child of Ehrenberg ; the Count's heart has not deceived him.
Ehrenberg's wife had lost their own daughter in his absence, and, dreading
to grieve him by the news on his return, had adopted Rosalie, the daughter
of Therese, retaining the mother as companion. The knot is unravelled by
the confession of Frau Ehrenberg, and, the Count purchasing the adjoining
property, both families resolve to live together. All this takes place on the
day of Harvest-home, whose festival concludes the piece.
REMOVAL TO DRESDEN. 6 1
him of all quiet, joy and health"; and it was with no light
heart that he let his foster-children brave its dangers. Thus it
was not by his advice, that Albert also left his medical studies
to become a singer; "facility, forgive me for saying it, has
prompted your choice of this calling," he writes, and warns him
in no uncertain tones of the "torrent of comedianism." The
younger brother Julius he apprenticed to his own unmarried
younger brother, goldsmith Geyer at Eisleben ; but he had
eventually to see a third daughter, Clara Wagner (born 1807),
follow her natural inclination and the example of both her elder
sisters.
At least the youngest children, Ottilie, Richard and Cacilie,
were to abide by their parents' wish, and keep off the boards.
Little Richard was the special object of alike his mother's and
his stepfather's affection. His delicate constitution required
peculiar care, for he was already troubled with that irritating
form of erysipelas (? erythema, or eczema) which recurred at
frequent intervals throughout his life. However, it was not merely
the child's weak health that drew especial interest to him, but also
his surprising gift of observation, and comical comparisons, by
far beyond the usual limits of his age. Down to his sixth year
he had no regular lessons ; the mother wished to give him time
to pick up strength, and would not have him plagued with school-
work ; yet his sisters taught him this and that at home, besides
what he learnt in the disguise of play from stepfather and watchful
mother. Neither at this time, nor in the next few years, did he
exhibit any symptoms of the " infant prodigy " ; but his relatives
have preserved so vivid a recollection of certain trifling escapades,
that one can only conclude he must have had an individuality of
his own even in earliest childhood.
A pale, slim little chap in short-armed frocks, but unruly
enough already thus these traditions shew the tiny Richard.
On his errands to grocer Klepperbein he has a trick of forgetting
his message in the delight of the largesse of raisins. He is fond
of following his mother into the kitchen : just as the cutlets are
frying most temptingly, she has to answer the door to a visitor ;
on her return she finds an empty pan, and Richard scuttling off
with queer contortions. Upon examination, the cause of distress
turns out to be a steaming cutlet in his breeches-pocket, what
has become of the others? After a few maternal threats, con-
62 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
fession is made that they smelt so good he took a bite at each
of them, but they were so very hot he couldn't finish them, and
one after the other went under the hearth. Another day, to
make amends, he races through the streets after a dog who has
stolen the joint, and is rewarded in the market-place by a kick in
his chest from a horse, the consequences of which gave much
anxiety. These fleeting reminiscences of Richard's fourth and
fifth years we receive through his sister Cacilie ; as she was
nearly two years younger than himself, she must have had them
from the older members of the family, in whose memory a
thousand similar freaks of the young rascal would have lingered ;
a few were afterwards perpetuated by the skilful pen of his friend
the painter Ernst Kietz.
III.
GEYER'S LAST YEARS.
Relations with K. M. v. Weber. The " German Opera."
Starring at Prague and Leipzig. Occupation as painter. Comedy
" The Slaughter of the Innocents." Albert and Rosalie. Failing
health. Representation of his comedy. -Journey to Breslau.
Illness and death.
One knew not which to give the highest praise to, his
manifold artistic talent, his witty talk, or his deep feeling
of love and duty. However conscious of his natural gifts
and their assiduous cultivation, the ideal he strove for was
so refined that he could never content himself with what
he actually achieved.
K. A. BOTTIGER on L. Geyer.
DURING Richard Wagner's earliest childhood a new and pregnant
chapter in the history of art had been opened at Dresden. At
the beginning of 1817 Karl Maria von Weber arrived to found a
German Opera in the midst of pigtailed and Italianised " Elbe-
Florence." Scarcely had he taken up his dwelling in a vine-clad
cottage of the " Italian village," when he made his first experience
of the hardships of his new position : summoned to Dresden as
Kapellmeister, he was to be put off with the subordinate rank of
Music-director. This so enraged him, that he threatened to leave
at once if he were not placed on exactly the same footing as his
colleague, Morlachi of the Italian Opera. Through his manly
conduct he soon won the sympathy of his artistic comrades, but
his first annoyances remained characteristic of his treatment by
the Court throughout.
Soon after commencing his preliminary rehearsals, he published
a manifesto in the Abendzeitung setting forth his aims and objects
in starting this new enterprise, and appealing to the public to
support him.* Support, however, was lastingly denied him in
* " The art-forms of other nations," so it runs, "have always been better
defined than those of the German. The Italian and Frenchman have made
63
64 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
the region where it might have had the greatest influence, the
Court itself : engagements made expressly for the " German
Opera" were often vetoed or frowned at for the most singular
reasons; a tenor, for instance, who had pleased both Weber
and the public, was dismissed because his first appearance gave
the King a painful impression of personal resemblance to that
Privy-Councillor von Anstetten whose duty it had been to apprise
him of his arrest by the Allies in fateful 1813. Barely able to
extort the first necessaries for his undertaking, he saw himself
compelled to fall back on the more vocal members of the Play.
Thus Geyer, the lucky owner of a "by no means despicable "
tenor voice, Geyer who had begun as " hero " with Don Carlos,
Piccolomini and Hamlet, and passed on to comic and character
parts; Geyer, who, in addition to his painting and play-writing,
was still busied with parts such as Alba in Egmont and lago in
Othello, had to become an "opera-singer" into the bargain. In
recompense this brought him into much closer connection with
Weber, for whom he entertained a high esteem from the first,
than would otherwise have been the case. He undertook for him
the parts of Lorenz in the singspiel "Das Hausgesinde," of the
colour-grinder Paul in Weigl's " Adrian von Ostade," Thomas in
Solie's comic opera " Das Geheimniss," and various other minor
singing roles ; reminding us of the reference in Richard Wagner's
Actors and Singers to " that highly laudable class of performers "
who in days gone by won recognition in Play alike and Opera.
Fresh intrigues of Morlachi's commenced about the time of
the summer representations in the little theatre at the Linke'sches
Bad. The picturesque situation of this theatre, with its trifling
distance from the city, made it a favourite resort for the middle
classes : the Elbe flowing by, it was easy of approach, and every
summer afternoon the pretty spectacle would be presented of a
flotilla of pleasure-boats on their way there, while pedestrians
streamed along the shady avenues by the river-side. Intent on
themselves an operatic form in which they move with ease. Not so the
German. It is his peculiarity to seize the excellence of all the rest with
eager curiosity and desire for constant progress ; but he deepens everything.
Whereas the others mostly make for the sensuous zest of isolated moments,
he demands an artwork rounded in itself, where every part shall join to
constitute a fine ensemble, a perfect whole." It is significant to find the
aims of Richard Wagner foreshadowed in almost the selfsame words by his
favourite model.
GEYER'S LAST YEARS. 65
lowering German Opera in the eyes of the public, Morlachi
contrived to get the Italian singers dispensed from appearing on
this suburban stage. Geyer had to suffer for it, and defer the
cure he meant to undergo at Carlsbad ; before he could obtain
leave to mend his broken health, he had to make repeated extra
appearances in play and singspiel. By the time he did get to
Carlsbad, he found it packed with royalty and fashion ; balls and
assemblies were made occasion for the choicest toilets ; a rainy
summer filled the theatre and concert-hall. He himself could
not escape the frequent call for evening entertainments, at one
of which he recited Goethe's "Der Gott und die Bajadere";
but he kept as far as possible from the giddy throng, seeking
recreation in walks and excursions into the beautiful surrounding
country.
The same autumn took him once again across the Bohemian
frontier: bearing messages from Weber to his fiancee, Caroline
Brandt, engaged there as a singer, and his valued patron Count
Pachta, he went on a fortnight's starring trip to Prague ; whither
Weber himself soon followed, on his wedding-journey, after Geyer's
return. After a while he revisited Leipzig, for another star-engage-
ment. Though this city had lost its main attraction for him, it
yet remained a place of fond remembrances, and he met with
many a sign of old attachment and respect. Thus we are told
that a volley of applause which greeted his first appearance, as
King Philip in Don Carlos, sent the actor's heart to his unguarded
lips : for the nonce he quite forgot himself, or rather his role, and
returned thanks to the audience in a few familiar words ; after
which he resumed his cue, "Thus alone, Madame?" The
sarcastic stage-manager, Gottfried Wohlbriick, who never could
repress a witticism, even though it stung his dearest friend, was
standing as Domingo by side of the "Duke of Alba," and
whispered to him, " Eh ! for King Philip has just turned to
Geyer." But no one could have felt the solecism more keenly
than the good artist himself; the whole evening was spoilt for
him, and with it his role.* He threw up his engagement at once,
* This account, with all its details, is borrowed from Edouard Genast's most
instructive volume, Aus dem Tagebuch eines alien Schauspielers ; contemporary
reports, however, say nothing of either this impromptu speech of Geyer's or
its effect on his impersonation, but simply tell us that " Herr Wolf as Marquis
Posa, Dem. Bohler as Queen Elizabeth, Herr Geyer as King Philip, Herr Stein
E
66 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
not to come back till the following year, when he gave a series of
most successful impersonations.
We will now turn for a moment to that other aspect of Geyer's
life, his career as painter, of which we have as yet said so little,
though many a report has come down to us, especially from the
period of his permanent abode in Dresden.
At the Dresden annual art-exhibition of 1816, beside the
Sigurd-compositions of Julius Schnorr (after Fouque), Geyer's
copy of an Assumption of the Virgin by Luca Giordano attracted
universal notice. At a later exhibition one of the chief points of
interest is said to have been his noble full-length portrait of the
Queen of Saxony.* The Princess Augusta too (distinguished from
the rest of the Court by her warm sympathy with Weber's efforts)
sat to Geyer for a successful portrait. Commissioned by the
Queen to paint her brother the King of Bavaria (Max Joseph),
in the summer of 1819 he went on an eight- weeks leave to
Munich, where he meant to combine a star-engagement with his
studio-work. There he found "all the magazines and sheds
packed full with the antiques brought over from Greece and
Italy," while the imposing fabric of the Glyptothek was making
daily progress under the eager eye of Crown-prince Ludwig.
The King accorded him a sitting for the portrait, which proved
such a speaking likeness as to cause "an indescribable sensa-
tion." He also painted the Queen, whilst orders from court-circles
soon rained so thick that he was obliged to break off the theatrical
engagement which he had opened with Rudolf in Korner's
" Banditenbraut," and moreover to decline quite a mass of com-
missions owing to the expiry of his term.f
as Don Carlos, and Mme. Wolff as Princess Eboli, received the most unmis-
takable proofs of general approbation ; whereas the Alba Genast was much
blamed in regard of both dress and conception."
* " The whole large picture is finely and worthily conceived, and admirably
held in balance," says a report on this exhibition in the Wiener Zeitschrift fur
Kunst. "Our eyes also dwelt with pleasure on a charming portrait of the
Princess Augusta."
t A Munich letter of August 25, 1819, in the Dresd. Abendzeitung (Nos.
221-22) tells us that, "Commanded by her Majesty the Queen of Saxony to
paint the portrait of her august brother, our King, Herr Geyer was shewn one
from the hand of Stieler, and remarked that the resemblance was not such as
he would undertake to effect if he could but be allowed the honour of a single
sitting of one hour's duration. His wish was fulfilled, and the King's portrait
GEYER'S LAST YEARS. 67
The unusually close connection in Geyer's nature between the
mimetic gift and that for painting, has often been remarked. Just
as all reports on his histrionic performances make mention of his
effective and appropriate make-up, so we read of his talent for
reproducing features on the canvas that " the Muse of Stagecraft
guided, unseen, the brush of her faithful disciple." Yet, for all
his ample recognition by connoisseurs and experts, the modest
artist ever failed to satisfy himself. Bitterly would he deplore the
lack of thorough training in his earlier years, and ardently long
for the higher incentive of Italy. This unfulfilled longing he puts
into the mouth of Painter Klaus, the hero of his admirable comedy
"The Slaughter of the Innocents," his ripest dramatic product.*
Painter Klaus is a sterling artist, a delightful blend of enthusiasm,
eccentricity, and lofty indifference to the straits of daily life. His
wife has not attained this pitch of resignation to earthly dis-
comfort : it drives her almost crazy to think that guests are
arriving at midday and there isn't a sixpence in the house, though
the painter recks but little of it. Yet Klaus, too, can be torn
from the clouds and plunged into the blackest despair, when it
concerns the destruction of the sketch for a painting on whose
completion he had built all his hopes of renown. Since Goethe's
left his hands with a likeness than which nothing could be more complete. It
is indescribable, the sensation this picture has made. Next he painted her
Majesty the Queen, and again won the unanimous verdict of all unbiased
connoisseurs. So Herr Geyer got overwhelmed with orders ; and it is scarcely
credible, when one hears that within six weeks he was at work on 30 por-
traits, among them those of the Duke Wilhelm, Field-Marshal Prince Wrede,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs Count von Rechberg, with family, Chief Master
of the Ceremonies Carl Count v. Rechberg, the Prussian and French am-
bassadors, and so on. At last, his leave of absence running out, he had to
decline to execute any more. It greatly redounds to the artist's honour, to
have earned this distinction in a city where men like Hauber, Kellerhofen,
Ettlinger, are so famous in this branch of painting ; but I am not saying too
much when I assert that in point of likeness, at the first glance, none equals
Herr Geyer. Of this rapidity of vision, this correctness of apprehension, I
should scarcely have deemed any artist capable."
* The widest-known of Geyer's comedies, Der bethlehemitische Kindermord
(with sub-title, " Dramatisch-comische Situationen aus dem KUnstlerleben ")
did not appear in print until after his death, and then in the following
editions: (l) as a separate publication, Weimar, 1823, Hoffmann ; (2) in the
Weimarisches Dramatisches Taschenbuck, first year of issue, with a portrait of
Durand as " Maler Klaus"; (3) in the Deutsche Schaubiihne, vol. xiv.,
Vienna 1825 ; (4) in Reclam's Universalbibliothek, No. 1979, edited by C.
Fr. Wittmann, 1885.
68 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
" Kiinstler's Erdenwallen " the contrasts and collisions between the
demands of everyday life, with household, wife and child, and the
ideal aspirations of an artist's soul, have never been set forth with
so much truth to nature and humorous invention.
Geyer's diligence in every department of his varied activity had
been rewarded by the removal from him and his of all material
hardships, such as he had once known quite as acutely as his
Maler Klaus. He had also reaped the satisfaction of having
brought at least the two eldest children, Albert and Rosalie, to a
state of independence. With Albert, who had abandoned his
medical studies for a thorough course of singing-lessons under
Mieksch of Dresden, and was now to make his earliest venture
on the boards, he once more went to Leipzig in the winter of
1819, where the young artist made his first appearance as
Belmonte in Mozart's Entfuhrung. In the spring of 1820 the
stepson made another trial as Belmonte and Tamino on the
Dresden stage under Weber (who was just about completing
his Freischiitz), and then bade farewell to home, to take up his
first engagement at Breslau, where Geyer knew that he would be
well looked after by his old friend Bierey (see p. 39). His
departure left a sensible gap; "at table," we are naively told,
" he was specially missed at the bread-slicing," an office which
returned to the head of the family. Rosalie, too, had made such
progress under her stepfather's tuition and by dint of her own
industry, that she was engaged about the same time (May i,
1820) for the Royal Court-players, with a salary of 824 thalers.
On May 21, the eve of Richard's seventh anniversary, she
made her first actual entry on this new dignity, in a comedy
role.
As to Richard's own progress, we have many a hint in Geyer's
household reports to Albert : at one time we hear that " Richard
leaves a trousers-seat per day on the hedge " ; at another, " Richard
is growing big, and a good scholar." The boy has scarcely learnt
a note of music yet, but in everything else shews such remarkable
quickness of apprehension that Geyer finds the greatest pleasure
in watching over his education ; he would have liked to make him
a painter, " but I was never any good at drawing," as Wagner once
told us himself. Geyer was also fond of taking him as companion
on his daily walks, and not seldom would smuggle him into the
theatre at rehearsal-time, thus laying the foundation of the stage's
GEYER'S LAST YEARS. 69
magic power over Richard too, though it was against his father's
wish for him to adopt that walk of life. For what concerns the
boy's body, he had already acquired great agility in climbing, as
in all kinds of acrobatic feats : before he was seven years old, he
terrified his mother by riding down the winding staircase-rail as
quick as thought. However, as he never made a slip, his people
soon lost their alarm; in fact his brothers and sisters would
frequently get him to shew visitors his skill in somersaults, stand-
ing on the head, and other small gymnastic tricks.
About this time occur the first disquieting signs of Geyer's fail-
ing health. In the winter of 1820 he had gone alone to Leipzig
for awhile, more as painter than actor, stopping with his brother-
in-law Adolf Wagner ; who, since the death of his mother, had
given up his bachelor quarters to join forces with sister Friederike
in the Thoma house, where they set up a three-cornered establish-
ment with their old friend its owner, Jungfer Jeannette. Here
Geyer painted a good deal, and felt very unwell ; so much so,
that he withdrew from all outside intercourse, and vexed Adolf
by refusing to take any share in his pet dramatic readings at the
Tragers and Lacarrieres. Alike " dwelling and inmates were
dismal " to him ; he complained of the unhealthy feel about the
house ; " the black poodle and the smoky old figures," life-size
portraits in the Electoral apartments assigned to him, "have
something uncanny which gets on one's nerves." Alarmed by
his accounts of himself, his wife arrived at Leipzig to attend to
him. " He is working too hard, and taking too little exercise,"
said the brother-in-law; "'tis a bad attack of spleen." But it was
more than that ; it was the beginning of a general decline, and
Geyer never really recovered ground.
True, a ' cure ' of several weeks' duration, with abstention from
every form of work, so far restored the invalid that he was able to
reappear in a comedy-role by the middle of February, and "once
more enliven a large audience by his truly humorous acting."
Meanwhile the " Slaughter of the Innocents " had been accepted
by Count Konneritz for performance at the Dresden theatre;
Tieck, as dramaturgic adviser to the Intendanz, having expressed
a most favourable opinion of it. So Geyer took an active part in
the inscenation of his piece, in which he himself played Painter
Klaus, and thirteen-year-old Clara Wagner was given the role of
one of the children. The performance took place on Feb. 20,
7O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
1821, winning a great success and many calls for the author.*
But the exertion of figuring as playwright, manager and performer
in one, must have proved a terrible strain on a man whose strength
was hardly yet restored ; as perhaps may be gathered from Botti-
ger's remark (in course of a long critique on the work and its pro-
duction) that he could have wished that Geyer's reading of his
own creation had been "kept more tranquil," though we must
allow for the ordinary reporter's love of putting in a word himself.
The piece was not repeated until several weeks later, owing to
Geyer's state of health.
At Easter 1821 the family removed to a more roomy dwelling
in a lofty old house at the corner of the Jiidenhof and Frauen-
gasse, opposite the old Picture-gallery. It belonged to sword-
cutler Voigt, the same who once had flashed before Richard's
eyes a toy-sword intended for his Christmas-box, and hidden it
again as quickly, an impression keen in Wagner's memory for
over sixty years. In front lay the shop of confectioner Orlandi,
where the boy once "exchanged Schiller's poems for puffs."
Geyer took great pains over a tasteful decoration of the new
abode, and rejoiced in its larger and more commodious studio.
As Spring advanced, he bestowed peculiar care on the culture of
his garden, in which he hoped to gather his dear ones round him
for many a year. " When I've nothing to do, I don't go to the
theatre, but poke about in my garden," he writes to Albert, who
had asked him for an item of news. As his piece was coming on
* Besides Geyer as Maler Klaus, the wife Sophie was played by Mme. Schirmer,
the scene-shifter Texel by Pauli, Master-of-arts Stockmann by Ceiling. Of little
Clara's performance we read, "Again young Clara Wagner, whom we have
already seen play more than one small part with true childlike innocence and
liveliness, displayed a quite delightful talent. The stage may cherish pleasant
hopes of this young bud." We append a very incomplete list of first perform-
ances at other theatres : Breslau, June 1821 the only other one in Geyer's
lifetime ; Hamburg, Oct. 1821 ; Weimar, Spring 1822, with Durand as Maler
Klaus ; Berlin, Jan. 14, 1823, where the humorous acting of the famous Pius
Alexander Wolff and his wife kept the play for long upon the lists ; Stuttgart,
March 1823 ; Prague, Sept. 1823, with several revivals ; Leipzig, Nov. 1824;
Kassel, 1828 (?) ; Aachen, July 1829, and so on; finally Bayreuth, May 22,
1873, f r Richard Wagner's sixtieth birthday. The role of Texel seems to
have everywhere offered occasion for the most curious gags : the Riga town-
theatre's acting copy is full of enigmatic variants from the author's text ; for
instance, "The Jews have never brought us luck" is turned into the absurdity,
"A heathen image never brought us luck."
GEYER'S LAST YEARS. 71
at Breslau, he sent minute directions as to scenic details, the
length and breadth of the picture that has to be overturned, etc.,
etc. At the same time he heard the good news of the brilliant
reception of Der Freischutz in Berlin (June 18), a work whose
Dresden production he was not to live to see. Weber had set
out on May the ist, to be on the spot in good time; but, owing
to the over-taxing of the company by Spontini for his Olympic, the
rehearsals could not begin until three weeks later. The decisive
battle had now been won ; at midnight stage-manager Hellwig
left the banquet given in Weber's honour after the performance,
to return to his friends at Dresden with tidings of triumph.
In the middle of summer Geyer went with Rosalie to Breslau,
where his " Kindermord " so lately had come to successful pro-
duction. For the first time in twelve years he saw the town
again, and renewed pleasant memories with old friends and
acquaintances such as Bierey and Mosevius ; but the stay there
did him little good. After an absence of four weeks he returned
to Dresden, in a very low state ; at a representation on the 28th
August he had to battle with serious indisposition, but he appeared
yet another time, and moreover took part in the reading-rehearsal
of a new piece, " The Burgomaster of Saardam." * Again accom-
panied by Rosalie, he went next for a change of air to Pillnitz
" by order, but not at expense, of the Queen " ; the continuously
rough and wintry weather did nothing for his convalescence. On
the iQth September fell the mother's forty-third birthday, a family-
festival which had never gone by without some gay surprise
invented and arranged by Geyer ; for the first time he was absent
on that day. From Pillnitz he sends her his congratulations,
bewailing his inability to prepare a treat for her, " but it is his
whim to make it up right heartily on his return to the home
circle." The bad weather compels him to cut his holiday short.
After a complete rest, he feels rather better in town ; but the next
day his condition is exacerbated by a violent attack of asthma.
Between the paroxysms he still is occupied with the concerns of
life ; thus, prostrated as he is, he is full of the desire to get his
excellent portrait of the King of Saxony reduplicated by litho-
* Since the year 1801 the minor theatres of Paris had produced over ten
different pieces dealing with the supposed adventures of Peter the Great at
Saardam ; Lortzing subsequently used a German version of one of these for
the book of his well-known opera Czar und Zimmermann.
72 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
graphy. To divert him, Richard must shew what he had learnt
on the pianoforte : he played " Ub' immer Treu' und Redlichkeit "
and the latest novelty, the " Jungfernkranz " from Freischutz ; in
the adjoining room he heard the sick man murmur to his mother,
" Has he a possible talent for music 1"
At nine in the evening next day, the 3oth of September, the
valiant heart had ceased to beat. A letter from Kriegsrath
Georgi to the old Breslau comrade Bierey tells us of the inconsol-
able grief and despair of those left behind, of whom Rosalie alone
had been able at last to control herself; in the presence of
Richard and his sisters she had sworn to their mother a solemn
oath most faithfully observed that she would carry out her
filial duty to the departed, and become a prop to all of them.
Early in the morning the mother had gone into the nursery with
a word for each of the children ; to Richard she said, " Of thee
he would fain have made [something." To the boy it was as if a
legacy from his dead guardian ; "for a long time," he says, " I
fancied that something indeed might become of me."
Geyer's earthly remains were laid at rest a few days later, at
seven on a bleak autumnal morning ; pair after pair, followed his
colleagues of the Dresden stage, with a few more intimate personal
friends. Round the open grave stood a family bereaved for the
second time of a loving father, whose care had ever striven nobly
to replace the first one's loss.
IV.
RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD.
First journey. Impressions of Eisleben. Return to Dresden.
Admission into the Kreuzschule. The new suit. Sister Cdcilie as
playfellow. Dread of ghosts. Loschwitz : tale of a pumpkin.
Love of Nature and dumb animals. " The history of my dogs"
Affection for his mother.
Secure against denial by a father who died "when I "was
in my cradle, perchance the Norn so often flouted stole
gently to it, and there bestowed on me her gift, " the ne'er -
contented mind intent forever on the new " ; a gift which
never left poor untrained me, but made life and art, and
my own self, my only educators.
RICHARD WAGNER.
GEYER had departed this life too early to guide the boy into any
definite course, or even to discover what might be his natural
inclination. No regular plans having as yet been formed for his
future, he was sent for the time being to Eisleben, where his step-
father's younger brother had volunteered to receive him.
For the present chapter in his life we have authentic data
recorded by Richard Wagner himself, and also by his nephew
F. Avenarius (in a contribution to the Augs. Allg. Zeitung of
1883 entitled "Richard Wagner as a child"). To these we shall
add such details from F. Praeger's mostly untrustworthy " Wagner
as I knew him " as to us appear to bear the stamp of probability.
Composing the differences between Praeger's English and German
versions, we will commence with a narration he puts into the
mouth of Richard Wagner himself in later years :
" My first journey was in October 1821.* Can one ever forget
a first impression ? And my first long journey was such an event !
* Praeger says "the beginning of 1822," but Wagner was always quite
positive about the date as given above.
73
74 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Why, I seem even to remember the physiognomy of the poor lean
horses that drew the jolting coach ; and mind you, a post-car of
those days ! The horses were being changed at some intermediate
station, the name of which I have now forgotten, when all the
passengers had to alight. I stood outside the inn, eating the
bread and butter which my dear little mother had provided me ;
to the astonishment of the postilion, as the tired-out horses were
about to be led away I kissed them and thanked them for having
brought me so far. Everything seemed strange to me, every cloud
seemed different from the clouds at Dresden. How I looked
around, to meet some new feature in everything ! How grand I
felt when the heavy car rolled through the gate of Eisleben ! The
town inspired me with particular interest ; I knew it to be the
birthplace of great Luther, one of the heroes of my childhood.
Nor was it without a reason, that religion should occupy the
attention of a boy of my age; it was a question of conscience
with my thoroughly Lutheran family. As soon as we came to
Dresden, where the court was Roman Catholic, all manner of
means, both direct and indirect, were tried to make us embrace
the court-religion. In vain, for my family remained staunch to
the faith of its forefathers. What attracted me most in the great
Reformer's character, was his dauntless energy and fearlessness.
Since then I have often thought of the true instinct of the child
had I not also, as man, to preach a new gospel of art ? Have
I not also had to bear every insult in its defence ? And have I
not, too, had to say, ' Here I stand, God help me ; I cannot be
otherwise ! ' ? "
The goldsmith uncle, to whom brother Julius had been ap-
prenticed, dwelt at No. 55 on the Market of this Luther town,
the house now belonging to a tradesman Eberhardt. Richard
seems to have been taught at first by his uncle himself; then,
according to the latest inquiries, he went to a private school kept
by Pastor Alt. As Praeger makes him continue : " My good
uncle tried his best to put me through some educational training,
and ever held the famous Dresden Kreuzschule before me as an
incentive to my zeal. That I did not profit much by his instruc-
tion, was, I fear, my own fault. I preferred rambling about the
little country town and its environs, to learning the rules of
.grammar. Legends and fables of all kinds then had an immense
fascination over me, and I often beguiled my uncle into reading
RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD. 75
me a story that I might avoid working. But what always drew
me towards him, was his boundless veneration for the memory of
my own loved stepfather. Whenever he spoke of him, and he did
so very often, he always referred to his loving good-nature, his
amiability, and his gifts as an artist, and ever would end with a
tearful sigh ' that he had to die so young.' "
Among other news that came from Dresden in those days,
were the tidings of the first performance of Der Freischutz there
on January 26, 1822, amid boundless enthusiasm; a laurel- wreath
tied up with verses had been passed up from the parterre to Weber's
desk. Visitors from the surrounding country streamed-in in shoals
whenever the piece was announced ; and the house was packed at
every repetition.* So the child's ninth birthday passed among the
echoes of a work that was presently to take such hold of his
imagination; while Weber himself had already begun the com-
position of his Euryantke.
But the Eisleben stay was not to be of long duration, owing
to a change in uncle Geyer's circumstances. " Rosalie complains
of the Eisleben uncle," writes uncle Adolf to Albert at Breslau ;
" surely one might excuse him with his altered situation, but still
more in view of the wild suggestions of the mother, which are
none the more laudable for their being well meant." This harsh
remark of Adolf Wagner's seems founded less on reason, than on
the old dispute between himself and what had now become the
Geyer family ; had he not lately been crossed again, when his
brother's second daughter, Louise, adopted the theatrical profes-
sion for good by accepting an engagement at Breslau ? " You
would like Richard to come to us," he continues, "and were
things as you think, it would be desirable. Only, they are not.
Within the last few years I have been so taken to task by life,
that I feel myself in the state of falling bodies, which become
heavier (in whatever sense you choose to take it) the lower they
fall. Now this demands too strenuous a saving of myself and my
time, for me to be able to bestow the requisite attention upon
Richard. For these reasons I asked my friend Prof. Lindner to
negotiate some means for furthering Richard's education, and
delayed my answer to you in the hope of sending definite news ;
but the only answer I have received to all my questions to L.,
* For the first twenty-five performances from 12 to 14,000 persons came
into town, many of them from distances of fifty to sixty miles.
76 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
has been that he himself had received none as yet to the inquiries
which he had made." The letter goes on to relate an accident that
had happened to poor Jeannette Thoma; on Christmas-eve she
had slipped on the pavement, broken her left leg, and been
brought home on a litter "in a pitiful plight." Adolf winds up
the description of his household troubles with the words : "So
you may judge for yourself if we could take in Richard here." *
While Albert, apparently on his own initiative, was making
these inquiries of his uncle Adolf, young Richard's immediate
destiny had been decided otherwise. At the time that Adolfs
letter was written, the boy had already returned to the bosom of
his family. There could be no real doubt in the mind of his
relatives as to what his stepfather would have advised ; it was
always his wish that Richard should become a student, and there
could be no more fitting preparation than that to be obtained at
the Dresden Kreuzschule. On the and of December 1822, in
the middle of the winter term, he was therefore received into the
second division of the fifth class of that school, under the name
of "Richard Geyer," which he seems to have borne since his
mother's second marriage, t This had been preceded by a pre-
liminary examination, the prospect of which had filled the boy
with dread, for all his pride at the idea of entering a Gymnasium.
The venerable appearance of the building, the echo of his own
footfall on the stone steps of the hall, made the little heart beat
fast in timid expectation of what was yet to come. However, his
examination went off better than he had anticipated, probably
more in virtue of his ready and intelligent answers, than of his
somewhat scrappy information ; at anyrate he always kept a fond
remembrance of the teachers at this school, and their kindly
treatment of the pupils.
We reach the Christmastide of 1822. Imagine the new Cross-
scholar's delight, when beside the cake and gingerbread without
* A longer extract from this letter is given in C. F. Glasenapp's article,
" Adolf Wagner, ein Lebensbild," Bayreuther Blatter, July-August 1885.
t In his mother's application to the Kreuzschule the stepfather had been
explicitly given out as the father (a not infrequent occurrence in such
formalities), and thus we find him inscribed by Rector Grobel under number
588 of the current list of scholars in the Pandecta rerurn Scholam D. Cruets
conccrnentium (commenced in 1688) as " Wilhelm Richard Geyer, son of the
deceased Court-player Geyer, born at Leipzig the 22nd May 1813, recip. the
and December 1822, Cl. v. Div. 2."
RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD. 77
which no German Christmasing were thinkable he found on the
board a brand-new suit, " to cut a decent figure at school." This
time he had been allowed to rise at daybreak, to help adorn the
christmas-tree ; never could he see one afterwards without recalling
his mother's tender love, and so late as 1857, after an interval
of five-and-thirty years, we find him referring to this same
" new suit."
The widow still retained the comfortable set of rooms in Herr
Voigt's house on the Jiidenhof. The elder children were earning
good pay ; Geyer's stock of pictures had gone up in value ; a Royal
pension appears to have helped : in brief, though Frau Geyer was
not exactly left well off, yet she was not precisely poor. As
Albert and Louise were engaged at the Breslau theatre, her
household at present consisted of Rosalie, Clarchen, Ottilie,
Richard and Cacilie. When the first period of mourning was
over, the mother once more gathered in her rooms a goodly share
of Dresden's best society ; and " all the children took after their
parents too much, to forget that life's earnestness can bear a
tidy pinch of humour in its daily flavouring. If quarrels arose
among themselves, the spirit of Geyer's bringing-up soon restored
the wonted harmony." *
Richard's chief companion at this age of nine was his " pretty
little dark-haired sister Cile," who worshipped him and treasured
everything he said as gospel. He is always with her whenever
he " has time," according to a boy's notion of it ; with her he
hatches out his plans ; with her he scours the fields, though not
without the male's strict sense of condescension ; with her he
shares his little cubicle at home. " By day, one of the children
would be waiting at the window for the other to come back from
school ; by night they had to suffer for each other, as both were
most excitable and fitful sleepers. They had a holy dread of
being left in the dark at any time ; Richard would see ghosts in
every corner, while Cile gave them tongue. Of the steep dark
stairs leading up to the suite the boy had an especial horror : if
it was evening by the time he reached home, he would ring down
a maid with a candle, despite all orders to the contrary. ' Bless
me ! ' he would say when reproved again, ' I was only playing with
it, ever so lightly, and the silly thing began to ring ' ; at other
* F. Avenarius, after the reminiscences of his mother Cacilie, from which
the following anecdotes are also borrowed.
78 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
times the ' silly thing ' refused to ring till one tugged at its rusty
crank with all one's might. Once the pair stayed out too late,
and had to trudge back from Blasewitz in the dark : what a
skeltering past the churchyards ! Luckily a cart came by ; they
hailed it, explaining that they had no money, but really didn't
weigh much ; the driver had some sense of humour, and Richard
was soon proudly crying, ' See now, Cile ! There's the old grave-
yard with its ghosts ; but clck ! they can't catch us now.' "
Cacilie had plenty to say of her brother's sudden shouts and
talking in his sleep, his laughter and tears in the night ; but she
herself was not much better. Once she ran breathless to her
mother: "There's a great bogey in my bed." Richard was no
little pleased; thenceforth whenever he wanted to tease her, he
had only to creep under the bed and cry in an unearthly voice :
" Cile ! Cile ! there's a great big bogey hiding in your bed." *
However, these little practical jokes caused no ill-feeling: when
it once seemed threatening in fact, the boy surprised his sister
with a cap which he had stitched for her doll himself, and all was
smooth again. " I never could be angry with him," says Cacilie
in remembrance of that happy time, "for he either had his mouth
so full of childish jokes that I was forced to laugh against my
will, or his eyes so full of tears that I myself must cry." Very
often these tears were in bitter earnest but not always: for
instance when he wanted to run round to the theatre and look
on from the wings, and his views as to its preferability to pre-
paring his lessons did not coincide with his mother's, he would
plant his elbows on the table and mark time : " Oh dear ! Now
they're doing that now that and that," and sob as if his heart
would break, making grimaces at Cacilie all the while. As a rule
the ruse succeeded : " Off you go ! " came the order, and he was
off in a twinkling.
But the children's brightest days werejthose when their mother
took them to the country. An early stay at Loschwitz on the
Elbe lingered in their recollection long after boy and girl had
become man and woman (down to a few years ago, at least, the
house where they lodged was still standing). Mother and elder
sisters had much to do in town, and mostly left the children in
* " This ' big bogey ' became a catch- word in the family. I myself possess
two letters in which the long since adult master threatens his sister with it in
jest" (F. Avenarius).
RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD. 79
charge of their rustic landlady, or of a Frau Doktorin Schneider
at Blasewitz, where they had built themselves a hut of waste
planks next the dog-kennel, in which to tell each other stories.
The boats skimming by on the Elbe lent wings to their fancy ;
inventive as Wieland of the saga, Richard set about building one
himself, which the couple meant for no less an adventure than a
sail on the Loschwitzer brook !
With the freedom of the open air an irresistible passion for
going barefoot seizes them, the sister in particular. A drawing
by Kietz, in the possession of the Avenarius family, shews us the
boy in the fraternal act of sharing his foot-gear with her. Im-
patient to welcome back their mother, Cile and her brother have
rushed off to the landing-stage one afternoon ; but it is raining,
and has turned bitterly cold ; while the children are sitting lonely
on a fallen tree-trunk, waiting for the boat that won't make haste
to come from Dresden, Cile's naked feet begin to freeze. " Stop
a bit!" says Richard, "just you pull on this one of my boots,
and we'll warm the other feet on one another." This is the
moment chosen for the little sketch : a symbol of Wagner's readi-
ness throughout his life to share what he owned with the needy,
as expressed in his praise of the old Aryan heroes (P. W. VI. 278).
A more tragic incident, the tale of the big pumpkin, likewise
has Loschwitz for its background. Mother and sisters were in
town, whither Richard's tutor who "explained Cornelius Nepos "
to him, and seems to have fruitlessly endeavoured to teach him
to " draw eyes and a flat head " had also gone. Now it so
happened that Richard had discovered a mighty pumpkin, in
which he carved not only "eyes," but a nose and a grinning
mouth : a fearsome sight. " Come, Cile, we'll have fine fun with
this ! " Cile was quite ready ; only, she also had made a dis-
covery, namely that their hostess had taken Frau Geyer's best
porcelain tea-set from the cupboard in mamma's absence and
without her permission, to use it for her private guests ; all the
budding housewife's sense of propriety was outraged, and the
young lady determined that, if they both went out and left the
sitting-room unguarded, at least it should be left secure : " We'll
take away the latch and door key ! " So out they sallied : first
into the village, to frighten people out of their wits; then, as
somehow that wouldn't succeed, up aloft to the hills. Key and
latch were deposited in the pumpkin a fine clatter they made !
8O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
and down it was rolled to the bottom. A glorious game they
had, racing down after the pumpkin, scrambling up with it again,
and so on ad infinitum. At last it turned dusk, and (they must
be getting home. But the stupid pumpkin had lost both latch
and key, through its mouth ! How to get into the parlour, and
their bedroom that lay behind ? A good job, mother can't come
back to-night ; the house-folk daren't go beyond scolding. " You'll
just have to sleep on the stove-bench out here," they acquainted
the culprits when through with their lecture. After shedding
tears enough, Richard and Cile pulled off their clothes, sobbed
a little more, shivered, froze, and fell asleep. It was night by
the time Dominie Humann arrived, the mother having sent him
from town to see after the children. In judicial calm he stood
to hear the charges and defence of those aroused from slumber.
But it gradually dawned upon his brain that he must pass the
night too on the stove-bench: then his wrath boiled up, and
scathingly he trounced the "little wretches." He had the worst
of it, however; proud as Minerva, with "Sir! what are you
thinking of? It has nothing at all to do with you it was /
who did it and besides " etc., Cile placed herself with arms
a-kimbo between her brother and the tutor, as Kietz has drawn
this scene as well. The denouement was suggested by the
remark of a disinterested party that, after all, one might get in
quite well through the window, with help of a ladder. So Richard
and Cile hung their clothes on their arms, and were up in a trice;
with proper dignity the tutor slowly followed after. " If we only
hadn't put the key in the pumpkin," writes Wagner sadly to his
sister some thirty years later, when in exile, "everything would
have gone much better. Don't you agree with me ? " *
One principal trait of Richard Wagner's character was already
shewing in the boy : his pronounced and passionate love of
Nature. Singing and romping by his sister's side, or pushing
her along in the little hand-sledge in winter, to roam about the
country was his chief delight. At times they would go to the
Linkesches Bad, on the right of the Elbe : in the meadow
bounding its garden they had open air combined with music,
as paling-guests of the concerts. Or mother would give each
of them a sechser (value 6 pfennigs), then they were " splendidly
off," and could venture as far as the Plauenscher Grund, or even
* See F. Avenarius : Richara Wagner als Kind.
RICHARD WAGNER AS CHILD. 8 1
to Loschwitz, and buy a glass of milk to wash down the rolls they
had brought with them. The strange thing was, that Richard,
ever so glad to look at fruit and flowers, could never take them
in his hand. But his love of Nature came out strongest in his
devotion to dumb animals. The boy who had thanked and kissed
the weary horses on the way to Eisleben, would always be explor-
ing for dogs with whom to strike up friendship. He knew every
hound in the neighbourhood, and his sister and he had a regular
system of espionage for litters of pups to be rescued from drown-
ing. Once he heard something whining in a pond, and with the
aid of his sister he fished out a newborn puppy : previous experi-
ence told him that it was forbidden to bring it home ; but that
couldn't be helped ; he wasn't going to let the poor thing die.
So Cile smuggled it into her bed. However, it betrayed a
defective grasp of the situation : it whimpered, and stood revealed.
Another time he improvised a rabbit-hutch in his lesson-desk,
cutting a large air-hole in its back. At last he obtained his
mother's permission to keep a dog of his own ; but when the
children were out one day the poor beast fell out of the window,
and broke its neck, long, long was it mourned. This incident,
which he is said to have described in a later period as the greatest
sorrow of those years, would probably have formed the opening
chapter of that " History of my Dogs " so long projected for his
family's perusal. Throughout his life it was as good as impossible
for him to be quite happy without "something to bark around
him," and the History of my Dogs would have proved a very
significant autobiography, revealing aspects of the artist's mind
which, as it is, we have to piece together for ourselves from
fragmentary utterances.
He never could bear to see an animal maltreated ; at such a
sight his anger knew no bounds, and he would throw himself on
the delinquent without regard to consequences. " One of his
first impressions was a chance visit he paid with some of his
school-fellows to a slaughter yard. An ox was about to be killed.
The butcher stood with uplifted axe. The horrible implement
descended on the head of the stately animal, who gave a low,
deep moan. The boy turned deadly pale, and would have rushed
at the butcher had not his companions forcibly held him back
and taken him away from the scene. For some time after he
could not touch meat. . . . When a man, he could not refer to
F
82 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
this incident without a shudder " (Praeger's Wagner as I kneiv
hint).
But what took precedence of all, was his love for his mother.
Indelibly stamped on the child's young mind, it comforted the
man through all his life, in all his troubles. Whenever he referred
to his " dear little mother," his voice would drop and soften ; a
halo seemed to clothe the name. I myself (C. F. G.) have often
listened to him speaking of her naturalness, her unfeigned religion,
the " original replies " with which she covered a gap in her know-
ledge, a defect in her schooling, or parried an attack in such a
way that she came off with flying colours. From this deep affection
the forest-scene in Siegfried, the narration of Herzeleide's love in
Parsifal, derive their warmth of feeling; and it is characteristic
that on the very last evening of his life, the i2th of February
1883, he was relating anecdotes about his mother to his dear
ones gathered round him.
V.
THE KREUZSCHULER.
Enthusiasm for classical antiquity. Adventure on the roof of
the Kreuzschule. Weber and " Der Freischiitz." first music-
lessons. Hankering after theatricals. Clara's debut as singer.
First attempts at poetry. Weber's death. Homer and Shake-
speare. Confirmation. The great Tragedy. Changes in the
household.
The fresh breath of the youthful German breast, still
heaving with noble aspirations, breathed out of glorious
Weber s melodies. A new life of wonders was won for
the German heart ; with cheers the German Folk received
its Freischutz.
RICHARD WAGNER.
Better to be for half a day a Greek in presence of the
tragic artwork, than to eternity an un- Greek God!
RICHARD WAGNER.
WE have seen young Richard entering the Dresden Kreuzschule
at the end of 1822 : he remained there for just five years. "At
school I was accounted good in litteris" he says in that Auto-
biographic Sketch which takes us down to 1842, and this is
confirmed by the reports and school-lists preserved in the
archives of the school itself. According to these, he ranked
among the best pupils in that gymnasium from the first, and
passed through the various divisions and classes with fair rapidity.
By Michaelmas 1823 he was third in the class to which he had
been admitted in the previous December : it took him the next
year and a half to get through the upper fifth; but the lower
fourth, the upper fourth, and the lower third he cleared in half
a year apiece. During the whole of this time his certificates are
excellent, his industry and general progress being mostly marked
as " very good," or " good " at least with one exception.
In a later reference to German educational institutes (1872)
83
84 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Wagner sums up this epoch of his youth as follows : " I do not
believe there can have been a boy more devoted to classical
antiquity, than myself at the time I attended the Dresden Kreuz-
schule. Though Greek mythology and history formed my chief
attractions, I also felt drawn to the Greek language itself with a
power that made me almost ungovernable in my shirking of Latin.
How far my case was normal in this regard, I cannot judge ; but
I may add that my favourite master at the Kreuzschule, Dr Sillig,
was so pleased with my enthusiasm that he strongly urged me to
adopt philology as my profession " (P. W. V. 292). His imagina-
tion was fired by the deeds of the champions of freedom in the
Persian wars, his fancy by the tales of Greek mythology in K.
Ph. Moritz' " Gotterlehre." The wrath of Achilles and Ulysses'
wanderings, the heroic figures of Ajax and Hercules, the fate of
Philoctetes and the gloom of the CEdipus legend, alike became
realities to his plastic mind ; and it is quite in keeping with these
boyish impressions that in the year 1850, when he had already
passed completely to the sphere of northern saga, besides his
Siegfried and his Wieland he was thinking out a tragic drama of
Achilles, In his own words, "Again and again, amid the most
absorbing labours of a life entirely distracted from such studies,
have I won my only breath of freedom by a plunge into the
ancient world " (P. W. V. 293).
To take Praeger's word for it, he was plagued with his cutaneous
malady even in his schooldays. Repeated attacks of the kind
may perhaps account for his slow promotion during his second
school-year, as compared with the years immediately succeeding.
"An attack would be preceded by depression of spirits and
irritability of temper. Conscious of his growing peevishness, he
sought refuge in solitude. As soon as the attack was subdued,
his bright animal spirits returned, and none would recognise in
the daring little fellow the previous taciturn misanthrope." The
psychology is Praeger's, but, allowing for defects of focus, it
probably is pretty near the mark.
The same informant tells us that as soon as Richard had grown
a little used to school his ready wit procured him a band of
followers among his schoolmates, but " the stupid hated him, as
ever"; also that the headstrongness with which he pursued his
will against all opposition was the cause of frequent quarrels,
which would often have ended in blows, but for his winning talent
THE KREUZSCHULER. 85
of persuasion : " Practical joking was a favourite sport with him,
but only indulged in when harm could befall no one, and incident
offered some comic situation. To hurt one willingly, was im-
possible in Wagner. He was ever kind, and would never have
attempted anything that might result in real pain. His super-
abundance of animal spirits, well-seconded by his active frame,
led him often into harebrained escapades ; but his fearless
intrepidity was tempered and dominated by a strong self-reliance,
which always came to the rescue at the critical moment." As an
instance, we may give the same author's account of an adventure
which Wagner's eldest brother is said to have related to him
(Praeger) in illustration of Richard's foolhardiness.
One day, so this story runs, a holiday was suddenly proclaimed
to the boys at work in school. Wild with excitement at the rare
event, they rushed out into the street, shouting and throwing their
caps in the air. On the impulse of the moment Richard caught
one of these, and flung it right up to the roof of the schoolhouse.
Among his admiring schoolfellows there was one who did not
cheer, however the one who had lost his cap. As he never
could bear to see anybody in tears, with his usual swiftness of
resolve young Wagner ran off to recover the missile. Back into
the building, upstairs to the cock-loft, out through a ventilator, he
emerged on the roof. The youngsters down below huzzaed, but
held their breath when they saw the intrepid urchin scrambling
down the steep incline on all fours. Some hurried off to fetch
the porter. When the man arrived, they crowded after him as
he edged his ladder up the narrow stairway. Meanwhile the
climber had secured his prize, crawled back in safety, and
managed to creep through the air-hole into the pitch-dark garret
just in time to hear the buzz of voices on the stairs. Panting, he
hid himself behind a partition, and waited for the dreaded " custos "
to mount the ladder and peep out ; then, half scared, half joking,
he left his retreat and asked quite coolly : " Whatever are you
looking for? Is it a bird?" "Eh! a gallows-bird" was the
scathing answer of the angry porter, heartily glad, however, to see
the scapegrace safe and sound. When this story was repeated to
the master in after years he is said to have confirmed its details,
adding a touch known only to himself: he remembered that he
had been seized with giddiness upon the roof, and was about to
give himself up for lost, when his peril extorted the cry, " Mein
86 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
liebes Mutterchen ! " those words reacted on him like a charm,
restored his courage, and enabled him to scale the roof and
regain the opening.
The escapade was not allowed to pass without a lecture from
the headmaster, threatening more appreciable punishment should
the culprit be caught in any such exploit again. Perhaps this may
help us to date it. Only once in all his Dresden school-time,
namely at Michaelmas 1823, is Richard's "conduct" rated merely
"tolerable" in the half-yearly report otherwise it is always
" good " or " very good " ; and Albert Wagner was actually on a
visit to Dresden about this time, to accompany his sister Rosalie
to Hamburg for a double star-engagement in which he was to
figure as " first tenor from Breslau."
Besides his regular education, the boy had remained in un-
broken connection with the theatre through his brother and
sisters, as erewhile through his stepfather. We have already
referred to Geyer's personal relations with the honoured master
who had occupied the post of Royal Saxon Kapellmeister since
1817, also to Weber's difficulties with a "German Opera" de-
manded by the larger public but looked at with indifference by
the court. As " Schauspiel " and " Singspiel " were served by the
same company, the dramaturg Tieck and the conductor Weber
were all but hostile captains. Equally active was the Italian
Opera's antagonism against the German musician : under the all-
powerful protection of Cabinet-minister von Einsiedel, Morlachi
as Italian Kapellmeister with his subordinate the Concertmeister
Polledro waged incessant war against Weber ; and it is characteristic
of his position at Dresden that Der Freischutz came to an earlier
hearing in Berlin and Vienna than on the spot where its author
himself was engaged.* When Richard played the " Jungfern-
kranz" to his dying stepfather, the work itself had not been
performed as yet in the Saxon capital ; his return from Eisleben
* Here are a few prize specimens of his systematic snubbing at Dresden.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Friedrich August's accession, Weber
had composed a "Jubilee Cantata"; it was struck off the programme. For
the marriage of Prince Friedrich he was commanded to compose a festival
opera ; the order was rescinded. The production of his Sylvana at Dresden
was made impossible by intrigues against him ; and when he returned there
in the full flush of his Freisckutz' Berlin triumph, he was greeted by his
superfine Intendant with the incredulous question, " Why, Weber ! are you
really so big a man?"
THE KREUZSCHULER. 87
to Dresden coincided with the height of its popularity. Tieck's
protest, that " the Freischiitz was the most unmusical din that ever
had brawled across the boards," had been drowned in the general
acclamation. Writing in 1841, Wagner himself describes the
immense sensation raised throughout all Germany: "Weber's
countrymen from North and South united in their admiration of
the accents of this pure and pregnant elegy, from the adherents
of Kant's ' Criticism of pure Reason ' to the readers of the Vienna
' Mode-Journal.' The Berlin philosopher hummed ' The bridal
wreath for thee we bind'; the police-director repeated with
enthusiasm 'Through the woods and through the meadows';
whilst the court-lacquey hoarsely sang ' The joy of the hunter '
and I myself remember having practised, as a child, a quite
diabolical turn of voice and gesture to give due grit to ' In this
earthly vale of woe.' "
From this last sentence we may judge the work's effect on
the boy's receptive mind : nothing on earth came up to the
Freischiitz ; on it was centred all the fervour of his lively temper.
Still without declared or conscious passion for music, the charm
of this its manifestation usurped his youthful soul, and drew it
quite within the magic circle. Der Freischiitz was the clue that
led him to its author's other works, and to his person : never
could he forget the fascination when, hidden in a corner of the
theatre, he heard the first weird shivering of the cymbals in the
Preziosa overture ; and he would often recall the thrill wherewith
he saw the spare and fragile figure of the master returning from
rehearsal, passing the house in the Jiidenhof, or even entering
it to exchange a few words with his mother. * He regarded him
with a holy awe, and, beckoning sister Cile to his side, would
whisper to her : " My ! that's the greatest man alive ! How
great he is, you haven't the weeniest notion." The flood of tears
which formed his last, and often but too natural device for
escaping from his evening-tasks to the theatre, flowed chiefly on
Der Freischiitz nights. Then, when he saw his hero at head of
the orchestra, his heart would cry aloud, "Not King nor Emperor,
but to stand there like a General, and conduct ! " t Scarcely
* Hans von Wolzogen, Er inner ungen an Richard Wagner, 2nd ed.
(Reclam) 1891, pp. 22-23.
t Weber had introduced this practice into Dresden as an innovation ;
previously the band had been led in Italian fashion from the first violin-desk,
whilst the conductor's duties were confined to directing the singers.
88 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
past the earliest five-finger exercises on the piano, he taught
himself by ear and stealth the Freischiitz overture, much to the
disapproval of his music-master : it was the first outward sign of
the musician, and called forth an instant rebuff. Intention and
execution were scarcely on a par, but already the inner spirit of
the tone-poem had passed so fully and distinctly into his mind,
that twenty years later, when he himself had to conduct it
in Dresden for the first time, he was able to restore the
whole romantic flavour of this forest-fantaisie to the purity of
a time before its tempo and expression had been falsified by
Reissiger.
Hans v. Wolzogen records the following, from a conversation
with the master in later years : " I begged my mother for a couple
of groschen to buy music-paper with, so that I might write out
Weber's Lutzoufs wilde verwegene Jagd, in order to possess it. In
its ' possession ' of Weber's music lay Germany's fortune. Here
the poor fatherlandless German found his fatherland. When the
whole misery of Saxon history was read out to us at school, and
I had to tell myself 'That's what you belong to,' I sought in
humiliation for something besides ; then I learnt of the existence
of our Weber's music, and knew where lay my native land : I felt
myself a German. That feeling never left me." * Twenty years
afterwards it resounds from the sojourn in Paris : " O my glorious
German fatherland, how can I else than love thee, were it only
that from out thy soil there sprang the ' Freischiitz ' ! Needs
must I love the German Folk that loves the ' Freischiitz,' that
e'en to-day, in full-grown manhood, still feels those sweet
mysterious thrills which made its heart beat fast in youth. Ah 1
thou adorable German reverie ; thou Schwdrmerei of woods and
gloaming, of stars, of moon, of village-bells when chiming seven
at eve ! Happy he who understands you, can feel, believe, can
dream and lose himself with you ! How dear it is to me that /,
too, am a German ! " (P. W. VII. 183).
" Music was not thought of " in his first stage of education, as
he tells us : " Two of my sisters learnt to play the pianoforte ; I
listened to them, but had no lessons myself. Then a tutor, who
explained Cornelius Nepos to me, at last had to teach me the
piano as well " (P. W. I. 3-4). This ended in that episode with
the Freischiitz overture, when his tutor declared that nothing
* H. v. Wolzogen, Erinnerungen, p. 22.
THE KREUZSCHULER. 89
would come of him. Sister Cacilie was present, and says that
Richard bounded up at this pronouncement, and thundered out
" You may go to Jericho with your piano-teaching ! I shan't
play any more." But " the man was right," continues Wagner,
" in all my life I have never learned to play the piano properly.
Thenceforth I played for my own amusement; nothing but
overtures, with the most fearful fingering. It was impossible for
me to play a passage clearly, and I conceived a just dread of all
scales and runs. Of Mozart I only cared for the overture to the
Magic Flute ; Don Giovanni went against my grain, because of
the Italian text beneath : it seemed to me such rubbish."
But matters did not stop there. His head was so full of Der
Freischiitz that he longed to take an active part in it. He
determined to get up a private performance of the scene in the
Wolf s-gulch ; it was to take place at the abode of one of his
friends, in what was formerly known as merchant Hofer's house,
not far from the Kreuzschule ; Richard was to play Kaspar,
his friend to play Max. Funds in provision of the necessary
pasteboard, paper and paint, he saved penny by penny from his
breakfast-money , his schoolmates had to share in the interminable
work of cutting, trimming and devising. Scenery, wings, curtain,
fireworks and all, were gradually laid in, and among other fear-
some monsters there was a terrible boar, with great white tusks,
to make a raid upon his stage.
We find a hint of such diversions in the Communication to my
Friends (1851), where he says, " I felt an inclination to play-acting,
and indulged it in the quiet of my chamber ; in all probability
this was aroused in me by the close connection of my family
with the stage." By now another sister had adopted the pro-
fession : on May i, 1824, occurred the debut of sister Clara, as
" Signora Clara Wagner" temporarily engaged at the Court Italian
Opera. Since her earliest attempts in fantastic child-roles such
as Lili in the Donauweibchen, the guardian spirit Jeriel in the
Teufehmiihle etc. (for the most part by the side of Frau Hartwig),
she had profited by a long course of vocal study to become an
expert singer. Her first vocal part was that of Angiolina in
Rossini's Cenerentola, with its thousand-times repeated crescendi
and colorature ; and not only the young artist's charming presence,
her youthful freshness and childlike naivety, but in particular a
virtuosity far beyond her years, obtained the full approval of
9O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Dresden connoisseurs and critics.* It was much to Richard's
disappointment that this de"but should have taken place at the
hated Italian, and not the German Opera : shortly thereafter he
must have been the more rejoiced at seeing Rosalie play
"Preziosa" under Weber's own baton; a part in which she made
her first excursion from Recited Play, and alike in song and
dance, gesture, dress and bearing, presented a "most charming
picture," winning repeated salvoes of applause from an over-
flowing house. In fact, she made so great an impression upon
her audience, that the memory of her poetic rendering was not
effaced by Schroder-Devrient herself, t A like success awaited
her at Leipzig, where she played a number of " guest " roles the
following winter ; among them Katchen von Heilbronn, Marianne
in Goethe's Geschwister, and this same " Preziosa."
At Easter 1825 Richard was moved up to the Fourth Class in
the Kreuzschule. His promotion from this time onward is regular
in succession, and evidence of his unceasing industry. His mind
is now unfolding in every direction, and Geyer's earlier words,
" Richard is growing big and a good scholar," are gaining full
* In the " Chronik der kgl. Schaubuhne : Cenerentola, ossia la bontb in
triumfo" of the Dresden Abendzeilung No. 116, May 14, 1824, we read:
"In this piece a young pupil of our Chorus-director Mieksch, Dem. Clara
Wagner, the sixteen-year-old sister of our court-actress Rosalie Wagner,
made her first appearance at the Italian Opera. The audience was pleased
to remark that the debutante's voice is most excellent in quality, volume and
compass, and affords great promise for the future. To go into particulars, we
found distinctness and expression in declamatory song, especially in recitative,
a free, well-accented and intelligible enunciation, a pleasing sostenuto, taste
and agility in ornament, and a correct distribution of the breath ; the acting
was well-judged and unconstrained. If she continues as she has begun, this
young artist will certainly take honourable rank among the songstresses of
Germany."
t Thus Alfred von Wolzogen in his life of Schroder-Devrient quotes a com-
parison once drawn between the Gipsy-maids of these two artists : " Rosalie
Wagner lent her role a fresher colouring and livelier realisation of its mirth
and archness ; Frau Schroder-Devrient, on the other hand, with the charm of
her lofty figure and the nobility of her carriage, gave more prominence to the
sovereign power which Preziosa's beauty exerts over the rough gipsy-horde.
. . . She recited the impromptu in the first act with grace and correctness,
but here we preferred her predecessor (Rosalie Wagner), who gave more
point to Preziosa's inner wrestling with the spirit of prophecy ; for in this
scene the audience should be led to believe that the lyrics spring fresh from
the depths of the soul."
THE KREUZSCHULER. 9!
corroboration. The time of clambering on to the schoolhouse
roof is over ; ready as ever for a merry prank, he has higher aims
in view. His reference to his boyish "enthusiasm for classical
antiquity" would appear to apply to this period of his school-
days in particular. Fortune had favoured him with the proper
teachers at the Kreuzschule to fan and feed the flame, and
occasion soon arose to wake his dormant faculties. On the 2 8th
of November 1825 his class was robbed by scarlet fever of one
of its most popular members, a lad of equal age with Richard,
full of bright hopes, deeply mourned by teachers and comrades.
The death occurred in the middle of the night : the following
morning the sad tidings were announced to the assembled school,
together with the task of writing an appropriate poem for the
burial on the morrow, when the body was to be accompanied
to the graveyard of S. Elias by the whole gymnasium, masters
and boys. Richard's poem won the prize, and was accordingly
printed, though not before he " had cleared of it much bombast.
I was eleven years of age then," he says, " and promptly deter-
mined to be a poet."* He sketched out tragedies on the model
of the Greeks, instigated by acquaintance with August Apel's
Polyidos, Die Aitolier, Kallirhoe etc., with all the wonders he
had heard at school about the grandeur of the old Greek Theatre
and its national significance. We have already mentioned Apel's
Polyidos and Adolf Wagner's direction of a private performance
thereof at Leipzig (p. 25) ; the Kallirhoe also had been success-
fully produced at a small ducal theatre, with incidental music
expressly composed for it. All three works of this talented
author are to be regarded as a poetic embodiment of the results
of his study of antique tragedy,! and their clever imitation of
Greek forms of verse was better suited to the youthful mind
* We here have one of the extremely rare instances of a slip in the master's
memory, else so accurate even in such minor details as immaterial dates ; to
be exact, he was just twelve and a half years old at the time.
t " It would be absurd to find fault with him for having adopted this par-
ticular course, instead of writing philologic treatises, perhaps in Latin," says
Adolf Wagner. "The rapidity, poignancy, mass, of Polyidos point to an
imitation of the ^Eschylic ; the difFuseness, pathologic expansion of the
Aitolier to the Euripidean style ; the musical feeling of the Kallirhoe to a
transition from the ancient to the modern. Themistokles was the subject
chosen for an imitation of Sophocles ; whilst a Herakles in Lydien was com-
pleted for a satyr-play, but never printed."
92 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
than stiff and clumsy literal translations by Voss or Stolberg.
They may have been recommended for this purpose to the young
enthusiast either by his school-teachers or by uncle Adolf himself,
who paid a visit to Dresden in the summer of 1825 in order to
give sister Rosalie a well-meant piece of advice.
Neither these tragic sketches of Richard's, nor the printed poem
on the death of his schoolfellow, have been preserved ; for nothing
was ever farther from Wagner's thoughts, than to become the
curator of his own intellectual by-products. Numerous inquiries
were made by various persons in the master's lifetime, with a view
to discovering the prize-poem and offering him a similar experience
to that afforded Goethe, for instance, by the unearthing of his
Hollenfahrt Christi. But the proper Eckermann was not to be
found, though bearing in mind the German's well-known fondness
for hoarding up it would still seem a simple matter to search the
exercise-books etc. left behind by Wagner's schoolfellows and
masters for a printed copy.
About this time the boy had a great sorrow to bear, in the news
of his beloved Weber's death. Early one morning in February
1826 the ailing master had taken his last farewell of his family, to
set out with his friend the flautist Fiirstenau for London, via Paris
and Calais, for the production of his Oberon. The reception
accorded to his work at Covent Garden was good, to some extent
enthusiastic; but he was not spared bitter disappointments, all
the more trying to him after the struggles and exertions of his
Dresden years. During the whole course of the thirteen personally-
conducted performances of his opera his life was flickering to its
end, and at last on the morning of June the 5th he was found
dead in his bed : " weary and exhausted, through the magic horn
of Oberon he breathed away his life's last breath."
This grief was partly alleviated by the return of Rosalie from a
brilliant success at Prague. She had appeared in several roles
there, and gained the renown of " an actress of true vocation " as
Katchen von Heilbronn, Goethe's Marianne, and Juliet in par-
ticular. With regard to the last-named we read in a Prague letter
to the Dresden Abendzeitung of July 8-9, "this gifted young artist
was fully equal to her task, and held the audience spellbound. . . .
The ball and balcony scenes, with Herr Moritz as Romeo, were
particularly well conceived and carried out." At the same time
Shakespeare is definitely dawning on Richard's horizon. The
THE KREUZSCHULER. 93
boy does not content himself, however, with the current transla-
tions ; accustomed to conquering difficulties, and getting to the
root of a matter, he throws himself heart and soul into study of
the English language, " merely to make a thorough acquaintance
with Shakespeare," and produces a metrical rendering of Romeo's
monologue into German as its first-fruit.
In addition to Shakespeare, he rushes with all the fervour of
youth into Homer's world of heroes and adventure. Since Easter
1826, just thirteen years of age, he had entered the Third Class
of his gymnasium ; " in the third class I translated the first twelve
books of the Odyssey," he tells us, and the archives of the Kreuz-
schule confirm his tale. Lists of works read by the various pupils
appear to have been regularly entered up at that time ; among those
of Michaelmas 1826 we find under the heading "Extra private
studies of the Third Class, 2nd div." a record of Richard's Homer-
reading and his written translation of the first three books of the
Odyssey, a supplemental note, " Achilleus' Siegesfreude, Blum.,"
would seem to refer to some Blumenlese, or " golden treasury," of
Greek poetry then in fashion. This brief specification does not
acquire its true significance, however, until we compare it with
what his schoolfellows achieved at the same time : only two of
them ventured on Homer at all, and one of these had confined
himself to one book of the Odyssey, the other to 200 verses of the
Iliad ; the rest had chosen easier or shorter tasks.* At Michael-
mas we find him transferred to the Upper Third, as the fortieth
of 56 ; half a year later he has passed over the heads of about
thirty of his class-mates, and become ninth of 40 in that division.
Studies and aspirations in common led to school-friendships in
which the ardour of his disposition would temporarily lift the chum
above his natural level, only too often to drop back into the
mediocrity of philistinism when the stimulus was removed. Thus
he writes from Riga, eleven years after, to remind an old Dresden
schoolmate how they had once " sworn in noble Hofrath-Bottiger
enthusiasm, at the Kreuzschule, a death to all Creuzerian sym-
bolism," f how he had commenced philological epopees and
* According to an article in the Dresdener Anzeiger of 1883, " Richard
Wagner auf der Kreuzschule in Dresden. "
t Georg Friedrich Creuzer (Heidelberg), Symbolik und Mythologie der
.alien Vblker, four vols., Darmstadt 1810-22. The well-known scholar found
just as vigorous opponents, as adherents to his treatment of Classical
mythology ; most prominent among the former were Joh. Heinrich Voss
and the much-mentioned Dresden " Hofrath " and archseologist Bottiger.
94 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
tragedies, how Schelling's transcendental idealism had tripped
them up at Leipzig, etc., etc. So far as lay in his power, the
bond was never broken, and this letter goes on to say with
obvious reference to some boyish compact that if the friend
were so far away as Timbuctoo, he would certainly receive a letter
from him (Wagner) "from Nova Zembla." Only, the other party
would mostly fall off, having lost in the crush of daily life all
breath for freer soaring.
At Easter 1827 Richard moved up into the Second Class with
excellent credentials ; on Palm Sunday, the 8th of April, he stood
with a group of schoolfellows before the altar of the Kreuzkirche
to receive his confirmation in the Evangelical Lutheran faith,
when he bore the name of Geyer for the last time in any official
document. Most of his fellows on that occasion were strapping
lads of like age with himself, though lower in the school.* In
an article from Paris, 1841, he jokes about "that old dress-coat
in which I was confirmed, the coat I also wore when first I heard
the Water-carrier." But we possess a more serious memento of
that first Communion, namely in the second half of the Grail-theme
in Parsifal, particularly in the purely vocal form it takes at the
close of the first act, where the sopranos wing their " Selig im
Glauben" in a threefold flight of ascending sixths. It is well
known that this exactly corresponds to the "Amen" of the Saxon
liturgy, both protestant and catholic, which Wagner had heard in
childhood from the choir of Dresden churches. At what time,
upon what occasion, could it have sounded more solemn to him,
than on this Palm Sunday?
We have seen the boy studying English in private, for trans-
lations from Shakespeare : he soon laid English by, but kept to
Shakespeare as his model. Among his poetic efforts of this
period we have yet to mention a grand tragedy that occupied him
for two whole years ; modelled on Shakespeare, it outbid his
longest catalogue of terrors ; its author was a young Hercules
strangling serpents in his cradle. " In drama the main point is
* For the benefit of the curious in such matters, we append a list of these.
From the upper and lower Third we have four, Richard Rose, Karl Julius
Sperber, Ernst Moritz Zacharias, Harald Julius Bosse ; from the Fourth, one,
Tamann ; from the Fifth, Jive, Hermann, Stein, Pfotenhauer, Ronthaler,
Dressier. What became of all or any of them, we are unable to say.
THE KREUZSCHULER. 95
to have something happening," he said to himself, and boiled
down King Lear and Hamlet into a play of which the following
is his apparently ironical account : " The plan was gigantic in
the extreme; two-and-forty human beings perished in course of
this piece, and in its working-out I saw myself compelled to
call the greater number back as ghosts, as I should otherwise
have had no characters left for its latter acts " (P. W. I. 4). Many
anecdotes have been handed down in the family about this earliest
child of his tragic muse. At one blood-curdling situation a living
character is said to have approached a spectre, who warns him
back in sepulchral tones : " Touch me not ! for this nose of mine
must fall to dust, should mortal seize it." Or again, a lady visitor
inquired how far he had got with his tragedy, and was answered,
"I've killed them all off but one." Jests of the latter kind were
common enough with him at any period, even about the most
serious subjects ; but we must take these stories with a grain of
salt, for it is beyond dispute that the lad was in deadly earnest
with this drama. Not one of his self-imposed labours had en-
grossed him like this, and when he shut himself in his room with
it, or even played truant for its sake, " the progeny of his fancy
swarmed around him with such vigour, that he himself was scared."
While the young poet was still at work on his harrowing drama,
a great change took place in his outward life. The professional
duties of his sisters, with their varying stage-engagements, had
much decentralised the family. Half a year back (Sept. 1826)
Rosalie had requested to be released from her Dresden appoint-
ment, in which she complained of a lack of sufficient occupation,
and had removed to Prague, where her efforts had already found
such recognition. The public of the latter city had longed for
her return as a member of their regular company, and the warmth
of her second welcome was the index to a favour that increased
with every week of her two-years stay (1826-28). As Emilia
Galotti, Louise in Kabale und Liebe, Thekla in Wallenstein,
Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Louise Cardillac in the then
popular Goldschmied von Paris (adapted from E. T. A. Hoff-
mann's masterly novel, Das Fraulein von Scudery*}, she won
* At this time Hoffmann's tales were largely drawn on for the stage ; thus
in particular with Meister Martin der Kufer und seine Gesellen, in which
Louise Wagner played Rosa the cooper's pretty daughter most charmingly
at Breslau.
96 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
well-earned laurels ; with the great tragedian Sophie Schroder as
Sappho and Medea, she also took the more sympathetic parts
of Melitta and Creusa, as once before at Dresden. Sister Clara
too, though the early strain upon her voice forbade her appearing
too frequently, had continued her career as singer by accepting
an engagement at Prague (Zerlina in Don Giovanni forming one
of her favourite parts), whence she had gone on to the newly-
organised Town-theatre at Augsburg with brother Albert, who
at last had terminated his engagement as actor and singer at
Breslau. On the top of all these changes in the summer of
1827, came an offer from Leipzig to Louise. She had been
away from the family for several years, passed in the Breslau
company together with her brother ; when he broke off that
engagement she temporarily joined the Konigstadter theatre in
Berlin, but, accustomed to the warmth of her Breslau audience,
found no pleasure in the atmosphere of chill Berlin, and gladly
embraced the Leipzig offer. Reason enough for the mother to
give up the already broken Dresden home, and return with the
remnant of her family to Leipzig.
Richard soon followed them ; not without the rapidly-accumu-
lating manuscript of his grand tragedy. The latter, in effect, was
nearing completion ; but before he could put the last touch to it,
a fresh stock of impressions and experiences was to supply him
with the answer to many a riddle in its constitution.
VI.
LEIPZIG.
Quarters in the " Pichhof." Louise's artistic successes. She
marries Friedrich Brockhaus. Uncle Adolf and aunt Sophie.
The S. Nicholas School. Beethoven's Symphonies and " Egmont"
music. Richard resolves to become a musician. Intercourse with
uncle Adolf. Reading Hoffmann. First lessons in harmony.
At the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts I made my first
acquaintance with Beethoven s music ; its impression upon
me was overpowering.
RICHARD WAGNER.
WHEN Richard reached Leipzig he found his family in pleasant
quarters, arranged with all a woman's eye to comfort, in a little
house (now pulled down) on what was formerly the Winter-
garden, the "Pichhof" outside the Halle Gate. The thorough-
fare to the inner city crossed the Briihl, and the boy accordingly
had frequent opportunity of gazing at the house where he was
born. It vexed him to find this region usurped by Polish Jews,
who had here established their new Jerusalem and drove a
roaring trade in furs. With their shaggy pelisses and high
fur-caps, strange faces, long beards and pendent curls, their
jumble of Hebrew and bad German, and their wild gesticula-
tions, they at once amused and terrified him, like Hoffmann's
phantoms. The old Rannstadter Thor of grandfatherly memory
was standing yet, though its days were numbered ; for the imposts
of the General Excise had been abrogated some years since, and
the carrying out of fresh improvements involved the demolition
of this gate : in its place, when the moat had been filled up, an
esplanade was to link the theatre directly with the Zwinger. Not
far from the Pichhof lay the municipal weigh-bridge beside the
old weighing-house, whose upper storey was devoted to a savings-
bank and pawnbroker's, the latter once hymned in impromptu
verses by a customer :
G 97
98 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Know'st thou the house ? On pillars stands its roof,
Its presses bulge and burst with weft and woof,
And overcoats all tearful to me shout :
"O wherefore didst thou put us up the spout?"
Besides Frau Geyer and Louise, the Leipzig contingent of the
family consisted of no more than the two youngest sisters, Ottilie
aged sixteen and Cacilie aged twelve, with Richard just midway
between. Louise, now two-and-twenty and an uncommonly
attractive young lady, had utilised the brief period of her engage-
ment to become one of the greatest favourites on the Leipzig
boards. As "Preziosa" she was made the subject of poems in
the papers; Goethe's Laune des Verliebten owed its success in
great part to her charming acting (with Frau Devrient, ne'e Bohler,
as Egle), and had to be repeated frequently ; whilst in later years
her brother Richard cherished memories of her " Silvana." The
revival on Dec. 12, 1827, of this early work of Weber's was a
triumph for Louise, and mainly through her co-operation Silvana
became a certain " draw," as may be seen from reports of the day.
"Dem. Wagner, who played Silvana with all the magic of her
naivety and grace, was received with thunders of applause ; the
same distinction fell to her at the second performance," says the
Abendzeitung of Dec. 23, 1827. "Silvana has been several times
repeated ; Dem. Wagner is delightful in the title-role. It is
matter of general regret that this amiable, talented and modest
artist is about to be robbed from art by a happier lot. Though
she has of late had to bear with much hostility and envy from
rival comedians, that surely would have soon been laid ; for true
merit must make its way sooner or later, and then the more
brilliantly," and so forth (Ibid. Jan. 26, 1828). The nature of
this "hostility" eludes our present knowledge, but the story of
the " happier lot " was true enough : soon after removal to Leipzig,
Louise had become engaged to the pushing young publisher
Friedrich Brockhaus, much to Adolf Wagner's satisfaction. She
was the special favourite of her uncle, who years ago had wished
her " a sensible husband " in preference to stage successes, and
must have been doubly rejoiced at the suitor's turning out to be
the son of an old friend.
Not to lose sight of Richard for too long, we may introduce a
little tale in this connection. In the Bayreuther Taschenbuch for
1894 Albert Heintz repeats the following from the mouth of a
LEIPZIG. 99
friend of Cacilie's girlhood : " At the time of Louise's courtship
by the publisher Fr. Brockhaus her mother Frau Geyer was much
in the company of my mamma, and I often overheard their
conversation. Frau Geyer would praise Cacilie as a great help
in the extra housekeeping entailed by the daily visits of the
wealthy bridegroom. One day, the maid being out, Richard also
had to be pressed into the service : deep in his studies, he was
horrified at the request that a gymnasiast should go and fetch
beer ! At last his common sense prevailed. He came back
laughing merrily, with both hands plunged in his pockets. In
those days stone-bottles had handles to suspend them, and he
had cut holes in his pockets to carry several unobserved. I was
filled with admiration by this practical device, and thought that
young man would get on in the world. "
Uncle Adolf himself had given up bachelorhood in his fifty-
first year, married the clever and handsome sister of his friend
Amadeus Wendt on October 18, 1824, and gone to live in the
" Hut" outside the Peter' s-gate, away from the noise of the town.*
As the marriage proved childless, but little was altered in his outer
mode of life. Aunt Sophie was "gentle, conciliatory and un-
assuming," with the tenderest care for his comfort and wellbeing :
she respected her husband's previous ties, by now become a
second nature ; so he made his regular excursions to the Thoma
house, to see how his former fellow-inmates were faring, and paid
many a visit to his brother's children. " I am still the same old
horse," he writes to Albert about this time, "at liberty, my own,
only belonging a little as much as needful to my Sophie. I'm
always thinking, pondering how to take the world into my mind,
and make as much as possible thereof my organ. . . . Married
folk, in the lump, are but scholiasts of the book of Love, the first
edition of which will ever remain a legend ; meanwhile the
commentators run about with traditionary fragments of it, like
children with their golden bows at Christmas, and the ladies deem
all reference thereto a breach of manners ; although we men are
* Christiane Sophie Wendt, born at Leipzig on the first of April 1792, was
consequently eighteen years younger than Adolf Wagner, whom she long
survived (dying Nov. 10, 1860). After her husband's death she also appeared
as a writer, under the name of Adolfine, with "Lotosblatter," three stories,
1835; "Ideal und Wirklichkeit," a novel, 1838; and two sets of fairy-tales,
"Marchen und Erzahlungen," in 1844 and 1846.
IOO LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
merely pointing to a deeper treasure that one might raise, were the
incantation not so difficult."
Chief among the houses with which Adolf kept up intimacy,
were the Quandt, the Trager, and the Lacarriere. Here readings
aloud, particularly of Shakespeare, were a favourite pastime, in
which Adolf Wagner was fond of taking the prelector's part,
assisted from time to time by professional artists such as the
elocutionist Solbrig. He would not hear of these reunions being
treated as "shallow aesthetising," but wished them to form the
focus of a higher social life, and, as he quaintly puts it, " like sweet
perfumes, drive away bad vapours." The consequences of ad-
vancing years and over-application he combated by good long
walks a time-honoured recreation of his, and practised down to
his sixtieth year. He found this regimen agree with him better
than " physicings for the spleen, or baths devised by quacks and
Nature's kitchen-prentices."
At home he was busy just now with a task that took him back
to his spiritual home, the world of medieval Italy : namely his
edition of the great Italian poets, the Parnasso Italiano, a work
of most painstaking industry and thorough German erudition.
This edition gives the very marrow of all previous critical com-
mentaries on the four classical poets, Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto
and Tasso, at that time more or less neglected by their own
compatriots. It is ushered in by a dedication in Italian terzine,
to Goethe as " principe dei poeti " : the author imagines himself
transported to the Garden of Poetry, where the four great Italians
appear to him and endorse his admiration of Goethe, in whose
works they recognise features of their own spirit ; finally they
encourage him to dedicate to the German poet this new collection
of their works. In collating the Dante text it was the editor's
endeavour to restore it to its pristine form, ridding it as much as
possible of the Tuscan elegance imposed upon its noble rugged-
ness by the della-Cruscans. In this labour, which marks the
whole edition, and presupposes the minutest knowledge of the
language and its principles of versification, consists the work's
peculiar merit.* Among the various annoyances attending the
publication of this magnum opus, was the impossibility of giving
* "Only he who has spent many years in the study of Dante, knows rightly
to estimate the enormous mass of material exploited here, and the labours of
the editor," says L. G. Blanc, a contemporary reviewer of this Parnasso.
LEIPZIG. IOI
forth all that the editor had meant to : thus, in contravention
of a promise expressed in the introduction, the indexes and
bibliographic appendices had to be sacrificed to mercantile con-
siderations, not to increase alike bulk and expense. Another
unfortunate circumstance was the simultaneous appearance of a
similar work in Italy, embracing the selfsame poets and bearing
an almost identical title.* False patriotism, coupled with jealousy
that a German should presume to understand their national poets
more thoroughly than they themselves, prompted Italian pedants
to fall foul of the Italian style of this interfering German, whilst
they shut their eyes to the immense critical value of his edition.
However, Adolf Wagner was richly compensated by the friendly
interest shewn by Goethe ; and it was in acknowledgment of this
work's importance that the University of Marburg, when celebrating
its tercentenary in July 1827, conferred on him the degree of
" Doctor of Philosophy and Master of the Liberal Arts."
Shortly after this event in the family dates the commencement
of closer relations between uncle Adolf and nephew Richard, who
had arrived in Leipzig at the end of 1827. We shall return to
these in a moment, first ascertaining the present condition of the
youngster's mind. Indeed it was a time of inner crisis : the
passion for classical studies, which had consumed the lad at the
Kreuzschule, threatened to succumb at Leipzig to a " deadly false
system." There were two higher schools here, the S. Nicholas
and the venerable Thomana ; but the latter, where both father
and uncle had received their education, was just now in a state
of interregnum : the old schoolhouse was going through a total
transformation, from roof to cellar. Richard therefore was sent
to the Nikolai-Gymnasium. " I well remember how my teachers
at the S. Nicholas school entirely rooted out these tastes and
likings, and moreover can explain it by the manners of those
gentlemen," says the master himself in that reminiscence of his
schooldays already quoted (P.W. V. 292) ; and in the Auto-
biographic Sketch of 1842: "At the S. Nicholas school I was
relegated to the Third Class, after having already attained to the
Second at the Kreuzschule. This circumstance itself embittered
me so much, that I lost all liking for philologic study. I became
lazy and slovenly, and my grand tragedy was the only thing left
me to care about." While finishing it he came under an influence
* Parnasso Classico Italiano, Padua, 1827.
IO2 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
destined to stamp his whole future development : at the Gewand-
haus Concerts he heard Beethoven's music for the first time in
his life.
He had never heard of Beethoven before the tidings of his
death (March 1827); the riddle of that death attracted him to
the immortal legacy. With other masterpieces of classic instru-
mental music, the Symphonies of Beethoven were regularly played
through every winter at the old Gewandhaus, without any actual
conductor, but under the lead of the "Konzertmeister" or
" first violin " Matthai (died Nov. 1835). A new world dawned
on the astonished youth, with an effect we may gather from the
Pilgrimage to Beethoven, where the hero of the tale informs us :
"I know not what I really was intended for; I only remember
that one evening I heard a Symphony of Beethoven's for the
first time, that it set me in a fever, I fell ill, and on my recovery
had become a musician. This circumstance may haply account
for the fact that, though in time I also made acquaintance with
other beautiful music, I yet have loved, have honoured, worshipped
Beethoven before all else" (P.W. VII. 22). A hearing of the
Requiem brought him nearer to Mozart as well ; but it was to the
inexhaustible mine of Beethoven that he ever returned, and this
it was that turned the conscious passion of his heart to Music.
The impressions gleaned from the Gewandhaus were sup-
plemented by acquaintance with the music to Egmont at the
theatre. It became clear to him that he must never let his
tragedy, by now completed, " leave the stocks until provided with
such music." Of his ability to compose it, he had no manner of
doubt ; only, he " thought just as well to make sure of a few
general principles of thorough-bass first." So he borrowed Logier's
" Method," and devoured it in a week. The new graft of study
did not bear fruit so early as he had expected ; yet its difficulties
incited him, and just as he had determined off-hand to be a poet
a couple of years ago, he now resolved to be musician. Mean-
while the grand tragedy had been unearthed by his family, much
to their distress of mind; for it was plain as daylight why his
school-tasks had been so wofully neglected. Small wonder that
he concealed his second call till he could furnish plainer proofs in
vindication : so soon as he felt sufficiently advanced in his private
studies, he would come boldly forth ; for the present he composed
in silence a sonata, a quartet and an aria.
LEIPZIG. IO3
In the midst of all this doubt and ferment he was thrown into
closer contact with his uncle Adolf, whose stimulating presence,
with his rich fund of knowledge, his breadth of view, his animated
mode of address, his irony and humour, the noble expression of
his face that still preserved the traces of its earlier beauty, despite
the ravages of ill-health and disappointment, took a prominent
place in these new impressions and experiences. Richard's passion
for music led to many a battle with his immediate family : he must
often have felt that his uncle understood him better here. And
then the elder's appreciation of the great poets of every age and
clime ; his lively interest in matters of the Theatre, however little
he might relish its "present disfigurement and perversion"; his
reverence alike for Tieck and Weber, though the pair had been
all but at daggers drawn in Dresden ; and the serenity with which
he shrugged his shoulders at his own few literary opponents !
Quite recently the uncle had published his essay on "Theatre
and Public," prompted by the disgraceful scenes attending the
production of Calderon's " Dame Kobold " at the Dresden Court-
theatre, when the audience had revolted against what they termed
an attempt to force the Spanish poet down their throats, and
raised such a hubbub that the actors had to leave the boards.
This was the "sovereignty of the mob" against which Adolf
Wagner protested ; and the same voices that had been raised
against Tieck's presuming to "educate" the public, now com-
bined against himself for taking the offender's part. He was
accused of absolutism : " With a banner inscribed with the name
of Goethe in his upraised hand, and the cry of Tieck upon his
lips, he was hieing to a windmill-tilt with the rebellious taste of
the public ; pretending to shew directorates the road whereon to
lift the German stage from 'confirmed corruption'" (Leipztger
Litteraturzeitung, June 12, 1827). To a like intent, but in still
less bridled language, sounded the hoots of the " Midnight
Journal"; but their victim held his tongue, and let the storm
rage out. "I haven't many enemies," he would say, "but
fortunately as many opponents as needful for my own develop-
ment and ripening." In other instances he deemed it no in-
dignity to "have a little bout with these jack-puddings. . . . But
Dick, Tom and Harry, everywhere, are terribly obtuse. . . .
Nowadays one can hardly call a man an ass, without being
reproached for putting too fine a point on it. And those
IO4 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
peddlers can quarrel for the ear of such a crew? God forbid
that such a thing should ever enter your mind ! " He had a
great respect for Weber's depth and versatility : " Reflect how
thorough was the cultivation of Karl Maria v. Weber, and that
virtuosity too often bears the curse of onesidedness. Art, like
everything engendered of the spirit, is an infinitude, and must
be followed on the grander scale." He took a wide view of the
world's history, and could not shut his eyes to the senility of
our civilisation : "Our quarter of the globe is an over-ripe fruit,
which a storm will shake down ; the march of history trends
towards America." The above are phrases borrowed from Adolf s
letters : by word of mouth we may be sure he expressed them
to the keen young listener in a livelier, more pointed form.
From another side we have the influence of an author with
whose writings Richard had commenced acquaintance in the
latter part of his Dresden time. The Collected Works of E.
T. A. HOFFMANN had recently appeared in a complete edition
by Ed. Hitzig ; here the young Beethoven-enthusiast was greeted
by a conception of Music akin to that which had already
glimmered on him in earliest boyhood with the mysterious
accents of Der Freischiitz, In the Autobiographic Sketch he
tells us that this fantastic writer fired him "with the wildest
mysticism. I had day-dreams in which the keynote, third and
dominant, seemed to take on living form and reveal to me
their mighty meaning: the notes I wrote down were raving
mad." Fanciful as this account may seem, at least a quarter
of a century later we find the idea repeated in a private jotting
among the posthumous papers : " In the perfect Drama the full
shapes of the dream vision, the other world, are projected before
us life-like as by the magic-lantern. . . . Music is the lamp of
this lantern" (P.W. VIII. 373). So that even in those early
days the boy's passion for music is not for the mere surface
pleasure of agreeable tone-patterns, but to him they convey a
definite, a plastic or dramatic symbol, pointing to that magic
region whence the musician draws " his wonder-drops of sound
to dew our brain, and rob it of the power of seeing aught save
the inner world," as he says in the Beethoven essay of 1870.
Now, his own intuitive grasp of the matter would gain ample
confirmation from many a pregnant utterance of Hoffmann's, such
as the suggestive improvisations of the crazy Kreisler, or the
LEIPZIG. IO5
enthusiastic debates of the Serapion brothers, where we have a
plain foreshadowing of that philosophy of music which Schopen-
hauer was the first to crystallise and embody in a general system.
But apart from all theory, there was the spell of Hoffmann's mode
of story-telling, his matchless mixture of the weird and ironical,
the association of a mystic awe with the immediate reality of
familiar places, Dresden for instance. The living host of his
creations, from the student Anselm * to the archivist Lindhorst,
from Krespel to Kreisler, invaded the brain of their youthful
reader to such a point that they never left the adult master, and
these stories were his constant resort in after life for freshening
up the memories of his youth.
From Hoffmann came the first poetic germ of the " Minstrels'
Contest at Wartburg " ; Tieck's narrative of Tannhauser also fell
into young Richard's hands, presumably about this time. Though
neither made a deep impression on him, it is possible that a
feature here and there may have lingered in his mind till the
drafting of his opera-poem some fourteen or fifteen years later.
Thus the poet's dream in the introduction of Hoffmann's tale
might have supplied the earliest notion for the closing tableau
in the first act of Tannhauser, whilst Tieck's purely episodic
account of Tannhauser's last appearance wan, haggard, and in
tattered pilgrim's-robes might have sown the first seed of that
powerful scene in the last act where the outcast narrates his
fruitless pilgrimage. But we must not insist too much on sup-
positions of this sort, unvouched for by the master's recollections.
For the present the boy's poetic bent was subordinated to
the musical, and merely " called in as aid." Thus, after a hearing
of the Pastoral Symphony he set to work on a pastoral play, its
* According to the testimony of Z. Funck in his " Life of Hoffmann," it
was actually none other than Adolf Wagner that gave the first impulse to the
genesis of Anselm through his translation of an English work by James
Beresford, "The Miseries of Human Life" (Menschliches Elend, Bayreuth-
Liibeck, 1810). Funck tells us : " A year before leaving Bamberg, Hoffmann
found the book in my library ; it entertained him so much that he read it
about half a dozen times over, made extracts from it, and told me that this
book had given him the idea of writing a tale round a character doomed by
fate to spread and suffer misery wherever it went. At Dresden he resumed
the idea, and turned it into the romance of Der Goldene Topf." The English
book's sub-title, " Or the Groans of Samuel Sensitive and Timothy Testy,"
will supply a key to this quotation.
IO6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
dramatic subject prompted by Goethe's Laune des Verliebten ;
making no attempt at a preliminary sketch, he wrote verses and
music together, and left the situations to take care of themselves.
By now his musical penchant had become in turn a matter of
anxiety to his family, who feared it was merely a transient hobby,
as he had displayed no [particular gift in that direction heretofore,
nor was he skilled on any kind of instrument. At last, however,
he was allowed to take lessons of an able musician, Gottlieb
Miiller, subsequently organist at Altenburg. The poor man had
no end of trouble with his pupil : " He had to convince me
that what I took for curious shapes and powers were chords
and intervals." For that matter, in a letter to Regisseur F.
Hauser, of 1834, Wagner himself declares that his "lessons with
Herr Miiller were one long string of proofs of the depressingness
of pedantic candour " ; they had simply " hardened him against
the most deterrent attacks on his youthful fervour." Moreover
the whole theory of music seemed far more addressed to what
one shouldn't do, than to what one really should : the rules he
learnt were finger-posts all warning him, " No thoroughfare " ;
whichever way he turned, he was greeted like Tamino, or the
hero of his juvenile tragedy, with an " Avaunt ! " His mother
was grieved to find him careless and slovenly in this branch of
study also ; his teacher shook his head : once again it looked as
if nothing would come of him. But he knew better.
VII.
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-
REVOLUTION.
Court-theatre at Leipzig. Goethe 's Faust : Rosalie Wagner as
Gretchen. Auber's Muette : Rosalie as Fenella. Rossini's Tell.
The July Revolution makes Richard " a revolutionary." Leipzig
riots. From the Nicholas to the Thomas School. Overtures for
grand orchestra. Performance of the ''''big drum" overture at
the Court-theatre. Transference to the University.
After many a digression to right and left, at the com-
mencement of my eighteenth year of life I was confronted
with the July Revolution. The effect upon me was briskly
stimulant in many ways.
RICHARD WAGNER.
THE standing theatre at Leipzig had brought the eleventh year of
its existence to a close with the performance of Calderon's " Life's
a dream" on May n, 1828. Its director Kiistner made some
further attempts to keep the enterprise on foot, but in vain the
town-council was treating with the Government for the foundation
of a Court-theatre at Leipzig under the supreme control of the
Dresden Intendanz, though with an internal management of its
own. These negotiations proving successful, on the and August
1829 the theatre was re-opened with Shakespeare's Julius Casar.
The new undertaking at least equalled what had been achieved
under Kiistner's management, and for a city of second rank its
performances were meritorious enough. Thus it was not without
its influence on the gradually expanding mind of our hero, who
had free admittance owing to the continuance of his family's con-
nection. Louise, indeed, had said goodbye to the stage at the
termination of Kiistner's contract, and was already wedded to
Friedrich Brockhaus (June 16, 1828); but, with the opening of
the establishment as a Court-theatre, sister Rosalie had joined
107
IO8 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
the company. The last time we saw her was at the Prague
theatre, where she stayed for two years, from 1826 to 1828;
since leaving Prague she had accepted temporary engagements
at Hamburg, Darmstadt and Cassel, but declined to bind herself
to any other than her native city, where she knew that this project
of a " Court-theatre " was already under way. In contemporary
accounts she is uniformly described at this time as a beautiful
blonde, of slim and elegant figure, with a melodious and
sympathetic voice, her "cupid's head" being said to bear a
striking resemblance to Henriette Sontag.*
The " Musikdirektor," or musical conductor of the new under-
taking was Heinrich Dorn, appointed on the recommendation of
Reissiger. Born at Konigsberg in Prussia in 1804, he was only
nine years older than young Wagner; his half-brother, Louis
Schindelmeisser, was of the same age as Richard, who came
into friendly relations with them both through their frequent
attendance at F. Brockhaus' hospitable house. Dorn sprang
from a well-to-do mercantile family ; his late stepfather Schindel-
meisser, a man of independent means, with musical and literary
leanings, had given both brothers an early and careful musical
education. Dorn had already profited by it to produce two
operas of his composition at Berlin and Konigsberg, for one
of which (Die Bettlerin) Holtei had written the text. During
his Leipzig conductorship he became a successful teacher, among
his pupils in the theory of composition being Robert SCHUMANN,
* Concerning her appearance at Darmstadt (May 1828) we read in a report
to the Abendzeitung : " Albeit this young lady had been preceded by a con-
siderable renown, in a great variety of roles Dem. Wagner surpassed the
expectation of her audience. She has a most charming presence, a graceful
figure, and a pleasant voice that goes straight to the heart. . . . Portia in the
Merchant of Venice had been spoken of as one of our visitor's most successful
efforts ; and so we found it. ... Overtures have been made by the Intendanz,
to gain this distinguished young artist for our court-theatre in permanence ;
the public has declared in Dlle. Wagner's favour as in no other instance for a
long time past. " And in a report from Cassel : " Dem. Rosalie Wagner from the
Hamburg Town-theatre has treated us to five different roles, in each of which
she shewed herself a thoughtful artist. Every one of these characters formed
a perfect whole ; but I should give the palm to her personation of Portia, as
our visitor appears to have seized the finest nuances of Shakespeare's intention.
... As I hear, this welcome guest has been offered an advantageous engage-
ment by our directorate ; let us hope she will accept it " (Abdztg. May 28,
1829).
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION. 1 09
who had just abandoned the study of jurisprudence for that of
music, and on the vocal side Henriette Wiist, whose talent he had
discovered in the Leipzig stage-chorus.* According to his own
account, he took an active share in Wagner's earliest musical
development, and his natural bonhomie unclouded at that date
by any envy of his junior's fame brought the pair into an un-
forced attitude of protege and patron.
The theatre had been opened with great ceremony and Shake-
speare's Julius Ctzsar, as said, in Schlegel's translation. Rosalie
had spoken the prologue, followed by a festival overture composed
by Dorn, whilst the performance itself was distinguished by Rott's
acting of Brutus and an excellent stage-management of the "crowd."
Within four weeks occurred an event of prime importance in the
Leipzig annals, namely its first performance of Goethe's Faust, on
the poet's eightieth birthday, August 28, with Rott as Faust and
Rosalie as Gretchen. As Wagner says in his German Art and
German Policy. "The German spirit seemed inclined to shake
itself up a little. Old Goethe still was living. Well-meaning
literati hit upon the thought of bringing his Faust to the theatre.
. . . The noble poem dragged its maimed and mutilated length
across the boards : but it seemed to flatter the young folks, to
obtain the chance of cheering many a remembered word of wit
and wisdom, and Gretchen proved a ' grateful role ' " (P. W.
IV. 100). Klingemann at Brunswick had been the first to transfer
the mighty poem to the stage, on January the igth of the same
year; since when the larger German theatres had hastened to
share in the profits of what seemed so sound an investment,
Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar each selecting this memorable
birthday for the purpose. Crowds assembled for the festival
from all the environs of Leipzig; an hour before the curtain's
rise the house was packed to its utmost holding power with an
expectant throng. A prologue by Tieck opened the evening ;
the performance lasted from 6 to half-past 10, without a sign of
diminution in the audience's interest, despite the suffocating heat ;
at its close a perfect tempest of applause broke forth from patriots
conscious that at this moment a similar demonstration was going
* She made her dbut as Zerlina in Don Giovanni Dec. 1829 ; in 1833 she
was transferred to the Dresden Court-theatre where she received her finishing
lessons from the celebrated singing-master Miecksch, and eventually took the
part of Irene at the first performance of Riensi, Oct. 20, 1842.
HO LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
on throughout the length and breadth of Germany. To be sure,
Tieck's lavish cuts were among the smallest of the " mutilations " ;
was the Leipzig production not marked by an imposing final
tableau, to point the moral of the catastrophe? Above poor
Gretchen swayed a guardian angel with a palm, in blue light;
while Faust, prostrate upon the ground, was triumphed over by
a Mephistopheles aloft in flames of fire !
In the accounts of Rosalie's stage-career (of which we have a
tolerably voluminous collection) her Gretchen is unanimously
described as the most affecting and well-conceived of all her
tragic roles. In every report of this her first appearance in the
part, however, we find her taxed with want of naivety and a
certain affectation ; only as the play proceeded, did she warm to
her work, until towards the end she gave it a resistless charm.
It was precisely the same with her Cordelia in King Lear * Four
years later, when Gretchen had long become "a grateful role " to
many a personatrix, Rosalie's rendering found an ardent eulogist
in Heinrich Laube, particularly in respect of the mad scene :
" Never have I seen Gretchen played with such intense emotion.
For the first time did I feel a shiver down my spine at the out-
break of her madness ; and I soon discovered why. Most
actresses so put on the screw here, that it becomes an unnatural
raving ; they speak their lines in hollow, ghostlike tones. Rosalie
Wagner spoke them with the selfsame voice as her words of love
awhile before ; this awful inner contrast had the most powerful
effect. For a moment I felt that this superhuman grief lay be-
yond the scope of art, and, if madness could be so harrowingly
portrayed, poets should leave off writing it."
To what extent our Richard may have become acquainted with
the Faust poem before its Leipzig representation, we cannot
ascertain ; but his constant absorption in it about this time is
attested by a reminiscence of one of his comrades in the second
class of the S. Nicholas school, who says that Wagner always
kept the book beneath his desk, and furtively would draw it out
at every favouring opportunity, oblivious to whatever was going
on around him. We cannot quite accept as gospel this deponent's
* " Her first scene suffered from an undue excess of naivety ; on the other
hand in the catastrophe we had nature, soul, poetic inwardness of feeling,
affording the most welcome evidence of a fine talent, if this artist would only
give it freer rein " (Abdtzg.}.
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION. I I I
outline of an " opera-text " said to have been contemplated
by Richard in connection with the Goethian work, especially
in the words somewhat adventurously put into the boy's own
mouth ; but there is a natural ring about the passage where
Wagner jumps from one subject to the other : "Were you at the
theatre last night? Idomeneo is tedious. I'm sorry for the
singers, having to stand alone like that by the prompter's box
with their aria, nothing near them but empty wings, and some
ancient stool which they're not even allowed to sit down upon."*
Under Dorn's expert control the Leipzig Opera did not content
itself with Idomeneo. According to the master's recollections,
among the various provocatives of this period must be numbered
Marschner's Templer und Jiidin, Spontini's Vestale, and Auber's
Muette, which had just begun to take the public's ear.
Chief of these was Auber's Muette, known in England as
Masaniello, or to give it its German title, Die Stumme von Portici.
Fully forty years after we find the memory of its first production
reviving the warmth it once had kindled in the young enthusiast
for Faust and Beethoven ; for Wagner always considered this the
sole truly national product of the French artistic spirit. " It quite
revolutionised our notions at the time," he says. "We latterly
had known French Opera in none but the products of the Opera
Comique. Boieldieu had just delighted and enlivened us by his
Dame blanche ; Auber himself had entertained us most agreeably
with his Ma$on ; the Paris Grand Opera was forwarding us nothing
but the stilted pathos of the Vestale etc., and seemed more Italian
than French. . . . But a sudden change of front took place, with
the coming of the Stumme. Here was a ' grand opera,' a com-
plete five-act tragedy clad from head to foot in music, yet without
a trace of stiffness, hollow pathos, sacerdotal ceremony, and all
the classical farrago ; warm to burning, entertaining to enchant-
ment. . . . The recitatives shot lightning at us ; a veritable tempest
whirled us on to the ensembles ; amid the chaos of wrath we had
a sudden energetic cry to keep our heads cool, or a fresh command
to action ; then again the shouts of riot, of murderous frenzy, and
between them the affecting plaint of anguish, or a whole people
lisping out its prayer. Even as the subject lacked nothing of
either the utmost terror or the utmost tenderness, so Auber made
* See a brief article by A. Lohn-Siegel in Kiirschner's Wagner-Jahrbuch,
1886, " Richard Wagner auf der Nikolaischule in Leipzig."
112 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
his music reproduce each contrast, every blend, in contours and
colours of so drastic, so vivid a distinctness as one could not
remember having ever seen before ; we might almost fancy we
had actual music-paintings before us, and the idea of the musically
Picturesque might easily have found substantiation here, had
it not to yield to a far more apposite denomination, that of the
most admirable theatric Plastique " (P. W. V. 40-1). In passing,
it is instructive to note how the very memory of this youthful im-
pression takes the ripened master back to his boyish "visions."
The first Leipzig performance of the Stumme took place on
September 28, 1829; its success was so great, that it filled the
theatre twice and thrice a week for months to come. According
to the Abendzeitung Ubrich, the Masaniello, " did better than any
tenor we have seen on our boards for the last few years," especially
with his acting. Rosalie played the dumb girl with more passion
than people would have expected from her gentle nature, so that
"the passive, suffering character wellnigh became an actively
heroic. Through her impassioned rendering, and an altogether
exceptional musical sense, she surprised the house by the eloquence
of all her gestures, and was accompanied by one continuous volley
of applause." The ensembles, the choruses and orchestra were
led by Dorn with a verve that did full justice to the fire of this
volcanic work; and the impression made on Richard Wagner,
though it lay for some time dormant, was deep and lasting.
Very different was the effect of Rossini's Tell, produced at
Leipzig not long after (Aug. 1830). In the article cited above,
Wagner contrasts the reception of these two works in Germany :
" Whoever witnessed the first appearance of the Stumme on the
German stage, must remember the astounding sensation it created ;
whereas Tell could never really make its way." And in German
Art and German Policy he gives the reason : " Someone in Paris
had turned Tell into an opera-text, and no less a man than Rossini
himself had set it to music. It was a question, however, whether
one durst offer the German his ' Tell ' as a French translated
opera? . . . Every German, from the professor down to the
lowest gymnasiast, even the comedians themselves, felt the shame
of seeing that hideous travesty of his own best nature. But hm !
an opera, one doesn't take that sort of thing so seriously.
The overture, with its rattling ballet-music at the end, had already
been received with unexampled applause at concerts devoted to
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION. 113
classical music, cheek by jowl with a Beethoven Symphony.
People shut one eye. And after all, this opera's goings-on were
distinctly patriotic. . . . Rossini had taken great pains to com-
pose as solidly as possible : listening to these ravishingly effective
numbers, one could contrive to forget all about our 'Tell' itself"
(P. W. IV. 100-1). As a fact attested by contemporary notices,
a natural dislike of seeing the highly popular work of the German
poet disguised as a French-Italian opera was at first the prevailing
feeling in educated circles at Leipzig ; despite the splendid mount-
ing " the audience seemed bored," as we read in the Abendzeitung
of September 1830: "The great expectations long aroused by
this opera have been justified by neither its music nor its text.
Poor Schiller, to have had his noble drama suffer such a wretched
transformation ! Immoderate length impelled the management to
effect omissions at the two immediately succeeding performances.
Nevertheless the audience seemed bored, and applause was faint
throughout. The more the pity that no expense had been spared
on the outward trappings of scenery and costume." A comparison
with this work's reception at Dresden about the same time may
prove instructive : at the one place apathy, at the other enthusiasm ;
here strenuous cutting, there spreading of the opera over two
evenings, not to lose a fraction of its musical delights. Plainly
the sentiment of the Leipzig public was saner, in those days, than
that of the Saxon capital with its many years of Italianisation.
But this resultful 1 830 soon brought quite other factors into play.
Political events had already roused the ardent spirit of young
Wagner from time to time, and always won his lively sympathy
for the suffering side. Now came the second Paris revolution :
the event that set all Europe in commotion was the stroke that
made of him "a revolutionary at one blow." Very likely the
Stumme had something to do in preparing him for it. Just as it
put an end to the mere life-of-pleasure of the Restoration, artistic-
ally speaking, and began to shake Rossini's throne, it might well
be regarded as virtually " the stage precursor of the July Revolu-
tion," as which indeed it actually figured in the case of Belgium.
However, it would be a mistake to imagine the seventeen-year-old
Wagner guided in his views of life by specifically artistic tenets.
The opposite was in fact the case, even so early as this. In his
Communication he refers to his own evolution as follows : " That
which first determines the artist as such, is certainly the purely
H
114 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
artistic impression. If his receptive force be completely engrossed
thereby, the impressions receivable from life thereafter will find
his capacity already exhausted ; he will develop as absolute artist,
along the line which we must designate the feminine . . . where
art plays with itself, drawing sensitively back from every brush
with actual life. . . . The case is otherwise where the previously
developed artistic force has merely formed and focussed the faculty
for receiving life's impressions ; where, in place of weakening, it
has the rather strengthened it. ... This is the masculine, the
generative line of art."
Since our hero has designated this particular "impression" as
one of the turning-points in his life, we may deal at somewhat
greater length with the events that occurred in Leipzig at the
beginning of September 1830 in consequence of the Parisian
July-revolution ; events that happened under Richard's eyes, and,
involving his own brother-in-law Friedrich Brockhaus, bore quite
a personal interest. For a long time past there had been brewing
a sullen opposition to the department of criminal-justice and police,
at whose head then stood a certain Herr von Ende as Police-
president and Royal Commissary. The entire organisation of
this department was held to be as extravagant as it was faulty;
people spoke of enormous sums devoured yearly, and the main-
tenance of a wholly unnecessary town-guard, so easily to be
replaced by a moderate garrison. Grave scandals of all kinds,,
such as the systematic establishment of gambling-hells under the
auspices of the magistracy and the protection of the police to-
say nothing of the smaller tripots, locally known as " Ratten " ,
roused public ire. An extraordinary commission of inquiry was.
awaited from Dresden, but delay in despatching it increased the
natural impatience ; the labouring class was incensed at a wanton
neglect of its interests in the farming out of orders for communal
works; the students were offended by an order of the Royal
Commissary derogatory to the Rector of the university, and
demanded unconditional restoration to the academic senate of its
jurisdiction over undergraduates. Thus in every class of the
inhabitants there was an accumulation of inflammable material ;
small causes led to open conflicts with police-agents and gens-
d'armes. On the 2nd of September a family in the Briihl were
holding a wedding-eve carouse, or " Polterabend," which attracted
a crowd to the quarter; the police interfered, but were driven
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION. 115
back with bleeding heads by a knot of brawny smiths. Late in
the evening, just as a lunar eclipse became total, the streets were
plunged into darkness by smashing of lamps ; the mob rushed off
to the house of the President of Police, broke his windows for
him, hooted several members of the town-council, and so forth.
The turmoil of the next few days was great : in defiance of all
censorship, the most seditious attacks on the Police and Council
were published in the newspapers and by means of placards.
The student-corps "Saxonia" assembled its members in con-
ference ; labourers and mechanics from the environs and farther
still swarmed into the city by hundreds, and at dusk filled the
streets and market-place with threatening groups. The windows
of unpopular magistrates were broken in, the interior of their
houses wrecked by stones the roads being completely stripped of
paving in many places. A picket of cavalry patrolled the town ;
it suffered no bodily harm, but was too weak, and without orders
to use force.
Still larger were the crowds on the evening of September the
4th, when brilliant moonshine lit the inroads of the rioters. The
release of prisoners taken by the police during the last day or two
was effected by superior force ; divided into several bands, the
mob tore shouting through the streets, scattered the police-patrols,
broke uproariously into the houses of officials belonging to the
police and council, and destroyed or flung out of window their
furniture and effects. A few houses of ill-fame in the suburbs,
known to be the resort of certain magistrates, were razed to the
ground in a few hours with the help of crowbars ; a like fate over-
took the villa of Banker and Town-architect Erkel at Gohlis. Not
that there was any thought of plunder : it was simply the act of
popular vengeance; thieves caught were promptly punished by
the rioters themselves. One special object of malevolence
was the machinery so hateful at that time to handicrafts-
men ; a raging crowd drew up before the Brockhaus printing-
house, to wreck its mechanical presses. Friedrich Brockhaus'
courage saved the situation ; he laid the storm by representing
that he gave employment to a hundred and twenty men per day,
and promising that the machines should be stopped for the next
four weeks.
The following Sunday morning saw a renewal of tumult and
destruction. At last, after a solemn conclave at the Rathhaus,
Il6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
the city armed itself, forming a provisional Municipal and National
Guard under the command of Town-captain Frege, whilst the
university accorded its students the right to carry arms, and
conjured them to share in defending the town against anarchy.
The day before, rector Krug had set free on parole a few students
detained in the academic lock-ups for other offences, to give the
rabble no excuse for acts of liberation ; this Sunday he summoned
his senate and all the students to the university-chapel in the
Paulinum after morning service, strongly impressed on them the
need of actively contributing to the preservation of peace and
order, and received their unanimous assent. At 5 o'clock
in the afternoon, in six armed companies with white bandelets
on the arm and the password Leges et ordo, the students trooped
out of the Pauline courtyard, patrolled the streets alternately with
the rifle-bands and municipal guard, and shared with them the task
of keeping watch and ward. Police and soldiers having disap-
peared, the city-gates were guarded by armed students, proud in
the consciousness of their public service, and prompt to avert fresh
excesses by good-humoured words.
Meantime the Commissioners had arrived, and were doing
their best to calm the still-excited populace by reasonable inquiries
and provisions. The word " police " was proscribed ; apart from
the criminal department, a " Deputation of Safety " was enrolled
from among the authorities of the university, the city and sur-
rounding district. But the most important step of all, spreading
joy throughout the whole of Saxony, was the prompt elevation
of the enlightened and popular Prince Friedrich subsequently
King Friedrich August II. to co-regency with King Anton ;
Cabinet-minister von Einsiedel being at like time dismissed and
a whilom member of the Diet, von Lindenau, appointed in his
stead. The proclamation was read in Leipzig at midday of the
1 5th of September; at night the whole town was brilliantly
illuminated. The rifle-bands, the citizens and students paraded
the streets with music ; on the esplanade they raised a rousing
cheer for the well-loved prince ; the rejoicings continued till long
after midnight. People flattered themselves that a new era of
civic life had begun in their Saxony.
All these stirring incidents, particularly the students' intervention
and final triumph of the popular cause, found a lively echo in
young Richard's breast. Nor did his keen interest in public
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY- REVOLUTION. 117
events meet with any opposition on the part of his family. Even
the old uncle rejoiced at the signs of awakening public spirit, and
waxed eloquent about the manifold good the Leipzig "revolu-
tionlet " had brought with it, in that " amid a state of universal
lethargy many a wholesome truth had come to tongue, and the
criminally self-sufficient materialism of the commercial world been
sent to the dogs. In higher regions there had been a display of
good and upright will, and even though discords of the old
aristocratic club-law had sounded too, they were destined, as in
music, to be resolved by counterpoint." Simultaneous risings
all over the fatherland, in Brunswick, Hesse, Hanover etc.,
confirmed the lad in his nascent faith in the triumph of liberalism ;
as he says in 1842, with perhaps a tinge of over-colouring, "I
came by the conviction that every decently active being should
occupy himself exclusively with politics. I was only happy in
the company of political writers, and commenced an overture on
a political theme."
His days at the S. Nicholas school had come to end. The
famous old Thomana had been reopened on November 29 of the
previous year, with a brilliant celebration of its centenary, in the
new building for whose completion the town authorities had
shirked no cost; in the autumn of 1830 Richard Wagner, who
had never got beyond the second class in the Nikolai, entered
the first of the S. Thomas school. Nevertheless all zest for
systematic school-work had been killed out of him : he preferred
writing overtures for grand orchestra. It needed no great pressure
to induce Dorn to perform one of them, in B flat, time, at the
Court-theatre. "I still can see the little octavo score, neatly
written in two different-coloured inks and grouped into three
systems for the strings, wood- wind and brass," says Dorn more
than thirty years later ; " it bore in it the germs of all those grand
effects which at a later date were to set the whole musical world
by the ears." To be exact, Wagner had written it out in three
different colours, for the better understanding of those who might
wish to study his score: the strings in red, the wood-wind in
green, and the brass in black. Of this work the lad was mighty
proud, though in after years he called it the culminating point
of his folly : " Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was a mere Pleyel
Sonata by the side of this strangely complicated overture." There
really lay no small significance in that marshalling of the instru-
Il8 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
ments : the division of the orchestra into three distinct con-
stituent bodies, the strings, the wood-wind and the brass (instead
of their former arbitrary fusion according to conventional rules) ;
their grouping into families, with careful adjustment of the tone-
colour to the various characters and situations of the drama,
is one of the most marked of Wagner's innovations, and strikes
the eye at the first glance down a page of his scores. The
parallels first followed in this early work must inevitably lead in
course of time to his system of triads of a similar timbre, and
his weaving with them instruments erewhile employed apart, till
at last he gave the orchestra a power of expression unmatched
for clearness and variety.*
When Dorn commenced to rehearse this fledgeling he had
some trouble in overcoming the opposition of his band. Old
Konzertmeister Matthai at its head, the whole orchestra was
convulsed with laughter, and declared the unknown young gentle-
man's overture arrant nonsense. However, as the conductor
insisted on it, the work was " thoroughly rehearsed in the morn-
ing, and played through pat at night." The effect was not at
all improved by a fortissimo thump on the big drum recurring
at every fifth bar ; at first astonished at the drummer's pertinacity,
the audience soon shewed symptoms of impatience, and finally
exploded with most disconcerting mirth. "The puzzled public
couldn't make it out," says Dorn, "when the players suddenly
laid down their instruments, after a protracted hurly-burly ; it
still had hoped that some nice bit would come at last. Yet there
was something in this composition that compelled my respect,
and I consoled its visibly dejected author with assurance of the
future." According to another version of Dorn's which we must
leave the reader to reconcile with the above as best he can,
Wagner joined heartily in the general laughter at his firstborn,
and agreed that its fate was deserved. The composer himself
merely says, " This first performance of a composition of my own
left a great impression on me." Next day he called on Dorn to
thank him, when the latter assured him that he had been struck
with his talent and was especially pleased not to have had to alter
a single note, as needed almost always in the orchestration of
beginners' works. Moreover a kindly notice of the overture is
* See Liszt's Lohengrin et Tannhciuser de Richard Wagtter^ Leipzig 1851,
pp. 106-7.
LEIPZIG COURT-THEATRE, AND JULY-REVOLUTION. IIQ
said to have been inserted, at Dorn's suggestion, in a journal
called the " Comet," edited by Herlossohn.
The youth's first brush with publicity had by no means damped
his spirits, and he determined to pursue his path. He felt him-
self no more a boy, and very soon exchanged the restraint of
school for the freer atmosphere of student-life. In fact he did
not|wait for the Thomana term to end at Easter, for we find him
inscribed as student at the University of Leipzig on the 23rd of
February 1831, a step taken with no idea of devoting himself
to any learned profession, as his musical career was already
resolved on, but with the desire of widening his artistic horizon
by a course of " philosophy and aesthetics."
VIII.
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC.
The university. A " smollis " offered to the Senior of the Saxonia.
Student excesses. Return to music. Study with Weinlig: his
method. Immersed in Beethoven. Personal relations. Three
overtures. Polish emigrants. Overtures in D minor and C at
the Gewandhaus.
These impressions, of the July Revolution and the
struggling Poles, were not as yet of perceptible formative
influence on my artistic development ; they were stimulators
only in a general sense. Indeed, so much was my receptive
faculty still dominated by purely artistic impressions,
that it was precisely at this perioa that I occupied myself
the most exclusively with music, wrote sonatas, overtures,
and a symphony.
RICHARD WAGNER.
THE Leipzig " student " was clothed by the moving events of the
year 1830 with a nimbus that eclipsed even the glory wherewith
he had been invested in the eyes of his enthusiastic reader by the
magic of Hoffmann's fancy. In the days of uproar and disquiet
the Student had proved himself a trustworthy member of the
community, while punctiliously asserting his own imperilled rights.
On the day of announcement of Prince Friedrich's regency a public
declaration had been made by the Royal Commissaries sent from
Dresden, to the effect that the students would in future be under
the supervision of a re-organised police. But that had been the
very ground of their commotion : stung to the quick, the youngsters
left the watch they still were keeping since the days of danger, tore
the placards down from walls and street-corners, and marched
under arms, to the number of three or four hundred, to the
quarters of the Royal Commissaries von Karlowitz and Meissner.
Six of them stepped out of the ranks, and stated their collective
grievances in a solemn address, encouraged and applauded by the
burghers gathered in the street. They succeeded in obtaining
the repeal of the objectionable decree : the interference of the
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 121
President of Police was done away with, a strong directorate of
the University appointed from the academic Senate, and, to
obviate friction between the students themselves, "a Seniorat"
was constituted of the Seniors of the various student-corps,
responsible solely to the Rector and Senate. Rector Krug, whose
presence of mind had directed the young men's energy into the
proper path, and kept it within the bounds of order, was presented
by the citizens with a loving-cup in honour of the great reform ;
whilst the students were favoured by the young ladies of Leipzig
with an embroidered banner.
Our hero's craving for the university must have dated from some-
where about this period. Indeed we learn on the authority of
A. von Wurzbach ("Zeitgenossen," Vienna 1871) that Wagner
much affected the manners and society of students in the latter
months of his school-time. Now, if the so-called "Fuchs" was
an object of the loftiest condescension to the full-blown Student,
what shall be said of a mere aspirant to the university, not yet
matriculated, not even a " Fox " ? * But young Wagner was not
to be deterred from frequenting the students' haunts, aping their
customs, and using their slang ; in fact, he so far forgot himself
as to offer a "smollis " t to that dreaded personage, the Senior of
the Saxonia. There was the devil to pay for his impudence.
However, this Senior soon discovered that the young man was a
cut above the ordinary, and made no further bones about admitting
him to brotherhood, though he coupled it with one condition :
" Within a month you produce your matriculation papers, or are
sent to Coventry." The tale goes on that Richard returned in
triumph at the end of a week, greeting his brother Senior with
" It's all right now ; I've got the papers in my pocket." " Out
with them ! " replied the Senior, and was confronted by " Student
of Music." This unprecedented designation the Leipzig Con-
servatorium not having as yet come into being evoked loud
peals of laughter from the " hoary head" ; but the duly-authorised
Fox was not to be put off; he claimed and received his Fox
baptism in optima forma, a solemn feast from which he was
conducted home by his faithful senior in the small hours of the
morning.
This being the only plausibly recorded episode from Wagner's
* See Appendix.
t Or " Schmollis " student slang for brotherhood pledged by clinking glasses.
122 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
student-life,* we give it for what it is worth, though it presents the
failings common to all such anecdotes : on the one hand, the
immoderate prominence of the narrator, with whom, in the first
instance, we may safely identify that worthy "senior" himself;
on the other, the absence of a single really individual trait to
stamp it with the personality of Richard Wagner. From the
story, however, we may glean these three facts : that the student-
glamour was greatest for him when he stood without; that
nothing less than intimacy with the head of the crack corps of
the day could satisfy the youngster's sense of his own importance ;
and finally, that his longing for the rank of actual Student made
him anticipate the usual term and hasten his matriculation as
proved by the date of his inscription (Feb. 23, 1831). The
" peals of laughter from the hoary head " assuredly owed their
origin not so much to the surprising novelty of the designation
chosen, as to that far deeper misconception of which Beethoven
himself had been unable to rid the layman's mind. " In my
time," says Wagner once in joke, i" the Leipzig students made a
butt of a poor devil whom they would get to declaim his poems
in return for the settling of his score. They had his portrait
lithographed, above the motto : ' Of all my sufferings Love is
cause.'" It is tolerably certain that that "hoary head" would
have been far more prone to class Music with the sentimental
lyrics thus ridiculed, than to allow it a serious place beside the
hall-marked scientific " faculties " ; throughout his life it was in
his own person, and in virtue of his individuality, that Wagner
had to prove that it was no question here of a feminine, but
in very truth a masculine art. If we were to strike out the
influence of Richard Wagner from the post-classical development
of German music, what meaning would this latter have for the
non-musician ?
As Immermann has aptly said, in all those "swaggering,
hectoring students there lurks the grub of the future Philistine,"
and it is not in their ranks one must seek the budding geniuses
and kindling lights of the world. Not that Wagner was at all
inclined to dispense with his share of the fun, while the humour
* Praeger tells a story, garbled from an alleged conversation of Wagner's
concerning an adventure in one of those gambling-hells which had survived
the Leipzig fracas of September ; for the true account, as also its proper
connection, we must await the publication of the master's memoirs.
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC.
lasted : what of wit and fancy the revels of the students of those
days fell short in, he amply made up from his own resources ;
but he took the tempo of the usual academic excesses to use
his own words " with such reckless levity, that they very soon
revolted him." The deeper he plunged in the mire, the more
convinced he became that the narrow round of sottish follies,
which was all that remained after the bloom of civic distinction
had worn off, could never satisfy his needs. To perceive this
and to turn his back forever on the twofold stage of student
prowess, the pothouse and the duel-ground, for him were one
thing and the same.
His people had had " great trouble with him " about this time ;
he had almost completely forsaken his music. Not only that :
of the opportunity of regular attendance on philosophic and
sesthetic lectures he profited as little as Goethe, for instance,
during the time of his Leipzig studies. It was not entirely his
fault, for the Leipzig philosophers and aesthetes of those days
could in no case have been of much service to him ; almost at
the selfsame time as Richard Wagner was seeking in vain for the
proper guide to a philosophic grasp of problems in art and life,
Arthur Schopenhauer said goodbye to the Berlin University and
his brief career as lecturer, because of the impossibility of finding
the proper hearers for his teachings ! Thus the youth had to
fall back on the light of nature for his view of things, and, sick
of his madcap wanderings, returned to his senses. He felt the
instant necessity of a strict and regular study of music, and
providence directed him to the right man.
That man was Christian THEODOR WEINLIG, cantor at the
S. Thomas school in Leipzig since 1823.* He set bit and bridle
on the riotous fancy of his pupil, and gave his mobile brain due
* Weinlig died in March 1842, at the age of sixty-one. Had he lived but
seven or eight months longer, he might have witnessed the production of
Rienzi at Dresden, and satisfied himself as to that "self-dependence" for
which he had prepared his pupil ; in all probability he would have shaken
his head at the work, but certainly would have shewn a better understanding
of it than did his successor at the Thomas-school, the fairly well-known
Moritz Hauptmann. His wife would appear to have taken a good deal of
interest in the young musician at the period when he came to their house for
his daily lesson, and Wagner's gratitude to her is proved by the dedication
of his Liebesmahl der Apostel in 1843 "To Frau Charlotte Emilie Weinlig,
widow of his never-to-be-forgotten teacher."
124 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
equipoise. The young musician had already tried his hand on
fugues, but it was with Weinlig that he first began a sound study
of counterpoint. In the letter of 1834 to Regisseur Franz
Hauser already-cited Wagner gives a retrospect of this course
of study : " Weinlig must have felt at once where lay my chief
deficiency ; he put a stop at first to my learning counterpoint, to
ground me thoroughly in harmony. In this he took me through
the strict and closer style, and would not budge from it till he
thought me quite sure of my footing ; for he held that this solid
style was the sole foundation alike for handling freer and richer
harmonies, and, in all essentials, for learning counterpoint. Then
he gave me the firmest grounding in the strictest principles of
the latter, and after he felt that I was quite at home in this most
difficult field of musical study he discharged me with the words :
' I now release you from your lessons, as a pupil who has learnt
everything his master could teach him.' " His account is corro-
borated by a reminiscence of sister Cacilie's, how Weinlig paid
a call one day during this six-months course : much to the
mother's alarm, who feared a repetition of the old, old story, the
worthy gentleman began with " I have felt it my duty to pay you
a visit," but pleasantly surprised her by continuing, " of con-
gratulation upon the wonderful progress made by your son.
What it was in my power to teach the young man, he already
knows wellnigh of himself, 'tis quite remarkable ! "
As to Weinlig's mode of teaching, Mr Edward Dannreuther in
his admirable article in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
gives the following report of what Wagner told him in 1877 :
"Weinlig had no special method, but he was clear-headed and
practical. Indeed you cannot teach composition ; you may shew
how music gradually came to be what it is, and thus guide a
young man's judgment, but this is historical criticism, and cannot
directly result in practice. All you can do, is to point to some
working example, some particular piece, set a task in that direction,
and correct the pupil's work. This is what Weinlig did with me.
He chose a piece, generally something of Mozart's, drew atten-
tion to its construction, relative length and balance of sections,
principal modulations, number and quality of themes, and general
character of the movement. Then he set the task : you shall
write about so many bars, divide into so many sections with
modulations to correspond so and so, the themes shall be so
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 125
many, and of such and such a character. Similarly he would set
contrapuntal exercises, canons, fugues he analysed an example
minutely and then gave simple directions how I was to go to work.
But the true lesson consisted in his patient and careful inspection
of what had been written. With infinite kindness he would put
his finger on some defective bit and explain the why and wherefore
of the alterations he thought desirable. I readily saw what he
was aiming at, and soon managed to please him. He dismissed
me, saying, ' You have learnt to stand on your own legs.' My
experience of young musicians these forty years has led me to
think that music should be taught all round on such a simple
plan. With singing, playing, composing, take it at whatever stage
you like, there is nothing so good as a proper example, and careful
correction of the pupil's attempts to follow that example."
Under Weinlig the young man acquired an intimate knowledge
and love of MOZART, though it was put to a severe test by the
orchestral performances at the Gewandhaus concerts : " things
that had seemed so full of life and soul when reading the score,
or at the pianoforte, I scarcely recognised in the form wherein
they skimmed before the audience. Above all, I was astonished
at the mawkishness of the Mozartian cantilena, which I had
imagined so full of charm and feeling. . . . My genuine delight
in Mozart's instrumental works remained in abeyance till I had
occasion to conduct them myself, and thus to follow my own
feeling of the animation demanded by his cantilena " (P. W. IV.,
299, 300).
Among his tasks of this period was the writing of an "ex-
tremely simple and modest" pianoforte Sonata in B flat, four
movements, in which he freed himself "from all shoddy," but
repressed his inner promptings; at Weinlig's request it was
printed by Breitkopf und Hartel, simultaneously with a Polonaise
in D for four hands.* Neither work affords an inkling of the
* In a list of " New music published by Breitkopf und Hartel, Leipzig,
Easter 1832," under the heading of Pianoforte Solos we find "Wagner, R.,
Sonata, 20 gr.," and in that of Pianoforte Duets, " Wagner, R., Polonaise Op.
2, 8 gr." (see the " Litterarisches Notizenblatt, Nr. 20" of June 9, 1832, a
supplement to No. 138 of the Dresden Abendzeitung), The title-pages of the
original edition have been reproduced, on a slightly smaller scale, in Jos.
Kiirschner's Wagner-Jahrbuch of 1886. The Sonata bears the dedication,
"To Herr Theodor Weinlig, Cantor and Musikdirektor at the Thomas-
school in Leipzig, respectfully dedicated by Richard Wagner."
126 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
later Wagner, but they have a unique interest as being his
earliest publications and bearing the conventional " opus " number,
a fashion he never adopted again. It would be impossible,
so Dorn says, to detect in this sterile sonata a single trace of the
author of its extraordinary predecessor, that amazing overture.
The more the pity that the Sibyl should have saved the one, and
not the other. However, in compensation for his self-restraint,
Weinlig allowed the lad to write a piece at his own sweet will.
Thus arose a Fantasia for the pianoforte in F sharp minor,
hitherto unpublished, but described by W. Tappert as far more
interesting and characteristic than the Sonata and Polonaise.
The Fantasia was followed in the same half-year by a Concert-
overture in D minor (Sept. 26, 1831, revised Nov. 4, 1831)
composed " on the model of Beethoven, which I now understood
somewhat better." Says Dorn, " I doubt if there has ever been
a young composer more familiar with the works of Beethoven,
than the eighteen-year-old student Wagner. He owned the greater
part of the master's overtures in score, copied by his own hand ;
with the sonatas he went to bed, and rose with the quartets ; the
songs he sang, the quartets he whistled (for he couldn't make
headway with his playing) : in short, it was a veritable furor
teutontcus" Wagner himself puts his enthusiasm into the mouth
of his German Musician in Paris : " I knew no other pleasure
than to plunge so deep into the genius of Beethoven, that at last
I fancied myself become a portion thereof; and as this tiniest
portion I began to respect myself, to come by higher thoughts
and views in brief, to develop into what sober people call an
idiot." Still later in life he recalls his midnight porings over these
" cryptic pages " in the silence of his garret in the Pichhof, and
declares that to them he owed what no teacher in the world could
have given him, a practical initiation into the sacred mysteries of
Beethoven, and in particular of the Ninth Symphony. He had
made himself a pianoforte arrangement of this latter work, and
his surprise may be imagined when he heard the symphony
performed by the Gewandhaus orchestra as an occasional point
of honour and could make neither head nor tail of the jumble
of sounds.
Two memorable letters afford us a glimpse into this period of
burning the midnight oil before the shrine of Beethoven. The
one, dated August 6, 1831, is addressed to C. F. Peters' Bureau
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 127
de Musique at Leipzig: in it young Wagner desires, "for lack of
occupation," to be employed on proof-correcting and pianoforte-
arrangements ; he offers to furnish exemplars gratis, guarantees
accuracy and punctuality, and signs himself "Richard Wagner,
stud, mus." The other, dated October 6, is addressed to the firm
of Schott in Mainz, and treats of no less an undertaking than a
pianoforte-arrangement of the Ninth Symphony : "I long have
made the glorious last symphony of Beethoven the object of my
deepest study," writes young Wagner, " and the better I became
acquainted with the work's high worth, the more has it distressed
me to find it still so misconstrued,' so terribly neglected, by the
musical public. The way to make this masterwork more popular,
to me appeared to be a proper version for the pianoforte, such as
I much regret to say I have never met as yet ; (for that four-handed
arrangement of Czerny's can scarcely be called satisfactory). In
keen enthusiasm I therefore ventured on an attempt to prepare
this symphony for two hands, and have succeeded thus far in
arranging its first and wellnigh hardest section with as much
clearness and fulness as possible. Accordingly 1 now approach
your respected firm to ascertain whether you would feel disposed
to accept such an arrangement. For, naturally, I should not care
to proceed with so arduous a task without that certainty. So
soon as I shall be assured of this, I will immediately set to work
and finish what I have commenced. I therefore beg for an early
answer" etc., to be addressed "Leipzig, at the Pichhof, outside
the Halle Gate, first floor." The answer was by no means "early,"
for it did not arrive until two months later, namely December 8,
1831 ; and, much as we may sympathise with the young man's efforts
to contribute to his own support, we cannot but be grateful that
it was in the negative like other replies to his repeated offers
and he thus was kept for something better. Meanwhile, not
only had the arrangement of the Ninth Symphony been completed
for his private delectation, but he had composed and instrumented
in the selfsame key, D minor, the unpublished Overture already
mentioned. Its first fair copy, of September 26, falls between
the two letters just quoted ; its revision, Nov. 4, in the interval
between the letter to Schott and its rejoinder. In a second
Concert-overture, the composition of which he appears to have
also finished before the close of the year, he exchanged the
gloomy minor key for the cheeriness of C major.
128 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
His musical activity did not preclude his mercurial nature from
enjoyment of the society of friends. We have already referred to
his intercourse with Dorn whose pupil Robert Schumann was at
that time and his younger half-brother, Schindelmeisser ; among
his student comrades we have to make special mention of Guido
Theodor Apel, just two years older than himself, who had been
with him at the Nikolai, and left it to become a student of Law
at the Leipzig University at the same time as Wagner. In
Heinrich Kurz's History of German Literature (IV., 619-20) we
read that, after the untimely death of his father, August Apel,
this young man "had received in the house of his cultured
mother a careful education by Gottfried Fink, a well-known writer
on music and editor of the Allg. musikal. Ztg. Richly blest with
earthly goods and gifted with a lively fancy, he cultivated poetry
and music with especial ardour, much assisted by the heartiest
friendship with Richard Wagner and other composers."
In Richard's family circle, sister Clara had been married two
years since at Magdeburg (where she was following her career as
singer) to operatic regisseur and singer Wolfram ; but Rosalie
remained the centre of attraction, together with her two engaging
sisters, Ottilie the blonde and Cacilie the brunette. The mother's
house maintained its reputation as a meeting-place for many lead-
ing figures in art and literature, whilst visits to sister Louise Brock-
haus, who had already become the happy mother of a little
Marianne, were frequent as ever. So that there was no lack of
enlivening company, little parties and excursions, etc. Indeed
until fifteen years back there stood perhaps still stands an old
inn at Eutritzsch near Leipzig, then known by the nickname of
the " Klavierschenke " (subsequently, Alte Oberschenke) through
its possession of a pianoforte, where Wagner remembered having
danced in his student days and improvised for others to dance to.
With the best will in the world, on the other hand, we are
unable to regale the reader with interesting anecdotes of Richard's
"first love." True that, to fill this aching void in the master's
youthful history, F. Praeger gives alleged particulars from Wagner's
mouth ; but the whole tale is sheer romancing, coloured with the
author's racial passion for dragging in the Jews, as we shall sub-
sequently find to be the case with the Paris " Louis." Beyond
doubt the young man's heart was vulnerable, and in more than
one direction, as may be judged from the fact that the honour of
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 129
having been the object of his tenderer feelings has since been
claimed in several quarters. We here need only mention Marie
Lowe, eventually mother of the two celebrated singers Lili and
Marie Lehmann. At this time a member of the opera-company
(see Dorn's Ergelmtsse, p. 150), she had come to Leipzig in 1830
as a beginner, became acquainted with Wagner through his sisters,
and got him to accompany her on the pianoforte in her vocal
practices. Richard is said to have conceived an "infatuation"
for her, which she did not return in consequence of his "very
morose and melancholy frame of mind " ! The one thing certain,
is that Frau Lehmann always retained a sincere affection for the
master during her ensuing career at the Cassel Court-theatre,
at its prime under Spohr, and as harpist in the orchestra of the
German National-theatre at Prague after her retirement from the
stage ; whilst Wagner, on his side, preserved for her a special
friendship and esteem. It was she, who sent to him at Zurich
a full account of the Prague successes of his TannMuser and
Lohengrin, directing his attention to the signal achievement of
Frau Dustmann (then Frl. Louise Meyer) as Elsa; and at the
beginning of the seventies, when occupied with his first prepara-
tions for the Bayreuth enterprise, the master did not forget to
apply to his staunch old friend for the co-operation of her two
best pupils, her daughters named above.
To turn to the more historic influences at work on the young
man, we find him deeply interested in the struggles and sufferings
of the downtrod Poles, just as a year or so back he had been
fascinated by the July Revolution and its Leipzig epilogue. In
the autumn and winter of 1831 came the last tragic throes of the
Polish rebellion, so hopefully begun : Warsaw had been taken
by the Russian army under Paskewitsch ; a portion of the Polish
host, cut off by the Russians, had laid down its arms on the
Galician frontier ; the remainder of the Polish army, one-and-
twenty thousand strong, had crossed over into Prussia. With
tears the bearded riders embraced their horses for the last time,
flung themselves sobbing to the ground, and broke the swords
or sprung the muskets they might use no more in service of their
fatherland. Thousands resolved to seek in foreign lands a new
home and centre whence to stir up interest in their nation ; the
larger number found hospitable sanctuary in France ; others went
to England or America, to Belgium or Algiers, or scattered far and
I
I3O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
wide. Toward the year's end the refugees began their march
through Germany, and on the 8th of January 1832, a brilliant
winter's day, the first detachment reached Leipzig. A league
from the town they were met by an expectant crowd ; at the
outer Grimma Gate the cheers of many thousand voices welcomed
them. The whole length of the broad Steinweg was packed with
people who had no other thought, for the moment, than how to
prove to these unhappy wanderers their hearty sympathy. The
Poles could not find words enough to express their joy and grati-
tude, and tears flowed fast on either side. Accompanied by a
cheering multitude, the emigrants traversed the city to the inns
which a charitable "Poles-Committee" of wealthy citizens had
had prepared for their reception.
In view of the great excitement caused among the populace,
it was arranged that the succeeding columns should not march
through the town, but make a wide detour towards the Rannstadt
Gate, near which stood the inn that was to put up the most of
them. However, the number of private families who declared
their readiness to take in a refugee or two for the four-and-twenty
hours allowed them soon increased to such a point that there
were days on which but a handful, out of a column of 90 to 120
men, had to be accommodated in the hostelries. The students
figured among the most enthusiastic, exchanging souvenirs, the
kiss of brotherhood, or vows of eternal friendship ; those of them
who had not means or room to house an emigrant, at least sought
out his company, and listened breathless to his tales of heroism.
Among these latter was Richard Wagner, who tells us in The
Work and Mission of my Life of his personal acquaintance with
Polish emigrants, fine, stalwart men, who filled him with deep
pity for their fatherland's sad fate.
Each afternoon the strangers made a pilgrimage to the monu-
ment of Poniatowsky in the Gerhard Garden ; from the wreaths
that decked the simple masonry they would pluck a flower, and
hoard it up as if sprung from the actual grave of the unfortunate
prince. Wherever they appeared in public they were received
with all possible respect ; not only were balls and parties given
in their honour, but a Grand concert at the Gewandhaus, when
the " Denkst du daran " figured as a concert-piece, yielded a very
material contribution to their sustentation-fund. A most striking
scene was presented at seven each morning of the day after their
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 131
arrival, on their departure from their head-quarters, the inn of the
Green Shield ; it was all life and bustle, cries and counter-cries,
questions and answers, now in Polish, now in French, and again
in German which last was spoken by an astonishing proportion
of the strangers ; there seemed no end to vows of gratitude, to
touching farewells, repeated promises of tidings to be sent from
here or there to their new-found friends.
So it went on for the greater part of the month of January. In
February merely a few stragglers passed through the town, but the
arrival was still awaited of several columns of officers and some
thousands of men in batches of five-hundred apiece, as to whose
transit Artillery General Bern, the hero of Ostrolenka, was in
treaty with the district authorities. In fact the tide of emigration
was not yet spent, as we may gather from a report of March 1832,
" Everybody in Leipzig is aflame for the Poles " ; and it is from
these rousing days that dates the inspiration for Wagner's over-
ture " Polonia," though it was not to be realised until 1836, at
Konigsberg.
For the present, in the words of this chapter's motto, artistically
these impressions were "stimulators only in a general sense."
The overtures in D minor and C major, already mentioned, were
followed by a third that owed its origin to Raupach's blood-and-
thunder tragedy King Enzio, then storming every German stage ;
its manuscript is dated February 3, 1832. Raupach's piece, in
which Rosalie played the Lucia di Viadagoli, accordingly had the
honour at its repeated Leipzig performances (commencing the
middle of February) of being ushered in by an overture expressly
composed for it by Richard Wagner. The next larger work to
engage his attention was a grand Symphony in C, composed
somewhere about the month of March ; as it is the first, and
only completed work of this order ever penned by Wagner, we
shall return to it at greater length in the succeeding chapter.
Meanwhile the i6th subscription-concert at the Gewandhaus,
of February 23, had been opened with the D minor Overture.*
* A photographic reduction of the original programme will be found in
Kiirschner's Wagner-Jahrbuch (1886, p. 371), together with the above extract
from a report in No. 18 of the Allg. mus. Zig. (editor, G. W. Fink; pub.,
Breitkopf und Hartel) of May 2, 1832. The programme simply says " Ouver-
ture, von Richard Wagner " ; neither it nor the report states the key, which
has been erroneously given in \hejakrbnck as C major.
132 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
" We were much pleased," says the Attgemeine Musikalische
Zeitung, " with a new overture by a very young composer, Herr
Richard Wagner. The piece was thoroughly done justice to, and
indeed the young man shews great promise ; his composition not
only sounds well, but has grit in it, and has been worked out
with skill and diligence, with a visible and successful aim at the
most honourable mark. We have looked through the score."
The audience also was warm in its acknowledgment, and the
young artist reaped the double advantage, of that experience
which is only to be gained from an actual hearing of one's work,
and the knowledge that the eyes of his fellow-citizens were turned
on him with expectation.
Besides the classical Gewandhaus there was then a second
concert-union in Leipzig, under the name of Euterpe, with an
orchestra composed of professional and amateur musicians, young
and old ; once a week they gave performances in the " old rifle-
gallery" outside the Peter's Gate, before a less pretentious but
most sympathetic public. The first-named concerts, Leipzig's
musical pride, were at -that time under the direction of kindly
August Pohlenz * ; the management of this humbler rival had
recently been assumed by Wagner's former teacher, Musikdirektor
Chr. Gottlieb Miiller (a valued member of the theatre-band),
who had raised it to the reputation of a kind of "popular
Gewandhaus." In the case of Wagner's early works the Euterpe
concerts repeatedly formed the stepping-stone to an audience in
the higher forum : " I was in the good books of this minor
orchestral union," he says himself at the end of 1881, "which had
already performed a fairly fugal concert-overture of mine in the
Altes Schiitzenhaus." This was the C major overture with the
elaborate closing fugue ; but even before its promotion to the
Gewandhaus we hear of the young composer's making his first
public appearance in the dramatic field with a "Scene and Aria."
On the 22nd April the aged reciter Solbrig (see p. 100) gave a so-
called " declamatorium " at the Court-theatre, with a fair amount
of musical relief: the instrumental portion was furnished by
Spontini's Nurmahal overture and an overture of Dorn's to Julius
Ceesar- among the vocal pieces we find mention of this "Scene
and Aria by Richard Wagner, capitally sung by Dem. Wiist " the
* Christian August Pohlenz, born 1790 at Saalgast in the Niederlausitz, died
1843 at Leipzig.
THE STUDENT OF MUSIC. 133
Henrietta Wiist already referred to, and of whom we shall have
to speak again. Unfortunately it has proved impossible to dis-
cover any further particulars about this aria, which would seem to
have disappeared entirely.
On the 30th April the C major Overture itself advanced to the
Gewandhaus ; not, however, at one of the regular twenty subscrip-
tion-concerts, but at a "musical academy" given by the Italian
singer Matilda Palazzesi, who, on the dissolution of the Italian
Opera at Dresden, had just received the honorary title of a Royal
Saxon Chamber-singer, and was making a concert tour through
Leipzig, Hanover and other German towns, prior to returning to
her native country. On the authority of a discoloured old pro-
gramme which he found among the master's papers, we are told
by W. Tappert that this overture figured as the first number of
the concert's second part, with the designation " new." Five-and-
twenty years later, namely Nov. 30, 1877, it was played in public
once again by Bilse's band in the German capital, from the well-
preserved score. Before that, however, it had been rescued from
oblivion to celebrate the master's sixtieth birthday, May 22, 1873,
at a surprise performance in the old Margraves' opera-house at
Bayreuth. One of the audience on this latter occasion has recorded
his opinion that the work most eloquently reveals the influence of
Beethoven, and its clear, decided features and plastic themes already
shadow forth the future master of the musical drama, whilst the
fruit of Cantor Weinlig's teaching is evident in the powerful and
effectively instrumented fugue at its close. But a more attentive
hearer would perhaps have traced a greater likeness to Mozart,
than to Beethoven, in consonance with Weinlig's tenets.
IX.
THE C MAJOR SYMPHOHY.
Composition of the Symphony in C : its construction and themes.
-Journey to Vienna : " Zampa " and Strauss's waltzes. Prague :
Dionys Weber has the Symphony played by his Conservatoire pupils.
Mozart traditions. Tomatschek ; Friedrich Kittl. " Die
ffochzeit." Return to Leipzig. Heinrich Laube. " Kosziusko "
text. Performance of the Symphony at the Gewandhaus. De-
parture for Wiirzburg.
Of great poets we know that their youthful works at once
proclaim the whole main theme of their productive life ; we
find it otherwise with the musician. Who would expect
to recognise in their youthful works the true Mozart, the
genuine Beethoven, with the same distinctness as he detects
the total Goetlie, and in his striking works of youth the
veritable Schiller?
RICHARD WAGNER.
A YEAR rich in experiences, and marked by great personal diligence,
had passed over the keen young artist, now nineteen years of age.
The approach of summer tempted him to an excursion into the
larger world outside, with his completed Symphony in his pocket.
But before we can accompany him on his trip, we must return to
that work's composition.
Since the beginning of 1832, with various interruptions, he had
devoted his full energy to this his first long work, principally, as it
would seem, in the month of March ; though we have no definite
data to go by, as the original manuscript is irretrievably lost, and
fifty years later a new score had to be compiled from the recovered
orchestral parts. Lucky that even that was possible. For this
Symphony played no insignificant role in young Wagner's artistic
development : with it his apprenticeship comes to end. As
he says in his own account of the work, signed just six weeks
before his death, " When the musician has dallied for a sufficient
34
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 135
length of time with what he supposes to be the production of
Melody, at last it frets and shames him to discover that he has
merely been stammering out his favourite models : he longs for
self-dependence ; and this he can win through nothing but obtain-
ing mastery of Form. So the precocious melodist becomes contra-
puntist : now he has nothing more to do with melodies, but with
Themes and their working out ; it becomes his joy to sport with
them, to revel in strettos, the overlapping of two or three themes,
till he has exhausted every possibility conceivable " (P. W. VI., 319).
How far he had progressed in this direction, without losing sight
of the firm and drastic contour of his two great model symphonists,
Mozart and Beethoven, the C major Symphony reveals at a glance.
In addition to these more general qualities of his youthful work
the master recognised but one distinctive feature of his personality,
a feature that pervades the work : "If anything of Richard Wagner
were to be detected in it, it would be the boundless confidence
with which he stuck at nothing even then, and which saved him
from that priggishness so irresistible to the German. This con-
fidence reposed at that time on a great advantage I enjoyed over
Beethoven : for when I took up something like the standpoint of
his Second Symphony, I already knew the Eroica, the C minor
and the A major, which were still unknown to the master at the
time he wrote the Second, or at most could have been floating
before him only in dimmest distance" (ibid. 319-20).
This work, though performed at many large centres in the
season 1887-8 (and then withdrawn), has never been published;
but the reader will find a comprehensive analysis of its construc-
tion, with examples of its principal themes etc., in an excellent
little monograph by O. Eichberg.* The chief theme of the first
movement is distinguished, according to Eichberg, not only by its
truly Beethovenian cut, but by the extraordinary searchingness of
its expression, and the master was certainly too severe upon him-
self when he wrote that such a theme " lends itself quite well to
counterpoint, but has little to say " ; for it is just this theme that
lends the whole first movement its eminently symphonic character.
The second principal theme (in G major) with an imitative section
attached to it, is followed by a melodic passage which not only
* " Richard Wagner's Symphonic in C dur, analysirt von Oscar Eichberg"
28 pages, with 25 musical illustrations Berlin, 1887, published by Hermann
Wolfs Concert-direction.
136
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
points distinctly to Wagner's later manner, but is also interesting
through its presenting the earliest example of that turn, or
mordente, which appears so often and so characteristically in
the master's dramatic works :
*
T" r^
Vinla.
: (repeated
: by Quartet)
Horn
Quart, -without Basses
The first movement begins sostenuto e maestoso, but changes to
an Allegro con brio ; towards its powerful close a yearning question
is put by the wood-wind :
This forms the thematic link connecting the first with the
second movement, Andante f, which it opens, sounded by oboes
and clarinets, and in which it plays a very prominent part. The
principal motive of the Andante has an elegiac character,
forcibly reminding us not so much by its actual notes, as by its
general build of the Andante in Beethoven's C minor. Perhaps
this relationship struck the aged master himself, for he refers in
particular to that symphony of his great forerunner. However
that may be, he was sufficiently fond of it, not merely to use it
again for a New Year's office 1834-5 (as we shall presently learn),
but to make it serve as peroration to the account already cited,
where he rightly calls it " not a theme, but an actual melody " :
Vc. Viola.
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY.
137
The third movement, C major Allegro assai f , is at once the
most rapid and the longest, mounting up to 587 bars if we include
the usual repetitions. The final movement, in Rondo form,
afforded a fine field for contrapuntal ingenuity ; and the " daunt-
less energy that dashes on from one end of the work to the other,"
as remarked by an early reviewer, "conducts with lofty passion to
a brilliant close."
His Symphony finished, its author was free to set out for
Vienna in the summer of 1832, with no other object than a
fleeting taste of this once-famed musical centre. In his Pilgrimage
to Beethoven, written eight years later, he makes his German
Musician say : " How delighted I was with the merry ways of the
dwellers in this empire-city. I was in a state of exaltation, and
saw everything through coloured glasses. The somewhat shallow
sensuousness of the Viennese seemed the freshness of warm
life to me; their volatile and none too discriminating love of
pleasure I took for frank and native sensibility to all things
beautiful." Indeed the proud consciousness of being the author
of a completed grand Symphony might well "exalt" the actual
artist to an almost equal degree with the hero of his tale, though
he had come five years too late for a visit to Beethoven. But
whereas the imaginary character had the joy of seeing on one of
the five stage-posters for the day the announcement of a performance
of Fidelia, and hearing the very finest personatrix of the title-role,
Wilhelmine Schroder, there was no such luck for the real young
man : " What I saw and heard," he tells us in the Autobiographic
Sketch, " edified me little ; wherever I went, it was Zampa and
Straussian potpourris on Zampa both, and especially at that time,
an abomination to me."
Moreover or should we say "because"? it was the terrible
year of Cholera, and a Viennese news-letter of that summer informs
us that its ravages were still more awful than on the occasion of
138 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
its first appearance, killing its victims in a few hours, with hardly
an exception rescued by the doctors. These horrors altered little
in the outward aspect of the city. " It is inconceivable," continues
that news-letter, " how flighty and heedless our populace can be
in the midst of so perilous a situation : here and there one hears
expression of anxiety ; but nobody alters one tittle in his mode of
life, and the places of public amusement are packed to overflow-
ing." The Zampa mania is also referred to : " This opera has
almost the same success with us as the Stumme von Portia ; every
performance is given to crowded houses, and the box-office is
mobbed."
In quite another region our young German musician met some-
thing more to his liking, namely the waltzes of Strauss the older
and Raymund's fairy-dramas. Thirty-one years later he refers to
at least one of these features though the Strauss he then alludes
to would probably be the younger Johann : * " What Vienna of
itself can do, with an imaginative, gay and genial public, is proved
by two of the most original and delightful products in all the
realm of public art, the Magic-dramas of Raymund and the
Waltzes of Strauss. If you don't wish for higher things, then be
content with this : indeed its intrinsic value is nothing to make
light of, for in respect of grace, refinement and genuine musical
substance, one single Straussian waltz as much outtops the most
of our imported foreign factory-wares as the Stephen's-tower those
hollow pillars which line the Paris boulevards " (P. W. III., 386).
Taking all in all, his stay at Prague on his journey home was
more resultful to him than the few days he passed in gay Vienna.
Among the most fruitful acquaintances he made here, was that of
the estimable director of the Prague Conservatorium, Dionys
Weber. The young musician's earnest zeal went straight to the
heart of this strict and highly conservative master, and won him
the welcome encouragement of hearing several of his own composi-
tions, including the Symphony, played by the orchestra of the
conservatoire pupils. Contemporary accounts inform us that,
although their solos made it manifest that one was dealing with
talents in course of formation, these young people's rendering of
ensemble-pieces, overtures and symphonies, offered a pleasure
scarcely to be rivalled by an assemblage of the greatest virtuosi.
* On the other hand the Strauss mentioned in the Parisian Fatalities (1841),
as one of the pleasures missed in Paris, is of course the father. W. A. E.
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 139
Apropos of a visit he once paid to the establishment, Spontini is
said to have remarked : " Over fifty young folk at the happy age
when one devotes oneself to art with that fresh enthusiasm whose
bloom is partly rubbed away by advancing years, partly by other
interests in life with their teachers at the first desk of every instru-
ment, are led by the expert staff of Director Dionys Weber, who
knows so well to check the fire of youth when threatening to out-
leap due bounds, and thus attains an ensemble that kindles laity
alike and connoisseurs to the highest delight." So our young
friend, to whom it was of the utmost importance that his works
should materialise from ink and paper into living sound, might
well be pleased with the good fortune that had placed such means
in his way. Perhaps the shortening of his symphony's Finale
by forty bars, noticed by Tappert when going through the old
orchestral parts, may be traced to this Prague rehearsal ; even if
the cut was not effected till a later date, there can be no doubt of
its origin in the impressions made by this first hearing of the work
on its composer, who at no time was careful for an idle show of
cleverness, but always for firm and clear expression of his dominant
idea.*
What he further learnt from the older musician was in part
instructive, in part distressing to the ardent student of Beethoven ;
though the opinions of the Prague director were capped by those
only too current in the easy-going musical world of Leipzig. As
late as 1869, in his essay on Conducting, Wagner refers to Dionys
Weber's having spoken of the Eroica as " an utter abortion," and
hastens to add : " True enough : he knew no other than the
Mozartian allegro, which I have characterised before ; he let his.
pupils play the Allegro of the Eroica in the strict time of that ;
and whoever witnessed such a performance, must surely have
agreed with Dionys. But no one played it otherwise" (P. W. IV.,
325). The young man was already beginning to form his own
standard of criticism, though it would naturally remain for the
present undivulged. On the other hand, it was of superlative
value to receive from his Bohemian mentor the true traditions of
* According to Tappert's reckoning, the final movement originally embraced
492 bars, which were reduced by the cut aforesaid to 452, and eventually
by another (made when?) to 397. "To judge by this outward sign," says
Eichberg, "the Finale would appear to have been the movement that pleased
its author least, at any rate that struck him as containing superfluities."
I4O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
tempo and rendering in the case of Mozart's works. Friedrich
Dionys Weber belonged to those exclusive Mozartians, by no
means rare among the older musicians of that day, with whom it
was difficult to agree upon Beethoven because their own develop-
ment had not kept step with his giant strides ; all the richer was
he in information about Mozart, a considerable number of whose
works he had heard conducted in person. As eye and ear witness
of the rehearsals and first performance of Figaro, he informed his
eager young listener " how the master could never get the overture
played fast enough to please him ; and how, to maintain its
unflagging swing, he constantly urged on the pace wherever
consistent with the nature of the theme " (P. W. VIII., 208) so
that "when he had forced his bandsmen at last to a pitch of
angry desperation which enabled them to take \\isftresto, to their
own surprise, he encouraged them with the cry, ' Now that was
splendid ! This evening, though, a trifle faster ! ' " (P. W. IV., 317).
Many another priceless hint and detail anent the rendering of
Mozart's works did Wagner glean from the ample harvest of
the old Prague Nestor's recollections, to be treasured up for
application to problems arising in the future.*
Another local celebrity whose acquaintance Richard made in
the Moldau city, was the composer Wenzel Tomaschek, a man
whose opinion upon every musical occurrence within the bounds
of his Bohemian fatherland was eagerly sought. " He had made
no art-tours, nor taken any other steps to circulate his composi-
tions," says Hanslick, " yet the older he grew, the firmer he sat
like a spider in its web the centre of an admiring little circle ;
and it was held sheer madness for a stranger artist to take his
leave of Prague without having introduced himself to Tomaschek."
Though this last necessity was by no means so vital to Wagner,
who was very far from angling for Prague successes, he did not
throw away the chance of visiting a man with so much influence,
and was again repaid by kind encouragement. To so devout a
* In the same letter to the Dresden Anzeiger of August 14, 1846, from
which is taken the first of the two passages just quoted, he writes: "Not
only my natural feeling, but also tradition derived from the source above-
mentioned, determine me to read the tempo of the so-called Letter-duet
between Susanna and the Countess as an actual allegretto, in accordance with
its title . . . whereas most of our German lady-singers have accustomed them-
selves to delivering it more in the fashion of a sentimental love-duet."
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 14!
disciple of Beethoven, Tomaschek had at least one interesting
side : in earlier years he once had seen the great master face to
face in his own lodgings, just about the time of the revival of
Fidelio after its initial failure ; and gladly would he dwell upon
that meeting. Just as the youth had sounded Dionys Weber on
the subject of Mozart, we perhaps may attribute certain lifelike
touches in Wagner's subsequent description of the Bonn master's
outward appearance (Pilgr. to .} to the faithful remembrances
of an eye-witness. Rash as it would be, to trace that clear-cut
cameo of Beethoven's personality to any one particular source, we
cannot help feeling that there is an inner relation between the
scenes in this tale and the impressions of the summer trip of
1832 ; nor would it be inconceivable that the first germ of the
story should already have taken shape in the mind of the lad of
nineteen years, to gather round it certain drastic details learnt by
word of mouth, and coloured with the memories of his recent
visit to Vienna.
Turning to the lighter aspect of his stay, he could not possibly
go short of company in a town where sister Rosalie had for some
years been a favourite actress in the enjoyment of every species
of artistic recognition and social regard. Earlier in the same
summer, after a longish interval, she had played a number of
guest-roles at the National theatre. The simultaneous presence
of tenor Wild from Vienna, who was earning Zampa triumphs
here as well, led to a performance of the Stumme in which Rosalie
took the title-role in her own impressive manner.* She had also
appeared before the public of Prague as Lucia in Konig Enzto,
as Mirandolina in Goldoni's Locandiera, and in many other
characters. How little she had lost her old power of attraction,
is proved by her farewell performance in Kdtchen von Heilbronn.
It fell upon the evening of the feast of Saint Margaret (July 13 :
" the first pear is plucked by Margaret "), a holiday kept by every
class of Prague society with the result that even the greatest stars
were greeted as a rule with a half-filled parterre : at this farewell
of Rosalie's the house was full.
* Besides that of the Neapolitan fishermaid, she played another dumb-show
part during this temporary engagement, namely in Th. Hell's then popular
melodrama Yelva (adapted from the French, with music by Reissiger) ; con-
temporary reports declaring that she made of " every limb a tongue," and that
almost each of her mute harangues raised a storm of applause (see news-letter
in the Abendzeitung, also the Prague Bohemia, 1832).
142 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Among those with whom our hero struck up friendship in
Prague was Johann Friedrich Kittl, at that time drafter of briefs
in the fiscal bureau of his native city, but also studying simple
and double counterpoint with Tomaschek, and fairly on his way
to abandoning law and civil practice for a musical career : only
his father's wish held him back for awhile. As composer and
conductor Kittl had decided talent ; for the rest, he was owner
of a goodly double-chin, notwithstanding his youth, and the
enfant gatk of the aristocracy, particularly its fairer portion. He
was passionately addicted to the chase, witness his imaginative
Hunting Symphony, which Mendelssohn considered good enough
in later years to conduct it at the Gewandhaus, also to accept its
dedication and it was probably in Kittl's company and the
summer forests of Bohemia that young Wagner allowed himself
to be drawn into the only hunting expedition of all his life, the
-echoes from which we may hear in Die Feen, ay, in Parsifal
itself. Wolzogen tells us in his Richard Wagner und die
Thierwelt: "Ever full of life and energy, the lad had let his
boon companions bear him with them to the chase. A hare
was started : at random his unpractised hand fired off his fowling-
piece; he knew not whether he had hit or not; every thought
was drowned in the excitement of an unaccustomed 'sport.'
Later, when he and his noisy comrades were merrily lunching
in the open, a wounded leveret dragged itself their way : the
eloquence of its appealing eye told the young man's conscience
that this was the victim of his thoughtless pleasure. Never could
he forget that look of anguish in his fellow-creature, never again
take up a gun against an animal."
His friendship with Kittl outlasted this brief holiday in the
smiling valleys of the Moldau, but it was not until ten years
later that he saw " dear fat friend Hans " again, newly elected
Director of the Prague Conservatorium and successor to the
worthy old pedantic Dionys. They reminded each other of " the
happy days of never-failing fun and laughter when they both
were gay young sparks unknown to fame," and their excellent
relations were heartily renewed whenever Wagner came that
way.
But the stay in Prague had gained another meaning for the
lad. He had not been altogether idle, for it was here that he
sketched and versified an operatic text of tragic aim, Die Hochzeit.
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 143
Wherever he had lit upon its medieval subject, so sombre in
such blithesome times, he could not afterwards remember: a
frantic lover climbs to the window of the sleeping-chamber of
his friend's bride while she is waiting for the bridegroom; the
bride struggles with the madman and hurls him into the court-
yard below, where he gives up the ghost; at the funeral the
bride sinks lifeless on his corpse. This his earliest text is
remarkable for the names of its dramatis personae, partly old
German, partly old Norse or Ossianic : Morald (?), Hadmar,
Harald, Admund, Cadolt ; Arindal is already met here, and
among the women Ada and Cora (? Lora). All these names are
distinguished by the fulness of their vowel sounds and the pre-
ponderance of soft or liquid consonants (d, 1, m, n, r) ; the most
conspicuous in this respect are " Arindal " and " Ada," to be
encountered again in Die Feen. With this libretto Wagner left
the field of instrumental music for his own artistic sphere. What
has been preserved of rt, shews that same contempt for "well-
turned verse and charming rhymes" which continues to the
time of Rienzi; neither is the later enricher of the German
language to be detected here, as indeed the stuff presented no
necessity for daring innovations. However, in the loose-built
opening verses we find an involuntary union of end-rhyme and
alliteration :
Vereint ertonet jetzt aus unsrem Munde
des Friedens freundlich froher Gesang !
Denn Hadmar und Morald, nach langem Kampf,
nach blut'gem Streit,
sind ausgesohnt, vereint zu dieser Stunde,
da wir, ein frohes Fest zu begeh'n,
die Hande freudig uns reichen &c.
Inwardly advanced in many things, he returned home toward
the end of November, and at once proceeded to the musical
setting of his book. "Leipzig, the 5th of December 1832," is
the date at the foot of the sketch for the first scene, closely
written on eight folio pages, with many a correction. This scene
consists of an introduction, followed by a chorus and septet. The
Maestoso introduction is most energetic in its rhythm, according
to W. Tappert (Musikalisches Wodienblatt 1887, No. 27), but very
un-Wagnerian here and there in its melody, as proved by the
subjoined example :
144
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
The male chorus, following directly on the Introduction,
celebrates with vigour and swing the peace concluded between
two ancient enemies, the houses of Hadmar and Morald :
mm
immajj
Ver - eint,
s
ver - eint er-tO-net jetzt aus un-srem Munde des
> . N > N I : . J.
A three-part female chorus takes up the strain :
Willkommen ihr, von Morald's fernem Lande,
auf Hadmar's froher Burg !
At the first pause in the general jubilation there ensues a
duologue between Cadolt (bass), the son of Morald, and Admund
(tenor) of the house of Hadmar. In the gloomy Cadolt we
recognise that " frantic lover," without being able to say for certain
if his passion has already seized him, or merely thrown its first
shadow across his path. The orchestra would appear to have
taken an active part in the expression of this section, the second
and fifth bars of which are characteristic of the Rienzi and
Tannliauser Wagner :
Admund
Cadolt
i
5-V-V g jTE:-f-^-^^=S:
Weich' mir nicht ans! Vertrau' mir, was dich qualt.
Ich
\. jt-i-r^^HN=^
i^s IK r^^
^
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY.
145
/xs.~ T* 8 " i i
S HMrv-r H
weiss es nicht, mein Freund,
.
etc.
/I P *i m *1 f*
-r - \
^^B
r-r
-
feu fn~f 1 H
j j r
-i
^^ j
K^Ui ^(^
The recitative leads on to an Allegro maestoso. With trumpets
and drums the orchestra announces a chorus of Welcome, written
mainly in four parts, but extended to six when the men and maids
address the " happy pair " in three-part alternation :
Seht, o seht, dort nahet schon,
in Jugendfulle und hehrer Pracht,
neuvermahlt das junge Paar,
in Lieb' und ewiger Treu' vereint I
Men.
Preis Dir, der Schonsten aller Schonen 1
Women.
Preis Dir, dem Edelsten der Edlen ! etc.
But, immediately before the entry of the bright C major Allegro
of the chorus, that threatening bass-figure attached to Cadolt's
rejoinder to his friend is heard once more :
Moreover it suddenly cuts short the pompous tag of the full
orchestra, foretelling that grief shall follow joy, and we may
accordingly claim it as an earliest " Leitmotiv."
Andante
It now conducts to a recitative, "Sie sind vermahlt." From
the castle chapel comes the bridal couple, Arindal and Ada, with
K
146 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
a numerous retinue ; Cadolt's lurid gaze is magnetically attracted
to the bride of his former enemy, and so compels her own that
she shudders at sight of this stranger :
Ada (catching sight of Cadolt).
Mein Gatte, sprich ! wer ist der fremde Mann ?
Arindal.
Cadolt ist's, Morald's Sohn, vor Kurzem noch
mein Feind, doch jetzt fur immerdar mein Freund !
The lines of the future plot are thus concisely mapped, whilst
the sentiments animating the various personages combine at
the end of the scene to form a well-conceived Septet (Ada,
Lora, Arindal, Harald, Admund, Cadolt, Hadmar), which much
delighted Weinlig. Rosalie was by no means so pleased with
the book) when her brother shewed it to her. Reason enough
for him to destroy the whole of his poem, and break off his
composition. The musical sketch and completed score of its
first scene, however, remained for a while in his hands.
Through that inexplicable fate which has befallen so many of
Wagner's manuscripts, this sketch, together with a number of
other papers from Wagner's first period (mostly drafts of letters
and essays down to 1842 and beyond), was offered for public
auction a few years after the master's death. By the nature of
the thing, they cannot but have issued from the personal effects
his first wife left behind her, and one would have thought it the
first duty of her executors to hand them over to their author, or
at least to the survivors of his family. But even in his lifetime
the master had a strange experience of the legal status of intel-
lectual property, in connection with this selfsame fragment of
Die Hochzeit. As he was no longer in possession either of the
sketch or the scene's completed score, after wellnigh half a century
(1879) he was interested to hear of the latter's existence in good
preservation, as a manuscript of 36 folio pages announced for
public sale without notice or exhibition to himself. Wishing to
renew acquaintance with the long-forgotten relic, also to ensure
its restoration to his family, he declared his readiness to buy
his own handiwork, and inquired its price. The man in posses-
sion, a Wiirzburg music-dealer, asked him the sum of five-thousand
marks (^250) ! Little inclined either to make himself a victim
of shameless extortion or to compete with hardened autograph-
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 147
collectors in the pursuit of their expensive hobby, yet averse to
abandoning his wish without an effort, after protracted negotia-
tions he commenced a lawsuit against this grasping Fafner. The
latter, according to existing laws, could not possibly raise any
claim to the contents of the manuscript, which would have involved
the right of publication ; for the mere paper and ink the price
demanded was too preposterous, and had a suspicious air of
blackmailing.* But German Justice in two earthly courts decided
otherwise. The result of the action was a dismissal of his claim,
with costs amounting to 600 marks to be paid by the plaintiff,
a pretty penalty for his brazen attempt to renew relations with a
juvenile work !
It was upon his return from Prague that Wagner made his first
acquaintance with Heinrich Laube, who was six years older and
basking in the sunshine of a newly-gotten fame. Born at Schrottau
in Silesia, even at the gymnasium he had " shaken the security "
of the weekly papers of that province with his poems. During
his two years of student-life at Halle he had belonged with dis-
tinction to the interdicted Burschenschaft,f and thereafter entered
at Breslau into literary relations which brought the youthful
"theologian" into contact with the theatre. The vortex of the
July Revolution had drawn him into politics, and just as Wagner
became " a revolutionary at one blow," had Laube become with
all his heart a " red-hot partisan of liberalism " which seemed to
him " applied Theology and the modern Sermon on the Mount."
At the beginning of 1832, while Wagner was composing overtures
and enthusing for the Poles, Laube had published his novel Das
neue Jahrhundert (" The new Century "). His heaven-storming
thoughts of freedom, expressed with all a student's pertness and
hurling the approved catch-phrases at ancient use and custom,
* On this side Wagner had already had an experience in 1871, at Strassburg,
which he had no desire to repeat. A local dealer offered him a packet of his
own letters for 100 thalers (1$)', the contents .were not disclosed, merely:
so many letters, including one from Frau Richard Wagner. Supposing that
they might treat of private affairs, and anxious to prevent impertinent gossip,
not to say publication, he consented to pay the purchase price, and found in
the mysterious bundle a few unimportant business notes, whose recovery would
not be of the smallest moment to him. But the transaction had been com-
pleted, and he could not go back on it.
t See Richard Wagner's Prose Works, Vol. IV., p. 47. W. A. E.
148 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
above all at our "effete" marriage, found ready ear among the
younger generation. The money reaped by his work's success
he intended to spend on a trip to Paris, to study Saint-Simonism ;
but he got no farther than its first stage, Leipzig. While writing
in a dismal garret of the Nikolaigasse those letters which the
Hippolytes and Constantines of his "Young Europe" send to
one another, he received from bookseller Leopold Voss, pro-
prietor of the Zeitung fur die elegante Welt, the offer of the
editorship of that widely-circulated journal, to commence with
the new year.
At a ball in the Hotel de Pologne, soon after his arrival at
Leipzig, he asked his sprightly partner whether she shared his
view that our present marriage-laws must be altered. " Luckily,"
he adds, " my audacious question had been put to an awakened
damsel. She replied : ' At once, do you think ? ' and laughed.
It was the sister of Richard Wagner." Presumably Ottilie is
meant, for Laube already knew and admired Rosalie as a poetic
artist at the theatre. Before long he met Richard too : "I
became a visitor at the house of his family," he continues, " and
the anxious mother would always ask me, ' Do you really think
anything will come of Richard ? ' She was an intelligent little
woman, not without humorous turns in conversation. In her
second marriage, with a painter, she had imbibed some knowledge
of artistic matters, and two of her daughters were actresses. For
that very reason she had great fears of a purely musical career for
Richard : he himself was so flighty, she said, and when it came
to the question of making money by his music, so fantastical ; he
had had the advantage of a thorough musical education, as was
to be expected at Leipzig since the time of Bach, and was burst-
ing with self-confidence." Subject to a few inessential curtail-
ments, such is Laube's story; in the main it appears correct,
though we cannot endorse its sequel, namely that Wagner had
asked him for an operatic text. In fact we read the very opposite
in the Communication to my Friends, to wit that Wagner had
declined a proffered opera-text on the subject of " Kosziusko "
(P. W. L, 292).
Now, there is a delicate way of rejecting an offer, that may be
interpreted, if one pleases, as half an acceptance ; but it is harder,
without embroidery, to convert it into a request. Even at the
beginning of his artistic life, Wagner had a rooted dislike of
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 149
setting texts he had not himself created word by word and scene
by scene ; and he would have credited his new-found friend with
anything in the world sooner than a knowledge of what was only
gradually dawning on his own mind, namely the proper choice
and treatment of an operatic subject. In any case the would-be
librettist soon learnt what the time of day was, and cut his labours
short : " I began my ' Kosziusko,' " says Laube, " but got stuck in
the first act, at the Diet of Cracow ; and Richard himself seemed
to take no special interest in it," an indifference which appears
to have caused no breach, at present, in their mutual good re-
lations. But the fact of Laube's choosing a Kosziusko subject,
and hoping that it would impress his friend, was surely no accident :
enthusiasm for the Poles plays an important role not only in
Wagner's student-days, but also with the heroes of Das junge
Europa. These two young men, indeed, had many points in
common : both were of hot young blood, both full of energy and
enterprise ; both born improvers of the world, shrinking from no
consequences ; to both the world, alike political and aesthetic was
a yet untrodden field, and Wagner's leaning toward the company
of " political writers" found in this new acquaintanceship a welcome
encouragement and satisfaction.
The head-quarters of " elegant " and " modern " letters in the
Leipzig of those days, particularly at fair-time, was Kintschy's
restaurant. Here flocked the cultured and polemical "Young
European " world, to sip its coffee, grog or chocolate, to taste its
ice or pastry, and, between one mouthful and the next, devour
the papers. Hither, besides Laube, came the unfortunate author
of the " Polish Lays," Ernst Ortlepp, who had recently arrived
at Leipzig to pursue his literary studies ; * Gustav Schlesier,
Wagner's comrade from the Dresden Kreuzschule, who had passed
with him into the Nikolai, and whom we have already met as his
coadjutor in the discussion of "Schelling's transcendental idealism" ;
with many another. It was probably of these Leipzig reunions
in his unclouded youth that Wagner was thinking, amid the chill
* Ortlepp makes a merely episodic appearance in Wagner's life, but
possessed at least one great attraction for him his boundless reverence of
Beethoven, as proved by his panegyric, Beethoven, eine phantastische Charak-
teristik (Leipzig, Hartknoch). Born 1800 at a hamlet near Naumburg, he
removed to Leipzig about the time of Laube's first sojourn there, but was
compelled to leave the place soon after Laube's banishment, on account of his
political poems. With G. Schlesier he went to Stuttgart, where Lewald,
I5O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
of Parisian hardships, when he wrote : " To be a German at home
is splendid, where one has soul, Jean Paul, and Bavarian beer ;
where one can quarrel over the philosophy of Hegel, or the waltzes
of Strauss " etc. (P. W. VIIL, 87). Indeed it was a time of in-
souciance never to return, when the young man felt himself helped
forward by his entourage, and his own artistic individuality had
not yet roused the opposition of that entourage both near and
far.
Soon after his return to Leipzig he had handed in the score
of his Symphony to the directorate of the Gewandhaus concerts,
with a view to its speedy performance. The result we cannot
do better than relate in his own words, from that account
(Bericht iiber die Wiederauffiihrung eines Jugendiverkes) already
cited :
" In Leipzig's pre-Judaic age, beyond the memory of more
than a handful of my fellow-townsmen, the so-called Gewandhaus
Concerts were accessible even to beginners of my ' line.' The
ultimate decision as to the admittance of new compositions lay
in the hands of the Principal, a worthy old gentleman, Hofrath
Rochlitz by name, who took things seriously and with a method.
My Symphony had been laid before him, and I had to follow it
up by a visit. When I introduced myself in person, the stately
gentleman thrust up his spectacles and cried : ' What's this ?
You are a very young man : I had expected someone much
older, a more experienced composer.' That promised well : the
Symphony was accepted ; though with the request that it first
be played by the ' Euterpe,' if possible, as a sort of trial-trip.
Nothing easier to accomplish : I was in the good books of this
minor orchestral union, which had already performed a fairly
fugal Concert-overture of mine in the Altes Schiitzenhaus outside
the Peter's-gate. At this time, about Christmas 1832, we had
moved to the Schneiderherberge ("Tailors' house of call") by
the Thomas-gate a detail which I make a present to our
publisher of the Europa, formed the centre of a brilliant literary circle ; but
he tumbled ere long into such a state of penury, that he was obliged to return to
his home. A combination of bodily and mental suffering at last undermined
his moral fibre ; he took to drink, and fell into deeper and deeper misery.
On the 1 4th of June, 1864, he was found dead in a mill-race on the lesser
Saale, near the village of Almrich. His numerous literary works, chiefly from
the years 1828 to 1856 (with a Collected Edition in 3 vols., 1845) are pretty
fully catalogued in Brummer's Deutsckes Dichterlexikon.
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY.
witlings, for improvement. I remember that we were very much
incommoded by the bad lighting there ; after a rehearsal in which
a whole concert-programme was attacked, however, we saw quite
well enough to struggle through my Symphony : * not that it gave
myself much pleasure, for to me it seemed to scout all thought
of sounding well. But what is faith for ? Heinrich Laube, who
at that time was making a name by his writings at Leipzig, not
troubling his head how things sounded, had taken me under his
wing ; he praised my Symphony in the Zeitung fur die elegante
Welt with great warmth, and eight days afterwards my good
mother saw my work transplanted from the Tailors' Inn to the
Drapers' Hall, where it suffered its performance under conditions
somewhat similar to the first. People were good to me in Leipzig
then : a little admiration, and good-will enough, reconciled me
to the future " (P. W. VI., 316-17).
To this vivid scrap of autobiography we may add a few
external details.
The Gewandhaus concert, which Richard's symphony opened,
formed one of the regular subscription-series under August
Pohlenz, and took place on January the loth, 1833. We append
the programme, on which figure two very young artists, the one
a debutante aged fifteen years, Li via Gerhard, t the other still
* A Leipzig correspondent writes to the Allg. Mus. Ztg. of Feb. 13,
1833 exactly half a century before the master's death " Our Euterpe, an
orchestral society consisting of amateurs and junior members of the standing
orchestra, has been extraordinarily active this year, giving us many com-
positions old and new, for the most part executed very well. Besides several
symphonies by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, we have heard a new and
well-constructed symphony by a member of the society already known to the
public, Herr F. L. Schubert, also one by Richard Wagner," and so on. (This
Schubert must not be confounded with the great Franz Peter Schubert,
deceased in 1828.)
t Dr E. Kneschke in his History of the Gewandhaus Concerts (p. 58)
speaks of her as " that talented and charming singer Livia Gerhard. Born
1818 at Gera, she received her vocal instruction from Pohlenz, and set foot
on the Leipzig stage at the early age of fifteen with brilliant success. What
Rosalie Wagner, sister of Richard Wagner, was to the Leipzig theatre as
actress, namely a truly poetic and soulful artist, Frl. Gerhard was as singer,
her by-play uniting with the bell-like timbre of her soprano voice to produce
the profoundest and most agreeable effect. In 1835 she went to the Konig-
stadter theatre in Berlin, but took leave of the stage the year following"
(contemporaneously with Rosalie), "to give her hand to Dr. jur. Woldemar
Frege of Leipzig."
152 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
younger, Clara Wieck aged thirteen, subsequently wife of Robert
Schumann :
(1) Symphony by Richard Wagner (new).
(2) Scene and Aria from Sargino by Paer, sung by Dem. Gerhard.
(3) Pianoforte Concerto by Pixis, played by Dem. Klara Wieck.
(4) Overture to Kiinig Stephan by Beethoven.
(5) Trio from La Vilanella rapita by Mozart, sung by Dem. Grabau r
Herr Otto and Herr Bode.
(6) Finale from I Capuleti e Montechi by Bellini.
Again, though Wagner's reference would seem to assign to
Laube's public praise of the work a hand in its acceptance by
the directorate, we are obliged to rob H. Laube of that honour,
as his eulogy did not in fact appear till fully three months after.
It is to be found in a review of the subscription-concerts in No.
82 of the Ztg. f. d. eleg. Welt, April 27, 1833, and reads as
follows : " In course of the winter I heard at these concerts a
Symphony in the style of Beethoven by a young composer,
Richard Wagner, which much prepossessed me in favour of this
new musician. There is a brisk and buoyant energy in the ideas
that join hands in this symphony, a bold impetuous stride from
one end to the other, and yet such a virginal naivety in the
conception of the fundamental motives, that I build great hopes
on the musical talents of its author."
There are at least two public criticisms that claim priority in
point of time : the one by Ernst Ortlepp in Herlossohn's Komet,
the other in the Allg. Mus. Ztg., presumably by its editor G. W.
Fink. As the earliest substantial reviews of any composition by
Wagner, they both distinctly have historic interest, and we there-
fore give them at length, taking the later-published first on account
of its closing sentence.
Ortlepp's critique, in the Komet of March i, 1833, runs thus :
"The concert began with a new Symphony by a very young
gentleman, Richard Wagner. A first attempt can scarcely ever
be a masterpiece, especially when almost purely imitative ; never-
theless it may reveal a very significant talent. This is the case
with Wagner's Symphony. He has taken Beethoven, in fact one
particular symphony of Beethoven's, the A major, as his pattern,
and planned the architecture of his work thereby. Far from
blaming the beginner, we congratulate him on having chosen so
high a model ; and that the more, the happier has he been in
THE C MAJOR SYMPHONY. 153
approaching it in many respects. . . . What to us appeared
peculiarly successful, was the Andante, though it follows almost
the exact lines of the A major; but we cannot approve of the
trumpet-fugue in the last movement. When Wagner shall have
planted himself on his own feet, and his heart instead of his
brain has command of the mechanism of tone, we are convinced
he will do great things. His Symphony was loudly applauded.
As we hear, he will soon come out with an opera." This "opera"
was plainly Laube's Kosziusko, the fate of which was not yet
settled in the eyes of Ortlepp, who of course had heard of it from
Laube. And we may take it as tolerably certain that, if Wagner
at any time had allowed himself to be guided solely by considera-
tions of outward advantage, he would not have declined co-opera-
tion with a friend whose literary and journalistic connections were
bound to ensure a conspicuous success. But he had other aims
with fatal consequences ; for the work that he was brooding in
his heart, and presently created, never attained to performance in
his lifetime. Easy as it had been for him to win the favour of
the public in the concert-room, despite his links with the theatre
it remained impossible for many a year to get any of his dramatic
works represented in Leipzig; a matter offering no insuperable
difficulties to countless products of contemporary authors. How
different might his lot have been, had he been enabled to pursue
his evolution step by step before the eyes and ears of his native
city ! Yet, perhaps it was better so.
The other report, that \n\\heAllgemeineMusikaltscheZeitung,
appeared on February 13, 1833, and runs as follows: "The new
Symphony of our still youthful Richard Wagner (he scarcely
numbers 20 years) was received, with the exception of its second
movement [!], with loud applause, as indeed it merited. We
hardly know what more could be demanded of a first attempt
in a class of tone-poetry that already has mounted so high, unless
we wished to set all reasonableness aside. The work deserves
the credit of great diligence, and its inventive contents are
nothing less than insignificant; the combinations bear witness
to originality of conception, and the whole intention shews so
right an endeavour, that we look with joyful hope to this young
man. Even though the effort to remain true to himself is as
visible as his use of orchestral effects is inexperienced ; even
though the working-out of one and the other idea is still too
154 LIFE O p RICHARD WAGNER.
long and laboured : yet these are points that come right of
themselves with continued application. What Herr Wagner has,
can come to no one who has it not within his breast already.
The young artist left a few weeks since for Wurzburg, where his
brother is employed as a teacher of singing."
The journey to Wurzburg, referred to in the last sentence,
originally had no other object than not to let the grass grow
under his feet. Its first motive was a visit to brother Albert,
whom he had not seen for several years; its second an invita-
tion, probably suggested by Albert, to conduct one of his over-
tures at a performance of the local Music-union. Wagner accepts
it in a letter of January 12, 1833, written two days after the
public production of his Symphony. A few days later he is on
his road to Wurzburg, with no definite idea as to how long he
shall stay there.
SECOND BOOK.
STRAYINGS AND WANDERINGS.
(1833-1843.)
Durch Sturm und bosen Wind verschlagen,
irr* auf den Wassern ich umher,
wie lange ? weiss ich kaum zu sagen :
schon zahF ich nicht die Jahre mehr.
Unmoglich diinkt mich's, dass ich nenne
die Lander alle, die ich f and:
das einz'ge nur, nach dem ich brenne,
ich find? es nicht, mein Heimathland I
(DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER, act i. sc. 3.)
*5S
I.
WURZBURG: "DIE FEEN."
Albert Wagner. Richard as Chorus-master. Birth of "Die
Feen" ; text and music. " You have only to dare!" The" Vampyr"
aria. Performances at the Wurzburg Musical Union. Completion
of " Die feen." Return to Leipzig.
What took my fancy in Gozzfs jairy-tale, was not
merely its adaptability for an operatic text t but the charm
of the subject itself.
RICHARD WAGNER.
WAGNER reached Wurzburg in the second half of January 1833,
after a journey through the winter snow. Here brother Albert
had been occupied for some years as singer, actor and stage-
manager. During his previous engagement (Augsburg 1827-29)
he had married an actress Elise Gollmann of Mannheim,* younger
sister of the not un-noted Julie Gley ; the elder of his two little
daughters, Johanna and Francisca, was already rehearsing in the
nursery the preliminaries of her future famed career.
Albert's experience as singer was of the utmost moment to his
younger brother. He possessed a very high and brilliant tenor
voice, and his delivery was full of fire and feeling. A trouble of
the throat, rendering him suddenly hoarse at times, caused him
to devote more than ordinary attention to his acting, and his
varied accomplishments made him a great favourite with the
Wurzburg public. In parts such as Jean de Paris, George Brown,
Count Armand in the Water-carrier, and the like, he earned
ample recognition, and the strength and passion with which he
imbued even Rossini's Othello always roused the audience to the
highest pitch. As Roger in Auber's Mafon under its German
title of Maurer und Schlosser he put such refinement into his
* August 12, 1828, at the Augsburg parish-church "of the Barefoot
Friars."
S7
158 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
rendering of the B flat aria in the third act, without interpolation
of the hackneyed "fermata" effect, that it probably was his
delivery of this " almost entrancingly spirited aria " of which the
master was thinking when he deplored the impossibility of getting
anything remotely like it from the tenors of our day (P. W. V.,
271). His Florestan, also, made such a lasting impression on
his younger brother, that in after years the master declared he
" had never heard so good a Florestan."
With his longing to put his musical abilities to some practical
test, it was not difficult to persuade Richard to fill the vacant
post of chorus-conductor at the Opera. A year later he writes of
this engagement, "To oblige the management I undertook to
rehearse the choruses at the Wurzburg theatre, and thereby often
gained an influence over the general get-up of an opera." His
first theatrical appointment brought him in the princely " honor-
arium " of ten guldens a month (about ;i), which pocket-money,
paid him only for the actual duration of the season (three months),
barely covered the rent of his modest apartment. He had taken
lodgings in a little two-storeyed house (still standing) at the corner
of the Kapuzinergasse, opposite the Hofgarten ; his windows did
not look over that pleasaunce, however, but across a court into a
narrow alley leading in the direction of the Kleine Kapuzinergasse,
where dwelt his brother. His landlady, a spinster on the sunny
side of forty, in 1878 repaid his indifference to her charms by
writing reminiscences (at the age of eighty) brimful of admiration
for Albert's Masaniello, but very vague about her sometime lodger.
If only the chorus-master had appeared in person on the stage !
Our young musician found his new command no sinecure.
Zampa, Paer's Camilla, the Water-carrier, Freischiitz and Fidelia,
followed each other in swift succession during the month of
February; March brought the Stumme von Portia, Rossini's
Tancred, Fra Diavolo and Oberon ; after Easter the Wurzburgers
were offered the sensation of a first performance of Meyerbeer's
Robert the devil, with Albert in the title-role (April 21, 25 and
30).* Richard's earliest active taste of life behind the scenes
was not without its fascination ; he was delighted with its merry
* Production of Robert in Paris Nov. 22, 1831 ; first performance in
Germany, conducted by the composer himself at the Berlin Opera-house,
June 30, 1832 (from 6 to 11.15 P.M.) ; between the two came London alone,
but imperfectly, Feb. 1832.
WURZBURG: "DIE FEEN. 159
tone, and the chorus soon became devoted to him. And then
the local Music-union, with its regular choral and orchestral
performances, would offer many an opening for his co-operation.
It will be remembered that this society's invitation to conduct
one of his overtures had been a determinant cause of his trip to
Wurzburg ; on which, or how many, of his instrumental works
the choice now fell, we cannot ascertain. In his Paris article on
German Music (1840) he refers to the surprising wealth of musical
resources possessed by middling German cities in those days:
instead of one well -organised band, you had two or three ; and a
footnote, added in 1871, says that in Wurzburg, "besides a full
orchestra at the theatre, the bands of a musical society and a
seminary gave alternate performances." One souvenir of his
friendly relations with this Union has been preserved : it is that
selfsame manuscript whose attempted recovery cost its author so
dear in after years (see p. 147) ; a neat copy in Wagner's hand of
the completed first number of his Hochzeit, dated March i, 1833,
with the dedication on its title-page " Dem Wiirzburger Musik-
verein zum Andenken verehrt." The precise reason for its dedica-
tion to the Wurzburg Music-union is not apparent : Tappert opines
that the composer may once have got its chorus sung there;
only, it would be strange that Wagner should nowhere have
breathed a word of what would thus have been the solitary
performance of his earliest dramatic work.
The first quarter of a year at Wurzburg slipped swiftly by in the
numerous distractions Of a new career. The last performance of
Robert, April 3oth, was also the close of the theatrical season ;
from the beginning of May the vacation lasted until towards the
end of September. The company dispersed in every direction ;
even brother Albert left town with his wife, for a two-months
star-engagement at Strassburg, where he played eighteen times with
uniform success from the 7th of May to the 3oth of June,
exclusively in operas by Auber and Rossini save for winding up
with Robert.
Thus Richard was left to his own devices in the ancient city, so
picturesque with its Episcopal palace, Cathedral and University
on the one side of the Main, linked by a statue-guarded bridge to
an imposing fortress on the other ; the whole enclosed by vine-
clad hills, the birthplace of its famous potent Leistenwein and
Steinwein. Nearly forty years afterwards he revisited the town
I6O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
{1871), and so deep had been the impression made on him in
youth, that he recognised each square and street at once, crying
" That's the Pfaffengass', and that the Eichhorngass'," and so on.
In reply to his companions' astonishment that he should have
retained such details in his mind, he laughed and said, " I've not
retained at all ; but it's all coming back to me." True, he has
made a little slip in Religion and Art, where he speaks of the
stone relief over the northern porch of the Marienkapelle as
belonging to a "church of St Kilian" (P. W. VI., 219); but
that was written nearly another decad later, when the memory of
the second visit would have somewhat blurred the sharpness of
the first. As a matter of fact, there is no church of St Kilian,
though tradition has it that this patron saint of vine-dressers
suffered martyrdom on the spot where stands the twelfth-
century Neumiinster church with its tomb of Walther von der
Vogelweide.
If solitary, Richard was by no means idle in this summer of
1833. With that fair copy of the fragment of Die Hochzeit he had
bidden farewell to his abortive work; but a greater had been
maturing in his bosom, and the spell of quietude and sunny days
was seized to give it birth. The first conception of Die Feen
appears to date from the end of his last residence in Leipzig, and
it would seem that he had brought at least the complete scenario of
his new work with him, if not the commencement of its poem. We
now can understand why Laube's Kosziusko project had had so
little charm for him.
Whoever remembers E. T. A. Hoffmann's repeated recommenda-
tion of Gozzi as a perfect mine for librettists, will not be surprised
that Hoffmann's fervent devotee should have struck this very course.
In the works of the imaginative Italian he found the dramatic
fairy-tale La Donna Serpente, and turned it into an operatic poem
such as he required.* The same subject had already been
exploited in 1806 by a Berlin Kapellmeister Himmel for his
opera, Die Sylphen ; but Wagner certainly knew nothing of this
long-expired predecessor, and his choice was determined solely
* The German student will find a comparison of Wagner's poem with the
Gozzian original much facilitated by Herr Volkmar Miiller's excellent transla-
tion of some of Gozzi's Fiabe teatrali, under the titles of Das grune Vbgelchen %
Die Frau ah Schlange, Der Konig der Geister and Das blaue Un%eheuer,
Dresden 1887-89.
WURZBURG : "DIE FEEN." 161
by the opportunity he saw in Gozzi's tale for a " romantic " opera
in the then-prevailing style of Weber and Marschner. Very
characteristic of his profoundly artistic instinct, even in these early
days, are his deviations from the original. The subject of Die Feen
is closely allied to those Undine and Melusina legends of the
Middle Ages, which also tell us of a mortal's love towards a
supernatural being ; the ethical lesson, that true love is based on
unconditional faith and unwavering confidence, we meet again in
Lohengrin : but the ancient myth at bottom had been distorted by
the bizarre fancy of the Italian people ere Gozzi laid his hand on
it. Unconsciously, and led by nothing but his own artistic need,
Wagner returned in his denouement to the prototype of all these
legends, the old Indian myth of the love of Puru-ravas for the
heavenly nymph Urvasi, whom he loses through breaking a pledge,
and regains through penances, yet so that not she becomes his
mortal wife, but he himself one of the divine Gandharvas* In
various other points, despite his medieval Northern scene of
action, indicated by the choice of proper names etc., we find our
dramatist unwittingly adopting features of the Indian myth ; but
his restoration of the lost beloved through the power of Song is
a return from fabular caprice to the eternal myth of Orpheus,
dictated by sound insight into the musical needs of his plot.
Wagner's story is as follows :
Arindal, son of the King of Tramond, chases a roe of wondrous
beauty. It disappears in a river, whence resounds a voice so
ravishing that he dives into the stream.! His faithful henchman
Gernot leaps after him, and finds his master in a glittering magic-
castle, at the feet of a fairy whose love he is wooing.
* The oldest form of the story may be found in Max Miiller's Oxford
Essays ; also in A. Kuhn's Dte Herabktmft des Fetters und des Gottertrankes,
1859, pp. 79-84, and in J. Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology.
t This transference to another world through a leap into a stream or lake is
of frequent occurrence in old Indian legends, e.g. in the Katha-sarit-sagara.
gridatta sees a damsel sinking in an eddy of the Ganges, and springs to her aid ;
scarcely has he dived under, than he finds himself in a magnificent temple of
iva ; in like manner, plunging into a lake, he regains the upper world. In
another tale gaktideva returns by a similar route to the long-lost "golden
city " of his home : a sumptuously-caparisoned horse excites his envy, he
pursues it, and it casts him into a lake ; in an instant he finds himself in
the garden of his father. Wagner's " fairies " exactly correspond with the
Gandharvas and Apsarases of Indian mythology.
L
1 62 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Bent down to him, she breathed these words : " I love thee, as myself thou
lovest ; yet ere I wholly am thine own, an ordeal must thou overcome. And
first, till eight long years have flown thou ne'er must ask me who I am."
Ada is a fairy's daughter by a mortal; to belong entirely to
Arindal, she would fain put off her immortality ; by edict of the
Fairy King, she may not do this till her lover has withstood all
proofs. Arindal is protected by Groma, a mighty magician, the
guardian genius of the house of Tramond ; whilst the fairies, on
the other side, put forth all their power to keep their princess in
their country. The hero, with his human aspirations, is thus
twixt two opposing hosts of superhuman might. Eight years
less two small days has he observed his vow, and enjoyed the
utmost happiness beside his fairy wife, who has presented him
with two sweet children. On the day before the last, he is
betrayed to the forbidden question; Ada and the fairy-garden
vanish, and he finds himself transported of a sudden to a desert
place. During the prince's absence a sad fate has befallen the
realm and house of the kings of Tramond : the aged King has
died of grief for his long-lost son ; the enemy has laid waste the
land, and demands Arindal's sister Lora in marriage.
At this point begins the action. Directed by Groma, the
noble Morald has set out with his companion Gunther to search
for Arindal and induce him to return to his duties. Their arts
of transformation, carried out under Groma's auspices when
Gunther appears to the hero in the guise of a sapient hermit,
and Morald in that of his dead father avail but little in the
precincts of the Fairy King ; nor has Gernot any greater success,
with his song about the " Witch Dilnovaz," in rousing Arindal's
mistrust against his wife ; but Ada herself appears to her sorrowing
husband, and sends him forth to his imperilled land, with the
promise that he there shall see her on the morrow. First, how-
ever, in the highly dramatic scene that ends this act he must
swear not to curse her, whatever evil may betide him. Arindal
swears ; his friends suspect some dreadful secret ; the fairies
triumph at the certainty that he must break his oath and wreck
his happiness for ever ; Ada is terrified at thought of the trials
to which she herself must submit him.
The second act takes place in the halls of the royal burg of
Tramond. Arindal's brave sister Lora, clad in armour, revives
the courage of her beaten soldiers. Arindal, returning bowed
WURZBURG : "DIE FEEN." 163
with sorrow by his severance from Ada, and filled with dire
forebodings, finds his kingdom in the last extremity. It is Ada
herself, who appears to be pushing the land's distress and his
to their utmost height ; before his eyes she throws his two children
into a gulf of fire ; she stands by the foe, routs the long-awaited
allies, and rains terrors upon the besieged. The seed of doubt
shoots up in Arindal ; he can curb himself no longer, and curses
the faithless wretch. All is explained at once ; Ada restores to
her husband their children, made immortal by the fire, and dis-
closes to him that the "trusty Harald," whose army she had
routed, was plotting treason and had fallen to the sword of
Morald, whom everyone had given up for slain. In despair,
Arindal recognises that this was the test appointed, a test he
had withstood so ill that Ada must be turned to stone for a
hundred years. Ada's lamentations, Arindal's frenzy of grief,
and the rejoicings of the soldiery returning triumphant under
Morald's lead, unite to form a majestic closing ensemble. If
the first act shews certain weaknesses in its poetic scheme, and
at the very places where the poet has followed his source too
implicitly, the second is all the more powerful in construction
and climax. As Dr H. Reimann has remarked in course of a
series of articles on this opera in the Allg. Musikzeitung (1888,
Nos. 31 to 37), "The mind that planned this second act was
predestined to the highest rank in musico-dramatic art. Shew
us in all contemporary operatic literature one single act con-
ceived with greater energy, or carried out with more poetic
tact ! It is a milestone in the evolutionary history of Wagnerian
art."
In the third act Wagner says goodbye to Gozzi who had
changed the fairy into a snake, and disenchanted her by a kiss,
to allow her as a mortal to follow the hero to his earthly kingdom.
The story shapes otherwise with Wagner. Arindal, having
delegated the regency to Morald and Lora, has fallen victim
to madness. A most touching and dramatic monologue presents
him to us in this state.* He imagines he is hunting that roe once
again :
* In the fourth act of Kalldasa's noted poem Urvasi (German by Dr K. G.
A. Hofer, Berlin 1837) there is a scene of striking similarity to this. King
Puru-ravas, wandering demented through the depths of the primeval forest in
search of his lost beloved, at last finds her transformed into a bush, and
164 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
see, the hind grows faint already !
1 wing the bolt ; lo ! how it flies !
Good aim, haha ! That pierced its heart.
But see, the hind can weep,
A tear-drop glistens in its eye !
What broken glance it turns on me !
How fair she is !
O horror ! Nay, no beast is this !
Lo there ! Lo there ! It is my wife !
(He is overcome.)
The painful vision is followed by a kindly one : he sees the
gates of heaven opening, and breathes the balmy air of gods.
Once more his frantic grief dispels the happy dream, but ends
in gentle melancholy. He falls asleep, and the voice of the
beloved pierces to him from the distance : " My husband Arindal,
what hast thou done to me ? Chill marble holds hot love within.
. . . Through all confines love thrusts toward thee; hear'st
thou its cry, so hither speed ! " The .voice of Ada is succeeded
by that of Groma, urging him to the rescue, and telling of three
gifts, a shield, a sword and lyre, which he awakes to find at his
feet. With feigned compassion the fairies Farzana and Zemina
conduct him on the way to Ada, the more surely to compass his
death ; Arindal rejoices at the prospect of shedding his blood in
fight for Ada's freedom. They pass through awesome chasms
filled with subterranean spirits ; to the alarm of his two fairy guides,
Arindal's magic weapons make him victor ; in a twilight grot he
at last beholds the stone of human stature into which his wife
has been transformed. At Groma's call he strikes his lyre ; his
passionate song dissolves the spell ; the stone takes on the shape
of Ada, who sinks enraptured in his arms. Moved by their love
and faith, the Fairy King confers immortal life on both ; Morald
and Lora, wed, retain the sovereignty of Arindal's terrestrial
kingdom ; he himself is led by Ada to the throne of Fairydom.
On August 6, 1833, the first act was finished as to its composi-
tion. The music displays those balanced forms which Mozart had
brought to the height of artistic perfection. But, as Reimann
says in the analysis above-mentioned, " In Die Feen Wagner goes
restores her to life by his embraces ; even the admonishing voice of an invisible
higher being, who bids him raise the jewel-of-reunion from the ground cf. the
magician Groma is not lacking. No scene corresponding to this occurs in
GooL
WURZBURG : "DIE FEEN." 165
beyond his models and masters in this respect, that he adds much
to the effect of his scenes by an extremely characteristic orchestral
ritornel. Every change of situation is matched exactly by these
ritornels ; the orchestra is already becoming an organ for expres-
sion of the unutterable-in-words. We may instance the postlude
of the B flat quartet ; Arindal's swooning and falling asleep ; the
apparition of Ada (with its transition to the "fairy" key of E
major) ; the ritornel of the A minor aria, and so forth. Above
all is this the case with Arindal's first appearance : in long-drawn
notes the clarinets and flutes, echoed by horns, anticipate Arindal's
plaintive cry of " Ada ! " whilst the restless figure of the violins,
in ascending sequence, depicts the anguish of his soul ; and later
at his words ' The desert echoes with her name ' we hear the
'Ada' cry repeated with ever greater piercingness, in rhythmic
diminution, till it reaches fff: there you have the work of a
master ! "
About this time Albert returned from his starring, and Wagner
was able to lay his work before him. "In my brother, whose
judgment as a practised singer was of weight to me," says Richard
in that often-quoted letter of 1834 to Hauser, " I had the severest,
I might almost say, the most ruthless critic. He was up in arms
at once about the inexecutability of some of the vocal part." So
the author made alterations and improvements, wherever it could be
done without despite to his intentions ; though it is questionable
how far Albert's objections were based on reality, or merely
prompted by experience of the ways of singers. By the latter
this cry of " inexecutable " or " unsingable " has since been raised
at each new work of the master's, after practice had silenced it
in the case of its immediate predecessor. But Richard might
console himself with the final verdict of his present judge, which
ran pretty much as follows : " The singers will dispute a lot about
your work, and, alter as much as you like, they'll always complain
of its difficulty ; but if one only goes to it with intelligence, he
may be sure of producing an effect."
It was Wagner's plan, to finish his opera in Wurzburg and
return to Leipzig before the end of the year, to get it brought
out as speedily as possible, counting much on Rosalie's influence
and tiis own previous successes with the public of his birthplace.
Therefore, as he had no wish to be hindered in his work's com-
pletion, the opportunity of taking another step toward independ-
1 66 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
ence, by accepting the post of conductor at the Zurich theatre,
had less attraction for him than it might have had a year before.
There were certainly a few difficulties in the way of a passport for
Switzerland, as he was just of age for military service; but his
family assured him that, in the opinion of competent persons, the
legal papers in his hands were a sufficient permit for him to
journey " into the world, or rather, to Zurich." The correspond-
ence on this subject dates from the month of September : the
present narrator (C. F. G.) has been accorded a glance into one
of these letters, now safely housed at Wahnfried ; a yellowed
sheet, its first half written by brother Julius and dealing with the
Leipzig Police-secretaries' views of the passport question, whilst
in the second Rosalie takes up the tale : " You have only to dare,
dear brother," she writes, "a thousand wishes from ourselves
accompany you." There is something pathetic in finding this
motto of his whole career, this meaning of his surname, first
urged upon him by the gentle voice of his affectionate sister.
She goes on to regret that his new work must remain uncom-
pleted, under the circumstances, and they would not see him
at Leipzig this winter ; but is sure it will be for his good to wait
a little longer, and bring it out himself as " Musikdirektor."
Wagner did not go to Zurich, whatever the cause. His own
disinclination to fetter his hands would have something to do
with it, though he appears to have resumed his office of chorus-
master at the Wurzburg theatre for at least the opening of the
autumn season ; for in that letter to Hauser he speaks of two
operas of Marschner's, the Vampyr and Hans Netting, in the
rehearsing of which he had assisted, and both of these works
were given in the new theatrical year. This began on the 2gth
September with Marschner's Vampyr, followed a fortnight later
(Oct. 15) by Hans Helling-, both works, in which Albert sang
the parts of Aubry and Konrad, were frequently repeated. The
Wurzburg Vampyr has an added interest for us, on account of
the interpolation of a little occasional composition. While study-
ing the part of Aubry, Albert got dissatisfied with the close of
his aria (No. 15) :
Wie ein schemer FrUhlingsmorgen
Lag das Leben sonst vor mir,
and expressed his wish for a more effective ending. There was
still a good week before the Sunday fixed for the performance ;
WURZBURG : "DIE FEEN."
167
but within two days (Sept. 23) Richard handed him a neatly-
written score, embracing nineteen pages, with the inscription :
" Allegro for Aubry's aria in the Vampyr of H. Marschner, com-
posed for A. Wagner by his brother Richard Wagner." In place
of the 58 bars in the original he had furnished 142 bars, "no
mere appendage," says Tappert, " but a well-conceived and spirited
Allegro in F minor," for which he had also indited the text :
Doch jetzt, wohin ich blicke, umgiebt mich Schreckensnacht,
mit grausigem Geschicke droht mir der Holle Macht.
Ist denn kein Trost zu finden? Flieht jeder Hoffnungsstrahl ?
Wie soil ich mich entwinden der grausen Todesqual ?
Ich sehe sie, die Heissgeliebte,
den Schmerzensblick nach mir gewandt ;
ein Damon halt sie fest umschlungen
und lechzt vor scheusslicher Begier ;
ihr theures Blut ist ihm verfallen,
ein einzig Wort, sie ist befreit,
vernichtet ist des Scheusals Werk :
da bindet mich der Eid
ich muss sie sterben seh'n ! *
Albert was very pleased with the thing; the orchestral parts
were copied out, and on Sunday the 2Qth September the extended
form of the aria made its first appearance, well received by the
public. In his published writings Wagner himself has not a
syllable to say about it, but in that letter to Hauser we find a
brief allusion : " I wrote my brother an aria for interpolation,
which certainly is neither better nor worse than any number in
my opera [feen], and it flatters me alike to have been witness
* Tappert has published a phototype of the last page of the autograph score
of the "powerful and original orchestral postlude," with the remark that it
shews " an endeavour to shun the beaten path as much as possible " :
-J-
1 68 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
of its effect, as to hear again from Wurzburg that it continues
to elicit great applause."
During the succeeding months the young artist bent his back
to his opera ; in unbroken sequence rose the imposing musical
fabric of its second act, and the broad expanse of its third. The
people's and soldiers' choruses in this second act, the unflagging
dramatic climax with its unexpected incidents, the delightful
humour of the bantering love-scene between Gernot and Drolla,
the impressive aria for Ada, and finally the scene where the recur-
ring melody of the " Dilnovaz " ballad indicates the first doubt
awaking in Arindal's breast, to be repeated shrilly at the moment
when the deluded husband breaks his vow and curses Ada, all
these, both in conception and in execution, display the youthful
master at the height of his scenic and musical inspiration. To
single out the repetition of that introductory theme from the
Dilnovaz-ballad at the crucial moment, we here indeed have no
actual leitmotiv in the sense of his later works, but merely a so-
called reminiscence yet of what startling power !
While still at work on his opera, Wagner got certain portions of
it performed by the Wurzburg Music-union. " The numbers from
it which I brought to a hearing at concerts in Wurzburg were
favourably received," is all that he says in this connection in the
Autobiographic Sketch. From that letter to Hauser we learn that
they were a "terzet" and an "aria," "we got up both with no
great difficulty, and they went off very well."
December had come round again ; the vine-city was clad once
more in its garment of white, and the trees of the Hofgarten
stretched their naked arms towards the sky. But in the eight
months since the melting of that snow which greeted his arrival
in Wurzburg, his first grand work had thriven to its own broad
crown of leaves. On Sunday the first of December the second
act was finished in full score ; a week later, at mid-day on the
eighth of December 1833, when the bells were all ringing, he
wrote the words " Finis. Laudetur Deus. Richard Wagner " on
the last page of the completed sketch for the third act, whose
successful conclusion he announced to his people at Leipzig, and
more particularly to his sympathetic sister, in a beautiful letter
still preserved. The overture bears the terminal date of December
27, and a few days later while a terrific storm on New Year's eve
was unroofing houses and bursting in windows at Leipzig the
WURZBURG : "DIE FEEN." 169
last note of the score of the third act was committed to paper,
January i, 1834.
There was nothing further to detain its author at Wurzburg.
He was longing to see his dramatic first-born afoot upon the
boards ; and that he could only expect in his native city. Even
before its absolute completion, preliminary negotiations had been
opened with the Leipzig theatre ; it now was time to set out in
person, and take the requisite steps on the spot. So with the
new year Wagner left for home the symphonist and overture-
composer developed in this twelvemonth to a dramatic creator.
II.
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT."
Return to Leipzig. " JFeen " negotiations. Director Ringelhardt
and Regisseur Hauser. Representation postponed. Schroder-
Devrient as Romeo. Article on " German Opera " : against
" learnedness in music." Relations with Robert Schumann. Poem
of "Das Liebesverbot" written at Teplitz. Off to Magdeburg.
To the earnestness of my origitial promptings (in Die
Feen) there opposed itself in Das Liebesverbot a certain
wanton turmoil of the senses, which seemed in crying
contrast to the earlier mood. The balancing of these two
tendencies was to be the work of my further artistic de-
velopment.
RICHARD WAGNER.
WITH the best hopes of his completed work and its speedy pro-
duction Wagner returned to Leipzig at the beginning of 1834,
welcomed all the more warmly by mother and sisters as in his
absence he had become the object of a twofold pride. He was
re-entering the family circle as at once the composer of a whole
grand opera and the approved fulfiller of a first practical function.
It would be difficult to decide in which capacity his mother set
most store by him.
Naturally his first thoughts were for the fate of his work. The
position of affairs at the Leipzig theatre had altered since its
abandonment by the Court : it had become a Town-theatre again,
and for the last two years had been managed by Director Friedrich
Seebald Ringelhardt, a shrewd man of business, who through his
predilection for French and Italian operas and many " novelties,"
if only not of German origin, had delighted the municipal council
by restoring the establishment to its condition when under Kiistner,
namely of boasting a constant surplus in its exchequer, instead
of the usual deficit. In the Play his classics were Kotzebue,
Schroder and Iffland, with other antiquated philistines, in whose
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT." 17 I
pieces he was fond of disporting himself as heavy father or old
man ; like the Greeks, he had one standing mask for tragedy the
Town-musician Miller; the poetry of drama, as Napoleon many
another thing, he held for ideology. Such was the man young
Richard had to approach. He reaped the experience that " the
German composer had had his nose put out of joint on his native
stage by the successes of French and Italians, and the production
of an opera was a favour the German author must beg on his
knees."
True, Ringelhardt at first declared his willingness to yield to
Richard's importunity, backed up by Rosalie ; and in March friend
Laube was able to insert a brief note in the Elegante to the effect
that, besides Auber's Bal masque, " an opera by a young composer,
Richard Wagner, whom we have already praised most highly in
these columns," would presently be mounted. But it was a long
cry from promise to fulfilment ; and in the very quarter where the
young artist's cause might have been furthered by a hint to the
director that of the Kapellmeister and Regisseur he was met
by a stubborn rebuff, masked under the outward forms of kindness
and good- will. In the preceding pages we have made frequent
reference to a document from this earliest time of struggle, a letter
to the operatic manager at the Leipzig theatre, Franz Hauser.* It
has come down to us merely in its initial form of a hastily scribbled
draft, with many negligences of diction, but presents so clear a
picture of the antecedent negotiations by word of mouth that we
almost hear the two sides speaking. Plainly, the writer is disgusted
at being compelled to waste his time and breath upon the opposi-
tion offered him, but he has not yet abandoned faith in the good-
will of his antagonist, and refuses to lose his temper ; he treats
* In the possession of the Richard Wagner Museum, now at Eisenach.
Regisseur i.e. stage-manager Hai'.ser is described in a report to the Allg.
mits. Ztg. (1833, No. n) as "a man of many-sided culture and intimately
acquainted with our older music, particularly that of Bach " ; he is also said
to be a capital bass singer and character-actor. In the same journal (1835,
No. 25) reference is made to his passion for old musical manuscripts, of which
he owned a large collection. To this old fogey was entrusted judgment of
the Feen score ! His natural gifts and accomplishments as singer are said to
have not been much to speak of, yet he was credited on all hands with " intelli-
gence, artistic education, musical understanding, a penetrative study of roles
and a rightly characteristic reading of vocal parts " (Abendzeitung, August 20,
1834). Can't one see the sheer nonentity in the very vagueness of the praise
dealt out to him ? He was a personal friend of Mendelssohn's.
172 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
every objection of a narrow and cross-grained mind as well-meant
friendly counsel, and does his best to answer it. The following
extracts may be added to those we have quoted before :
" You do not like my opera ; what is more, you do not like my
whole tendency, since you declare it contrary to your own view of
art. In it you find all the offences of our age ; at the same time
you allow of no appeal to the latter. You will accept none but
the forms in which those unattainable models of an older age
expressed themselves, and even with Mozart you find excessive
use of outward means; from which I gather that you sanction
none save those of Gluck. You ask me why I do not instrument
like Haydn. . . . You charge me with total ignorance of means,
of harmony, and want of thorough study ; you find nothing that
has come from the heart, meet with nothing that could have
sprung from an inward inspiration. If I mistake not, this is about
the sum of your charges as regards the value of the work, what I
am to take as the upshot of your verdict. I have given myself the
pains to piece it together, as nearly as maybe, and find nothing
to say in rejoinder. This is the position of the blamed towards
the blamer, toward blame itself. All endeavour to refute the
blame, or even to excuse oneself, I suppose to be impermissible
and impossible to the blamed. I am silent for all resistance
seems to me presumption." He turns from the artistic "value"
of his work to the other side, its " practicability " ; for like
objections had been raised against its possibility of performance.
He winds up with a plea " to regard the thing a little less severely,"
concluding : " For my own position and the road I have to carve
myself, both I and my relatives feel it absolutely necessary to take
this step, and illusions, we know, are most common but I think
it will not lead me to perdition. Please place no decisive obstacle
in the path the negotiations have taken now, and permit me to
pursue in peace what I may term the regular course, that of
sending for the score to lay it in the official hands of the Kapell-
meister. Once again, may God be with me ! "
So the score passed into the hands of Kapellmeister Stegmayer,
but without material benefit; the unfavourable verdict of the
" intelligent " first court seems to have influenced that of second
instance. It would be impossible to adopt a humbler or a
heartier tone, than that of the letter just cited, without some loss
of personal dignity ; but all conciliation shipwrecked on a crotchety
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT." 173
wrongheadedness.* The affair was spun to an exasperating length
of indecision.
Like so many another turning-point in Wagner's career, we
cannot look back on this cruel fate of Die Feen without a lively
feeling of resentment : a creation full of warm young life allowed
to vanish into limbo ! If the work had but wormed its way to
a hearing at Leipzig, how it must have smoothed its author's
future path ! It would have been impossible for it not to have
left some impression on his birthplace; once recognised and
noised abroad, it could not lightly have been shelved again ; and
we should all along have dated Wagner from this pregnant early
stage of his development, instead of from Rienzi.
For the present it was, nominally, a mere case of postponement.
If the young master had been content to rest on his oars for the
next two or three years, and devote all his time to insisting on the
production of his firstborn, his patience and sterility might haply
have been rewarded in the long run by gracious acceptance of his
opera. Laube had announced it in the same breath with Auber's
Maskenball, as about to appear. To mount the latter properly,
the management had thought nothing of an outlay of 2000 thlr.
03oo), for entirely new costumes, scenery and accessories ; after
its first performance Director Ringelhardt was called before the
curtain, to receive the thanks of Leipzigers proud to be " the first
in all Germany to hear Auber's Masked Ball" (Abendzeitung,
1834, No. 197).
Still earlier in the selfsame Spring, just about the time when
native talent had its access to the stage so studiously blocked,
Bellini's Montechi e Capuleti had plunged all Leipzig into wild
excitement. This opera was received with thunders of applause,
and the finale of the second act had to be repeated at every per-
formance, to enable the audience to hear the enrapturing unison
* When Spontini put forth all his influence against the Berlin performance
of Der Freischiitz, Weber complained to his friend Sir George Smart : " It is
deplorable that people should have installed an Italian to pass sentence on
German works, which he is in no position to appreciate. To be sure, I
myself am Kapellmeister, and have to give my verdict on the works of
foreigners ; but only when I can conscientiously say with full knowledge that
a work is absolutely worthless, do I refuse it a performance. Surely every
aspirant ought to have the chance of appealing at least once to the judgment
of the public." Here it was "no installed Italian," but that made no difference
in the complexion of his verdict.
174 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
of Romeo and Juliet all over again. Frau Schroder-Devrient was
shortly to arrive, to sing the part of Romeo ; the music was to be
heard in every street ; Bellini ruled the city. Of course the devotees
of Classic music shrugged their shoulders, whispering dreadful
things in the pit about careless workmanship, bad part-writing etc. ;
whilst the feeble adaptation of the very play for whose sake he
had once learnt English could rouse but little sympathy in the
breast of the young creator of Die Feen. But the Queen of the
Stage at last appeared, at the zenith of her fame and powers.
Laube paints a word-picture of the dappled March-day, 1834,
when sun and shadow played romps like children, chasing
each other across the market-place, and a breezy German after-
noon blew away all zest for book-work ; to-night the Schroder-
Devrient was to sing, and ere the finger of the Rathhaus clock had
moved to five, and there still was ample time before the office
opened, the town was streaming in but one direction ; the square
was alive with frowzy old periwigs, all jogging toward the theatre ;
the Schroder-Devrient even drew the philistine. The impression
left on Wagner by the Romeo of this great tragedian was inefface-
able ; never had he more thoroughly agreed with his literary friend,
than when the latter called Wilhelmine Schroder own daughter to
William Shakespeare, and the whole family descendants of the old
Greek gods. In 1872 Richard Wagner writes : "Take the imper-
sonation of ' Romeo ' in Bellini's opera once given us by the
Schroder-Devrient. Every instinct of the musician rebels against
allowing the least artistic merit to the sickly, downright threadbare
music here hung upon an opera-book of indigent grotesqueness ;
but ask anyone who witnessed it, what impression he received
from the ' Romeo ' of Frau Schroder-Devrient as compared with
the Romeo of our finest actor in the great Briton's piece itself"
(P. W. V., 141). Like a lightning-flash the thought occurred to
him, what an incomparable artwork would that be, which in all
its parts should mate the talents of such a performer, of a whole
group of artists like her. The ideal, the ideal no longer of
" opera," but of the perfect word-tone Drama, had shot its first
flickering ray athwart the clouds.
But how did the inexpressible beauty of this portrayal accord
with the feebleness of its textual and musical basis ? Manifestly
there was no necessary inner relation between that incorporate
ideal and so-called "charming verse and pretty music." The
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT. 175
young artist, with the cold shoulder just given to a nobly earnest
work, began to doubt the choice of means to great successes.
Far from assigning to Bellini a merit due entirely to the actress,
yet " the stuff of which this music was made seemed more pro-
pitious, better calculated to wake warm life, than the painstaking
pedantry wherewith German composers, as a rule, but brought
laborious make-believes to birth. The flabby lack of character
in our modern Italians, equally with the frivolous levity of the
latest Frenchmen, appeared to me to challenge the earnest,
conscientious German to lay hands on the better-chosen, more
successfully exploited means of his rivals, and then outstrip them
in producing veritable artworks" (P. W, I., 9).
The turn now taken by his whole artistic nature is stamped on
Wagner's earliest literary utterance, a work of little length and
unsigned with his still un-noted name, but high in its significance
as a first confession of faith. He was just one-and-twenty years
of age, "inclined to take life and the world on their pleasant
side." Instead of Hoffmann he had taken up with Heinse's
Ardinghello, which paints the joyous sensualism of the South in
glowing colours, reflected in the literary work of Laube. " Young
Europe " was tingling in his every limb, and Germany appeared
a very tiny portion of the earth. " I had emerged from abstract
mysticism, and learnt a love for matter. Beauty of material and
brilliancy of wit were lordly things to me. As regards music, I
found them both in the French and Italians." Everything around
him seemed fermenting; it was most natural to yield himself
resistless to the ferment, too, and forswear his former models.
So actively was this Cosmopolitan spirit at work on his fiery
temperament, that he threw together the thoughts it had inspired
him with in the form of an article on German Opera for the
journal of his friend, just to throw light on "the confusion of
ideas prevailing among our Teutomaniac music-savants." The
article appeared in the Ztg.f. d. elegante Welt of June 10, 1834,
and thus proceeds : " By all means, we have a field of music
which belongs to us by right, and that is Instrumental music ;
but a German Opera we have not, and for the selfsame reason
that we own no national Drama. We are too intellectual and
much too learned, to create warm human figures. ... In this
respect the Italians have an immeasurable advantage over us;
vocal beauty with them is a second nature, and their creations are
176 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
just as sensuously warm as poor, for the rest, in individual import.
Certainly, in the last decad or two the Italians have played as
many pranks with this second native-tongue of theirs, as the
Germans with their learning, and yet, I shall never forget the
impression lately made on me by a Bellinian opera, after I had
grown heartily sick of the eternally allegorising orchestral bustle,
and at last a simple noble song shewed forth again," with a
Schroder-Devrient as the singer ! Then with all the fervour of
the future reformer the young artist goes on to break a lance on
spurious German learnedness in music :
" This is an evil which, however ingrained in the character of
our nation, must needs be rooted out ; in fact it will annul itself,
as it is nothing but a self-deception. Not that I wish French or
Italian music to oust our own ; that would be a fresh evil to be
on our guard against but we ought to recognise the true in both,
and keep ourselves from all self-satisfied hypocrisy. We should
clear ourselves a breathing-space in the rubble that threatens to
choke us, hug no more visions of forbidden fifths and superfluous
ninths, and become men at last. . . . Why has no German opera-
composer come to the front since so long ? Because none knew
how to gain the ear of the people, that is to say, because none
has seized true warm Life as it is. For is it not plainly to mis-
construe the present age, to go on writing oratorios when no one
believes any longer in either their contents or their form ? Who
believes in the mendacious stiffness of a Schneiderian fugue ? and
simply because it was composed to-day by Friedrich Schneider.
What with Bach and Handel seems worshipful to us in virtue of
its truth, must necessarily sound ridiculous with Fr. Schneider of
our day ; for, to repeat it, no one believes him, since it cannot be
his own conviction. We must take the era by the ears, and
honestly try to cultivate its modern forms ; and he will be master,
who writes neither Italian, nor French nor even German." (P. W.
VIIL, 55-58).
Nor even German : no impotence of erudition. Warm human
figures are what he wants, shapes worthy at each instant of a live
artist such as the great Wilhelmine ; what stands in their way,
may go by the board. Here everything springs from a true
dramatic instinct, foreshadowing the master's later teaching. Six
years hence, when in Paris, he writes : " The German genius
would seem predestined to seek out among its neighbours that
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT. 1 77
which is not native to its motherland, to lift this from its narrow
confines, and thus make something universal for the world" * Is
not this the identical thought expressed in the closing lines of
German Opera ?
Among the younger musicians of Wagner's set in Leipzig we
here may mention Robert Schumann ; though it never came to
any actual comradeship, there existed a friendly relation between
them at this period. In a previous chapter we have spoken of
Schumann as a pupil of Dorn's ; obedient to a thoroughly German
impulse, he had passed from jurisprudence to music. Friedrich
Wieck had been his first music-master, when he contemplated a
career of virtuoso ; but, after a successful commencement as pianist,
an irremediable injury to the hand had diverted him to the more
distinguished path of composer and writer on music. Different
as were their natures Wagner merry, communicative, fond of
society, Schumann melancholy, silent and introspective, they yet
had many points of contact : a combination of musical and
literary tastes, for instance Schumann's pronounced passion for
Hoffmann, though in his case it was allied with a boundless regard
for Jean Paul, not shared by Wagner in a like degree. At this
time, when the far more active spirit of his junior (by two years)
had already produced a grand symphony and a complete three-act
opera, Schumann had merely turned out a few pianoforte baga-
telles ; but in these his individuality was plainly enough revealed.
On the other hand, his standpoint toward the public was far more
favourable : whereas Wagner's gifts had to lie buried for several
years to come, his own had an unimpeded course before them ; the
straits of the dramatic composer were none of his. To become
known, he needed no stage and company of singers, solely a
* As late as January 12, 1879, Wagner remarked to Hans von Wolzogen,
in course of conversation: "The long-drawn melodic form of the Italian
operatic composers, such as Cherubini and Spontini, could not issue from the
German Singspiel ; it needs must have its rise in Italy. . . . From it have
Auber, Boieldieu, and myself, learnt much. My closing chorus in the first
act of Lohengrin, for instance, derives far rather from Spontini than from
Weber. From Bellini, too, one may learn what Melody is. The moderns
are distinguished by a poverty-stricken melody, because they hold by certain
prominent weaknesses in Italian Opera, but neglect the composers' great
merits." Wolzogen, Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner, 2nd ed. (Reclam)
pp. 26-27.
M
178 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
publisher ; and for that his position as editor of a much-read
journal was sufficient guarantee. " You may believe me," he writes
to Dorn, " if the publishers had no fear of the editor, the world
would have heard nothing of me either." It still would happen
that benighted people had never heard of him as on a subse-
quent concert-tour of his wife's (Clara Wieck) when he was pre-
sented to the King of Holland as her husband, and the king
inquired if he too were musical, but on Wagner's part, even so
early as this, no such ignorance was possible. Wagner always
valued Schumann, not only as " the most gifted and thoughtful
musician of his period" (P. W. III., 117), but also as the "stout
of heart " who " so warmly and so amiably held out his German
hand, when editor of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, to the very
people on whom he looked askance in his second period " (ibid).*
And it was just this Neue Zeitschrift, for which Schumann was so
anxious to obtain congenial workers, that seems to have offered
the ground for closer relations. Three years before, upon
Chopin's first appearance in the musical world, Schumann had
made his debut in musical literature; in April 1834, supported by
Friedrich Wieck, Ludwig Schunke and Julius Knorr, he founded
his special organ, and thus began his actual and undoubtedly
considerable literary career. For this he sought Wagner's co-
operation also. Although at a stage in his evolution when he was
far more intent upon plying his art than criticising it, Wagner in
fact sent a contribution to the Neue Zeitschrift of Nov. 6 and 10,
1834 (" Pasticcio," see Prose Works, VIII., 59-66), and allowed his
name to appear in the printed list of collaborators for several
years to come.
In May our artist made an excursion to the Bohemian baths.
At Teplitz when the morning was fine he would steal away from
* " Wagner has been sedulously represented as an adversary of Schumann's.
This is a wellnigh ridiculous reversal of the situation. An enmity of the
dramatist against the lyrist is out of the question ; but what remains deplorable,
is the experience that it is just the ' Schumannites ' who from the very beginning
have been the bitterest and blindest adversaries of Wagner. Whoever clove to
him, had to find himself regarded in that quarter as a moral delinquent ;
whereas Wagner gladly rendered to the artist Schumann the full justice due
to every genuine thing " (H. v. Wolzogen, Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner,
p. 33). Nevertheless, Wagner did not admire the Schumann of that "second
period," as may be seen upon referring to the page cited in the text above,
written in 1869. W. A. E.
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT. 179
his companions, to climb the steps to the Schlackenburg and eat
his breakfast in solitude. There, with the little town and smiling
valley spread before him in bright sunshine, the countless hamlets
snuggling in folds of the land or perched on dwarf hills, while the
horizon stretched from the Schlossberg to the wood-crowned
heights of the Mileschauer, he jotted down in his notebook the
sketch for a new opera-poem, to vent the bubbling "Young
European " joy-of-life within him. It was the text of Das Liebes-
verbot, otherwise known as "The Novice of Palermo," its argu-
ment as follows :
An unnamed King of Sicily leaves his country on a journey to
Naples, and appoints as his Stateholder a strait-laced puritanic
German, named Friedrich, with full authority to reform the
manners of his capital. At the commencement of the piece his
agents are closing or demolishing certain houses of amusement
in the suburbs ; the mob interferes ; in the midst of the riot a
comic Chief Constable reads out the edict, proscribing " Love,
wine and carnival." It is greeted with a chorus of derision :
Der deutsche Narr, auf, lacht ihn aus ! Come laugh him down, the German
das soil die ganze Ant wort sein ! fool !
Schickt ihn in seinen Schnee nach No other answer on him waste !
Haus, Send him amid his snow to cool ;
dort lasst ihn keusch und niichtern There let him sober be and chaste !
sein !
during which a young rakish noble, Luzio by name, constitutes
himself the people's leader. He soon enough finds matter for
agitation, as his friend Claudio is led along to prison, arrested
for an indiscretion with the lady to whom he is secretly betrothed.
The penalty under a mouldering old law unearthed by Friedrich
being decapitation, Claudio's only hope is that his sister Isabella,
who has just entered the cloister as a novice, may succeed in
softening the tyrant's heart ; Luzio promises to go at once to
her. The next scene introduces Isabella in conversation with
Marianne, another novice ; Marianne unfolds a tale of treachery,
her betrayer proving to be none other than Friedrich himself.
Luzio arrives at the moment of Isabella's greatest indignation,
and adds fuel to the fire by his tidings of her brother's fate;
her spirited defiance moves him to a declaration of love ; she
quickly brings him to his senses, but accepts his escort to the
hall of justice. The third scene commences with a burlesque
l8o LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
trial of various moral offenders by Brighella, the Chief Constable.
Friedrich next appears, enjoining silence on the uproarious mob
that has forced the doors, and begins the serious hearing of
Claudio; he is on the point of passing sentence, when Isabella
arrives, and demands a private audience. The court is cleared,
and Isabella pleads, at first with eloquent moderation, for pardon
of her brother's very human fault :
Du schmahest jene and're Liebe, die Gott gcsenkt in uns're Brust !
O wie so ode das Leben bliebe, gab' es nicht Lieb' und Liebeslust !
Dem Weib gab Schonheit die Natur, dem Manne Kraft sie zu geniessen,
und nur ein Thor, ein Ileuchler nur sucht sich der Liebe zu verschliessen.
O offne der Erdenliebe dein Herz, lose durch Gnade meinen Schmerz !
Perceiving the effect of her pleading, she proceeds with ever
greater fire to probe the hidden secrets of the judge's heart.
The ice of that heart is thawed : " How warm her breath
how eloquent her tongue ! Am I a man ? Woe's me, I yield
already." The stern guardian of morals is seized with passion
for the splendid woman ; no longer master of himself, he promises
her whatever she may ask, at price of her own body. In utmost
fury at such hideous villainy she calls in the people, to unmask
the hypocrite ; he threatens her with a trumped-up story ; suddenly
conceiving a stratagem to save her brother's life, beneath her
breath she promises fulfilment of his fondest wishes on the
following night.
At the beginning of the second act we learn the nature of her
hasty plan. She gains admission to her brother's gaol, to prove
if he be worth the saving. Claudio is shocked at first by the
suggested sacrifice, but when it comes to bidding his sister fare-
well, and entrusting her with tender messages for his beloved,
his manliness breaks down, and shamefacedly he asks if the price
of his deliverance is quite beyond her. Thrusting the craven
from her in contempt, she returns him to his gaoler; but she
merely means to punish him by prolonging his uncertainty, and
still abides by her decision to rid the world of his shameful
judge. She has arranged for Marianne to take her place in the
rendezvous with Friedrich, to whom she now despatches her
invitation, appointing a masked encounter at one of the dis-
reputable houses which he has closed. Meantime she teaches
Luzio a lesson, by leading him to believe that she seriously
intends meeting Friedrich that night. Luzio, in an agony of
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT." l8l
despair, summons all his friends to the Corso at nightfall, and
just as revelry is waxing wild there he goads the crowd to frenzy
with a daring Carnival-song :
Ihr junges Volk, macht euch heran, die Alltagskleider abgethaa,
die Larven vor, die Farben an, die bunten Wamser angethan !
Heut' ist Beginn des Carneval, da wird man seiner sich bewusst !
Herbei, herbei, ihr Leute all, nun giebt es Spass, jetzt giebt es Lust !
Im Jubelrausch und Hochgenuss ertrankt die gold'ne Freudenzeit,
Zum Teufel fahre der Verdruss und bin zur Holle Traurigkeit.
Wer sich nicht freut am Carneval, dem stosst das Messer in die Brust !
Herbei, herbei, ihr Leute all, es war zum Spass, es war zur Lust !
The maskers throng towards the background, while Luzio lies
in wait. Presently he recognises one of the maskers as Friedrich,
and is about to follow him with drawn rapier, when Isabella
causes him to be led on a wrong scent. Isabella comes forth
from the bushes in which she has stood concealed, rejoicing in
the thought of having restored Marianne to her faithless mate
at this very moment, and believing herself to be in possession
of the stipulated patent of her brother's pardon. Breaking its
seal, she discovers an aggravation of the order for execution.
(After a hard battle with the flames of lust, Friedrich has resolved
that, however criminal his fall, it yet shall be as a man of honour :
one hour on Isabella's bosom, and then his death in obedience
to the selfsame law to which the head of Claudio stands irre-
vocably forfeit, "Claudio, thou diest ; I follow after.") Isabella,
considering this but an additional villainy of the hypocrite, once
more bursts out in frenzy of despair ; at her call to instant revolt
against the tyrant, the whole populace assembles in wild con-
fusion. Luzio, arriving on the scene at this juncture, sardonically
adjures the mob to pay no heed to the ravings of a woman who
will dupe them as assuredly as she has deceived him ; for he still
believes in her dishonour. Suddenly Brtghella's comical cry for
help is heard ; jealous about his own inamorata, he has seized
the disguised Stateholder by mistake, thus leading to his dis-
covery. Friedrich is unmasked ; Marianne, clinging to his side,
is recognised ; general indignation, jeers and laughter. Friedrich
moodily demands to be led before the returning King, to receive
the capital sentence ; Claudio, freed from prison by the mob,
instructs him that death is no penalty for a love-offence. The
1 82 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
King's arrival is announced ; all the maskers go in procession to
meet him : " Gay festivals delight him more than all your gloomy
edicts." Friedrich and Marianne are made to lead off the pro-
cession ; the Novice, lost to the cloister for ever, forms the second
pair with Luzio.
As will be seen at once, the groundwork of Das Liebesverbot is
borrowed from Measure for Measure; yet, despite the retention
of so many of Shakespeare's incidents, an entirely different
complexion is given to the tale. That Wagner should have
drawn on Shakespeare for a plot, is by no means extraordinary,
if we bear in mind that personation of Romeo by Frau Schroder-
Devrient which had so shortly gone before : what is remarkable,
is the instinct which guided him to the only one of Shakespeare's
undisputed plays that all the better critics now admit to be
susceptible of radical improvement. In his Study of Shakespeare
C. A. Swinburne remarks : " The strong and radical objection dis-
tinctly brought forward against this play, and strenuously supported
by the wisest and the warmest devotees among all the worshippers
of Shakespeare, is not exactly this, that the Puritan Angelo is
exposed : it is that the Puritan Angelo is unpunished. . . . We
are left hungry and thirsty after having been made to thirst and
hunger for some wholesome single grain at least of righteous and
too long retarded retribution. . . . That this play is in its very
inmost essence a tragedy . . . the mere tone of style prevalent
throughout all its better parts, to the absolute exclusion of any
other, would of itself most amply suffice to show. . . . The
evasion of a tragic end by the invention and intromission of
Marianne has deserved and received high praise for its ingenuity :
but ingenious evasion of a natural and proper end is usually the
distinctive quality which denotes a workman of a very much lower
school than the school of Shakespeare." So much in unin-
tentional justification of Wagner's boldness in laying hands on
this particular play : there was a flaw in it, which would naturally
tempt the intrepid youngster.
Now, there would be two ways of rectifying Measure for
Measure^ both of them suggested in the above extract from
Swinburne. One way would be, to exact from Angelo-Friedrich
himself the full penalty he had adjudged to Claudio, and thus
supply a " tragic end." The other might be to alter the " prevalent
"DAS LIEBESVERBOT." 183
tone of style," and turn the work into a tragi-comedy. The first
course would in nowise have accorded with young Wagner's
instant frame of mind ; for his purposes, he did well to choose
the second. He shifts the centre of gravity from Angelo and
the Duke to Isabella, at the same time transforming the mere
ribald Lucio Shakespeare's " whipping-boy," so to speak into
an important and highly sympathetic character. Again, while
Friedrich's original villainy is retained, it is to a large extent
redeemed by his spontaneous resolve to submit to the same
decree of death he means to execute on Claudio, a point
perhaps suggested by Shakespeare's lines, " When I that censure
him, do so offend, Let mine own judgment pattern out my
death " ; but in Measure for Measure this is said by Angelo
when there appears no possibility of his " so offending," in fact
before he has ever clapped eyes on Isabella; whereas he brazens
out denial to the Duke, on his return, till all escape is blocked
after which he says, " Immediate sentence then and sequent
death is all the grace I beg." Thirdly, and most significant of
all, the " people " are here made active interveners in a manner
that would never have occurred to the politically conservative
Shakespeare ; on them and their lightheartedness, instead of on
the somewhat tricky Duke, devolves the office of punishing the
offender ; and they punish him right heartily with ridicule.
To lend colour to these changes, nothing could have been
happier than Wagner's transference of the scene of action from
Vienna to Palermo; as he himself says, "the Sicilian Vespers
may have had something to do with it " ; whilst the German name
of " Friedrich," with which he has re-christened Shakespeare's
Angelo, would point to the same conclusions as his lashing of
German pedantry in that article just dealt with. In the powerful
part of Isabella we certainly have a first suggestion of the
Tannhduser problem, the redemption of an erring man by a
spotless virgin ; but it presents itself differently to the youth of
one-and-twenty, and the whole drama is distinguished by its
glowing championship of the rights of the senses.
The form of this piece shews the characteristic influence exerted
on the dramatist, in Wagner's twofold nature, by the musician.
It is his only work in two acts. The various movements of the
animated plot whirl by in swift succession : we are hurried from
the riotous mob in the first scene to the silence of the cloister,
1 84
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
and thence to the hall of justice ; from the gloomy solitude of
prison to the turbulence of Corso and of Carnival. Just as
Weber and Marschner, with their ampler musical expression, quite
obviously lent its breadth to the dramatic structure of Die Feen,
so the influence of Auber's and Bellini's music here bore upon the
method of the plot's arrangement. Wagner himself speaks of
"the reflex of modern French and as concerns the melody
Italian Opera upon my violently excited senses," and goes on to
say : " Whoever should take the pains to compare this composition
with that of Die Feen, would scarcely be able to understand how
so surprising a change of front should have been brought about
in so short a time " (P. W. I., 296).
The chief distinctive mark of the Liebesverbot music is con-
sidered by Gasperini to be a preponderance of the melodic, over
the harmonic or idealistic, element * : " From the first note of the
overture, one breathes another atmosphere; everything is alive,
clear, entrainant ; no bizarre harmonies, no daring combinations :
through the whole score there circulates a melodic abondante et
lumtneuse." It reaches white heat in the fiery Carnival song,
with its provocative introductory trills for triangle, castanets and
tambourines, when the Allegro vivace
boils up to the double fermata portending the dagger-thrust
* The score is not accessible now, being in the possession of the King of
Bavaria.
DAS LIEBESVERBOT.
dem stosst das Mes - ser in die Brust
and passes over to the feroce of the rousing " Tralala." On the
other hand the subject's latent kinship to Tannhauser comes out
in the most remarkable fashion in the definite anticipation of a
musical theme, compare the following with that of the " hymn of
P. 185, replace second musical example by
Sal-ve re - gi - na coe - li! Sal - ve 1
(Sung behind the scene by the Nuns of the Convent of S. Elisabeth
Das Liebesverbot, act i.)
from the sphere of one work to that of another ; and thus, as in the
present case, a theme expressive of some definite mood or plastic
thought will pass almost integrally from this to that creation.
Two whole years, however, were to elapse between the drafting
of this poem, in the summer of 1834, and its musical completion.
For, immediately after Wagner's return to Leipzig from his little
outing, he entered negotiations destined to put an end to his state
of happy irresponsibility and fetter him to a practical career.
He was offered the vacant post of musical conductor to Bethmann's
Magdeburg stage-company, and delayed no longer in making the
apparently inevitable sacrifice of his artistic freedom to his outward
independence.
184
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
and thence to the hall of justice ; from the gloomy solitude of
prison to the turbulence of Corso and of Carnival. Just as
Weber and Marschner, with their ampler musical expression, quite
obviously lent its breadth to the dramatic structure of Die Feen,
so the influence of Auber's and Bellini's music here bore upon the
method of the plot's arrangement. Wagner himself speaks of
"the reflex of modern French and as concerns the melody
Italian Opera upon my violently excited senses," and goes on to
say : " Whoever should take the pains to compare this composition
with that of Die Feen, would scarcely be able to understand how
so surprising a change of front should have been brought about
in so short a time " (P. W. I., 296).
The chief distinctive mark of the Liebesverbot music is con-
boils up to the double fermata portending the dagger-thrust
* The score is not accessible now, being in the possession of the King of
Bavaria.
11 DAS LIEBESVERBOT.
i*- 8 -. ' JLJb
and passes over to the feroce of the rousing " Tralala." On the
other hand the subject's latent kinship to Tannhauser comes out
in the most remarkable fashion in the definite anticipation of a
musical theme, compare the following with that of the "hymn of
Promise" as first announced by trumpets, trombones and tuba,
in the prelude to the third act of Tannhauser :
v v -zr-
Here we have an instance of that inner cohesion in the music of
all Wagner's works, which makes it impossible not to regard them as
members of one great organic whole, but gradually revealing itself.
Thus certain harmonic likenesses will often transfer us, for amoment,
from the sphere of one work to that of another ; and thus, as in the
present case, a theme expressive of some definite mood or plastic
thought will pass almost integrally from this to that creation.
Two whole years, however, were to elapse between the drafting
of this poem, in the summer of 1834, and its musical completion.
For, immediately after Wagner's return to Leipzig from his little
outing, he entered negotiations destined to put an end to his state
of happy irresponsibility and fetter him to a practical career.
He was offered the vacant post of musical conductor to Bethmann's
Magdeburg stage-company, and delayed no longer in making the
apparently inevitable sacrifice of his artistic freedom to his outward
independence.
III.
MAGDEBURG.
Lauchstadt and Rudolstadt. Symphony in E. Magdeburg.
Apathy of the Public. Last fortunes of "Die Feen"New Year's
music. Columbus-overture. Betrotfial to Minna Planer. The
" Schweizerfamilie " at Nuremberg. Death of uncle Adolf.
Auber's " Lestocq" Performance of " Das Liebesverbot."
I erred of old, and now would fain repay it;
from youth's offence how shall I set ine free?
The work, at feet of thine I humbly lay it,
that thy abounding grace my ransom be.
(Dedication of Das Liebesverbot to King Ludwig II.)
TOWARDS the end of July 1834, just past his one-and-twentieth
birthday, Richard Wagner took up his first position as Conductor.
The Bethmann stage-company was then engaged at Magdeburg
for the winter, at Lauchstadt and Rudolstadt in summer. A few
years previously its director, Heinrich Bethmann, had brought
his company to Leipzig during the Easter fair, as a stopgap in
the interregnum prior to the opening of the Court theatre.
Among other eminent qualifications for his post, he possessed
that of maintaining his theatre in a perennial state of bankruptcy
in spite of a Royal subvention and the assistance of a Theatre
Committee, and consequently had a rooted antipathy to pay-
day. The utter chaos in the finances of the first theatre at which
he was regularly engaged had a disastrous and far-reaching effect
on Wagner's economic relations.
The company remained at Lauchstadt till the middle of August,
when it migrated to the charming little capital of Schwarzburg-
Rudolstadt in the leafy valley of the Saale, with its towering
Heidecksburg the prince's residence its romantic park, and
shooting-box on the Anger. In the midst of all the young
conductor's duties at rehearsals and performances his tireless
mind was busied with the drafting of a new grand symphony, this
time in E. The sketch for the first movement, an Allegro, is
MAGDEBURG.
8 7
closely written on a large double-sheet of stout yellowish note-
paper,* dated at the top " Lauchstadt, the 4th August, 34,"
and at the bottom, " 29 August, Rudolstadt." To the efforts
and research of W. Tappert we owe its discovery after half a
century of oblivion, as also that of the orchestral parts of the
earlier Symphony in C. According to his report the Symphony
in E is conceived in quite the Beethovenian spirit, structure and
distribution shew no material departure from the principles of
classical tradition, the whole is powerful and clear. Several of
its salient points have been reproduced by the discoverer, includ-
ing the " fresh and flowing " introductory theme of the Allegro :
Allegro con spirito
* "The lines are drawn with the music-pen unaided by a ruler; on the
first three pages there are fifteen double-staves apiece, on the last page sixteen "
i88
LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
with some interesting indications of its further progress ; also the
tender second theme :
f=T
dolce
-P-P-
3
with its contrapuntal development :
-* :
s
l*r r
Motive from the tnd Theme.
(W. Tappert's article on " Richard Wagner's zweite Symphonic" in the Mus.
Wochenblatl 1 886, Nos. 40 and 41).
MAGDEBURG.
189
and the characteristic canon for the wind in the working-out
section :
"^T^^^TT^r^^l
^hj|^^ JEi_j.. ; Ji-g=J3=a
^ id if WziJ
v-
Towards the close, as Tappert tells us, there are daring
harmonies foreign to the stricter school, "but what a wealth
of talent in the youthful sketch, what sureness of expression ! "
The Allegro is followed by an Adagio cantabile :
j^^^^M4^ffq
^Upchp ^-pff|-H-M
in the course of which Tappert draws attention to an energetic
eight-bar period strongly reminiscent of Beethoven. But the
Adagio breaks off at the 2gth bar. Why? Why, in fact, did
the whole work proceed no farther than this its interrupted sketch ?
The answer may be found in the preceding chapter : after the
conception of Das Liebesverbot, our wonder should rather be
directed to the young master's having taken up for the moment
with a purely symphonic creation. We can only attribute it to
a sort of survival from a stage of development already overpassed ;
for his whole present impulse was urging him in the direction
struck by the sketch of his new opera. "I gave up my model,
Beethoven; his Last Symphony I deemed the keystone of a
whole great epoch of art, beyond which none could hope to
press, and within whose limits none could reach to independ-
ence "(/>. W. I., 9-10).
I9O LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
It was autumn, the beginning of October, when the Bethmann
troupe made its entry into the prosperous city of merchants and
manufacturers, with its fortress, barracks and redoubts. Upon
its only broad, but scarcely straight street, the Breiter Weg or
" Broadway," stood the Magdeburg Town-theatre, in friendly
vicinity to Richter's wine-shades, the company's favourite resort
before and after each rehearsal. Immediately opposite the
theatre there embouches one of the numerous minor side-streets,
the Margarethengasse : here Wagner made his first abode. It
was in the corner-house No. 2, close beside the Korte brewery,
the windows of his apartments looking on the Broadway. After-
wards he removed to the fourth floor of J. G. Knevel's house, No.
34 Breiter Weg, where he dwelt from 1835 to 1836.
He soon became at home in his new post of conductor : the
quality of life behind the wings and before the footlights exactly
suited his present mood. " My path led first to absolute frivolity
in my views of art. The rehearsing and conducting of those
loose-limbed French operas which then were the mode, the
piquant prurience of their orchestral effects, gave me many a
childish thrill of joy as I set the stew a-frothing right and left
from my desk. In life, which henceforth definitely meant for
me the life of the stage, I sought distraction; which took the
form, as regards the things within my daily grasp, of a chase of
pleasure as regards music, of a prickling, sputtering unrest"
(P. W. I., 297).
However, he took his present duties seriously enough, and,
notwithstanding his youth, soon succeeded in inspiring both
singers and bandsmen with respect. He knew exactly what he
wanted, and had the knack of conveying it to the executants.
With a mere mechanical beating of time he would have nothing
to do, either now or at any time ; upon every detail he bestowed
the greatest pains, and constantly would sing a passage to the
orchestra to shew how he wished it rendered. The same with
the performers : possessed of natural histrionic talent, he would
demonstrate by tone and gesture precisely his idea of any
situation. Moreover by his lively temperament and ready wit,
his thought for others and astounding memory, he soon endeared
himself to all the company, down to the scene-shifters. The
dislike he had cherished in earlier years for "the rouge-and-
powdered ways of the comedian " had passed away : his irrepres-
MAGDEBURG. 19 1
sible humour would often set the green-room ringing with peals
of laughter ; but even in the freest and most familiar intercourse
his fine tact prevented any of his associates from forgetting his
position, and he remained the monarch of them all.
The public of Magdeburg was a more difficult nut to crack.
Phlegmatic by nature, it had made it a question of etiquette to
copy the coldness and indifference of one of its leading contin-
gents. The place was a garrison-town ; the military considered
outbursts of enthusiasm the worst of ' form ' ; a like impassiveness
had spread to the remainder of the audience. Among the civic
population, on the other hand at least at the time we are speak-
ing of, there prevailed a decided love of purely physical pleasures,
most detrimental to the interests of the theatre : besides the
countless dinners, soirees, balls, the-dansants etc., with which
society regaled itself throughout the winter, there was a whole
network of similar reunions behind closed doors, at the Harmonie,
Casino, Friendship Club, and whatever else they styled themselves ;
to say nothing of two Freemasons' lodges, a smaller called " Har-
pocrates," and a larger, perhaps the largest in all Germany, by the
singular name of " Ferdinand to Felicity." The concerts given in
the halls of these lodges enjoyed a certain reputation ; but the
chief point whereby they gained the favour of the public, was
the splendid supper with which they always terminated. Wagner
writes a most amusing letter hereanent to Schumann,* affording
a characteristic glimpse of social life at Magdeburg in those
days:
"I assure you, they give us quite good music sometimes at
these concerts; that the Magdeburgers don't even perceive it,
is the curse that seems hurled at every bow-stroke or vocal note
condemned to here. The indifferentism of the natives is alto-
gether criminal, and in my opinion should be seen to by the
police, for it is becoming an actual danger to the State. I wager,
dreadful political machinations lurk behind this callousness, and
it would be a real service to draw the attention of the supreme
* In the first month of his Magdeburg stay he had sent to the Neue
Zeitschrift fur Musik, at Schumann's request, that article ' ' Pasticcio "
referred to on page 178. It will be found in volume eight of the Prose
Works. In the Bayreuther Blatter for Nov. 1884 and February 1885 Herr
Glasenapp deals with the relation between this article and Wagner's treatise
of sixteen years later on " Opera and Drama." W. A. E.
192 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
authorities to all the close societies, Casinos and so on for what
good thing can they be hatching ? But these people hide the true
nefarious objects of their meetings from the eye of the uninitiate
with marvellous success. Think of it ! they open each of these
seditious assemblies with a concert. Isn't that the refinement of
deceit? They lure good citizens, like myself, to their concert.
I enter a lighted room ; everything is arranged in the ordinary
fashion ; folk play symphonies, concertos, overtures, sing arias
and duets, and thus confirm one in the innocent belief it really
is an honest concert. But the indifference, boredom, unrest of
the audience can't escape a political instinct ; one plainly sees
the whole is but a mask to cheat the eye of the inquisitive ; the
nearer the concert approaches its end, the more wistfully are
the looks of the conspirators directed toward a big locked door.
What does it mean ? During the symphony's Adagio one catches
the rattle of plates close by. The unrest increases ; fortunately
the orchestra now creates a terrible uproar ; it seems devised to
drown the conspirators' shuffling of feet, their coughs and sneezes,
and thus divert our notice from those secret signals. The concert
is over, all rise ; honest people, like myself, pick up their hats,
then that suspicious door is opened, tell-tale odours stream
forth, the confederates close up their ranks, they pour into
the inner room, I am politely waved off, the hypocrisy is
clear to me. Let anyone deny that there is something very
wrong concealed here. For my part, I am surprised at the
remissness of the police."
At one of these Lodge-concerts he had his overture to Die
Feen performed ; it was received with much applause. But
things were not going so well with the fate of the work itself
at Leipzig ; merely deferred at first, the production was put
off from time to time under every nugatory pretext. Objection
was taken to the opera's being "composed throughout"; a
portion of the dialogue must be transposed into spoken prose.
After that, Ringelhardt declared the book ruined by the prose.
Hauser revealed himself to brother-in-law Friedrich Brockhaus
as an open and most obstinate antagonist : it would be better,
according to him, if the composer decided to withdraw the
work entirely for the present, but at least it was an imperative
necessity to get up Auber's Philtre first, for Michaelmas. In
October the solo parts were copied out at last ; Wagner was to
MAGDEBURG.
193
come over from Magdeburg for the trial of several extracts in
presence of the director. Then again, this project was declared
infeasible : it would be injurious to a first impression, if the
singers were to read their parts like that at sight; they must
be given time to study them, and perhaps the opera might yet
come out this side of Christmas. As late as the end of the
year, Schumann printed an encouraging note in the Neue Zeit-
schrift : "At Leipzig we are about to have Bellini's Norma and
a new opera, Die feen, by Richard Wagner." The announce-
ment was all that it came to ; Norma indeed got performed,
but not Richard Wagner's new opera. It had clearly been
shelved. Meantime the composition of Das Liebesverbot was
begun, and its totally different character weaned the musician
himself more and more from his earlier work. He lost all
interest in its fate, and as he no longer was able to push his
affair at Leipzig in person, he determined to trouble no further
about it. That meant as much as abandoning it completely,
for only by dint of continual dunning could he have hoped to
gain his end.
About Christmas he hastily threw off some music for a festival
text by Regisseur Wilhelm Schmale. It was a New Year's
cantata for the opening of 1835, adapted to local means and
conditions, and consisting of an overture and two choruses.
The overture in C minor, triple time, is a fairly long and power-
ful piece ; beginning Andante sostenuto,
Sostenuto
it passes into Allegro and a boisterous Presto. In an Allegretto
with chorus, following on the overture, use is made of that
Andante theme from the Symphony in C as a melodramatic
accompaniment to the mournful leave-taking of the expiring year.
The whole thing was very well received by the public. Easy
successes like this confirmed him in the opinion that, to please,
one must not be over-scrupulous in one's choice of means : " So
N
194 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
I went on with the composition of my Ltebesverbot, and took no
care whatever to shut off echoes from the French and Italian stage."
Such were the outward stimuli and general artistic influences
at work on him just now. In any town of 40,000 inhabitants, in
which he might have wielded the conductor's baton at the theatre,
they would have been pretty much the same ; and it was less on
his artistic, than his personal career, that his Magdeburg surround-
ings had a permanent effect. Since his entry on his new vocation
he had been charmed by one acquaintance in particular, that
of the leading juvenile actress in the Magdeburg company,
Wilhelmine Planer, born in Dresden and "as pretty as a
picture." Till now his closer knowledge of the female sex
apart from his purely artistic adoration of the Schroder-Devrient
had been confined to the immediate circle of his family, his
mother and sisters; anything else was but a fleeting pastime.
Even his art-creations reveal it : Arindal loves a fairy, a super-
natural being, an ideal that lifts him up above himself, as his art
the yearning artist; the first really human female in his works,
the Isabella of Das Liebesverbot, is not so much his own as
Shakespeare's, and sister, not beloved, of the nominal hero. With
the opening of this new chapter in his life we are reminded of his
words in Opera and Drama : " In the family the natural ties
become ties of wont ; and from wont, again, is evolved a natural
inclination of the children toward each other. But the earliest
breath of conjugal love is brought the stripling by an unaccustomed
object, confronting him entire from life outside. This attraction
is so overpowering, that it draws him from the wonted family-
surroundings, where exactly this had never presented itself, and
drives him forth to fare with the unwonted" (P.W. II., 181-2).
The " unwonted object," in this case, was in undoubted possession
of many winning qualities ; all contemporary accounts extol her
beauty, histrionic talent, and unassuming amiability. Her attrac-
tiveness would be enhanced by the contrast of her quiet, unim-
passioned nature with the motley theatrical crew in which their
first encounter happened, and amid which they were thrown into
almost daily contact by professional duties. The liking once
conceived, advanced with the same rapidity as every other feeling
in Wagner's strenuous breast : in less than half a year from their
first meeting, the pair were openly avowed betrothed.
Without going farther into this personal relation, for the
MAGDEBURG. 1 95
present, we will return to Wagner's artistic activity during his
Magdeburg period. The composition of the Liebesverbot was
going on, subject to temporary interruption by occasional efforts
such as that New Year's music. Chief among these was the
overture to a play of his friend Theodor Apel's, performed at
Magdeburg and called Columbus ; subsequently played in Leipzig,
Riga and Paris, this overture may be regarded in some sort as
the forerunner of that to the Flying Dutchman. " At the close
of the Middle Ages a new impulse led the nations forth to
voyage of discovery. The sea in turn became the soil of life ; no
longer the narrow land-locked sea of the Hellenic world, but the
ocean that engirdles all the earth. Goodbye to the old world;
the longing of Ulysses, back to home and hearth and wedded
wife, had mounted to the longing for a new, an unknown country,
invisible as yet, but dimly boded " (P. W. L, 307). These words
will convey the idea of the piece ; its realisation is thus described
by Dorn, after a hearing at Riga : " The conception and con-
struction of this overture one can only call true Beethovenian :
grand thoughts, bold cut of rhythm, the melody less predominant,
the working-out broad and intentionally massive, on the other
hand, the externals modern of the modern, wellnigh Bellinian ; I
simply tell the naked truth, when I state that in the Columbus
two valved trumpets are kept in constant motion, their united
parts covering fourteen and a half close-written pages."
Among these occasional pieces we even hear of the music for a
fairy-farce ; though none of it has come down to us. No less an
authority than Edward Dannreuther makes mention of it in the
"Orchestral and Choral" section of the "Chronological Lists"
appended to his admirable essay on Richard Wagner, in Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians , as follows : " Incidental music
songs to a ' Zauberposse ' by Gleich, ' Der Berggeist, oder
Die drei Wiinsche.' Magdeburg, 1836. (Unpublished, MS.
probably lost.)" A tradition, revived in the Oberfrankische
Zeitung, goes still farther, mixing up the names of Wagner, his
fiancee and others, in what is evidently intended to be a humorous
story concerning the irritation of the company at Bethmann's
getting up this silly farce, their purloining its original music from
the lodgings of the tenor to whose keeping it had been entrusted,
and Wagner's coming to the rescue of both parties with a hasty
composition of his own. But on the first of January 1877 the
196 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
master sends a letter to the editor of that journal, in which he
protests in most emphatic terms against the " mendacious intro-
duction " of his name and that of Minna Planer. He does not,
however, contradict in detail; so that it is possible that he really
wrote some incidental music for this Berggeist though the date
assigned by Mr Dannreuther would have to be altered from
" 1836" to 1835, the tenor in question having left Magdeburg in
the summer of the year last-named.
One of the most faithful and devoted friends of the Magdeburg
conductor was his " companion and consoler in all the troubles of
his cabined life there," his good dog Riipel. At first it insisted on
following him into the orchestra ; after its banishment thence, for
too acutely critical remarks, it would take a jaunt round the town
and wait in patience for its master at the stage-door. F. Avenarius
tells us that Riipel was always to be seen at Wagner's heels when
he went courting in blue swallow-tails and spotless ducks, and
once made an unexpected appearance in public. Wagner had been
conducting the entr'acte music of a play, and sat drinking a glass
of beer at the buffet : at this moment an evil-doer makes his exit,
leaving a highly moral character upon the stage ; on the " boards
that represent the world " there suddenly arrives no less a personage
than Riipel, in search of its master; despairing calls are heard
from the wings "Rrrr" the only answer. The actor pauses
shall he proceed ? He decides to ignore the intruder ; pointing
to the exit by which the stage-villain has just gone out, he resumes,
" He's just as shifty as his master." Unfortunately, Riipel now
stands on the very spot, to the hysterical delight of the audience.
At last the conductor himself arrives behind the scenes, coaxes
his dog off, and peace is restored. " Perhaps it was this selfsame
animal that accompanied him on a trip to Saxon Switzerland, and
wanted to follow the adventurous climber up the precipitous
heights of the Bastei : fearing lest it should come by a fall,
Wagner throws his handkerchief down for the hound to guard ;
after a brief conflict between divided duties, the sagacious creature
buries the handkerchief at the foot of the crag, and swarms the
summit to his master. This was a favourite anecdote from the
' History of my Dogs ' " (Wolzogen, Richard Wagner und die
Thierwelt, p. 17).
The season was over ; attended by his faithful hound, Wagner
MAGDEBURG. 197
returned to Leipzig until it should reopen. An accountable
pride withheld him from any fresh attempt to save his immolated
Feen. Not that it would have been at all likely to succeed ; for
even in the concert affairs of his birthplace a great change had
supervened. At the Gewandhaus "the days of homeliness had
come to end," since Felix Mendelssohn had stepped into the
shoes of kindly Pohlenz. At the beginning of October 1834,
just as Wagner was leaving Rudolstadt to take up his new
position at Magdeburg, Mendelssohn had made a few days'
halt in Leipzig on his road from Berlin to Diisseldorf, putting
up at Regisseur Hauser's, the manuscript-collector and enemy
of Die Feen, and taking stock of the Gewandhaus orchestra at
a rehearsal under Conzertmeister Matthai. Though he had
merely been a listener, it was enough to draw attention to
him; negotiations were commenced, to fix his rising star to
Leipzig. Half a year later, on the i6th April 1835, Pohlenz
whose merits and personality commanded universal sympathy
received his dismissal "in consequence of differences with
the committee, the origin of which cannot be stated in a
manner equally exonerative of both parties." *
Shortly before his dismissal, Pohlenz gave a performance of
Wagner's Columbus overture at one of the last Gewandhaus
concerts he ever conducted; in the previous season (1834) he
had been obliging enough to introduce the Feen overture to the
Leipzig public. With Mendelssohn's advent began the era of
these concerts' "lustre"; after a few months the general
adoration of the new conductor amounted to a veritable cult.
" Astounded at the ability of this still young master," says
Wagner of him, "I approached and handed him, or rather
pressed on him, the manuscript score of my Symphony in C,
with the request not even to look at it, but just to keep it
* This is how Dr E. Kneschke expresses it in his Geschichte der Gewand-
hausconzerte. He informs us, however, that Mendelssohn had previously
insisted on a definite assurance that no one would be set aside or injured
through his assuming the post. On the gth of March 1843 a festival-concert
was given in celebration of the centenary of these concerts, conducted by
Mendelssohn and followed by a banquet, to which Pohlenz came by invita-
tion. " He returned home in apparent health ; but perhaps the recollections
and excitement of that evening had a direct connection with the stroke of
apoplexy from which Pohlenz expired on the morning of the loth " (Kneschke,
p. 63).
198 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
by him. Of course I hoped he would peep into it nevertheless,
and some day say a word to me about it. But that some-day
never came. In course of years our several paths brought us
often in contact ; we met, ate, and even music-ed together once
in Leipzig . . . only about my symphony and its manuscript
never a word fell from his lips : reason enough for me never
to ask about its fate " (P. W, VI., 317).
From Leipzig Wagner made an excursion to Bad-Kosen near
Naumburg, for the purpose of meeting friend Laube. In this
little hamlet, with its fresh air and country life as yet unspoilt,
the author of " Young Europe " was recovering from many a
heavy blow incurred since their last companionship. His literary
activity had been a thorn in the side of Prussia, which stretched
its tentacles as far as Saxony ; and when he repaired to Berlin
to defend himself, the notorious sleuth-hound Herr von Tzschoppe
had just come by the happy thought that his quarry was a former
member of the Halle " Burschenschaft." Nine months of deten-
tion had told on the nerves of the once saucy champion of the
Dawning Century, and robbed him of all strength of mind and
body, till at last he was deported to Kosen under oath to come
up for judgment when called upon. Here Wagner visited him
on the Heerweg at pastrycook Hammerling's, where Laube had
taken lodgings and was writing novelettes to earn the keep of the
mare on whose back he took his daily constitutional. Their
past experiences and future plans were discussed at length, and
the diction of the Liebesverbot found unstinted favour in the eyes
of Laube.
The same summer our dramatist undertook a journey of
inspection, to secure fresh singers for the Magdeburg manage-
ment, touching at Nuremberg about the middle of August. Here
he unexpectedly lit on Frau Schroder-Devrient, doing a brief
" Gastspiel " on her way from Bad-Kissingen. The company at
the little Nuremberg theatre allowed of no great choice of pieces ;
beyond Fidelio there was nothing feasible save J. Weigl's
Schweizerfamilie. The artist complained that " Emmeline " was
one of her earliest juvenile roles, and she had played it till she was
sick to death of it ; Wagner also had fears of the performance,
for he naturally imagined that this washy opera with its antiquated
sentimentalism would weaken the impression hitherto made by
Frau Devrient on the public alike with himself. To his intense
MAGDEBURG. 199
surprise, it was this evening that first revealed to him the over-
whelming grandeur of the woman : " That a thing like the
impersonation of this Switzer maid cannot be turned into a
monument for all futurity ! " he exclaims nearly forty years later
(P.W. V., 223). Through the charm of her embodiment the
great artist not only raised the insignificant character of Emmeline
to the level of her noblest art, but taught the youthful master
that " that art cannot be held too high and holy." He had not
anticipated this new light on his fleeting visit to the old Master-
singers' city, and harder than ever did he estimate the task of the
dramatic tone-poet who would maintain his work on a level with
this marvellous impersonatrix.
Passing through Leipzig on his return-journey, he learnt the
news of the decease of his uncle Adolf, who had breathed his
last at the country-seat of his friend Count Hohenthal, the
generous patron of Seume. Here on the ist of August 1835 a
gentle death sealed those eyes which not so long ago had rested
on the lad of fifteen whose thirst for knowledge drew him to the
recluse in the midst of his books, to learn about Shakespeare and
Dante, Sophocles and Calderon. Did their glance search through
him then ? Again it rested on him when the lad had grown into
a youth, and, weathering the first wild turbulence of student life,
began to shew himself a staid composer of overtures and sym-
phonies, as if in pursuance of the uncle's counsel to his elder
brother Albert : " Think not that freedom is a wanton snatching at
the lures outspread by the outer world ! Nay, 'tis the abiding and
continuance in, or at least the speedy return in childlike obedience
to the Father-house from which we had played truant, the lively
memory of that Love which conceived and cherished us from
aye. Lay this to your heart ; for it well may prove the music to
be studied first, that will set exhaustless harmonies sounding in us.
Then, and not till then, should you apply yourself with diligence
to that other music, which is but an echo of this." But the
symphonist, in whom lay hid the future dramatist, went over to
the " opera " ; and to the uncle it was but the common " theatre,"
that " stall of Thalia " in which he had seen the children of his
brother's house " penned " one by one. So those eyes which had
dwelt with wellnigh marvel on the questioning boy, and thereafter
on the passionate youth, the rising young musician, had been
turned more seldom toward the Wurzburg chorus-master. And
2OO LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
now they were closed forever, at the very time the Magdeburg
conductor was devoting heart and soul to that " theatre " not
without inner doubts of its moral and artistic qualities, but
momentarily stifling all such doubts.
When Richard got back to Magdeburg, he found a good opera-
company assembled, chiefly through his own exertions. If the
season ended in disaster, it certainly was no fault of the conductor
or performers, but of the public's rooted callousness. Thus in the
Dresden Abendzeitung of Feb. 24 and 26, 1836, we have a report
from Magdeburg : " Hitherto but little had been heard of our
theatre, and that little not particularly edifying ; for, despite all
efforts of the management, it was impossible to get a good
ensemble together on the stage. It is all the more refreshing to
be able to report that this winter has presented our theatre-goers
with an admirable combination, especially in opera. We have
three sopranos, all good of their kind : Dlle. Schindler, an old
friend of ours; Dlle. Limbach from Frankfort-on-Main, with a
fresh and agreeable little voice ; and Mme. Pollert, a native of
S. Petersburg, never heard before, so far as we are aware, on
any German stage. The lady last-named is possessed of high
volubility, purity of intonation, and great dramatic power ; as
Rosina in the Barbiere, Julia in Montechi e Capuleti, Jessonda,
the Dame blanche, and above all Elise in Lestocq, she has earned
vociferous applause. . . . Our only fear is lest we should lose
her; for, notwithstanding the affluence of our city, the theatre
is poorly patronised, preference being unfortunately given to
more material pleasures such as suppers, balls, card-parties etc.,
etc. The opera is also well served by our two tenors, Herr
Freimiiller, the owner of a rich and pleasing voice, and Herr
Schreiber, still quite young, but of the fairest promise. Then
we have the barytone Krug, very good, and the bass Grafe, who,
if not too amply endowed by nature, yet displays great musical
knowledge and dramatic insight. The recited Play is not at all bad ;
its ranks are distinguished by the pair of Grabowski's, Dlle. Planer
[" Minna"], a very pretty young lady who is not above taking
pains to improve, and Herr Pollert, husband of the singer afore-
said."
We have also a brief unsigned account sent by Wagner to
Schumann's Zeitschrift at the close of the season, in which he
does not scruple to speak of himself in the third person. He
MAGDEBURG. 2OI
begins with a remark about those lodge-concerts, "at which a
well-balanced orchestra under a conductor full of fire and nuptial
bliss " makes excellent music from time to time, unheeded by the
public. Then he turns to the theatre : " What more could you
want, when I assure you that we had such an Opera this winter
as never before ? What do you say to everybody here acknowledg-
ing it and staying away? What do you say to this Opera being
unable to support itself, and having to be disbanded before the
end of the winter half-year ? What do you say to it, dear Sir ?
Joking apart, it's enough to anger anyone. Effort, chance and
fortune, had collected such an admirable operatic ensemble here
as could not possibly be bettered. I should like to see, for
instance, a theatre that could cast the soprano parts in Lestocq so
easily as we were able to, with the Pollert, the Limbach and the
Schindler Elisabeth, Katharina and Eudoxia. We had a capital
first tenor, Freimiiller, a second with a charming youthful chest-
voice, Schreiber, and a good basso Krug, who likewise schooled
our choristers quite splendidly. When I add that a young but
dexterous artist, like the musical director Richard Wagner, put
all his skill and spirit into the obtaining of a good effect, you
may imagine that we could not fail of getting true artistic treats.
Among these I may instance the representations of new operas
such as Jessonda, Norma, and Lestocq." . . .
The work last named, the latest-born of Auber's muse, had
first seen the footlights at the Paris Opera Comique only the year
before. Owing to its points of kinship with Masaniello, Wagner
had bestowed peculiar care on its Magdeburg production, and
done his best to emphasise whatever in it might recall the spirit
of that opera ; by a draft of soldier singers from the garrison he
had reinforced the Russian battalion, which appears on the scene
in support of a revolution, to an extent that much alarmed the
manager, but had a quite imposing effect. And yet the public's
lethargy, with the consequent disorder in the theatre's finances,
put a damper upon everything. So the reporter to Schumann's
paper, almost discarding his mask, continues as follows : " By
Herr Wagner, and the likes of him and myself, I see what a
torture it is to feel life tingling in every vein, and be condemned
to dwell in this city of trade and war. Here is nothing but a
highly decent dalliance, not even amounting to deliberate retro-
gression ; for that at least would be a movement, and one might
202 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
thus have the prospect of returning to the state of nature, which
would be passably agreeable as a change ! But no, things
stand."
Under these conditions there could be nothing more timely for
the young artist than to resume the composition of his Liebesverbot,
laid aside for some time, and finish it as rapidly as feasible in the
thick of his winter duties. Premature dissolution was an instant
peril, and there could be no thought of carrying on the enterprise
of worthy Bethmann under a different form. On the other hand,
Wagner confidently anticipated that the production of his opera
by the excellent company still at his disposal would prove a turn-
ing-point in his fortunes much needed, as the payment of salaries
had long been a thing of the past.
To refund the expenses of his business trip last summer he had
been promised a benefit-performance. Naturally he chose his
own last work for it, and did his best to make the cost as light as
possible. But as the management was obliged to make certain
disbursements for the mounting, it was agreed that the receipts of
the first performance should go to it, of the second to himself.
Indeed, he might rely upon a substantial profit ; for here was a
brand-new opera, instinct with life and fire, yet well within the
ordinary means. That its rehearsal and production were post-
poned to quite the end of the season, did not strike him as a
disadvantage ; for all the public's apathy, the singers had frequently
roused it to some show of interest ; and what with his own popu-
larity, and this being their last appearance, he might reckon on a
bumper house.
Unfortunately the legitimate close of the season, fixed for the
end of April 1836, never came at all. Owing to arrears of wages,
the principal members of the opera-company announced their
departure in March, to take more lucrative engagements ; tenor
Freimiiller had booked for Leipzig, Frau Pollert for the Konig-
stadter theatre in Berlin ; the directorate had no remedy. So
things looked black ; the chance of producing his opera seemed
more than doubtful. It was solely through the great esteem he
enjoyed with all the company that the singers were induced, not
only to stay on till the end of March, but also to go through the
drudgery of getting up at brief notice a work on whose score the
composer had scarcely set the finishing touch. If time was to be
allowed for two performances, there were but ten days for the
MAGDEBURG. 2O3
rehearsals ; and that for no simple singspiel, but a grand opera
with many lengthy ensemble-numbers.
However, vocal and orchestral parts were copied out, and
studied night and morning. The rooms on the ground-floor
of the theatre giving on to the Breiter Weg, then used for
soloist and chorus practice, were occupied each day, and the
young composer was up to his ears in rehearsing. Neverthe-
less it was inevitable that the obliging singers hardly knew half
of their parts by heart, and he had to reckon on a miracle
to be worked by his conductor's-wand. At the one or two
full rehearsals he managed to keep the thing afloat by continual
prompting, singing aloud, and pantomimic interjections ; so that
it really seemed it would not turn out much amiss. "Alas ! we
had forgotten that on the night itself, in presence of the public,
all these drastic means of oiling the wheels would have to shrink
to the beat of my baton and the dumb motion of my face"
(P. W. VII., 10).
And there were other obstacles to overcome. The police took
fright at the suggestive title, " Love Forbidden," which, if the
author had not agreed to change it, would in itself have shattered
all his hopes. It was Passion Week, when merry, not to say
" improper " pieces were tabooed from the theatre. Luckily the
magistrate with whom he had to deal was a gentleman who had
not duly qualified for the post of Reader of Plays, and when
Wagner assured him that his plot was founded on a highly
serious play of Shakespeare's, he contented himself with accept-
ing the proposed alteration to " The Novice of Palermo," which
really sounded quite ecclesiastic. The case was worse for the
spectators : a book would have very much helped them to follow
the story ; but the management couldn't afford any more printing.
So the day of production arrived, Tuesday the 2Qth of March
1836. A night-rehearsal of the orchestra had preceded it, to
which the bandsmen had been inveigled by the prospect of a
solid supper, good Magdeburgers ! The house filled remark-
ably well, but the singers, especially the males, were so uncertain
of their parts that a general mystification prevailed from beginning
to end. The first tenor, blest with the flimsiest memory in the
world, endeavoured to trick out the role of Luzio with reminis-
cences of Fra Diavolo and Zampa, and more by token with
a nodding plume of many-coloured feathers. With exception
2O4 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
of a few applauded numbers for the lady singers, the whole
brisk and energetic action " remained a musical shadow-play
on the stage, which the orchestra did its best to drown in
inexplicable torrents." The performance was a nightmare to
all concerned: the dialogue being sung throughout, not a soul
could catch a word of it ; yet whatever went the least bit well,
was valiantly cheered.
Perfectly aware that his work had made no real impression,
and that nobody had the remotest idea what it all was about,
Wagner nevertheless counted on good, nay, grand receipts from
the second performance his Benefit and the positively last
appearance of the company ; so that nothing could dissuade him
from standing out for so-called "full prices." But an evil star
seemed to reign over the work. A quarter of an hour before
curtain-rise a quarrel broke out between the husband of the
prima donna, "Isabella," and the second tenor, "Claudio," a
regular Adonis. The jealous husband thought the hour had
come for squaring accounts with the gallant of his wife : poor
Claudio was so knocked about that he had to retire to the
vestiary with a bleeding face. Isabella got wind of it, rushed
upon her raging husband, and herself received such blows that
she straightway went into hysterics. Sides were taken for and
against; in a few minutes the whole company was engaged in
generally paying off old debts. Whatever the upshot may have
been, thus much was certain : the pair of sufferers from Isabella's
husband's love-forbiddal were rendered quite incapable of coming
on that night. The stage-manager was sent before the curtain,
to inform the singularly select company in front that " on account
of unexpected obstacles " there would be no performance.
A battle royal between the singers who were to have repeated
his first-presented opera that was the last impression Wagner
bore away from his earliest conductorship at a German theatre.
From a material point of view, moreover, nothing could have
been more unfortunate than the collapse of his benefit-perform-
ance. If at this his entry on a self-supporting career it were
a question of gaining experience, not merely of his art, but of
life in general, he might apply to himself with terrible conviction
that line of Goethe's, " Experience consists in one's experiencing
what one has no wish to."
IV.
ROSALIE WAGNER.
External straits. Leipzig: attempts to get "Das Liebesverbot"
accepted. Solicitude of sister Rosalie. Her temporary eclipse as
actress. Rosalias marriage with Oswald Marbach : birth of a
daughter, and the mother's death.
If the Artist's temperament is a peculiarly inflammable
one, he has to pay for it through being the only real
sufferer thereby ; whereas the cold-blooded can always find
the wool to warm him.
RICHARD WAGNER.
A SPELL of care and privations now lay before the youthful master.
Immediately after the brawl at the theatre the exponents of his
Liebesverbot) already straining at the leash, dispersed in all
directions. Director Bethmann renewed his infelicitous experi-
ments at Stralsund, next at Rostock; "Luzio" Freimuller went
to Leipzig, Frau Pollert and Frl. Limbach to the Konigstadt theatre
in Berlin, and so forth. Behind stayed none but Wagner's local
creditors, and none too few of them. His earliest taste of manly
independence had led him into many a folly ; " the seriousness
of life announced itself," short commons and debts on every hand.
On the nth of April, exactly ten days after the frustration of his
last hopes of Magdeburg, a marriage took place at the church of
S. Nicholas in Dresden that of his sister Ottilie to the brilliant
Sanscrit scholar Dr Hermann Brockhaus, younger brother of the
publisher, who had settled down in comfortable private circum-
stances after a long absence in Copenhagen, Paris, London and
Oxford. Wagner was not at the wedding, but in solitude at
distant Magdeburg, passing through a bitter time of fruitless
struggle, too proud to ask the help of more prosperous connec-
tions, yet with no immediate prospect either of employment else-
where or of a repetition of his new opera.
205
2O6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
Looking back in after life (1851), he says that the solitary per-
formance of Das Liebesverbot, " pursued with headstrong obstinacy
under the most adverse conditions," caused him much momentary
vexation, yet the experience was quite unequal to cure him of the
levity with which he then regarded everything. No other person
is entitled to endorse so harsh a verdict. Without the dash of
"levity," with which he may have had to reproach himself down
to that date, he would not have been precisely Wagner. On the
other hand, if we consider the various factors in his outward
situation, the extraordinary haphazardness of the Magdeburg
management, the non-payment of salaries, and final bankruptcy
of the theatre, it is difficult to say what other, better thing he
could have done in the circumstances, than what he actually did.
For the present there was nothing for it, but to set his teeth, and
prepare in seclusion for a turn of the tide. To these endeavours
belongs the report to Schumann's journal already cited, written
April 19, 1836. At its close he speaks of the "hurried and
scamped" performance of his opera, though he naturally refers
to the work itself with great reserve : " I cannot conceive what
could have moved the composer to bring out a work like this at
Magdeburg. For that matter, I regret my inability to express myself
at length about it, what is a single performance, and that not even
a clear and intelligible one? Of this much I am sure, however:
the work will succeed, if the composer has the luck to get it given
at good places. There's a good deal in it ; and what pleased me,
was the ring of the thing ; it is all music and melody, which we
have to make some search for in our German Opera nowadays."
In the interest of this work he next returned to Leipzig for
awhile : where else than in the city of his birth, where his first-
fruits had been welcomed with encouraging applause, might he
count on a production of this opera ? The work itself displayed
so little prudery towards the prevailing Franco-Italian craze, that
he well might hope to edge it in, instead of the abandoned
Feen. Once more he opened negotiations with Ringelhardt. Un-
fortunately that wily speculator had just reaped a very bad
experience with the mounting of a new romantic opera by
Marschner, Die Feuerbraut, oder : das Schloss am ^Etna (text by
Klingemann) : too visible use had been made in it of every known
expedient to create effect; applause had been half-hearted, and
the opera vanished from the repertory after a very few per-
ROSALIE WAGNER. 2OJ
formances. To coax the director's interest in his latest work,
Wagner suggested his daughter, a debutante at the Leipzig Opera,
for the part of Marianne. It did not help him, for the " heavy
father" of Iffland and Kotzebue pieces took refuge in the colourable
plea that, quite apart from other difficulties in the way of any
operatic novelty for the moment, he had a strong objection to
the young- European tendence of the subject, and "even if the
Leipzig magistrates were to permit the representation which
his respect for those authorities made him very much doubt
as a conscientious parent he could not possibly allow his daughter
to appear in it." This categorical display of an acutely moral
sense cut off the only hope that could have buoyed the author in
his desperate situation. With artistic comrades such as Schumann
and Carl Banck the latter of whom had been introduced to him
at Magdeburg, and expressed himself very favourably about the
music of Das Liebesverbot he came into but passing contact in
the present call at Leipzig; access to the Gewandhaus concerts
was, and remained, denied him : there was little to detain him in
a natal town that seemed so changed.
In his family circle, after his mother, none took so keen an
interest in his fate as his darling sister Rosalie. If in a sense we
may compare the Wagner of this period with his Tannhauser,
impetuous and all aglow, Rosalie's unwavering faith in him, when
all had given him up, may be likened to that of his Elisabeth.
Features of her character have been transferred by him to the
pure and lofty figure of Isabella ; in after years the mother .would
speak of her as " angel Rosalie," " my sainted Rosalie " ; and when
the outer and inner distance between him and his increased, it
was her responsive heart that felt true sorrows of Elisabeth. It
was she who had lately put forth all her strength to move the
Director and Kapellmeister to produce Die Feen, and taken on
herself in Richard's name to foil their every subterfuge. That
opera's varying prospects stand recorded in the shower of letters
with which she kept him posted at Magdeburg, several of which,
on natty gilt-edged green paper, were treasured piously by Richard,
and form a precious hoard at Wahnfried ; letters in which she in-
forms her brother how "in spite of rain and storm she had just
come from Stegmayer," or what new excuses that sly fox Ringelhardt
had manufactured for his broken promise. But she would not have
been the refined and noble creature that she was, had she
208 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
possessed an atom of that wheedling talent for intrigue which
alone could have secured a victory. On the contrary, it must
have been a great grief to her that, at the very time when her
personal influence might have aided her brother's cause, her own
renown as actress was temporarily eclipsed by pushing rivals.
The period of three years, to which we allude, begins precisely
with the advent of the Ringelhardt dictatorship, and is sufficiently
reflected in public references to her acting. Even in an earlier
report on her interpretation of the dumb role in Auber's Masaniello
we find intrusion of the unctuous wish : " We are a little curious
to see Fenella played for once by a passionate brunette, more in
keeping with the fiery south-Italian character " (Abendzeitung, Feb.
1830). With the beginning of the actual Ringelhardt regime, in
August 1832, the "brunette" principle obeyed the invocation in
shape of a truly oriental beauty, a Dem. Reimann, who particularly
bewitched the Leipzigers as Juliet. At first it was merely : " We
cannot gainsay her talent and a certain routine, but she still stands
very much in need of art and finish" (ibid. Aug. 1832). Then
barely six months later the balance turns distinctly in her favour :
" Among the ladies of the company we must give first place to
Dem. Reimann, a young, intelligent and delightful actress, who
several times already has worked incomparably as 'leading
juvenile.' The third rank is taken by Dem. Rosalie Wagner : in
tragedy this lady has but one role in which she merits unstinted
praise and cordial admiration of her powers of conception and
portrayal the role of Gretchen in Faust. Her rivalry with Dem.
R. we are thinking, among other things, of the Stumme von
Portia has not had the happiest result for herself" (ibid. April
1833). And again a year after, August 1834 : " Dem. Wagner,
in frequent conflict with Dem. R., is often in a disagreeable plight ;
and it appears as if the nimbus wrested by her fortunate rival not
seldom puts her in the shade in the eyes of the public. Never-
theless she has her due share of approval, and will continue to
enjoy it so long as the rendering of Gretchen in Goethe's Faust
finds just recognition." Not until after the departure of the
dangerous " brunette " now Mme. Dessoir (? Dessauer), engaged
in 1835 at Breslau do we find our Rosalie described once more
as the undisputed "first and only prop of comedy" (ibid. Feb.
1835). These extracts not only will shew the machinations with
which the earnest artist had then to contend, but also form a
ROSALIE WAGNER. 2O9
characteristic page in the history of the German Theatre : the
opening paragraph of that chapter with the grandiloquent motto
" Ab oriente lux" whose peroration is not yet, the commence-
ment of the Judaic dynasty.
After what has been said of Rosalie Wagner on previous
occasions, it will be readily believed that so finely-tempered a
nature would suffer under unmerited slights, but never could be
moved to bitterness or anger. Her mother writes : " She had no
wish to seem to be more than she was." She was the last person
in the world to be blind to her own shortcomings ; conscious,
often grievously so, of the bounds to her artistic powers, she
always strove most sedulously for improvement. The grace of
her pliant figure and her maiden tenderness of touch, without a
tinge of coquetry or affectation, won the hearts of all spectators ;
her voice had many an affecting accent, and she succeeded the
most surely where she put it to the smallest strain. Traces of
mannerism would creep in, according to the evidence before
us, when too pronounced an effort had been made ; in passionate
parts she would let herself be betrayed into a certain restless-
ness : but, more than any study, it was her truly feminine
personality that lent its unity and roundness to each of her
embodiments ; and that personality shed no less a charm on the
creations of her art, than on her actual relationships as daughter,
sister and wife.
When Richard quitted Leipzig again in the summer of 1836,
to seek relief in any distant corner from the utter hopelessness
at home, she bade him a solicitous goodbye. Never again was
he to see his sister, and it was amid fresh hardships in that
distance that he learnt the harrowing tidings of her death. Soon
after that goodbye she became the bride of a young and talented
writer, Dr Gotthard Oswald Marbach, who had been practising
for the last three years as tutor of philosophy and physics at the
University of Leipzig, and won universal esteem through his
thorough-going energy and many-sided culture. On the 24th
October, 1836, Rosalie Wagner gave him her hand in the selfsame
parish-church at Schbnefeld where her grandfather had been
married years ago.
It was a wrench to the mother, to be deprived of this daughter
who had dwelt the longest with her, and to whom she clove with
an almost reverential love ; but she had the consolation of know-
O
2IO LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
ing her appreciated by her husband, and herself always welcome
in her children's house. "They were quite wrapped up in one
another and their quiet home ; its ordering was pretty, clean
and neat, but unpretentious ; so that all who went to visit them
were gratified and glad," she herself says in a letter preserved at
Wahnfried, " and so I had this daughter yet, saw her, and saw her
in the arms of a respected husband." In a story written shortly
after Rosalie's death ("Der Pietist," Jahreszeiten, Leipzig 1839)
Marbach depicts the course and sudden termination of their
wedded happiness, under the fictitious names of " Bettina and
S." An abridgement of that narrative may serve better than
any description of our own :
" Bettina was the most delightful hostess ; her husband,
familiar with the literature of every cultured nation, supplied her
quick intuitive brain with ample food. Even the excitability
common to both their natures appeared to heighten the charm
of their companionship. Experience of life had given her a
gentleness that promptly quelled each momentary wave of annoy-
ance. It was wonderful, how swiftly she would reconsider any
view of hers if S. gainsaid it : in such cases she would mollify
him with a tender word, and then proceed to think the whole
thing out in silence, until she burst forth with a joyful ' See, I
have it now. Now I understand it ! ' And then she would back
up his own opinion, but recently at variance with hers, with
reasons often better than he could have advanced for it himself.
Is it a matter for surprise, that S. should have almost deified a
wife like that ? ' All the pleasures of my childhood have come
back to me,' he often cried, ' but we're living, too, like children.
Can you imagine it? I cannot fall asleep, if I don't feel her
hand in mine. No earthly joy, no transport of passion, could
surpass the blessed peace that takes me when I gaze in this pure
being's eye.'
" Winter slips by, without the happy couple ever finding it too
long. In spring Bettina feels the presage of a mother's hope.
One balmy evening they are strolling arm-in-arm beneath the
cherry-blossoms of their garden : ' She seemed engaged in gloomy
thought, and when I asked her anxiously the reason, she gave a
blushing answer.' She is tortured with the fear that the life of
her child will be her death ; she listens mutely to his words of
cheer, but cannot force the tears back. ' Ah ! ' she sighs, 'were
ROSALIE WAGNER. 2 I I
I but granted one year more, to taste my happiness ! ' Her
husband almost harshly checks the thought implied ; she smiles,
but speaks not, then turns towards the house. When he comes
into the parlour she runs to meet him with an eerie laugh :
' Look ! I've been working out a problem, whether 'twere best
for you that I remain alive, or not ; and as it turns out that you
need me very much, I believe God's justice won't allow us to be
severed yet.' Sobbing she sank on his breast, but from the
beatific smile upon her face one could see that her tears were of
joy." So far Marbach, in whose Buck der Liebe we find a whole
series of sonnets devoted to the memory of his wife.
At Wahnfried there exists a letter in which the mother relates
a conversation held with Rosalie about the absent brother, when
her daughter had bewailed that sister Louise placed too little
confidence in his gifts and future. In fact there was then a little
rift between Wagner and his brother-in-law Friedrich Brockhaus,
cutting off the last hope of supplies from home to the struggling
artist. How to lend a helping hand, how to reconcile the two,
assuredly preoccupied full many of her leisure hours. Meanwhile
the autumn of 1837 approached, setting an ever greater outward
space between her and her brother (who had just gone off to
Riga), and drawing fine the thread of her own life. On the yth
of October she gave birth to a daughter, Margarethe Johanna
Rosalie ; five days later Thursday the 1 2th that thread of life
was snapped. .
No other source being open to us, we will draw our account of
her end from Marbach's tale, so obviously based on reality. " She
had left her bed a few days after her confinement ; S. himself and
the doctor had persuaded her to do so, as she appeared to be quite
well. There were many little things to alter in the arrangement
of the rooms, owing to the arrival of the tiny stranger; these
changes she herself conducted, with an activity wellnigh preter-
natural in view of her condition : she suddenly fell ill, and died
that day."
V.
KONIGSBERG.
Berlin disappointments. Konigsberg. Letter to Dorn. Draft
of "Die hohe Braut" despatched to Scribe for Paris. Marriage
with Minna Planer. " Rule Britannia" overture. Concerts in
the crush-room. Incidental music to a play. Relations with A.
Lewald. Dresden: Buhver's " Rienzi"
The modern requital of modern levity soon rapped at my
door. I fell in love; married in headstrong haste; tor-
tured myself ana other with the discomforts of a poverty-
stricken home ; and thus fell into that misery whose nature
it is to bring thousands upon thousands to the ground.
RICHARD WAGNER.
WAGNER had gone to Berlin in the middle of May 1836 without
the smallest certain prospect. He had nothing to expect from
the Court-opera, under Spontini's control; but he knew that
several members of the disbanded Magdeburg company were
now employed at the smaller Konigstadter theatre. He therefore
placed himself in communication with the director of the latter,
Cerf by name, and offered him the Liebesverbot. Fortune, indeed,
at last seemed smiling on him ; he was received with open arms,
and felt in clover for the present. His three-and-twentieth birth-
day, passed in solitude, was gilded with the glitter of false hopes.
A few days later he writes to Schumann (May 28), " I shall remain
here for a month or two, and, by arrangement with Cerf, as soon
as Glaser takes his holiday I am to undertake his duties [of
conductor] at the Konigstadter house. During my locum-tenens-
ship I shall produce my opera." He apologises for having left
Leipzig without saying adieu : " I was in a trivial state, and
wished to spare you a trivial farewell." *
* While in Berlin he also sent Schumann a contribution for the Neue
Zeitschrift in which it did not appear, however signed with the pseudonym
KONIGSBERG. 21$
His sojourn in the Prussian capital, with its "philosophic
pietism,"* its scribbling diplomats a la Varnhagen, and its
babbling art-critics a la Ludwig Rellstab about whom he
remarks to Schumann, "You would scarcely believe the harm
this man is doing here " could offer him but little of attractive.
His sole reward was the hearing of a performance of Ferdinand
Cortez under Spontini's own baton, when he was specially im-
pressed by the almost military precision of the supers' evolutions :
the wand of the exacting maestro had here become a marshal's
staff, a ruler's sceptre. In 1860 he refers to this particular
performance as one of those that had given him an insight
into "the quite unparalleled effect of certain dramatico-musical
combinations ; an effect of such depth, such inwardness, and
yet so direct a vividness, as no other art is able to produce"
(P. W, III., 304).
As for his personal condition, he was penniless and simply
ticking off the days to entry on the function promised him.
After two months' waiting in vain, he had to repeat the sour
experience that not one promise had been squarely meant.
In the worst of circumstances, he put an end to his stay in
Berlin.
It was no use going back to Leipzig; so he betook himself
to Konigsberg in Prussia, where the prospect of a musical
conductorship had opened at the very moment of his grossest
undeception in Berlin. His fiancee, Minna Planer, was engaged
at Konigsberg as actress; this was the magnet that drew him
to the ultimate North-East of Germany. In that Magdeburg
New Year's festival, for which he had employed the Andante
theme of his Symphony in expression alike of the old year's
leave-taking and his own farewell to his young ideals, it was
her prepossessing figure that clad the new year on the stage;
to him she seemed marked out by fate to form the "new
" Wilhelm Drach," an anagram of "-chard." This pseudonym is of interest,
since the master used it again, three-and-thirty years later, for his article on
Eduard Devrient and his Style (1869). Other of his pseudonyms, "Canto
Spianato," " W. Freudenfeuer " and " H. Valentino," we meet in course of
the present volume ; whilst Judaism in Music originally appeared above the
signature "Karl Freigedank " (1850).
* "What time the whole of Germany lays bare its heart to the musical
gospel according to Felix Mendelssohn, this ardour has been catered for in
Berlin by philosophic pietism" (P. W. VII., 143 written in 1841).
214 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
year " of his private calendar. As there were no enterprising
theatrical agencies in those days, it was she who had acquainted
him with the approaching vacancy at Konigsberg, what more
natural, than that he should obey her call? The inhospitable
aspect of his birthplace had forced him from the circle of his
family ; in any case he saw himself consigned to a foreign port :
in this East-Prussian Residenz he might hope not only for an
appointment, but also for the satisfaction of a pressing need.
At the beginning of August he arrived in the natal city of
E. T. A. Hoffmann, where Friedrich I. had crowned himself first
King of Prussia, but still more famous as the whilom residence
of Kant. Unfortunately he soon discovered that the hoped-for
vacancy would not come off just yet. Hiibsch, himself a capital
young actor, was then director of the Konigsberg theatre ; its
musical conductor was Louis Schuberth, engaged in a similar
capacity before at Riga, whither he was to have returned this
autumn. It was upon this that Minna had counted, when she in-
duced her fiance to leave Berlin. But, as Wagner writes to Dorn
on August 7, " Schuberth no longer seems to have the slightest
inclination to depart; God knows what chains him but here
he stops." In a footnote to this letter Dorn tells us what the
" chain " was : an interesting affair with a no less interesting
first-singer at the Konigsberg theatre, Henriette Grosser, "a
star of the first magnitude, invaluable to Opera," as the Allg.
mus. Ztg. of that year expresses it, but unluckily too prone to
twinkling with her feet, for " it is said that this very young
lady is fonder of dancing than of scales and exercises, with
frequent hoarseness as a consequence." It was all very pleasant
for Schuberth ; but this sudden change in his intentions had a
dire effect on the prospects which had tempted Wagner to the
remotest nook of Germany. Having drawn so near to the
Russian frontier, it therefore struck him that, as his colleague
could not possibly lay claim to both appointments, he might
as well apply for that which Schuberth seemed to have abandoned,
and aim at Riga if only he could get his bride engaged there
too. From " Prussian Siberia " he bent his glance still farther
toward the Northern East, knowing that his old Leipzig friend
and " patron " Heinrich Dorn had been a resident in the Lithuanian
capital for several years.
After the disestablishment of the Leipzig Court-theatre, Dorn
KONIGSBERG. 215
had made his way through Hamburg to Riga, where he at first
found occupation at the Opera ; since then, as Town Cantor and
Conductor, he had been sending Schumann's Zeitschrift roseate
accounts from time to time of musical festivities among others,
of the first general Music-Festival of the Russian Baltic Provinces,
got up by himself in June. Recalling Dorn's previous courtesy,
Wagner resolved to beg his friendly offices, in the first place to supply
him with more intimate particulars of the state of things at Riga.
"For the last two years," his letter says, "I ci-devant dreamer
and Beethovenite have entered a practical career, and you'd
be fairly astounded at the radical transformation of my extremist
views on music. Now fate and love have bundled me to Konigs-
berg, where I fancied I had solid hopes of an engagement ; and
the only reason for their probable destruction is that I had
deceived myself when I believed Fferr Sch. would return to Riga
this autumn." He accordingly inquires if there is a passable
theatre, including opera, even at this time of year in Riga, and
whether it would be advisable and to one's credit to take a post
there. " My betrothed, Fraulein Planer, at present engaged here
as first juvenile lady, in that case would follow me, as she has
already had offers from that quarter, which she naturally would
not accept unless I were engaged there too. How delighted I
should be, to be able to present her to yourself and your estim-
able wife, and commend us as a youthful couple to your kind-
ness." Toward the end of the letter he says, " There are certain
relations in life which always remain the same. So I certainly
shall never arrive at another position towards yourself, than that
of ward and protege to you my guardian and protector. That
is obvious enough to me from this first resumption since so
long." And so it might have continued, at least for awhile,
as Dorn had the advantage of seniority; but unhappily events
soon proved that Wagner was willing enough to maintain the
relationship, but Dorn was not the man for it.
He had asked for an answer to be sent poste-restante to the
little town of Memel on the Kurisches Haff. Before the opening
of their regular "season," the Konigsberg company had a series
of comedy and opera performances to give at this out-of-the-way
extremity of Eastern Prussia; they went there the second week
of August, Wagner with them, and returned the middle of
September. Dorn's answer duly arrived ; its report on Riga was
2l6 LIFE OF RICHARD WAGNER.
not encouraging: stage matters there were rather in a fix just
then ; the Riga theatre was on the point of complete suspension,
until it could be placed on a firmer basis by a substantial sum to
be subscribed by local tradesmen. So our hero had to fall back
on his dubious prospects at Konigsberg. It was a time of want
and deprivation, without one break in the clouds.
However, no matter what the outer pressure, nothing could rob
him of his ingrained elasticity : if the screw was relaxed but an
instant, he came up smiling once again. Only, his creative
impulse suffered sorely; this enforced leisure was not of that
agreeable kind which allows a man to muster all his forces for a
major task. Yet his restless brain was full of projects, and he set
about attempting to start connections far and wide. With his
sense of strength and faculty, what binding reason was there for
his dooming himself to moulder away in small provincial German
theatres? Was there not a larger, freer world outside? "One
strong desire arose in me, and grew into an all-consuming
passion : to force my way out from the paltry squalor of my
situation. This desire, however, was busied only in the second
line with Life ; its front rank made towards a brilliant course as
Artist. To vault the petty circuit of the German stage, and
straightway try my luck in Paris, this, in the end, was the goal I
set before me" (P. W. I., 297). The glamour of Paris, the only
actual sovereign of dramatic music and literature, the pattern
which the largest German theatres all toiled to copy with the
utmost cost and slavish exactitude in every possible detail of
scenery, machinery and costume, at the present stage of his
development it exercised on him the greatest power of attraction.
The tempting thought sprang up in him, to throw off the incubus
at one thrust, break through the fetters of this cramping German
hole-and-cornerism, and make a dash for the arena of bold artistic
triumphs.
Always abreast of contemporary literature, about this time he
fell in with Heinrich Konig's recent novel Die hohe Braut. " All
that I read had but one interest for me, namely its adaptability
for an opera : in the mood I then was in, that reading conjured
up before my eyes the vision of a grand five-act opera for Paris "
(ibid.}. He drafted a full sketch at once, complete in every point
save versification ; and off it went " in passable French transla-
tion " to SCRIBE the world-renowned librettist of the Huguenots
KONIGSBERG. 2 I 7
which had taken Paris by storm that selfsame year,* and already
run through forty representations to the comforting tune of three-
hundred thousand francs. In a letter of enclosure he proposed
that Scribe, if the subject pleased him, should undergo the trifling
pains of versifying it, or otherwise, as he deemed best : " In that
case " as he writes to August Lewald two years later " I would
have composed the opera, and left him to bring it out in Paris
under his authority and with his name as poet. The profits to
accrue from the affair, so far as he wished to avail himself of
them, I naturally should have placed at his disposal ; the least a
nameless German composer could do in the circumstances." To
make sure of the sketch and letter reaching their destination, he
sent both to his brother-in-law Friedrich Brockhaus, who had
continual business relations with Paris, for further expedition.
Meanwhile the wretched state of his finances could not prevent
his taking the fatal plunge into matrimony. On the 24th of
November 1836, in the Tragheimer Church at Konigsberg,
Wilhelm Richard Wagner married Christine Wilhelmine Planer,
one year his junior, third daughter of a Dresden " mechanicus "
Gotthilf Planer. According to the present incumbent, Minister
von Behr, the entry in the register was made by Minister Johann
Friedrich Hapsel (?), who thus would appear to have officiated at
the ceremony. This entry states that the sponsus was born on
the 22nd of May 1813, and has a mother still living in Dresden;
the sponsa has the sanction of her par 
