,,the ,,perfect ,,wagnerite3 ,a         
,,commentary ,,on ,,the ,,niblung',s    
,,ring  by ,bernard ,shaw     ,preface  
to the ,first ,german ,edition  ,in     
reading through this ,german version of 
my book in the ,manuscript of my friend 
,siegfried ,trebitsch1 ,i was struck by 
the inadequacy of the merely negative   
explanation given by me of the          
irrelevance of ,night ,falls ,on ,the   
,gods to the general philosophic scheme 
of ,the ,ring4 ,that explanation is     
correct as far as it goes2 but1 put as  
,i put it1 it now seems to me to suggest
 that the operatic character of ,night  
,falls ,on ,the ,gods was the result of 
indifference or forgetfulness produced  
by the lapse of twenty-five years       
between the first projection of the work
 and its completion4 ,now it is clear   
that in whatever other ways ,wagner may 
have changed1 he never became careless  
and he never became indifferent4 ,i have
 therefore inserted a new section in    
which ,i show how the revolutionary     

history of ,western ,europe from the    
,liberal explosion of #ahdh to the      
confused attempt at a socialist1        
military1 and municipal administration  
in ,paris in #ahga 7that is to say1 from
 the beginning of ,the ,niblung's ,ring 
by ,wagner to the long-delayed          
completion of ,night ,falls ,on ,the    
,gods71 demonstrated practically that   
the passing away of the present order   
was going to be a much more complicated 
business than it appears in ,wagner's   
,siegfried4 ,i have therefore           
interpolated a new chapter which will   
perhaps induce some readers of the      
original ,english text to read the book 
again in ,german4  ,for some time to    
come1 indeed1 ,i shall have to refer    
,english readers to this ,german edition
 as the most complete in existence4  ,my
 obligation to ,herr ,trebitsch for     
making me a living ,german author       
instead of merely a translated ,english 
one is so great that ,i am bound to     
point out that he is not responsible for

 my views or ,wagner's1 and that it is  
as an artist and a man of letters1 and  
not as a propagandist1 that he is       
conveying to the ,german speaking       
peoples political criticisms which      
occasionally reflect on contemporary    
authorities with a ,european reputation 
for sensitiveness4 ,and as the very     
sympathy which makes his translations so
 excellent may be regarded with         
suspicion1 let me hasten to declare ,i  
am bound to ,germany by the ties that   
hold my nature most strongly4 ,not that 
,i like the average ,german3 nobody     
does1 even in his own country4 ,but then
 the average man is not popular         
anywhere2 and as no ,german considers   
himself an average one1 each reader     
will1 as an exceptional man1 sympathize 
with my dislike of the common herd4 ,and
 if ,i cannot love the typical modern   
,german1 ,i can at least pity and       
understand him4 ,his worst fault is that
 he cannot see that it is possible to   
have too much of a good thing4 ,being   

convinced that duty1 industry1          
education1 loyalty1 patriotism and      
respectability are good things 7and ,i  
am magnanimous enough to admit that they
 are not altogether bad things when     
taken in strict moderation at the right 
time and in the right place71 he        
indulges in them on all occasions       
shamelessly and excessively4 ,he commits
 hideous crimes when crime is presented 
to him as part of his duty2 his craze   
for work is more ruinous than the craze 
for drink2 when he can afford secondary 
education for his sons you find three   
out of every five of them with their    
minds lamed for life by examinations    
which only a thoroughly wooden head     
could go through with impunity2 and if a
 king is patriotic and respectable 7few 
kings are7 he puts up statues to him and
 exalts him above ,charlemagne and      
,henry the ,fowler4 ,and when he meets a
 man of genius1 he instinctively insults
 him1 starves him1 and1 if possible1    
imprisons and kills him4  ,now ,i do not

 pretend to be perfect myself4 ,heaven  
knows ,i have to struggle hard enough   
every day with what the ,germans call my
 higher impulses4 ,i know too well the  
temptation to be moral1 to be           
self-sacrificing1 to be loyal and       
patriotic1 to be respectable and        
well-spoken of4 ,but ,i wrestle with it 
and--as far as human fraility will      
allow--conquer it1 whereas the ,german  
abandons himself to it without scruple  
or reflection1 and is actually proud of 
his pious intemperance and              
self-indulgence4 ,nothing will cure him 
of this mania4 ,it may end in           
starvation1 crushing taxation1          
suppression of all freedom to try new   
social experiments and reform obsolete  
institutions1 in snobbery1 jobbery1     
idolatry1 and an omnipresent tyranny in 
which his doctor and his schoolmaster1  
his lawyer and his priest1 coerce him   
worse than any official or drill        
sergeant3 no matter3 it is respectable1 
says the ,german1 therefore it must be  

good1 and cannot be carried too far2 and
 everybody who rebels against it must be
 a rascal4 ,even the ,social-,democrats 
in ,germany differ from the rest only in
 carrying academic orthodoxy beyond     
human endurance--beyond even ,german    
endurance4 ,i am a ,socialist and a     
,democrat myself1 the hero of a hundred 
platforms1 one of the leaders of the    
most notable ,socialist organizations in
 ,england4 ,i am as conspicuous in      
,english ,socialism as ,bebel is in     
,german ,socialism2 but do you suppose  
that the ,german ,social-,democrats     
tolerate me8 ,not a bit of it4 ,i have  
begged again and again to be taken to   
the bosom of my ,german comrades4 ,i    
have pleaded that the                   
,super-,proletarians of all lands should
 unite4 ,i have pointed out that the    
,german ,social-,democratic party has   
done nothing at its ,congresses for the 
last ten years except the things ,i told
 them to do ten years before1 and that  
its path is white with the bones of the 

,socialist superstitions ,i and my      
fellow ,fabians have slain4 ,useless4   
,they do not care a rap whether ,i am a 
,socialist or not4 ,all they want to    
know is2 ,am ,i orthodox8 ,am ,i correct
 in my revolutionary views8 ,am ,i      
reverent to the revolutionary           
authorities8 ,because ,i am a genuine   
free-thinker they look at me as a       
policeman looks at a midnight prowler or
 as a ,berlin bourgeois looks at a      
suspicious foreigner4 ,they ask ,do you 
believe that ,marx was omniscient and   
infallible2 that ,engels was his        
prophet2 that ,bebel and ,singer are his
 inspired apostles2 and that ,das       
,kapital is the ,bible8 ,hastening in my
 innocence to clear myself of what ,i   
regard as an accusation of credulity and
 ignorance1 ,i assure them earnestly    
that ,i know ten times as much of       
economics and a hundred times as much of
 practical administration as ,marx did2 
that ,i knew ,engels personally and     
rather liked him as a witty and amiable 

old #ahdh veteran who despised modern   
,socialism2 that ,i regard ,bebel and   
,singer as men of like passions with    
myself1 but considerably less advanced2 
and that ,i read ,das ,kapital in the   
year #ahhb or thereabouts1 and still    
consider it one of the most important   
books of the nineteenth century because 
of its power of changing the minds of   
those who read it1 in spite of its      
unsound capitalist economics1 its parade
 of quotations from books which the     
author had either not read or not       
understood1 its affectation of algebraic
 formulas1 and its general attempt to   
disguise a masterpiece of propagandist  
journalism and prophetic invective as a 
drily scientific treatise of the sort   
that used to impose on people in #ahfj1 
when any book that pretended to be      
scientific was accepted as a ,bible4 ,in
 those days ,darwin and ,helmholtz were 
the real fathers of the ,church2 and    
nobody would listen to religion1 poetry 
or rhetoric2 so that even ,socialism had

 to call itself scientific1 and predict 
the date of the revolution1 as if it    
were a comet1 by calculations founded on
 historic laws4  ,to my amazement these 
reasonable remarks were received as     
hideous blasphemies2 none of the party  
papers were allowed to print any word of
 mine2 the very ,revisionists themselves
 found that the scandal of my heresy    
damaged them more than my support aided 
them2 and ,i found myself an outcast    
from ,german ,social-,democracy at the  
moment when1 thanks to ,trebitsch1 the  
,german bourgeoisie and nobility began  
to smile on me1 seduced by the pleasure 
of playing with fire1 and perhaps by    
,agnes ,sorma's acting as ,candida4     
,thus you may see that when a ,german1  
by becoming a ,social-,democrat1 throws 
off all the bonds of convention1 and    
stands free from all allegiance to      
established religion1 law1 order1       
patriotism1 and learning1 he promptly   
uses his freedom to put on a headier set
 of chains2 expels anti-militarists with

 the blood-thirstiest martial           
anti-foreign ardor2 and gives the       
,kaiser reason to thank heaven that he  
was born in the comparative freedom and 
,laodicean tolerance of ,kingship1 and  
not in the ,calvinistic bigotry and     
pedantry of ,marxism4  ,why1 then1 you  
may ask1 do ,i say that ,i am bound to  
,germany by the ties that hold my nature
 most strongly8 ,very simply because ,i 
should have perished of despair in my   
youth but for the world created for me  
by that great ,german dynasty which     
began with ,bach and will perhaps not   
end with ,richard ,strauss4 ,do not     
suppose for a moment that ,i learnt my  
art from ,english men of letters4 ,true1
 they showed me how to handle ,english  
words2 but if ,i had known no more than 
that1 my works would never have crossed 
the ,channel4 ,my masters were the      
masters of a universal language3 they   
were1 to go from summit to summit1      
,bach1 ,handel1 ,haydn1 ,mozart1        
,beethoven and ,wagner4 ,had the        

,germans understood any of these men1   
they would have hanged them4            
,fortunately they did not understand    
them1 and therefore only neglected them 
until they were dead1 after which they  
learnt to dance to their tunes with an  
easy conscience4 ,for their sakes       
,germany stands consecrated as the ,holy
 ,land of the capitalist age1 just as   
,italy1 for its painters' sakes1 is the 
,holy ,land of the early unvulgarized   
,renascence2 ,france1 for its builders' 
sakes1 of the age of ,christian chivalry
 and faith2 and ,greece1 for its        
sculptors' sakes1 of the ,periclean age4
  ,these ,holy ,lands are my            
fatherlands3 in them alone am ,i truly  
at home3 all my work is but to bring the
 whole world under this sanctification4 
,and so1 ,o worthy1 respectable1        
dutiful1 patriotic1 brave1 industrious  
,german reader1 you who used to fear    
only ,god and your own conscience1 and  
now fear nothing at all1 here is my book
 for you2 and--in all sincerity--much   

good may it do you6  ,london1 #bcrd4    
,october #aijg4     ,,preface ,,to ,,the
 ,,second ,,edition  ,the preparation of
 a ,second ,edition of this booklet is  
quite the most unexpected literary task 
that has ever been set me4 ,when it     
first appeared ,i was ungrateful enough 
to remonstrate with its publisher for   
printing1 as ,i thought1 more copies    
than the most sanguine ,wagnerite could 
ever hope to sell4 ,but the result      
proved that exactly one person buys a   
copy on every day in the year1 including
 ,sundays2 and so1 in the process of the
 suns1 a reprint has become necessary4  
,save a few verbal slips of no          
importance1 ,i have found nothing to    
alter in this edition4 ,as usual1 the   
only protests the book has elicited are 
protests1 not against the opinions it   
expresses1 but against the facts it     
records4 ,there are people who cannot   
bear to be told that their hero was     
associated with a famous ,anarchist in a
 rebellion2 that he was proclaimed as   

wanted by the police2 that he wrote     
revolutionary pamphlets2 and that his   
picture of ,niblunghome under the reign 
of ,alberic is a poetic vision of       
unregulated industrial capitalism as it 
was made known in ,germany in the middle
 of the nineteenth century by ,engels's 
,condition of the ,laboring classes in  
,england4 ,they frantically deny these  
facts1 and then declare that ,i have    
connected them with ,wagner in a        
paroxysm of senseless perversity4 ,i am 
sorry ,i have hurt them2 and ,i appeal  
to charitable publishers to bring out a 
new life of ,wagner1 which shall        
describe him as a court musician of     
unquestioned fashion and orthodoxy1 and 
a pillar of the most exclusive ,dresden 
circles4 ,such a work1 would1 ,i        
believe1 have a large sale1 and be read 
with satisfaction and reassurance by    
many lovers of ,wagner's music4  ,as to 
my much demurred-to relegation of ,night
 ,falls ,on ,the ,gods to the category  
of grand opera1 ,i have nothing to add  

or withdraw4 ,such a classification is  
to me as much a matter of fact as the   
,dresden rising or the police           
proclamation2 but ,i shall not pretend  
that it is a matter of such fact as     
everybody's judgment can grapple with4  
,people who prefer grand opera to       
serious music-drama naturally resent my 
placing a very grand opera below a very 
serious music-drama4 ,the ordinary lover
 of ,shakespeare would equally demur to 
my placing his popular catchpenny plays1
 of which ,as ,you ,like ,it is an      
avowed type1 below true ,shakespearean  
plays like ,measure for ,measure4 ,i    
cannot help that4 ,popular dramas and   
operas may have overwhelming merits as  
enchanting make-believes2 but a poet's  
sincerest vision of the world must      
always take precedence of his prettiest 
fool's paradise4  ,as many ,english     
,wagnerites seem to be still under the  
impression that ,wagner composed ,rienzi
 in his youth1 ,tannhauser and          
,lohengrin in his middle age1 and ,the  

,ring in his later years1 may ,i again  
remind them that ,the ,ring was the     
result of a political convulsion which  
occurred when ,wagner was only          
thirty-six1 and that the poem was       
completed when he was forty1 with thirty
 more years of work before him8 ,it is  
as much a first essay in political      
philosophy as ,die ,feen is a first     
essay in romantic opera4 ,the attempt to
 recover its spirit twenty years later1 
when the music of ,night ,falls ,on ,the
 ,gods was added1 was an attempt to     
revive the barricades of ,dresden in the
 ,temple of the ,grail4 ,only those who 
have never had any political enthusiasms
 to survive can believe that such an    
attempt could succeed4 ,g4 ,b4 ,s4      
,london1 #aija     ,preface to the      
,first ,edition  ,this book is a        
commentary on ,the ,ring of the         
,niblungs1 ,wagner's chief work4 ,i     
offer it to those enthusiastic admirers 
of ,wagner who are unable to follow his 
ideas1 and do not in the least          

understand the dilemma of ,wotan1 though
 they are filled with indignation at the
 irreverence of the ,philistines who    
frankly avow that they find the remarks 
of the god too often tedious and        
nonsensical4 ,now to be devoted to      
,wagner merely as a dog is devoted to   
his master1 sharing a few elementary    
ideas1 appetites and emotions with him1 
and1 for the rest1 reverencing his      
superiority without understanding it1 is
 no true ,wagnerism4 ,yet nothing better
 is possible without a stock of ideas   
common to master and disciple4          
,unfortunately1 the ideas of the        
revolutionary ,wagner of #ahdh are      
taught neither by the education nor the 
experience of ,english and ,american    
gentlemen-amateurs1 who are almost      
always political mugwumps1 and hardly   
ever associate with revolutionists4 ,the
 earlier attempts to translate his      
numerous pamphlets and essays into      
,english1 resulted in ludicrous mixtures
 of pure nonsense with the absurdest    

distorsions of his ideas into the ideas 
of the translators4 ,we now have a      
translation which is a masterpiece of   
interpretation and an eminent addition  
to our literature2 but that is not      
because its author1 ,mr4 ,ashton ,ellis1
 knows the ,german dictionary better    
than his predecessors4 ,he is simply in 
possession of ,wagner's ideas1 which    
were to them inconceivable4  ,all ,i    
pretend to do in this book is to impart 
the ideas which are most likely to be   
lacking in the conventional             
,englishman's equipment4 ,i came by them
 myself much as ,wagner did1 having     
learnt more about music than about      
anything else in my youth1 and sown my  
political wild oats subsequently in the 
revolutionary school4 ,this combination 
is not common in ,england2 and as ,i    
seem1 so far1 to be the only publicly   
articulate result of it1 ,i venture to  
add my commentary to what has already   
been written by musicians who are no    
revolutionists1 and revolutionists who  

are no musicians4 ,g4 ,b4 ,s4           
,preliminary ,encouragements      ,the  
,ring of the ,niblungs      ,the ,rhine 
,gold      ,wagner as ,revolutionist    
,the ,valkyries      ,siegfried         
,siegfried as ,protestant      ,night   
,falls ,on ,the ,gods      ,why ,he     
,changed ,his ,mind      ,wagner's ,own 
,explanation      ,the ,music of ,the   
,ring      ,the ,old and the ,new ,music
      ,the ,nineteenth ,century         
,the ,music of the ,future              
,bayreuth     ,,the ,,perfect           
,,wagnerite     ,,preliminary           
,,encouragements  ,a few of these will  
be welcome to the ordinary citizen      
visiting the theatre to satisfy his     
curiosity1 or his desire to be in the   
fashion1 by witnessing a representation 
of ,richard ,wagner's famous ,ring of   
the ,niblungs4  ,first1 ,the ,ring1 with
 all its gods and giants and dwarfs1 its
 water-maidens and ,valkyries1 its      
wishing-cap1 magic ring1 enchanted      
sword1 and miraculous treasure1 is a    

drama of today1 and not of a remote and 
fabulous antiquity4 ,it could not have  
been written before the second half of  
the nineteenth century1 because it deals
 with events which were only then       
consummating themselves4 ,unless the    
spectator recognizes in it an image of  
the life he is himself fighting his way 
through1 it must needs appear to him a  
monstrous development of the ,christmas 
pantomimes1 spun out here and there into
 intolerable lengths of dull            
conversation by the principal baritone4 
,fortunately1 even from this point of   
view1 ,the ,ring is full of             
extraordinarily attractive episodes1    
both orchestral and dramatic4 ,the      
nature music alone--music of river and  
rainbow1 fire and forest--is enough to  
bribe people with any love of the       
country in them to endure the passages  
of political philosophy in the sure hope
 of a prettier page to come4 ,everybody1
 too1 can enjoy the love music1 the     
hammer and anvil music1 the clumping of 

the giants1 the tune of the young       
woodsman's horn1 the trilling of the    
bird1 the dragon music and nightmare    
music and thunder and lightning music1  
the profusion of simple melody1 the     
sensuous charm of the orchestration3 in 
short1 the vast extent of common ground 
between ,the ,ring and the ordinary     
music we use for play and pleasure4     
,hence it is that the four separate     
music-plays of which it is built have   
become popular throughout ,europe as    
operas4 ,we shall presently see that one
 of them1 ,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 
actually is an opera4  ,it is generally 
understood1 however1 that there is an   
inner ring of superior persons to whom  
the whole work has a most urgent and    
searching philosophic and social        
significance4 ,i profess to be such a   
superior person2 and ,i write this      
pamphlet for the assistance of those who
 wish to be introduced to the work on   
equal terms with that inner circle of   
adepts4  ,my second encouragement is    

addressed to modest citizens who may    
suppose themselves to be disqualified   
from enjoying ,the ,ring by their       
technical ignorance of music4 ,they may 
dismiss all such misgivings speedily and
 confidently4 ,if the sound of music has
 any power to move them1 they will find 
that ,wagner exacts nothing further4    
,there is not a single bar of classical 
music in ,the ,ring--not a note in it   
that has any other point than the single
 direct point of giving musical         
expression to the drama4 ,in classical  
music there are1 as the analytical      
programs tell us1 first subjects and    
second subjects1 free fantasias1        
recapitulations1 and codas2 there are   
fugues1 with counter-subjects1 strettos1
 and pedal points2 there are            
passacaglias on ground basses1 canons ad
 hypodiapente1 and other ingenuities1   
which have1 after all1 stood or fallen  
by their prettiness as much as the      
simplest folk-tune4 ,wagner is never    
driving at anything of this sort any    

more than ,shakespeare in his plays is  
driving at such ingenuities of          
verse-making as sonnets1 triolets1 and  
the like4 ,and this is why he is so easy
 for the natural musician who has had no
 academic teaching4 ,the professors1    
when ,wagner's music is played to them1 
exclaim at once ,what is this8 ,is it   
aria1 or recitative8 ,is there no       
cabaletta to it--not even a full close8 
,why was that discord not prepared2 and 
why does he not resolve it correctly8   
,how dare he indulge in those scandalous
 and illicit transitions into a key that
 has not one note in common with the key
 he has just left8 ,listen to those     
false relations6 ,what does he want with
 six drums and eight horns when ,mozart 
worked miracles with two of each8 ,the  
man is no musician4 ,the layman neither 
knows nor cares about any of these      
things4 ,if ,wagner were to turn aside  
from his straightforward dramatic       
purpose to propitiate the professors    
with correct exercises in sonata form1  

his music would at once become          
unintelligible to the unsophisticated   
spectator1 upon whom the familiar and   
dreaded classical sensation would       
descend like the influenza4 ,nothing of 
the kind need be dreaded4 ,the          
unskilled1 untaught musician may        
approach ,wagner boldly2 for there is no
 possibility of a misunderstanding      
between them3 ,the ,ring music is       
perfectly single and simple4 ,it is the 
adept musician of the old school who has
 everything to unlearn3 and him ,i      
leave1 unpitied1 to his fate4     ,,the 
,,ring ,,of ,,the ,,niblungs  ,the ,ring
 consists of four plays1 intended to be 
performed on four successive evenings1  
entitled ,the ,rhine ,gold 7a prologue  
to the other three71 ,the ,valkyries1   
,siegfried1 and ,night ,falls ,on ,the  
,gods2 or1 in the original ,german1 ,das
 ,rheingold1 ,die ,walkure1 ,siegfried1 
and ,die ,gotterdammerung4     ,,the    
,,rhine ,,gold  ,let me assume for a    
moment that you are a young and         

good-looking woman4 ,try to imagine     
yourself in that character at ,klondyke 
five years ago4 ,the place is teeming   
with gold4 ,if you are content to leave 
the gold alone1 as the wise leave       
flowers without plucking them1 enjoying 
with perfect naivete its color and      
glitter and preciousness1 no human being
 will ever be the worse for your        
knowledge of it2 and whilst you remain  
in that frame of mind the golden age    
will endure4  ,now suppose a man comes  
along3 a man who has no sense of the    
golden age1 nor any power of living in  
the present3 a man with common desires1 
cupidities1 ambitions1 just like most of
 the men you know4 ,suppose you reveal  
to that man the fact that if he will    
only pluck this gold up1 and turn it    
into money1 millions of men1 driven by  
the invisible whip of hunger1 will toil 
underground and overground night and day
 to pile up more and more gold for him  
until he is master of the world6 ,you   
will find that the prospect will not    

tempt him so much as you might imagine1 
because it involves some distasteful    
trouble to himself to start with1 and   
because there is something else within  
his reach involving no distasteful toil1
 which he desires more passionately2 and
 that is yourself4 ,so long as he is    
preoccupied with love of you1 the gold1 
and all that it implies1 will escape    
him3 the golden age will endure4 ,not   
until he forswears love will he stretch 
out his hand to the gold1 and found the 
,plutonic empire for himself4 ,but the  
choice between love and gold may not    
rest altogether with him4 ,he may be an 
ugly1 ungracious1 unamiable person1     
whose affections may seem merely        
ludicrous and despicable to you4 ,in    
that case1 you may repulse him1 and most
 bitterly humiliate and disappoint him4 
,what is left to him then but to curse  
the love he can never win1 and turn     
remorselessly to the gold8 ,with that1  
he will make short work of your golden  
age1 and leave you lamenting its lost   

thoughtlessness and sweetness4  ,in due 
time the gold of ,klondyke will find its
 way to the great cities of the world4  
,but the old dilemma will keep          
continually reproducing itself4 ,the man
 who will turn his back on love1 and    
upon all the fruitful it1 and will set  
himself single-heartedly to gather gold 
in an exultant dream of wielding its    
,plutonic powers1 will find the treasure
 yielding quickly to his touch4 ,but few
 men will make this sacrifice           
voluntarily4 ,not until the ,plutonic   
power is so strongly set up that the    
higher human impulses are suppressed as 
rebellious1 and even the mere appetites 
are denied1 starved1 and insulted when  
they cannot purchase their satisfaction 
with gold1 are the energetic spirits    
driven to build their lives upon riches4
 ,how inevitable that course has become 
to us is plain enough to those who have 
the power of understanding what they see
 as they look at the plutocratic        
societies of our modern capitals4       

,first ,scene  ,here1 then1 is the      
subject of the first scene of ,the      
,rhine ,gold4 ,as you sit waiting for   
the curtain to rise1 you suddenly catch 
the booming ground-tone of a mighty     
river4 ,it becomes plainer1 clearer3 you
 get nearer to the surface1 and catch   
the green light and the flights of      
bubbles4 ,then the curtain goes up and  
you see what you heard--the depths of   
the ,rhine1 with three strange fairy    
fishes1 half water-maidens1 singing and 
enjoying themselves exuberantly4 ,they  
are not singing barcarolles or ballads  
about the ,lorely and her fated lovers1 
but simply trolling any nonsense that   
comes into their heads in time to the   
dancing of the water and the rhythm of  
their swimming4 ,it is the golden age2  
and the attraction of this spot for the 
,rhine maidens is a lump of the ,rhine  
gold1 which they value1 in an entirely  
uncommercial way1 for its bodily beauty 
and splendor4 ,just at present it is    
eclipsed1 because the sun is not        

striking down through the water4        
,presently there comes a poor devil of a
 dwarf stealing along the slippery rocks
 of the river bed1 a creature with      
energy enough to make him strong of body
 and fierce of passion1 but with a      
brutish narrowness of intelligence and  
selfishness of imagination3 too stupid  
to see that his own welfare can only be 
compassed as part of the welfare of the 
world1 too full of brute force not to   
grab vigorously at his own gain4 ,such  
dwarfs are quite common in ,london4 ,he 
comes now with a fruitful impulse in    
him1 in search of what he lacks in      
himself1 beauty1 lightness of heart1    
imagination1 music4 ,the ,rhine maidens1
 representing all these to him1 fill him
 with hope and longing2 and he never    
considers that he has nothing to offer  
that they could possibly desire1 being  
by natural limitation incapable of      
seeing anything from anyone else's point
 of view4 ,with perfect simplicity1 he  
offers himself as a sweetheart to them4 

,but they are thoughtless1 elemental1   
only half real things1 much like modern 
young ladies4 ,that the poor dwarf is   
repulsive to their sense of physical    
beauty and their romantic conception of 
heroism1 that he is ugly and awkward1   
greedy and ridiculous1 disposes for them
 of his claim to live and love4 ,they   
mock him atrociously1 pretending to fall
 in love with him at first sight1 and   
then slipping away and making game of   
him1 heaping ridicule and disgust on the
 poor wretch until he is beside himself 
with mortification and rage4 ,they      
forget him when the water begins to     
glitter in the sun1 and the gold to     
reflect its glory4 ,they break into     
ecstatic worship of their treasure2 and 
though they know the parable of         
,klondyke quite well1 they have no fear 
that the gold will be wrenched away by  
the dwarf1 since it will yield to no one
 who has not forsworn love for it1 and  
it is in pursuit of love that he has    
come to them4 ,they forget that they    

have poisoned that desire in him by     
their mockery and denial of it1 and that
 he now knows that life will give him   
nothing that he cannot wrest from it by 
the ,plutonic power4 ,it is just as if  
some poor1 rough1 vulgar1 coarse fellow 
were to offer to take his part in       
aristocratic society1 and be snubbed    
into the knowledge that only as a       
millionaire could he ever hope to bring 
that society to his feet and buy himself
 a beautiful and refined wife4 ,his     
choice is forced on him4 ,he forswears  
love as thousands of us forswear it     
every day2 and in a moment the gold is  
in his grasp1 and he disappears in the  
depths1 leaving the water-fairies vainly
 screaming ,stop thief6 whilst the river
 seems to plunge into darkness and sink 
from us as we rise to the cloud regions 
above4  ,and now1 what forces are there 
in the world to resist ,alberic1 our    
dwarf1 in his new character of sworn    
plutocrat8 ,he is soon at work wielding 
the power of the gold4 ,for his gain1   

hordes of his fellow-creatures are      
thenceforth condemned to slave          
miserably1 overground and underground1  
lashed to their work by the invisible   
whip of starvation4 ,they never see him1
 any more than the victims of our       
dangerous trades ever see the           
shareholders whose power is nevertheless
 everywhere1 driving them to            
destruction4 ,the very wealth they      
create with their labor becomes an      
additional force to impoverish them2 for
 as fast as they make it it slips from  
their hands into the hands of their     
master1 and makes him mightier than     
ever4 ,you can see the process for      
yourself in every civilized country     
today1 where millions of people toil in 
want and disease to heap up more wealth 
for our ,alberics1 laying up nothing for
 themselves1 except sometimes horrible  
and agonizing disease and the certainty 
of premature death4 ,all this part of   
the story is frightfully real1          
frightfully present1 frightfully modern2

 and its effects on our social life are 
so ghastly and ruinous that we no longer
 know enough of happiness to be         
discomposed by it4 ,it is only the poet1
 with his vision of what life might be1 
to whom these things are unendurable4   
,if we were a race of poets we would    
make an end of them before the end of   
this miserable century4 ,being a race of
 moral dwarfs instead1 we think them    
highly respectable1 comfortable and     
proper1 and allow them to breed and     
multiply their evil in all directions4  
,if there were no higher power in the   
world to work against ,alberic1 the end 
of it would be utter destruction4  ,such
 a force there is1 however2 and it is   
called ,godhead4 ,the mysterious thing  
we call life organizes itself into all  
living shapes1 bird1 beast1 beetle and  
fish1 rising to the human marvel in     
cunning dwarfs and in laborious muscular
 giants1 capable1 these last1 of        
enduring toil1 willing to buy love and  
life1 not with suicidal curses and      

renunciations1 but with patient manual  
drudgery in the service of higher       
powers4 ,and these higher powers are    
called into existence by the same       
self-organization of life still more    
wonderfully into rare persons who may by
 comparison be called gods1 creatures   
capable of thought1 whose aims extend   
far beyond the satisfaction of their    
bodily appetites and personal           
affections1 since they perceive that it 
is only by the establishment of a social
 order founded on common bonds of moral 
faith that the world can rise from mere 
savagery4 ,but how is this order to be  
set up by ,godhead in a world of stupid 
giants1 since these thoughtless ones    
pursue only their narrower personal ends
 and can by no means understand the aims
 of a god8 ,godhead1 face to face with  
,stupidity1 must compromise4 ,unable to 
enforce on the world the pure law of    
thought1 it must resort to a mechanical 
law of commandments to be enforced by   
brute punishments and the destruction of

 the disobedient4 ,and however carefully
 these laws are framed to represent the 
highest thoughts of the framers at the  
moment of their promulgation1 before a  
day has elapsed that thought has grown  
and widened by the ceaseless evolution  
of life2 and lo6 yesterday's law already
 fallen out with today's thought4 ,yet  
if the high givers of that law          
themselves set the example of breaking  
it before it is a week old1 they destroy
 all its authority with their subjects1 
and so break the weapon they have forged
 to rule them for their own good4 ,they 
must therefore maintain at all costs the
 sanctity of the law1 even when it has  
ceased to represent their thought2 so   
that at last they get entangled in a    
network of ordinances which they no     
longer believe in1 and yet have made so 
sacred by custom and so terrible by     
punishment1 that they cannot themselves 
escape from them4 ,thus ,godhead's      
resort to law finally costs it half its 
integrity--as if a spiritual king1 to   

gain temporal power1 had plucked out one
 of his eyes--and it finally begins     
secretly to long for the advent of some 
power higher than itself which will     
destroy its artificial empire of law1   
and establish a true republic of free   
thought4  ,this is by no means the only 
difficulty in the dominion of ,law4 ,the
 brute force for its execution must be  
purchased2 and the mass of its subjects 
must be persuaded to respect the        
authority which employs this force4 ,but
 how is such respect to be implanted in 
them if they are unable to comprehend   
the thought of the lawgiver8 ,clearly1  
only by associating the legislative     
power with such displays of splendor and
 majesty as will impress their senses   
and awe their imaginations4 ,the god    
turned lawgiver1 in short1 must be      
crowned ,pontiff and ,king4 ,since he   
cannot be known to the common folk as   
their superior in wisdom1 he must be    
known to them as their superior in      
riches1 as the dweller in castles1 the  

wearer of gold and purple1 the eater of 
mighty feasts1 the commander of armies1 
and the wielder of powers of life and   
death1 of salvation and damnation after 
death4 ,something may be done in this   
way without corruption whilst the golden
 age still endures4 ,your gods may not  
prevail with the dwarfs2 but they may go
 to these honest giants who will give a 
day's work for a day's pay1 and induce  
them to build for ,godhead a mighty     
fortress1 complete with hall and chapel1
 tower and bell1 for the sake of the    
homesteads that will grow up in security
 round that church-castle4 ,this only1  
however1 whilst the golden age lasts4   
,the moment the ,plutonic power is let  
loose1 and the loveless ,alberic comes  
into the field with his corrupting      
millions1 the gods are face to face with
 destruction2 since ,alberic1 able with 
invisible hunger-whip to force the labor
 of the dwarfs and to buy the services  
of the giants1 can outshine all the     
temporal shows and splendors of the     

golden age1 and make himself master of  
the world1 unless the gods1 with their  
bigger brains1 can capture his gold4    
,this1 the dilemma of the ,church today1
 is the situation created by the exploit
 of ,alberic in the depths of the       
,rhine4  ,second ,scene  ,from the bed  
of the river we rise into cloudy        
regions1 and finally come out into the  
clear in a meadow1 where ,wotan1 the god
 of gods1 and his consort ,fricka lie   
sleeping4 ,wotan1 you will observe1 has 
lost one eye2 and you will presently    
learn that he plucked it out voluntarily
 as the price to be paid for his        
alliance with ,fricka1 who in return has
 brought to him as her dowry all the    
powers of ,law4 ,the meadow is on the   
brink of a ravine1 beyond which1        
towering on distant heights1 stands     
,godhome1 a mighty castle1 newly built  
as a house of state for the one-eyed god
 and his all-ruling wife4 ,wotan has not
 yet seen this castle except in his     
dreams3 two giants have just built it   

for him whilst he slept2 and the reality
 is before him for the first time when  
,fricka wakes him4 ,in that majestic    
burg he is to rule with her and through 
her over the humble giants1 who have    
eyes to gape at the glorious castles    
their own hands have built from his     
design1 but no brains to design castles 
for themselves1 or to comprehend        
divinity4 ,as a god1 he is to be great1 
secure1 and mighty2 but he is also to be
 passionless1 affectionless1 wholly     
impartial2 for ,godhead1 if it is to    
live with ,law1 must have no weaknesses1
 no respect for persons4 ,all such sweet
 littlenesses must be left to the humble
 stupid giants to make their toil sweet 
to them2 and the god must1 after all1   
pay for ,olympian power the same price  
the dwarf has paid for ,plutonic power4 
,wotan has forgotten this in his dreams 
of greatness4 ,not so ,fricka4 ,what she
 is thinking of is this price that      
,wotan has consented to pay1 in token   
whereof he has promised this day to hand

 over to the giants ,fricka's sister1   
the goddess ,freia1 with her golden     
love-apples4 ,when ,fricka reproaches   
,wotan with having selfishly forgotten  
this1 she finds that he1 like herself1  
is not prepared to go through with his  
bargain1 and that he is trusting to     
another great worldforce1 the ,lie 7a   
,european ,power1 as ,lassalle said71 to
 help him to trick the giants out of    
their reward4 ,but this force does not  
dwell in ,wotan himself1 but in another1
 a god over whom he has triumphed1 one  
,loki1 the god of ,intellect1 ,argument1
 ,imagination1 ,illusion1 and ,reason4  
,loki has promised to deliver him from  
his contract1 and to cheat the giants   
for him2 but he has not arrived to keep 
his word3 indeed1 as ,fricka bitterly   
points out1 why should not the ,lie fail
 ,wotan1 since such failure is the very 
essence of him8  ,the giants come soon  
enough2 and ,freia flies to ,wotan for  
protection against them4 ,their purposes
 are quite honest2 and they have no     

doubt of the god's faith4 ,there stands 
their part of the contract fulfilled1   
stone on stone1 port and pinnacle all   
faithfully finished from ,wotan's design
 by their mighty labor4 ,they have come 
undoubtingly for their agreed wage4     
,then there happens what is to them an  
incredible1 inconceivable thing4 ,the   
god begins to shuffle4 ,there are no    
moments in life more tragic than those  
in which the humble common man1 the     
manual worker1 leaving with implicit    
trust all high affairs to his betters1  
and reverencing them wholly as worthy of
 that trust1 even to the extent of      
accepting as his rightful function the  
saving of them from all roughening and  
coarsening drudgeries1 first discovers  
that they are corrupt1 greedy1 unjust   
and treacherous4 ,the shock drives a ray
 of prophetic light into one giant's    
mind1 and gives him a momentary         
eloquence4 ,in that moment he rises     
above his stupid gianthood1 and         
earnestly warns the ,son of ,light that 

all his power and eminence of           
priesthood1 godhood1 and kingship must  
stand or fall with the unbearable cold  
greatness of the incorruptible          
law-giver4 ,but ,wotan1 whose assumed   
character of law-giver is altogether    
false to his real passionate nature1    
despises the rebuke2 and the giant's ray
 of insight is lost in the murk of his  
virtuous indignation4  ,in the midst of 
the wrangle1 ,loki comes at last1       
excusing himself for being late on the  
ground that he has been detained by a   
matter of importance which he has       
promised to lay before ,wotan4 ,when    
pressed to give his mind to the business
 immediately in hand1 and to extricate  
,wotan from his dilemma1 he has nothing 
to say except that the giants are       
evidently altogether in the right4 ,the 
castle has been duly built3 he has tried
 every stone of it1 and found the work  
first-rate3 there is nothing to be done 
but pay the price agreed upon by handing
 over ,freia to the giants4 ,the gods   

are furious2 and ,wotan passionately    
declares that he only consented to the  
bargain on ,loki's promise to find a way
 for him out of it4 ,but ,loki says no3 
he has promised to find a way out if any
 such way exist1 but not to make a way  
if there is no way4 ,he has wandered    
over the whole earth in search of some  
treasure great enough to buy ,freia back
 from the giants2 but in all the world  
he has found nothing for which ,man will
 give up ,woman4 ,and this1 by the way1 
reminds him of the matter he had        
promised to lay before ,wotan4 ,the     
,rhine maidens have complained to him of
 ,alberic's theft of their gold2 and he 
mentions it as a curious exception to   
his universal law of the unpurchasable  
preciousness of love1 that this         
gold-robber has forsworn love for the   
sake of the fabulous riches of the      
,plutonic empire and the mastery of the 
world through its power4  ,no sooner is 
the tale told than the giants stoop     
lower than the dwarf4 ,alberic forswore 

love only when it was denied to him and 
made the instrument for cruelly         
murdering his self-respect4 ,but the    
giants1 with love within their reach1   
with ,freia and her golden apples in    
their hands1 offer to give her up for   
the treasure of ,alberic4 ,observe1 it  
is the treasure alone that they desire4 
,they have no fierce dreams of dominion 
over their superiors1 or of moulding the
 world to any conceptions of their own4 
,they are neither clever nor ambitious3 
they simply covet money4 ,alberic's     
gold3 that is their demand1 or else     
,freia1 as agreed upon1 whom they now   
carry off as hostage1 leaving ,wotan to 
consider their ultimatum4  ,freia gone1 
the gods begin to wither and age3 her   
golden apples1 which they so lightly    
bargained away1 they now find to be a   
matter of life and death to them2 for   
not even the gods can live on ,law and  
,godhead alone1 be their castles ever so
 splendid4 ,loki alone is unaffected3   
the ,lie1 with all its cunning wonders1 

its glistenings and shiftings and       
mirages1 is a mere appearance3 it has no
 body and needs no food4 ,what is ,wotan
 to do8 ,loki sees the answer clearly   
enough3 he must bluntly rob ,alberic4   
,there is nothing to prevent him except 
moral scruple2 for ,alberic1 after all1 
is a poor1 dim1 dwarfed1 credulous      
creature whom a god can outsee and a lie
 can outwit4 ,down1 then1 ,wotan and    
,loki plunge into the mine where        
,alberic's slaves are piling up wealth  
for him under the invisible whip4       
,third ,scene  ,this gloomy place need  
not be a mine3 it might just as well be 
a match-factory1 with yellow phosphorus1
 phossy jaw1 a large dividend1 and      
plenty of clergymen shareholders4 ,or it
 might be a whitelead factory1 or a     
chemical works1 or a pottery1 or a      
railway shunting yard1 or a tailoring   
shop1 or a little gin-sodden laundry1 or
 a bakehouse1 or a big shop1 or any     
other of the places where human life and
 welfare are daily sacrificed in order  

that some greedy foolish creature may be
 able to hymn exultantly to his         
,platonic idol3  ,thou mak'st me eat    
whilst others starve1 ,and sing while   
others do lament3 ,such untome ,thy     
blessings are1 ,as if ,i were ,thine    
only care4  ,in the mine1 which resounds
 with the clinking anvils of the dwarfs 
toiling miserably to heap up treasure   
for their master1 ,alberic has set his  
brother ,mime--more familiarly1         
,mimmy--to make him a helmet4 ,mimmy    
dimly sees that there is some magic in  
this helmet1 and tries to keep it2 but  
,alberic wrests it from him1 and shows  
him1 to his cost1 that it is the veil of
 the invisible whip1 and that he who    
wears it can appear in what shape he    
will1 or disappear from view altogether4
 ,this helmet is a very common article  
in our streets1 where it generally takes
 the form of a tall hat4 ,it makes a man
 invisible as a shareholder1 and changes
 him into various shapes1 such as a     
pious ,christian1 a subscriber to       

hospitals1 a benefactor of the poor1 a  
model husband and father1 a shrewd1     
practical independent ,englishman1 and  
what not1 when he is really a pitiful   
parasite on the commonwealth1 consuming 
a great deal1 and producing nothing1    
feeling nothing1 knowing nothing1       
believing nothing1 and doing nothing    
except what all the rest do1 and that   
only because he is afraid not to do it1 
or at least pretend to do it4  ,when    
,wotan and ,loki arrive1 ,loki claims   
,alberic as an old acquaintance4 ,but   
the dwarf has no faith in these civil   
strangers3 ,greed instinctively         
mistrusts ,intellect1 even in the garb  
of ,poetry and the company of ,godhead1 
whilst envying the brilliancy of the one
 and the dignity of the other4 ,alberic 
breaks out at them with a terrible boast
 of the power now within his grasp4 ,he 
paints for them the world as it will be 
when his dominion over it is complete1  
when the soft airs and green mosses of  
its valleys shall be changed into smoke1

 slag1 and filth2 when slavery1 disease1
 and squalor1 soothed by drunkenness and
 mastered by the policeman's baton1     
shall become the foundation of society2 
and when nothing shall escape ruin      
except such pretty places and pretty    
women as he may like to buy for the     
slaking of his own lusts4 ,in that      
kingdom of evil he sees that there will 
be no power but his own4 ,these gods1   
with their moralities and legalities and
 intellectual subtlety1 will go under   
and be starved out of existence4 ,he    
bids ,wotan and ,loki beware of it2 and 
his ,hab' ,acht6 is hoarse1 horrible1   
and sinister4 ,wotan is revolted to the 
very depths of his being3 he cannot     
stifle the execration that bursts from  
him4 ,but ,loki is unaffected3 he has no
 moral passion3 indignation is as absurd
 to him as enthusiasm4 ,he finds it     
exquisitely amusing--having a touch of  
the comic spirit in him--that the dwarf1
 in stirring up the moral fervor of     
,wotan1 has removed his last moral      

scruple about becoming a thief4 ,wotan  
will now rob the dwarf without remorse2 
for is it not positively his highest    
duty to take this power out of such evil
 hands and use it himself in the        
interests of ,godhead8 ,on the loftiest 
moral grounds1 he lets ,loki do his     
worst4  ,a little cunningly disguised   
flattery makes short work of ,alberic4  
,loki pretends to be afraid of him2 and 
he swallows that bait unhesitatingly4   
,but how1 enquires ,loki1 is he to guard
 against the hatred of his million      
slaves8 ,will they not steal from him1  
whilst he sleeps1 the magic ring1 the   
symbol of his power1 which he has forged
 from the gold of the ,rhine8 ,you think
 yourself very clever1 sneers ,alberic1 
and then begins to boast of the         
enchantments of the magic helmet4 ,loki 
refuses to believe in such marvels      
without witnessing them4 ,alberic1 only 
too glad to show off his powers1 puts on
 the helmet and transforms himself into 
a monstrous serpent4 ,loki gratifies him

 by pretending to be frightened out of  
his wits1 but ventures to remark that it
 would be better still if the helmet    
could transform its owner into some tiny
 creature that could hide and spy in the
 smallest cranny4 ,alberic promptly     
transforms himself into a toad4 ,in an  
instant ,wotan's foot is on him2 ,loki  
tears away the helmet2 they pinion him1 
and drag him away a prisoner up through 
the earth to the meadow by the castle4  
,fourth ,scene  ,there1 to pay for his  
freedom1 he has to summon his slaves    
from the depths to place all the        
treasure they have heaped up for him at 
the feet of ,wotan4 ,then he demands his
 liberty2 but ,wotan must have the ring 
as well4 ,and here the dwarf1 like the  
giant before him1 feels the very        
foundations of the world shake beneath  
him at the discovery of his own base    
cupidity in a higher power4 ,that evil  
should1 in its loveless desperation1    
create malign powers which ,godhead     
could not create1 seems but natural     

justice to him4 ,but that ,godhead      
should steal those malign powers from   
evil1 and wield them itself1 is a       
monstrous perversion2 and his appeal to 
,wotan to forego it is almost terrible  
in its conviction of wrong4 ,it is of no
 avail4 ,wotan falls back again on      
virtuous indignation4 ,he reminds       
,alberic that he stole the gold from the
 ,rhine maidens1 and takes the attitude 
of the just judge compelling a          
restitution of stolen goods4 ,alberic   
knowing perfectly well that the judge is
 taking the goods to put them in his own
 pocket1 has the ring torn from his     
finger1 and is once more as poor as he  
was when he came slipping and stumbling 
among the slimy rocks in the bed of the 
,rhine4  ,this is the way of the world4 
,in older times1 when the ,christian    
laborer was drained dry by the knightly 
spendthrift1 and the spendthrift was    
drained by the ,jewish usurer1 ,church  
and ,state1 religion and law1 seized on 
the ,jew and drained him as a ,christian

 duty4 ,when the forces of lovelessness 
and greed had built up our own sordid   
capitalist systems1 driven by invisible 
proprietorship1 robbing the poor1       
defacing the earth1 and forcing         
themselves as a universal curse even on 
the generous and humane1 then religion  
and law and intellect1 which would never
 themselves have discovered such        
systems1 their natural bent being       
towards welfare1 economy1 and life      
instead of towards corruption1 waste1   
and death1 nevertheless did not scruple 
to seize by fraud and force these powers
 of evil on presence of using them for  
good4 ,and it inevitably happens that   
when the ,church1 the ,law1 and all the 
,talents have made common cause to rob  
the people1 the ,church is far more     
vitally harmed by that unfaithfulness to
 itself than its more mechanical        
confederates2 so that finally they turn 
on their discredited ally and rob the   
,church1 with the cheerful co-operation 
of ,loki1 as in ,france and ,italy for  

instance4  ,the twin giants come back   
with their hostage1 in whose presence   
,godhead blooms again4 ,the gold is     
ready for them2 but now that the moment 
has come for parting with ,freia the    
gold does not seem so tempting2 and they
 are sorely loth to let her go4 ,not    
unless there is gold enough to utterly  
hide her from them--not until the heap  
has grown so that they can see nothing  
but gold--until money has come between  
them and every human feeling1 will they 
part with her4 ,there is not gold enough
 to accomplish this3 however cunningly  
,loki spreads it1 the glint of ,freia's 
hair is still visible to ,giant ,fafnir1
 and the magic helmet must go on the    
heap to shut it out4 ,even then         
,fafnir's brother1 ,fasolt1 can catch a 
beam from her eye through a chink1 and  
is rendered incapable thereby of        
forswearing her4 ,there is nothing to   
stop that chink but the ring2 and ,wotan
 is as greedily bent on keeping that as 
,alberic himself was2 nor can the other 

gods persuade him that ,freia is worth  
it1 since for the highest god1 love is  
not the highest good1 but only the      
universal delight that bribes all living
 things to travail with renewed life4   
,life itself1 with its accomplished     
marvels and its infinite potentialities1
 is the only force that ,godhead can    
worship4 ,wotan does not yield until he 
is reached by the voice of the fruitful 
earth that before he or the dwarfs or   
the giants or the ,law or the ,lie or   
any of these things were1 had the seed  
of them all in her bosom1 and the seed  
perhaps of something higher even than   
himself1 that shall one day supersede   
him and cut the tangles and alliances   
and compromises that already have cost  
him one of his eyes4 ,when ,erda1 the   
,first ,mother of life1 rises from her  
sleeping-place in the heart of the      
earth1 and warns him to yield the ring1 
he obeys her2 the ring is added to the  
heap of gold2 and all sense of ,freia is
 cut off from the giants4  ,but now what

 ,law is left to these two poor stupid  
laborers whereby one shall yield to the 
other any of the treasure for which they
 have each paid the whole price in      
surrendering ,freia8 ,they look by mere 
habit to the god to judge for them2 but 
he1 with his heart stirring towards     
higher forces than himself1 turns with  
disgust from these lower forces4 ,they  
settle it as two wolves might2 and      
,fafnir batters his brother dead with   
his staff4 ,it is a horrible thing to   
see and hear1 to anyone who knows how   
much blood has been shed in the world in
 just that way by its brutalized        
toilers1 honest fellows enough until    
their betters betrayed them4 ,fafnir    
goes off with his booty4 ,it is quite   
useless to him4 ,he has neither the     
cunning nor the ambition to establish   
the ,plutonic empire with it4 ,merely to
 prevent others from getting it is the  
only purpose it brings him4 ,he piles it
 in a cave2 transforms himself into a   
dragon by the helmet2 and devotes his   

life to guarding it1 as much a slave to 
it as a jailor is to his prisoner4 ,he  
had much better have thrown it all back 
into the ,rhine and transformed himself 
into the shortest-lived animal that     
enjoys at least a brief run in the      
sunshine4 ,his case1 however1 is far too
 common to be surprising4 ,the world is 
overstocked with persons who sacrifice  
all their affections1 and madly trample 
and batter down their fellows to obtain 
riches of which1 when they get them1    
they are unable to make the smallest    
use1 and to which they become the most  
miserable slaves4  ,the gods soon forget
 ,fafnir in their rejoicing over ,freia4
 ,donner1 the ,thunder god1 springs to a
 rocky summit and calls the clouds as a 
shepherd calls his flocks4 ,they come at
 his summons2 and he and the castle are 
hidden by their black legions4 ,froh1   
the ,rainbow god1 hastens to his side4  
,at the stroke of ,donner's hammer the  
black murk is riven in all directions by
 darting ribbons of lightning2 and as   

the air clears1 the castle is seen in   
its fullest splendor1 accessible now by 
the rainbow bridge which ,froh has cast 
across the ravine4 ,in the glory of this
 moment ,wotan has a great thought4     
,with all his aspirations to establish a
 reign of noble thought1 of             
righteousness1 order1 and justice1 he   
has found that day that there is no race
 yet in the world that quite            
spontaneously1 naturally1 and           
unconsciously realizes his ideal4 ,he   
himself has found how far short ,godhead
 falls of the thing it conceives4 ,he1  
the greatest of gods1 has been unable to
 control his fate3 he has been forced   
against his will to choose between      
evils1 to make disgraceful bargains1 to 
break them still more disgracefully1 and
 even then to see the price of his      
disgrace slip through his fingers4 ,his 
consort has cost him half his vision2   
his castle has cost him his affections2 
and the attempt to retain both has cost 
him his honor4 ,on every side he is     

shackled and bound1 dependent on the    
laws of ,fricka and on the lies of      
,loki1 forced to traffic with dwarfs for
 handicraft and with giants for         
strength1 and to pay them both in false 
coin4 ,after all1 a god is a pitiful    
thing4 ,but the fertility of the ,first 
,mother is not yet exhausted4 ,the life 
that came from her has ever climbed up  
to a higher and higher organization4    
,from toad and serpent to dwarf1 from   
bear and elephant to giant1 from dwarf  
and giant to a god with thoughts1 with  
comprehension of the world1 with ideals4
 ,why should it stop there8 ,why should 
it not rise from the god to the ,hero8  
to the creature in whom the god's       
unavailing thought shall have become    
effective will and life1 who shall make 
his way straight to truth and reality   
over the laws of ,fricka and the lies of
 ,loki with a strength that overcomes   
giants and a cunning that outwits       
dwarfs8 ,yes3 ,erda1 the ,first ,mother1
 must travail again1 and breed him a    

race of heroes to deliver the world and 
himself from his limited powers and     
disgraceful bargains4 ,this is the      
vision that flashes on him as he turns  
to the rainbow bridge and calls his wife
 to come and dwell with him in          
,valhalla1 the home of the gods4  ,they 
are all overcome with ,valhalla's glory 
except ,loki4 ,he is behind the scenes  
of this joint reign of the ,divine and  
the ,legal4 ,he despises these gods with
 their ideals and their golden apples4  
,i am ashamed1 he says1 to have dealings
 with these futile creatures4 ,and so he
 follows them to the rainbow bridge4    
,but as they set foot on it1 from the   
river below rises the wailing of the    
,rhine maidens for their lost gold4 ,you
 down there in the water1 cries ,loki   
with brutal irony3 you used to bask in  
the glitter of your gold3 henceforth you
 shall bask in the splendor of the gods4
 ,and they reply that the truth is in   
the depths and the darkness1 and that   
what blazes on high there is falsehood4 

,and with that the gods pass into their 
glorious stronghold4     ,,wagner ,,as  
,,revolutionist  ,before leaving this   
explanation of ,the ,rhine ,gold1 ,i    
must have a word or two about it with   
the reader4 ,it is the least popular of 
the sections of ,the ,ring4 ,the reason 
is that its dramatic moments lie quite  
outside the consciousness of people     
whose joys and sorrows are all domestic 
and personal1 and whose religions and   
political ideas are purely conventional 
and superstitious4 ,to them it is a     
struggle between half a dozen fairytale 
personages for a ring1 involving hours  
of scolding and cheating1 and one long  
scene in a dark gruesome mine1 with     
gloomy1 ugly music1 and not a glimpse of
 a handsome young man or pretty woman4  
,only those of wider consciousness can  
follow it breathlessly1 seeing in it the
 whole tragedy of human history and the 
whole horror of the dilemmas from which 
the world is shrinking today4 ,at       
,bayreuth ,i have seen a party of       

,english tourists1 after enduring       
agonies of boredom from ,alberic1 rise  
in the middle of the third scene1 and   
almost force their way out of the dark  
theatre into the sunlit pine-wood       
without4 ,and ,i have seen people who   
were deeply affected by the scene driven
 almost beside themselves by this       
disturbance4 ,but it was a very natural 
thing for the unfortunate tourists to   
do1 since in this ,rhine ,gold prologue 
there is no interval between the acts   
for escape4 ,roughly speaking1 people   
who have no general ideas1 no touch of  
the concern of the philosopher and      
statesman for the race1 cannot enjoy    
,the ,rhine ,gold as a drama4 ,they may 
find compensations in some exceedingly  
pretty music1 at times even grand and   
glorious1 which will enable them to     
escape occasionally from the struggle   
between ,alberic and ,wotan2 but if     
their capacity for music should be as   
limited as their comprehension of the   
world1 they had better stay away4  ,and 

now1 attentive ,reader1 we have reached 
the point at which some foolish person  
is sure to interrupt us by declaring    
that ,the ,rhine ,gold is what they call
 a work of art pure and simple1 and that
 ,wagner never dreamt of shareholders1  
tall hats1 whitelead factories1 and     
industrial and political questions      
looked at from the socialistic and      
humanitarian points of view4 ,we need   
not discuss these impertinences3 it is  
easier to silence them with the facts of
 ,wagner's life4 ,in #ahdc he obtained  
the position of conductor of the ,opera 
at ,dresden at a salary of ,l#bbe a     
year1 with a pension4 ,this was a       
first-rate permanent appointment in the 
service of the ,saxon ,state1 carrying  
an assured professional position and    
livelihood with it ,in #ahdh1 the year  
of revolutions1 the discontented middle 
class1 unable to rouse the              
,church-and-,state governments of the   
day from their bondage to custom1 caste1
 and law by appeals to morality or      

constitutional agitation for ,liberal   
reforms1 made common cause with the     
starving wage-working class1 and        
resorted to armed rebellion1 which      
reached ,dresden in #ahdi4 ,had ,wagner 
been the mere musical epicure and       
political mugwump that the term artist  
seems to suggest to so many critics and 
amateurs--that is1 a creature in their  
own lazy likeness--he need have taken no
 more part in the political struggles of
 his day than ,bishop took in the       
,english ,reform agitation of #ahcb1 or 
,sterndale ,bennett in the ,chartist or 
,free ,trade movements4 ,what he did do 
was first to make a desperate appeal to 
the ,king to cast off his bonds and     
answer the need of the time by taking   
true ,kingship on himself and leading   
his people to the redress of their      
intolerable wrongs 7fancy the poor      
monarch's feelings671 and then1 when the
 crash came1 to take his side with the  
right and the poor against the rich and 
the wrong4 ,when the insurrection was   

defeated1 three leaders of it were      
especially marked down for vengeance3   
,august ,roeckel1 an old friend of      
,wagner's to whom he wrote a well-known 
series of letters2 ,michael ,bakoonin1  
afterwards a famous apostle of          
revolutionary ,anarchism2 and ,wagner   
himself4 ,wagner escaped to             
,switzerland3 ,roeckel and ,bakoonin    
suffered long terms of imprisonment4    
,wagner was of course utterly ruined1   
pecuniarily and socially 7to his own    
intense relief and satisfaction72 and   
his exile lasted twelve years4 ,his     
first idea was to get his ,tannhauser   
produced in ,paris4 ,with the notion of 
explaining himself to the ,parisians he 
wrote a pamphlet entitled ,art and      
,revolution1 a glance through which will
 show how thoroughly the socialistic    
side of the revolution had his sympathy1
 and how completely he had got free from
 the influence of the established       
,churches of his day4 ,for three years  
he kept pouring forth pamphlets--some of

 them elaborate treatises in size and   
intellectual rank1 but still essentially
 the pamphlets and manifestoes of a born
 agitator--on social evolution1         
religion1 life1 art and the influence of
 riches4 ,in #ahec the poem of ,the     
,ring was privately printed2 and in     
#ahed1 five years after the ,dresden    
insurrection1 ,the ,rhine ,gold score   
was completed to the last drum tap4     
,these facts are on official record in  
,germany1 where the proclamation summing
 up ,wagner as a politically dangerous  
person may be consulted to this day4    
,the pamphlets are now accessible to    
,english readers in the translation of  
,mr4 ,ashton ,ellis4 ,this being so1 any
 person who1 having perhaps heard that  
,i am a ,socialist1 attempts to persuade
 you that my interpretation of ,the     
,rhine ,gold is only my socialism read  
into the works of a dilettantist who    
borrowed an idle tale from an old saga  
to make an opera book with1 may safely  
be dismissed from your consideration as 

an ignoramus4  ,if you are now satisfied
 that ,the ,rhine ,gold is an allegory1 
do not forget that an allegory is never 
quite consistent except when it is      
written by someone without dramatic     
faculty1 in which case it is unreadable4
 ,there is only one way of dramatizing  
an idea2 and that is by putting on the  
stage a human being possessed by that   
idea1 yet none the less a human being   
with all the human impulses which make  
him akin and therefore interesting to   
us4 ,bunyan1 in his ,pilgrim's          
,progress1 does not1 like his unread    
imitators1 attempt to personify         
,christianity and ,valour3 he dramatizes
 for you the life of the ,christian and 
the ,valiant ,man4 ,just so1 though ,i  
have shown that ,wotan is ,godhead and  
,kingship1 and ,loki ,logic and         
,imagination without living ,will       
7,brain without ,heart1 to put it       
vulgarly72 yet in the drama ,wotan is a 
religiously moral man1 and ,loki a      
witty1 ingenious1 imaginative and       

cynical one4 ,as to ,fricka1 who stands 
for ,state ,law1 she does not assume her
 allegorical character in ,the ,rhine   
,gold at all1 but is simply ,wotan's    
wife and ,freia's sister3 nay1 she      
contradicts her allegorical self by     
conniving at all ,wotan's rogueries4    
,that1 of course1 is just what ,state   
,law would do2 but we must not save the 
credit of the allegory by a quip4 ,not  
until she reappears in the next play    
7,the ,valkyries7 does her function in  
the allegorical scheme become plain4    
,one preconception will bewilder the    
spectator hopelessly unless he has been 
warned against it or is naturally free  
from it4 ,in the old-fashioned orders of
 creation1 the supernatural personages  
are invariably conceived as greater than
 man1 for good or evil4 ,in the modern  
humanitarian order as adopted by        
,wagner1 ,man is the highest4 ,in ,the  
,rhine ,gold1 it is pretended that there
 are as yet no men on the earth4 ,there 
are dwarfs1 giants1 and gods4 ,the      

danger is that you will jump to the     
conclusion that the gods1 at least1 are 
a higher order than the human order4 ,on
 the contrary1 the world is waiting for 
,man to redeem it from the lame and     
cramped government of the gods4 ,once   
grasp that2 and the allegory becomes    
simple enough4 ,really1 of course1 the  
dwarfs1 giants1 and gods are            
dramatizations of the three main orders 
of men3 to wit1 the instinctive1        
predatory1 lustful1 greedy people2 the  
patient1 toiling1 stupid1 respectful1   
money-worshipping people2 and the       
intellectual1 moral1 talented people who
 devise and administer ,states and      
,churches4 ,history shows us only one   
order higher than the highest of these3 
namely1 the order of ,heroes4  ,now it  
is quite clear--though you have perhaps 
never thought of it--that if the next   
generation of ,englishmen consisted     
wholly of ,julius ,caesars1 all our     
political1 ecclesiastical1 and moral    
institutions would vanish1 and the less 

perishable of their appurtenances be    
classed with ,stonehenge and the        
cromlechs and round towers as           
inexplicable relics of a bygone social  
order4 ,julius ,caesars would no more   
trouble themselves about such           
contrivances as our codes and churches  
than a fellow of the ,royal ,society    
will touch his hat to the squire and    
listen to the village curate's sermons4 
,this is precisely what must happen some
 day if life continues thrusting towards
 higher and higher organization as it   
has hitherto done4 ,as most of our      
,english professional men are to        
,australian bushmen1 so1 we must        
suppose1 will the average man of some   
future day be to ,julius ,caesar4 ,let  
any man of middle age1 pondering this   
prospect consider what has happened     
within a single generation to the       
articles of faith his father regarded as
 eternal nay1 to the very scepticisms   
and blasphemies of his youth 7,bishop   
,colenso's criticism of the ,pentateuch1

 for example672 and he will begin to    
realize how much of our barbarous       
,theology and ,law the man of the future
 will do without4 ,bakoonin1 the        
,dresden revolutionary leader with whom 
,wagner went out in #ahdi1 put forward  
later on a program1 often quoted with   
foolish horror1 for the abolition of all
 institutions1 religious1 political1    
juridical1 financial1 legal1 academic1  
and so on1 so as to leave the will of   
man free to find its own way4 ,all the  
loftiest spirits of that time were      
burning to raise ,man up1 to give him   
self-respect1 to shake him out of his   
habit of grovelling before the ideals   
created by his own imagination1 of      
attributing the good that sprang from   
the ceaseless energy of the life within 
himself to some superior power in the   
clouds1 and of making a fetish of       
self-sacrifice to justify his own       
cowardice4  ,farther on in ,the ,ring we
 shall see the ,hero arrive and make an 
end of dwarfs1 giants1 and gods4        

,meanwhile1 let us not forget that      
godhood means to ,wagner infirmity and  
compromise1 and manhood strength and    
integrity4 ,above all1 we must          
understand--for it is the key to much   
that we are to see--that the god1 since 
his desire is toward a higher and fuller
 life1 must long in his inmost soul for 
the advent of that greater power whose  
first work1 though this he does not see 
as yet1 must be his own undoing4  ,in   
the midst of all these far-reaching     
ideas1 it is amusing to find ,wagner    
still full of his ingrained theatrical  
professionalism1 and introducing effects
 which now seem old-fashioned and stagey
 with as much energy and earnestness as 
if they were his loftiest inspirations4 
,when ,wotan wrests the ring from       
,alberic1 the dwarf delivers a lurid and
 bloodcurdling stage curse1 calling down
 on its every future possessor care1    
fear1 and death4 ,the musical phrase    
accompanying this outburst was a        
veritable harmonic and melodic bogey to 

mid-century ears1 though time has now   
robbed it of its terrors4 ,it sounds    
again when ,fafnir slays ,fasolt1 and on
 every subsequent occasion when the ring
 brings death to its holder4 ,this      
episode must justify itself purely as a 
piece of stage sensationalism4 ,on      
deeper ground it is superfluous and     
confusing1 as the ruin to which the     
pursuit of riches leads needs no curse  
to explain it2 nor is there any sense in
 investing ,alberic with providential   
powers in the matter4     ,,the         
,,valkyries  ,before the curtain rises  
on the ,valkyries1 let us see what has  
happened since it fell on ,the ,rhine   
,gold4 ,the persons of the drama will   
tell us presently2 but as we probably do
 not understand ,german1 that may not   
help us4  ,wotan is still ruling the    
world in glory from his giant-built     
castle with his wife ,fricka4 ,but he   
has no security for the continuance of  
his reign1 since ,alberic may at any    
moment contrive to recover the ring1 the

 full power of which he can wield       
because he has forsworn love4 ,such     
forswearing is not possible to ,wotan3  
love1 though not his highest need1 is a 
higher than gold3 otherwise he would be 
no god4 ,besides1 as we have seen1 his  
power has been established in the world 
by and as a system of laws enforced by  
penalties4 ,these he must consent to be 
bound by himself2 for a god who broke   
his own laws would betray the fact that 
legality and conformity are not the     
highest rule of conduct--a discovery    
fatal to his supremacy as ,pontiff and  
,lawgiver4 ,hence he may not wrest the  
ring unlawfully from ,fafnir1 even if he
 could bring himself to forswear love4  
,in this insecurity he has hit on the   
idea of forming a heroic bodyguard4 ,he 
has trained his love children as        
war-maidens 7,valkyries7 whose duty it  
is to sweep through battle-fields and   
bear away to ,valhalla the souls of the 
bravest who fall there4 ,thus reinforced
 by a host of warriors1 he has          

thoroughly indoctrinated them1 ,loki    
helping him as dialectician-in-chief1   
with the conventional system of law and 
duty1 supernatural religion and         
self-sacrificing idealism1 which they   
believe to be the essence of his        
godhood1 but which is really only the   
machinery of the love of necessary power
 which is his mortal weakness4 ,this    
process secures their fanatical devotion
 to his system of government1 but he    
knows perfectly well that such systems1 
in spite of their moral pretensions1    
serve selfish and ambitious tyrants     
better than benevolent despots1 and     
that1 if once ,alberic gets the ring    
back1 he will easily out-,valhalla      
,valhalla1 if not buy it over as a going
 concern4 ,the only chance of permanent 
security1 then1 is the appearance in the
 world of a hero who1 without any       
illicit prompting from ,wotan1 will     
destroy ,alberic and wrest the ring from
 ,fafnir4 ,there will then1 he believes1
 be no further cause for anxiety1 since 

he does not yet conceive ,heroism as a  
force hostile to ,godhead4 ,in his      
longing for a rescuer1 it does not occur
 to him that when the ,hero comes1 his  
first exploit must be to sweep the gods 
and their ordinances from the path of   
the heroic will4  ,indeed1 he feels that
 in his own ,godhead is the germ of such
 ,heroism1 and that from himself the    
,hero must spring4 ,he takes to         
wandering1 mostly in search of love1    
from ,fricka and ,valhalla4 ,he seeks   
the ,first ,mother2 and through her     
womb1 eternally fertile1 the inner true 
thought that made him first a god is    
reborn as his daughter1 uncorrupted by  
his ambition1 unfettered by his         
machinery of power and his alliances    
with ,fricka and ,loki4 ,this daughter1 
the ,valkyrie ,brynhild1 is his true    
will1 his real self1 7as he thinks73 to 
her he may say what he must not say to  
anyone1 since in speaking to her he but 
speaks to himself4 ,was ,keinem in      
,worten unausgesprochen1 he says to her1

 bleib es ewig3 mit mir nur rath' ich1  
red' ich zu dir4  ,but from ,brynhild no
 hero can spring until there is a man of
 ,wotan's race to breed with her4 ,wotan
 wanders further2 and a mortal woman    
bears him twins3 a son and a daughter4  
,he separates them by letting the girl  
fall into the hands of a forest tribe   
which in due time gives her as a wife to
 a fierce chief1 one ,hunding4 ,with the
 son he himself leads the life of a     
wolf1 and teaches him the only power a  
god can teach1 the power of doing       
without happiness4 ,when he has given   
him this terrible training1 he abandons 
him1 and goes to the bridal feast of his
 daughter ,sieglinda and ,hunding4 ,in  
the blue cloak of the wanderer1 wearing 
the broad hat that flaps over the socket
 of his forfeited eye1 he appears in    
,hunding's house1 the middle pillar of  
which is a mighty tree4 ,into that tree1
 without a word1 he strikes a sword up  
to the hilt1 so that only the might of a
 hero can withdraw it4 ,then he goes out

 as silently as he came1 blind to the   
truth that no weapon from the armory of 
,godhead can serve the turn of the true 
,human ,hero4 ,neither ,hunding nor any 
of his guests can move the sword2 and   
there it stays awaiting the destined    
hand4 ,that is the history of the       
generations between ,the ,rhine ,gold   
and ,the ,valkyries4  ,the ,first ,act  
,this time1 as we sit looking           
expectantly at the curtain1 we hear1 not
 the deep booming of the ,rhine1 but the
 patter of a forest downpour1           
accompanied by the mutter of a storm    
which soon gathers into a roar and      
culminates in crashing thunderbolts4 ,as
 it passes off1 the curtain rises2 and  
there is no mistaking whose forest      
habitation we are in2 for the central   
pillar is a mighty tree1 and the place  
fit for the dwelling of a fierce chief4 
,the door opens3 and an exhausted man   
reels in3 an adept from the school of   
unhappiness4 ,sieglinda finds him lying 
on the hearth4 ,he explains that he has 

been in a fight2 that his weapons not   
being as strong as his arms1 were       
broken2 and that he had to fly4 ,he     
desires some drink and a moment's rest2 
then he will go2 for he is an unlucky   
person1 and does not want to bring his  
ill-luck on the woman who is succoring  
him4 ,but she1 it appears1 is also      
unhappy2 and a strong sympathy springs  
up between them4 ,when her husband      
arrives1 he observes not only this      
sympathy1 but a resemblance between     
them1 a gleam of the snake in their     
eyes4 ,they sit down to table2 and the  
stranger tells them his unlucky story4  
,he is the son of ,wotan1 who is known  
to him only as ,wolfing1 of the race of 
the ,volsungs4 ,the earliest thing he   
remembers is returning from a hunt with 
his father to find their home destroyed1
 his mother murdered1 and his           
twin-sister carried off4 ,this was the  
work of a tribe called the ,neidings1   
upon whom he and ,wolfing thenceforth   
waged implacable war until the day when 

his father disappeared1 leaving no trace
 of himself but an empty wolfskin4 ,the 
young ,volsung was thus cast alone upon 
the world1 finding most hands against   
him1 and bringing no good luck even to  
his friends4 ,his latest exploit has    
been the slaying of certain brothers who
 were forcing their sister to wed       
against her will4 ,the result has been  
the slaughter of the woman by her       
brothers' clansmen1 and his own narrow  
escape by flight4  ,his luck on this    
occasion is even worse than he supposes2
 for ,hunding1 by whose hearth he has   
taken refuge1 is clansman to the slain  
brothers and is bound to avenge them4   
,he tells the ,volsung that in the      
morning1 weapons or no weapons1 he must 
fight for his life4 ,then he orders the 
woman to bed1 and follows her himself1  
taking his spear with him4  ,the unlucky
 stranger1 left brooding by the hearth1 
has nothing to console himself with but 
an old promise of his father's that he  
shall find a weapon to his hand when he 

most needs one4 ,the last flicker of the
 dying fire strikes on the golden hilt  
of the sword that sticks in the tree2   
but he does not see it2 and the embers  
sink into blackness4 ,then the woman    
returns4 ,hunding is safely asleep3 she 
has drugged him4 ,she tells the story of
 the one-eyed man who appeared at her   
forced marriage1 and of the sword4 ,she 
has always felt1 she says1 that her     
miseries will end in the arms of the    
hero who shall succeed in drawing it    
forth4 ,the stranger1 diffident as he is
 about his luck1 has no misgivings as to
 his strength and destiny4 ,he gives her
 his affection at once1 and abandons    
himself to the charm of the night and   
the season2 for it is the beginning of  
,spring4 ,they soon learn from their    
confidences that she is his stolen      
twin-sister4 ,he is transported to find 
that the heroic race of the ,volsungs   
need neither perish nor be corrupted by 
a lower strain4 ,hailing the sword by   
the name of ,nothung 7or ,needed71 he   

plucks it from the tree as her          
bride-gift1 and then1 crying ,both bride
 and sister be of thy brother2 and      
blossom the blood of the ,volsungs6     
clasps her as the mate the ,spring has  
brought him4  ,the ,second ,act  ,so    
far1 ,wotan's plan seems prospering4 ,in
 the mountains he calls his war-maiden  
,brynhild1 the child borne to him by the
 ,first ,mother1 and bids her see to it 
that ,hunding shall fall in the         
approaching combat4 ,but he is reckoning
 without his consort1 ,fricka4 ,what    
will she1 the ,law1 say to the lawless  
pair who have heaped incest on adultery8
 ,a hero may have defied the law1 and   
put his own will in its place2 but can a
 god hold him guiltless1 when the whole 
power of the gods can enforce itself    
only by law8 ,fricka1 shuddering with   
horror1 outraged in every instinct1     
comes clamoring for punishment4 ,wotan  
pleads the general necessity of         
encouraging heroism in order to keep up 
the ,valhalla bodyguard2 but his        

remonstrances only bring upon him       
torrents of reproaches for his own      
unfaithfulness to the law in roaming    
through the world and begetting         
war-maidens1 wolf cubs1 and the like4   
,he is hopelessly beaten in the         
argument4 ,fricka is absolutely right   
when she declares that the ending of the
 gods began when he brought this        
wolf-hero into the world2 and now1 to   
save their very existence1 she          
pitilessly demands his destruction4     
,wotan has no power to refuse3 it is    
,fricka's mechanical force1 and not his 
thought1 that really rules the world4   
,he has to recall ,brynhild2 take back  
his former instructions2 and ordain that
 ,hunding shall slay the ,volsung4  ,but
 now comes another difficulty4 ,brynhild
 is the inner thought and will of       
,godhead1 the aspiration from the high  
life to the higher that is its divine   
element1 and only becomes separated from
 it when its resort to kingship and     
priestcraft for the sake of temporal    

power has made it false to itself4      
,hitherto1 ,brynhild1 as ,valkyrie or   
hero chooser1 has obeyed ,wotan         
implicitly1 taking her work as the      
holiest and bravest in his kingdom2 and 
now he tells her what he could not tell 
,fricka--what indeed he could not tell  
to ,brynhild1 were she not1 as she says1
 his own will--the whole story of       
,alberic and of that inspiration about  
the raising up of a hero4 ,she          
thoroughly approves of the inspiration2 
but when the story ends in the          
assumption that she too must obey       
,fricka1 and help ,fricka's vassal1     
,hunding1 to undo the great work and    
strike the hero down1 she for the first 
time hesitates to accept his command4   
,in his fury and despair he overawes her
 by the most terrible threats of his    
anger2 and she submits4  ,then comes the
 ,volsung ,siegmund1 following his      
sister bride1 who has fled into the     
mountains in a revulsion of horror at   
having allowed herself to bring her hero

 to shame4 ,whilst she is lying         
exhausted and senseless in his arms1    
,brynhild appears to him and solemnly   
warns him that he must presently leave  
the earth with her4 ,he asks whither he 
must follow her4 ,to ,valhalla1 to take 
his place there among the heroes4 ,he   
asks1 shall he find his father there8   
,yes4 ,shall he find a wife there8 ,yes3
 he will be waited on by beautiful      
wishmaidens4 ,shall he meet his sister  
there8 ,no4 ,then1 says ,siegmund1 ,i   
will not come with you4  ,she tries to  
make him understand that he cannot help 
himself4 ,being a hero1 he will not be  
so persuaded3 he has his father's sword1
 and does not fear ,hunding4 ,but when  
she tells him that she comes from his   
father1 and that the sword of a god will
 not avail in the hands of a hero1 he   
accepts his fate1 but will shape it with
 his own hand1 both for himself and his 
sister1 by slaying her1 and then killing
 himself with the last stroke of the    
sword4 ,and thereafter he will go to    

,hell1 rather than to ,valhalla4  ,how  
now can ,brynhild1 being what she is1   
choose her side freely in a conflict    
between this hero and the vassal of     
,fricka8 ,by instinct she at once throws
 ,wotan's command to the winds1 and bids
 ,siegmund nerve himself for the combat 
with ,hunding1 in which she pledges him 
the protection of her shield4 ,the horn 
of ,hunding is soon heard2 and          
,siegmund's spirits rise to fighting    
pitch at once4 ,the two meet2 and the   
,valkyrie's shield is held before the   
hero4 ,but when he delivers his         
sword-stroke at his foe1 the weapon     
shivers on the spear of ,wotan1 who     
suddenly appears between them2 and the  
first of the race of heroes falls with  
the weapon of the ,law's vassal through 
his breast4 ,brynhild snatches the      
fragments of the broken sword1 and      
flies1 carrying off the woman with her  
on her war-horse2 and ,wotan1 in        
terrible wrath1 slays ,hunding with a   
wave of his hand1 and starts in pursuit 

of his disobedient daughter4  ,the      
,third ,act  ,on a rocky peak1 four of  
the ,valkyries are waiting for the rest4
 ,the absent ones soon arrive1 galloping
 through the air with slain heroes1     
gathered from the battle-field1 hanging 
over their saddles4 ,only1 ,brynhild1   
who comes last1 has for her spoil a live
 woman4 ,when her eight sisters learn   
that she has defied ,wotan1 they dare   
not help her2 and ,brynhild has to rouse
 ,sieglinda to make an effort to save   
herself1 by reminding her that she bears
 in her the seed of a hero1 and must    
face everything1 endure anything1 sooner
 than let that seed miscarry4           
,sieglinda1 in a transport of           
exaltation1 takes the fragments of the  
sword and flies into the forest4 ,then  
,wotan comes2 the sisters fly in terror 
at his command2 and he is left alone    
with ,brynhild4  ,here1 then1 we have   
the first of the inevitable moments     
which ,wotan did not foresee4 ,godhead  
has now established its dominion over   

the world by a mighty ,church1          
compelling obedience through its ally   
the ,law1 with its formidable ,state    
organization of force of arms and       
cunning of brain4 ,it has submitted to  
this alliance to keep the ,plutonic     
power in check--built it up primarily   
for the sake of that soul in itself     
which cares only to make the highest    
better and the best higher2 and now here
 is that very soul separated from it and
 working for the destruction of its     
indispensable ally1 the lawgiving       
,state4 ,how is the rebel to be         
disarmed8 ,slain it cannot be by        
,godhead1 since it is still ,godhead's  
own very dearest soul4 ,but hidden1     
stifled1 silenced it must be2 or it will
 wreck the ,state and leave the ,church 
defenseless4 ,not until it passes       
completely away from ,godhead1 and is   
reborn as the soul of the hero1 can it  
work anything but the confusion and     
destruction of the existing order4 ,how 
is the world to be protected against it 

in the meantime8 ,clearly ,loki's help  
is needed here3 it is the ,lie that     
must1 on the highest principles1 hide   
the ,truth4 ,let ,loki surround this    
mountain top with the appearance of a   
consuming fire2 and who will dare       
penetrate to ,brynhild8 ,it is true that
 if any man will walk boldly into that  
fire1 he will discover it at once to be 
a lie1 an illusion1 a mirage through    
which he might carry a sack of gunpowder
 without being a penny the worse4       
,therefore let the fire seem so terrible
 that only the hero1 when in the fulness
 of time he appears upon earth1 will    
venture through it2 and the problem is  
solved4 ,wotan1 with a breaking heart1  
takes leave of ,brynhild2 throws her    
into a deep sleep2 covers her with her  
long warshield2 summons ,loki1 who comes
 in the shape of a wall of fire         
surrounding the mountain peak2 and turns
 his back on ,brynhild for ever4  ,the  
allegory here is happily not so         
glaringly obvious to the younger        

generations of our educated classes as  
it was forty years ago4 ,in those days1 
any child who expressed a doubt as to   
the absolute truth of the ,church's     
teaching1 even to the extent of asking  
why ,joshua told the sun to stand still 
instead of telling the earth to cease   
turning1 or of pointing out that a      
whale's throat would hardly have been   
large enough to swallow ,jonah1 was     
unhesitatingly told that if it harboured
 such doubts it would spend all eternity
 after its death in horrible torments in
 a lake of burning brimstone4 ,it is    
difficult to write or read this nowadays
 without laughing2 yet no doubt millions
 of ignorant and credulous people are   
still teaching their children that4     
,when ,wagner himself was a little      
child1 the fact that hell was a fiction 
devised for the intimidation and        
subjection of the masses1 was a         
well-kept secret of the thinking and    
governing classes4 ,at that time the    
fires of ,loki were a very real terror  

to all except persons of exceptional    
force of character and intrepidity of   
thought4 ,even thirty years after       
,wagner had printed the verses of ,the  
,ring for private circulation1 we find  
him excusing himself from perfectly     
explicit denial of current              
superstitions1 by reminding his readers 
that it would expose him to prosecution4
 ,in ,england1 so many of our           
respectable voters are still grovelling 
in a gloomy devil worship1 of which the 
fires of ,loki are the main bulwark1    
that no ,government has yet had the     
conscience or the courage to repeal our 
monstrous laws against blasphemy4       
,,siegfried  ,sieglinda1 when she flies 
into the forest with the hero's son     
unborn in her womb1 and the broken      
pieces of his sword in her hand1 finds  
shelter in the smithy of a dwarf1 where 
she brings forth her child and dies4    
,this dwarf is no other than ,mimmy1 the
 brother of ,alberic1 the same who made 
for him the magic helmet4 ,his aim in   

life is to gain possession of the       
helmet1 the ring1 and the treasure1 and 
through them to obtain that ,plutonic   
mastery of the world under the          
beginnings of which he himself writhed  
during ,alberic's brief reign4 ,mimmy is
 a blinking1 shambling1 ancient         
creature1 too weak and timid to dream of
 taking arms himself to despoil ,fafnir1
 who still1 transformed to a monstrous  
serpent1 broods on the gold in a hole in
 the rocks4 ,mimmy needs the help of a  
hero for that2 and he has craft enough  
to know that it is quite possible1 and  
indeed much in the ordinary way of the  
world1 for senile avarice and craft to  
set youth and bravery to work to win    
empire for it4 ,he knows the pedigree of
 the child left on his hands1 and nurses
 it to manhood with great care4  ,his   
pains are too well rewarded for his     
comfort4 ,the boy ,siegfried1 having no 
god to instruct him in the art of       
unhappiness1 inherits none of his       
father's ill luck1 and all his father's 

hardihood4 ,the fear against which      
,siegmund set his face like flint1 and  
the woe which he wore down1 are unknown 
to the son4 ,the father was faithful and
 grateful3 the son knows no law but his 
own humor2 detests the ugly dwarf who   
has nursed him2 chafes furiously under  
his claims for some return for his      
tender care2 and is1 in short1 a totally
 unmoral person1 a born anarchist1 the  
ideal of ,bakoonin1 an anticipation of  
the overman of ,nietzsche4 ,he is       
enormously strong1 full of life and fun1
 dangerous and destructive to what he   
dislikes1 and affectionate to what he   
likes2 so that it is fortunate that his 
likes and dislikes are sane and healthy4
 ,altogether an inspiriting young       
forester1 a son of the morning1 in whom 
the heroic race has come out into the   
sunshine from the clouds of his         
grandfather's majestic entanglements    
with law1 and the night of his father's 
tragic struggle with it4  ,the ,first   
,act  ,mimmy's smithy is a cave1 in     

which he hides from the light like the  
eyeless fish of the ,american caverns4  
,before the curtain rises the music     
already tells us that we are groping in 
darkness4 ,when it does rise ,mimmy is  
in difficulties4 ,he is trying to make a
 sword for his nursling1 who is now big 
enough to take the field against        
,fafnir4 ,mimmy can make mischievous    
swords2 but it is not with dwarf made   
weapons that heroic man will hew the way
 of his own will through religions and  
governments and plutocracies and all the
 other devices of the kingdom of the    
fears of the unheroic4 ,as fast as      
,mimmy makes swords1 ,siegfried         
,bakoonin smashes them1 and then takes  
the poor old swordsmith by the scruff of
 the neck and chastises him wrathfully4 
,the particular day on which the curtain
 rises begins with one of these trying  
domestic incidents4 ,mimmy has just done
 his best with a new sword of surpassing
 excellence4 ,siegfried returns home in 
rare spirits with a wild bear1 to the   

extreme terror of the wretched dwarf4   
,when the bear is dismissed1 the new    
sword is produced4 ,it is promptly      
smashed1 as usual1 with1 also1 the usual
 effects on the temper of ,siegfried1   
who is quite boundless in his criticisms
 of the smith's boasted skill1 and      
declares that he would smash the sword's
 maker too if he were not too disgusting
 to be handled4  ,mimmy falls back on   
his stock defence3 a string of maudlin  
reminders of the care with which he has 
nursed the little boy into manhood4     
,siegfried replies candidly that the    
strangest thing about all this care is  
that instead of making him grateful1 it 
inspires him with a lively desire to    
wring the dwarf's neck4 ,only1 he admits
 that he always comes back to his       
,mimmy1 though he loathes him more than 
any living thing in the forest4 ,on this
 admission the dwarf attempts to build a
 theory of filial instinct4 ,he explains
 that he is ,siegfried's father1 and    
that this is why ,siegfried cannot do   

without him4 ,but ,siegfried has learned
 from his forest companions1 the birds  
and foxes and wolves1 that mothers as   
well as fathers go to the making of     
children4 ,mimmy1 on the desperate      
ground that man is neither bird nor fox1
 declares that he is ,siegfried's father
 and mother both4 ,he is promptly       
denounced as a filthy liar1 because the 
birds and foxes are exactly like their  
parents1 whereas ,siegfried1 having     
often watched his own image in the      
water1 can testify that he is no more   
like ,mimmy than a toad is like a trout4
 ,then1 to place the conversation on a  
plane of entire frankness1 he throttles 
,mimmy until he is speechless4 ,when the
 dwarf recovers1 he is so daunted that  
he tells ,siegfried the truth about his 
birth1 and for testimony thereof        
produces the pieces of the sword that   
broke upon ,wotan's spear4 ,siegfried   
instantly orders him to repair the sword
 on pain of an unmerciful thrashing1 and
 rushes off into the forest1 rejoicing  

in the discovery that he is no kin of   
,mimmy's1 and need have no more to do   
with him when the sword is mended4      
,poor ,mimmy is now in a worse plight   
than ever2 for he has long ago found    
that the sword utterly defies his skill3
 the steel will yield neither to his    
hammer nor to his furnace4 ,just then   
there walks into his cave a ,wanderer1  
in a blue mantle1 spear in hand1 with   
one eye concealed by the brim of his    
wide hat4 ,mimmy1 not by nature         
hospitable1 tries to drive him away2 but
 the ,wanderer announces himself as a   
wise man1 who can tell his host1 in     
emergency1 what it most concerns him to 
know4 ,mimmy1 taking this offer in high 
dudgeon1 because it implies that his    
visitor's wits are better than his own1 
offers to tell the wise one something   
that ,,he does not know3 to wit1 the way
 to the door4 ,the imperturbable        
,wanderer's reply is to sit down and    
challenge the dwarf to a trial of wit4  
,he wagers his head against ,mimmy's    

that he will answer any three questions 
the dwarf can put to him4  ,now here    
were ,mimmy's opportunity1 had he only  
the wit to ask what he wants to know1   
instead of pretending to know everything
 already4 ,it is above all things       
needful to him at this moment to find   
out how that sword can be mended2 and   
there has just dropped in upon him in   
his need the one person who can tell    
him4 ,in such circumstances a wise man  
would hasten to show to his visitor his 
three deepest ignorances1 and ask him to
 dispel them4 ,the dwarf1 being a crafty
 fool1 desiring only to detect ignorance
 in his guest1 asks him for information 
on the three points on which he is      
proudest of being thoroughly well       
instructed himself4 ,his three questions
 are1 ,who dwell under the earth8 ,who  
dwell on the earth8 and ,who dwell in   
the cloudy heights above8 ,the          
,wanderer1 in reply1 tells him of the   
dwarfs and of ,alberic2 of the earth1   
and the giants ,fasolt and ,fafnir2 of  

the gods and of ,wotan3 himself1 as     
,mimmy now recognizes with awe4  ,next1 
it is ,mimmy's turn to face three       
questions4 ,what is that race1 dearest  
to ,wotan1 against which ,wotan has     
nevertheless done his worst8 ,mimmy can 
answer that3 he knows the ,volsungs1 the
 race of heroes born of ,wotan's        
infidelities to ,fricka1 and can tell   
the ,wanderer the whole story of the    
twins and their son ,siegfried4 ,wotan  
compliments him on his knowledge1 and   
asks further with what sword ,siegfried 
will slay ,fafnir8 ,mimmy can answer    
that too3 he has the whole history of   
the sword at his fingers' ends4 ,wotan  
hails him as the knowingest of the      
knowing1 and then hurls at him the      
question he should himself have asked3  
,who will mend the sword8 ,mimmy1 his   
head forfeited1 confesses with loud     
lamentations that he cannot answer4 ,the
 ,wanderer reads him an appropriate     
little lecture on the folly of being too
 clever to ask what he wants to know1   

and informs him that a smith to whom    
fear is unknown will mend ,nothung4 ,to 
this smith he leaves the forfeited head 
of his host1 and wanders off into the   
forest4 ,then ,mimmy's nerves give way  
completely4 ,he shakes like a man in    
delirium tremens1 and has a horrible    
nightmare1 in the supreme convulsion of 
which ,siegfried1 returning from the    
forest1 presently finds him4  ,a curious
 and amusing conversation follows4      
,siegfried himself does not know fear1  
and is impatient to acquire it as an    
accomplishment4 ,mimmy is all fear3 the 
world for him is a phantasmagoria of    
terrors4 ,it is not that he is afraid of
 being eaten by bears in the forest1 or 
of burning his fingers in the forge     
fire4 ,a lively objection to being      
destroyed or maimed does not make a man 
a coward3 on the contrary1 it is the    
beginning of a brave man's wisdom4 ,but 
in ,mimmy1 fear is not the effect of    
danger3 it is natural quality of him    
which no security can allay4 ,he is like

 many a poor newspaper editor1 who dares
 not print the truth1 however simple1   
even when it is obvious to himself and  
all his readers4 ,not that anything     
unpleasant would happen to him if he    
did--not1 indeed that he could fail to  
become a distinguished and influential  
leader of opinion by fearlessly pursuing
 such a course1 but solely because he   
lives in a world of imaginary terrors1  
rooted in a modest and gentlemanly      
mistrust of his own strength and worth1 
and consequently of the value of his    
opinion4 ,just so is ,mimmy afraid of   
anything that can do him any good1      
especially of the light and the fresh   
air4 ,he is also convinced that anybody 
who is not sufficiently steeped in fear 
to be constantly on his guard1 must     
perish immediately on his first sally   
into the world4 ,to preserve ,siegfried 
for the enterprise to which he has      
destined him he makes a grotesque       
attempt to teach him fear4 ,he appeals  
to his experience of the terrors of the 

forest1 of its dark places1 of its      
threatening noises its stealthy         
ambushes1 its sinister flickering lights
 its heart-tightening ecstasies of      
dread4  ,all this has no other effect   
than to fill ,siegfried with wonder and 
curiosity2 for the forest is a place of 
delight for him4 ,he is as eager to     
experience ,mimmy's terrors as a        
schoolboy to feel what an electric shock
 is like4 ,then ,mimmy has the happy    
idea of describing ,fafnir to him as a  
likely person to give him an exemplary  
fright4 ,siegfried jumps at the idea1   
and1 since ,mimmy cannot mend the sword 
for him1 proposes to set to work then   
and there to mend it for himself4 ,mimmy
 shakes his head1 and bids him see now  
how his youthful laziness and           
frowardness have found him out--how he  
would not learn the smith's craft from  
,professor ,mimmy1 and therefore does   
not know how even to begin mending the  
sword4 ,siegfried ,bakoonin's retort is 
simple and crushing4 ,he points out that

 the net result of ,mimmy's academic    
skill is that he can neither make a     
decent sword himself nor even set one to
 rights when it is damaged4 ,reckless of
 the remonstrances of the scandalized   
professor1 he seizes a file1 and in a   
few moments utterly destroys the        
fragments of the sword by rasping them  
into a heap of steel filings4 ,then he  
puts the filings into a crucible2 buries
 it in the coals2 and sets to at the    
bellows with the shouting exultation of 
the anarchist who destroys only to clear
 the ground for creation4 ,when the     
steel is melted he runs it into a mould2
 and lo6 a sword-blade in the rough4    
,mimmy1 amazed at the success of this   
violation of all the rules of his craft1
 hails ,siegfried as the mightiest of   
smiths1 professing himself barely worthy
 to be his cook and scullion2 and       
forthwith proceeds to poison some soup  
for him so that he may murder him safely
 when ,fafnir is slain4 ,meanwhile      
,siegfried forges and tempers and       

hammers and rivets1 uproariously singing
 the while as nonsensically as the      
,rhine maidens themselves4 ,finally he  
assails the anvil on which ,mimmy's     
swords have been shattered1 and cleaves 
it with a mighty stroke of the newly    
forged ,nothung4  ,the ,second ,act  ,in
 the darkest hour before the dawn of    
that night1 we find ourselves before the
 cave of ,fafnir1 and there we find     
,alberic1 who can find nothing better to
 do with himself than to watch the haunt
 of the dragon1 and eat his heart out in
 vain longing for the gold and the ring4
 ,the wretched ,fafnir1 once an honest  
giant1 can only make himself terrible   
enough to keep his gold by remaining a  
venomous reptile4 ,why he should not    
become an honest giant again and clear  
out of his cavern1 leaving the gold and 
the ring and the rest of it for anyone  
fool enough to take them at such a      
price1 is the first question that would 
occur to anyone except a civilized man1 
who would be too accustomed to that sort

 of mania to be at all surprised at it4 
,to ,alberic in the night comes the     
,wanderer1 whom the dwarf1 recognizing  
his despoiler of old1 abuses as a       
shameless thief1 taunting him with the  
helpless way in which all his boasted   
power is tied up with the laws and      
bargains recorded on the heft of his    
spear1 which1 says ,alberic truly1 would
 crumble like chaff in his hands if he  
dared use it for his own real ends4     
,wotan1 having already had to kill his  
own son with it1 knows that very well2  
but it troubles him no more2 for he is  
now at last rising to abhorrence of his 
own artificial power1 and looking to the
 coming hero1 not for its consolidation 
but its destruction4 ,when ,alberic     
breaks out again with his still         
unquenched hope of one day destroying   
the gods and ruling the world through   
the ring1 ,wotan is no longer shocked4  
,he tells ,alberic that ,brother ,mime  
approaches with a hero whom ,godhead can
 neither help nor hinder4 ,alberic may  

try his luck against him without        
disturbance from ,valhalla4 ,perhaps1 he
 suggests1 if ,alberic warns ,fafnir1   
and offers to deal with the hero for    
him1 ,fafnir1 may give him the ring4    
,they accordingly wake up the dragon1   
who condescends to enter into bellowing 
conversation1 but is proof against their
 proposition1 strong in the magic of    
property4 ,i have and hold1 he says3    
leave me to sleep4 ,wotan1 with a wise  
laugh1 turns to ,alberic4 ,that shot    
missed1 he says3 no use abusing me for  
it4 ,and now let me tell you one thing4 
,all things happen according to their   
nature2 and you can't alter them4 ,and  
so he leaves him ,alberic1 raging with  
the sense that his old enemy has been   
laughing at him1 and yet prophetically  
convinced that the last word will not be
 with the god1 hides himself as the day 
breaks1 and his brother approaches with 
,siegfried4  ,mimmy makes a final       
attempt to frighten ,siegfried by       
discoursing of the dragon's terrible    

jaws1 poisonous breath1 corrosive       
spittle1 and deadly1 stinging tail4     
,siegfried is not interested in the     
tail3 he wants to know whether the      
dragon has a heart1 being confident of  
his ability to stick ,nothung into it if
 it exists4 ,reassured on this point1 he
 drives ,mimmy away1 and stretches      
himself under the trees1 listening to   
the morning chatter of the birds4 ,one  
of them has a great deal to say to him2 
but he cannot understand it2 and after  
vainly trying to carry on the           
conversation with a reed which he cuts1 
he takes to entertaining the bird with  
tunes on his horn1 asking it to send him
 a loving mate such as all the other    
creatures of the forest have4 ,his tunes
 wake up the dragon2 and ,siegfried     
makes merry over the grim mate the bird 
has sent him4 ,fafnir is highly         
scandalized by the irreverence of the   
young ,bakoonin4 ,he loses his temper2  
fights2 and is forthwith slain1 to his  
own great astonishment4  ,in such       

conflicts one learns to interpret the   
messages of ,nature a little4 ,when     
,siegfried1 stung by the dragon's       
vitriolic blood1 pops his finger into   
his mouth and tastes it1 he understands 
what the bird is saying to him1 and1    
instructed by it concerning the         
treasures within his reach1 goes into   
the cave to secure the gold1 the ring   
and the wishing cap4 ,then ,mimmy       
returns1 and is confronted by ,alberic4 
,the two quarrel furiously over the     
sharing of the booty they have not yet  
secured1 until ,siegfried comes from the
 cave with the ring and the helmet1 not 
much impressed by the heap of gold1 and 
disappointed because he has not yet     
learned to fear4  ,he has1 however1     
learnt to read the thoughts of such a   
creature as poor ,mimmy1 who1 intending 
to overwhelm him with flattery and      
fondness1 only succeeds in making such a
 self-revelation of murderous envy that 
,siegfried smites him with ,nothung and 
slays him1 to the keen satisfaction of  

the hidden ,alberic4 ,caring nothing for
 the gold1 which he leaves to the care  
of the slain2 disappointed in his fancy 
for learning fear2 and longing for a    
mate1 he casts himself wearily down1 and
 again appeals to his friend the bird1  
who tells him of a woman sleeping on a  
mountain peak within a fortress of fire 
that only the fearless can penetrate4   
,siegfried is up in a moment with all   
the tumult of spring in his veins1 and  
follows the flight of the bird as it    
pilots him to the fiery mountain4  ,the 
,third ,act  ,to the root of the        
mountain comes also the ,wanderer1 now  
nearing his doom4 ,he calls up the      
,first ,mother from the depths of the   
earth1 and begs counsel from her4 ,she  
bids him confer with the ,norns 7the    
,fates74 ,but they are of no use to him3
 what he seeks is some foreknowledge of 
the way of the ,will in its perpetual   
strife with these helpless ,fates who   
can only spin the net of circumstance   
and environment round the feet of men4  

,why not1 says ,erda then1 go to the    
daughter ,i bore you1 and take counsel  
with her8 ,he has to explain how he has 
cut himself off from her1 and set the   
fires of ,loki between the world and her
 counsel4 ,in that case the ,first      
,mother cannot help him3 such a         
separation is part of the bewilderment  
that is ever the first outcome of her   
eternal work of thrusting the life      
energy of the world to higher and higher
 organization4 ,she can show him no way 
of escape from the destruction he       
foresees4 ,then from the innermost of   
him breaks the confession that he       
rejoices in his doom1 and now himself   
exults in passing away with all his     
ordinances and alliances1 with the      
spear-sceptre which he has only wielded 
on condition of slaying his dearest     
children with it1 with the kingdom1 the 
power and the glory which will never    
again boast themselves as world without 
end4 ,and so he dismisses ,erda to her  
sleep in the heart of the earth as the  

forest bird draws near1 piloting the    
slain son's son to his goal4  ,now it is
 an excellent thing to triumph in the   
victory of the new order and the passing
 away of the old2 but if you happen to  
be part of the old order yourself1 you  
must none the less fight for your life4 
,it seems hardly possible that the      
,british army at the battle of ,waterloo
 did not include at least one           
,englishman intelligent enough to hope1 
for the sake of his country and         
humanity1 that ,napoleon might defeat   
the allied sovereigns2 but such an      
,englishman would kill a ,french        
cuirassier rather than be killed by him 
just as energetically as the silliest   
soldier1 ever encouraged by people who  
ought to know better1 to call his       
ignorance1 ferocity and folly1          
patriotism and duty4 ,outworn life may  
have become mere error2 but it still    
claims the right to die a natural death1
 and will raise its hand against the    
millennium itself in self-defence if it 

tries to come by the short cut of       
murder4 ,wotan finds this out when he   
comes face to face with ,siegfried1 who 
is brought to a standstill at the foot  
of the mountain by the disappearance of 
the bird4 ,meeting the ,wanderer there1 
he asks him the way to the mountain     
where a woman sleeps surrounded by fire4
 ,the ,wanderer questions him1 and      
extracts his story from him1 breaking   
into fatherly delight when ,siegfried1  
describing the mending of the sword1    
remarks that all he knew about the      
business was that the broken bits of    
,nothung would be of no use to him      
unless he made a new sword out of them  
right over again from the beginning4    
,but the ,wanderer's interest is by no  
means reciprocated by ,siegfried4 ,his  
majesty and elderly dignity are thrown  
away on the young anarchist1 who1       
unwilling to waste time talking1 bluntly
 bids him either show him the way to the
 mountain1 or else shut his muzzle4     
,wotan is a little hurt4 ,patience1 my  

lad1 he says3 if you were an old man ,i 
should treat you with respect4 ,that    
would be a precious notion1 says        
,siegfried4 ,all my life long ,i was    
bothered and hampered by an old man     
until ,i swept him out of my way4 ,i    
will sweep you in the same fashion if   
you don't let me pass4 ,why do you wear 
such a big hat2 and what has happened to
 one of your eyes8 ,was it knocked out  
by somebody whose way you obstructed8   
,to which ,wotan replies allegorically  
that the eye that is gone--the eye that 
his marriage with ,fricka cost him--is  
now looking at him out of ,siegfried's  
head4 ,at this1 ,siegfried gives up the 
,wanderer as a lunatic1 and renews his  
threats of personal violence4 ,then     
,wotan throws off the mask of the       
,wanderer2 uplifts the world-governing  
spear2 and puts forth all his divine awe
 and grandeur as the guardian of the    
mountain1 round the crest of which the  
fires of ,loki now break into a red     
background for the majesty of the god4  

,but all this is lost on ,siegfried     
,bakoonin4 ,aha6 he cries1 as the spear 
is levelled against his breast3 ,i have 
found my father's foe2 and the spear    
falls in two pieces under the stroke of 
,nothung4 ,up then1 says ,wotan3 ,i     
cannot withhold you1 and disappears     
forever from the eye of man4 ,the fires 
roll down the mountain2 but ,siegfried  
goes at them as exultantly as he went at
 the forging of the sword or the heart  
of the dragon1 and shoulders his way    
through them1 joyously sounding his horn
 to the accompaniment of their crackling
 and seething4 ,and never a hair of his 
head is singed4 ,those frightful flames 
which have scared mankind for centuries 
from the ,truth1 have not heat enough in
 them to make a child shut its eyes4    
,they are mere phantasmagoria1 highly   
creditable to ,loki's imaginative       
stage-management2 but nothing ever has  
perished or will perish eternally in    
them except the ,churches which have    
been so poor and faithless as to trade  

for their power on the lies of a        
romancer4     ,,back ,,to ,,opera       
,,again  ,and now1 ,o ,nibelungen       
,spectator1 pluck up2 for all allegories
 come to an end somewhere2 and the hour 
of your release from these explanations 
is at hand4 ,the rest of what you are   
going to see is opera1 and nothing but  
opera4 ,before many bars have been      
played1 ,siegfried and the wakened      
,brynhild1 newly become tenor and       
soprano1 will sing a concerted cadenza2 
plunge on from that to a magnificent    
love duet2 and end with a precipitous   
allegro a capella1 driven headlong to   
its end by the impetuous semiquaver     
triplets of the famous finales to the   
first act of ,don ,giovanni or the coda 
to the ,leonore overture1 with a        
specifically contrapuntal theme1 points 
d'orgue1 and a high ,c for the soprano  
all complete4  ,what is more1 the work  
which follows1 entitled ,night ,falls   
,on ,the ,gods1 is a thorough grand     
opera4 ,in it you shall see what you    

have so far missed1 the opera chorus in 
full parade on the stage1 not presuming 
to interfere with the prima donna as she
 sings her death song over the          
footlights4 ,nay1 that chorus will have 
its own chance when it first appears1   
with a good roaring strain in ,c major1 
not1 after all1 so very different from1 
or at all less absurd than the choruses 
of courtiers in ,la ,favorita or ,per te
 immenso giubilo in ,lucia4 ,the harmony
 is no doubt a little developed1 ,wagner
 augmenting his fifths with a ,g sharp  
where ,donizetti would have put his     
fingers in his ears and screamed for ,g 
natural4 ,but it is an opera chorus all 
the same2 and along with it we have     
theatrical grandiosities that recall    
,meyerbeer and ,verdi3 pezzi d'insieme  
for all the principals in a row1        
vengeful conjurations for trios of them1
 romantic death song for the tenor3 in  
short1 all manner of operatic           
conventions4  ,now it is probable that  
some of us will have been so talked by  

the more superstitious ,bayreuth        
pilgrims into regarding ,die            
,gotterdammerung as the mighty climax to
 a mighty epic1 more ,wagnerian than all
 the other three sections put together1 
as not to dare notice this startling    
atavism1 especially if we find the      
trio-conjurations more exhilarating than
 the metaphysical discourses of ,wotan  
in the three true music dramas of ,the  
,ring4 ,there is1 however1 no real      
atavism involved4 ,die ,gotterdammerung1
 though the last of ,the ,ring dramas in
 order of performance1 was the first in 
order of conception and was indeed the  
root from which all the others sprang4  
,the history of the matter is as        
follows4 ,all ,wagner's works prior to  
,the ,ring are operas4 ,the last of     
them1 ,lohengrin1 is perhaps the best   
known of modern operas4 ,as performed in
 its entirety at ,bayreuth1 it is even  
more operatic than it appears at ,covent
 ,garden1 because it happens that its   
most old-fashioned features1 notably    

some of the big set concerted pieces for
 principals and chorus 7pezzi d'insieme 
as ,i have called them above71 are      
harder to perform than the more modern  
and characteristically ,wagnerian       
sections1 and for that reason were cut  
out in preparing the abbreviated        
fashionable version4 ,thus ,lohengrin   
came upon the ordinary operatic stage as
 a more advanced departure from current 
operatic models than its composer had   
made it4 ,still1 it is unmistakably an  
opera1 with chorus1 concerted pieces1   
grand finales1 and a heroine who1 if she
 does not sing florid variations with   
flute obbligato1 is none the less a very
 perceptible prima donna4 ,in everything
 but musical technique the change from  
,lohengrin to ,the ,rhine ,gold is quite
 revolutionary4  ,the explanation is    
that ,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods came  
in between them1 although its music was 
not finished until twenty years after   
that of ,the ,rhine ,gold1 and thus     
belongs to a later and more masterful   

phase of ,wagner's harmonic style4 ,it  
first came into ,wagner's head as an    
opera to be entitled ,siegfried's       
,death1 founded on the old ,niblung     
,sagas1 which offered to ,wagner the    
same material for an effective          
theatrical tragedy as they did to       
,ibsen4 ,ibsen's ,vikings in ,helgeland 
is1 in kind1 what ,siegfried's ,death   
was originally intended to be3 that is1 
a heroic piece for the theatre1 without 
the metaphysical or allegorical         
complications of ,the ,ring4 ,indeed1   
the ultimate catastrophe of the ,saga   
cannot by any perversion of ingenuity be
 adapted to the perfectly clear         
allegorical design of ,the ,rhine ,gold1
 ,the ,valkyries1 and ,siegfried4       
,,siegfried ,,as ,,protestant  ,the     
philosophically fertile element in the  
original project of ,siegfried's ,death 
was the conception of ,siegfried himself
 as a type of the healthy man raised to 
perfect confidence in his own impulses  
by an intense and joyous vitality which 

is above fear1 sickliness of conscience1
 malice1 and the makeshifts and moral   
crutches of law and order which         
accompany them4 ,such a character       
appears extraordinarily fascinating and 
exhilarating to our guilty and          
conscience-ridden generations1 however  
little they may understand him4 ,the    
world has always delighted in the man   
who is delivered from conscience4 ,from 
,punch and ,don ,juan down to ,robert   
,macaire1 ,jeremy ,diddler and the      
pantomime clown1 he has always drawn    
large audiences2 but hitherto he has    
been decorously given to the devil at   
the end4 ,indeed eternal punishment is  
sometimes deemed too high a compliment  
to his nature4 ,when the late ,lord     
,lytton1 in his ,strange ,story1        
introduced a character personifying the 
joyousness of intense vitality1 he felt 
bound to deny him the immortal soul     
which was at that time conceded even to 
the humblest characters in fiction1 and 
to accept mischievousness1 cruelty1 and 

utter incapacity for sympathy as the    
inevitable consequence of his           
magnificent bodily and mental health4   
,in short1 though men felt all the charm
 of abounding life and abandonment to   
its impulses1 they dared not1 in their  
deep self-mistrust1 conceive it         
otherwise than as a force making for    
evil--one which must lead to universal  
ruin unless checked and literally       
mortified by self-renunciation in       
obedience to superhuman guidance1 or at 
least to some reasoned system of morals4
 ,when it became apparent to the        
cleverest of them that no such          
superhuman guidance existed1 and that   
their secularist systems had all the    
fictitiousness of revelation without its
 poetry1 there was no escaping the      
conclusion that all the good that man   
had done must be put down to his        
arbitrary will as well as all the evil  
he had done2 and it was also obvious    
that if progress were a reality1 his    
beneficent impulses must be gaining on  

his destructive ones4 ,it was under the 
influence of these ideas that we began  
to hear about the joy of life where we  
had formerly heard about the grace of   
,god or the ,age of ,reason1 and that   
the boldest spirits began to raise the  
question whether churches and laws and  
the like were not doing a great deal    
more harm than good by their action in  
limiting the freedom of the human will4 
,four hundred years ago1 when belief in 
,god and in revelation was general      
throughout ,europe1 a similar wave of   
thought led the strongest-hearted       
peoples to affirm that every man's      
private judgment was a more trustworthy 
interpreter of ,god and revelation than 
the ,church4 ,this was called           
,protestantism2 and though the          
,protestants were not strong enough for 
their creed1 and soon set up a ,church  
of their own1 yet the movement1 on the  
whole1 has justified the direction it   
took4 ,nowadays the supernatural element
 in ,protestantism has perished2 and if 

every man's private judgment is still to
 be justified as the most trustworthy   
interpreter of the will of ,humanity    
7which is not a more extreme proposition
 than the old one about the will of     
,god7 ,protestantism must take a fresh  
step in advance1 and become ,anarchism4 
,which it has accordingly done1         
,anarchism being one of the notable new 
creeds of the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries4  ,the weak place which       
experience finds out in the ,anarchist  
theory is its reliance on the progress  
already achieved by ,man4 ,there is no  
such thing as ,man in the world3 what we
 have to deal with is a multitude of    
men1 some of them great rascals1 some of
 them great statesmen1 others both1 with
 a vast majority capable of managing    
their personal affairs1 but not of      
comprehending social organization1 or   
grappling with the problems created by  
their association in enormous numbers4  
,if ,man means this majority1 then ,man 
has made no progress3 he has1 on the    

contrary1 resisted it4 ,he will not even
 pay the cost of existing institutions3 
the requisite money has to be filched   
from him by indirect taxation4 ,such    
people1 like ,wagner's giants1 must be  
governed by laws2 and their assent to   
such government must be secured by      
deliberately filling them with          
prejudices and practicing on their      
imaginations by pageantry and artificial
 eminences and dignities4 ,the          
government is of course established by  
the few who are capable of government1  
though its mechanism once complete1 it  
may be1 and generally is1 carried on    
unintelligently by people who are       
incapable of it the capable people      
repairing it from time to time when it  
gets too far behind the continuous      
advance or decay of civilization4 ,all  
these capable people are thus in the    
position of ,wotan1 forced to maintain  
as sacred1 and themselves submit to1    
laws which they privately know to be    
obsolescent makeshifts1 and to affect   

the deepest veneration for creeds and   
ideals which they ridicule among        
themselves with cynical scepticism4 ,no 
individual ,siegfried can rescue them   
from this bondage and hypocrisy2 in     
fact1 the individual ,siegfried has come
 often enough1 only to find himself     
confronted with the alternative of      
governing those who are not ,siegfrieds 
or risking destruction at their hands4  
,and this dilemma will persist until    
,wotan's inspiration comes to our       
governors1 and they see that their      
business is not the devising of laws and
 institutions to prop up the weaknesses 
of mobs and secure the survival of the  
unfittest1 but the breeding of men whose
 wills and intelligences may be depended
 on to produce spontaneously the social 
well-being our clumsy laws now aim at   
and miss4 ,the majority of men at       
present in ,europe have no business to  
be alive2 and no serious progress will  
be made until we address ourselves      
earnestly and scientifically to the task

 of producing trustworthy human material
 for society4 ,in short1 it is necessary
 to breed a race of men in whom the     
life-giving impulses predominate1 before
 the ,new ,protestantism becomes        
politically practicable4 99       99    
,the necessity for breeding the         
governing class from a      selected    
stock has always been recognized by     
,aristocrats1      however erroneous    
their methods of selection4 ,we have    
changed our system from ,aristocracy to 
,democracy without      considering that
 we were at the same time changing1 as  
regards our governing class1 from       
,selection to ,promiscuity4      ,those 
who have taken a practical part in      
modern politics      best know how      
farcical the result is4   ,the most     
inevitable dramatic conception1 then1 of
 the nineteenth century1 is that of a   
perfectly naive hero upsetting religion1
 law and order in all directions1 and   
establishing in their place the         
unfettered action of ,humanity doing    

exactly what it likes1 and producing    
order instead of confusion thereby      
because it likes to do what is necessary
 for the good of the race4 ,this        
conception1 already incipient in ,adam  
,smith's ,wealth of ,nations1 was       
certain at last to reach some great     
artist1 and be embodied by him in a     
masterpiece4 ,it was also certain that  
if that master happened to be a ,german1
 he should take delight in describing   
his hero as the ,freewiller of          
,necessity1 thereby beyond measure      
exasperating ,englishmen with a         
congenital incapacity for metaphysics4  
,,panacea ,,quackery1 ,,otherwise       
,,idealism  ,unfortunately1 human       
enlightenment does not progress by nicer
 and nicer adjustments1 but by violent  
corrective reactions which invariably   
send us clean over our saddle and would 
bring us to the ground on the other side
 if the next reaction did not send us   
back again with equally excessive zeal4 
,ecclesiasticism and ,constitutionalism 

send us one way1 ,protestantism and     
,anarchism the other2 ,order rescues us 
from confusion and lands us in ,tyranny2
 ,liberty then saves the situation and  
is presently found to be as great a     
nuisance as ,despotism4 ,a              
scientifically balanced application of  
these forces1 theoretically possible1 is
 practically incompatible with human    
passion4 ,besides1 we have the same     
weakness in morals as in medicine3 we   
cannot be cured of running after        
panaceas1 or1 as they are called in the 
sphere of morals1 ideals4 ,one          
generation sets up duty1 renunciation1  
self-sacrifice as a panacea4 ,the next  
generation1 especially the women1 wake  
up at the age of forty or thereabouts to
 the fact that their lives have been    
wasted in the worship of this ideal1    
and1 what is still more aggravating1    
that the elders who imposed it on them  
did so in a fit of satiety with their   
own experiments in the other direction4 
,then that defrauded generation foams at

 the mouth at the very mention of duty1 
and sets up the alternative panacea of  
love1 their deprivation of which seems  
to them to have been the most cruel and 
mischievous feature of their slavery to 
duty4 ,it is useless to warn them that  
this reaction1 if prescribed as a       
panacea1 will prove as great a failure  
as all the other reactions have done2   
for they do not recognize its identity  
with any reaction that ever occurred    
before4 ,take for instance the hackneyed
 historic example of the austerity of   
the ,commonwealth being followed by the 
licence of the ,restoration4 ,you cannot
 persuade any moral enthusiast to accept
 this as a pure oscillation from action 
to reaction4 ,if he is a ,puritan he    
looks upon the ,restoration as a        
national disaster3 if he is an artist he
 regards it as the salvation of the     
country from gloom1 devil worship and   
starvation of the affections4 ,the      
,puritan is ready to try the            
,commonwealth again with a few modern   

improvements3 the ,amateur is equally   
ready to try the ,restoration with      
modern enlightenments4 ,and so for the  
present we must be content to proceed by
 reactions1 hoping that each will       
establish some permanently practical and
 beneficial reform or moral habit that  
will survive the correction of its      
excesses by the next reaction4          
,,dramatic ,,origin ,,of ,,wotan  ,we   
can now see how a single drama in which 
,wotan does not appear1 and of which    
,siegfried is the hero1 expanded itself 
into a great fourfold drama of which    
,wotan is the hero4 ,you cannot         
dramatize a reaction by personifying the
 reacting force only1 any more than     
,archimedes could lift the world without
 a fulcrum for his lever4 ,you must also
 personify the established power against
 which the new force is reacting2 and in
 the conflict between them you get your 
drama1 conflict being the essential     
ingredient in all drama4 ,siegfried1 as 
the hero of ,die ,gotterdammerung1 is   

only the primo tenore robusto of an     
opera book1 deferring his death1 after  
he has been stabbed in the last act1 to 
sing rapturous love strains to the      
heroine exactly like ,edgardo in        
,donizetti's ,lucia4 ,in order to make  
him intelligible in the wider           
significance which his joyous1 fearless1
 conscienceless heroism soon assumed in 
,wagner's imagination1 it was necessary 
to provide him with a much vaster       
dramatic antagonist than the operatic   
villain ,hagen4 ,hence ,wagner had to   
create ,wotan as the anvil for          
,siegfried's hammer2 and since there was
 no room for ,wotan in the original     
opera book1 ,wagner had to work back to 
a preliminary drama reaching primarily  
to the very beginnings of human society4
 ,and since1 on this world-embracing    
scale1 it was clear that ,siegfried must
 come into conflict with many baser and 
stupider forces than those lofty ones of
 supernatural religion and political    
constitutionalism typified by ,wotan and

 his wife ,fricka1 these minor          
antagonists had to be dramatized also in
 the persons of ,alberic1 ,mime1        
,fafnir1 ,loki1 and the rest4 ,none of  
these appear in ,night ,falls ,on ,the  
,gods save ,alberic1 whose weird        
dream-colloquy with ,hagen1 effective as
 it is1 is as purely theatrical as the  
scene of the ,ghost in ,hamlet1 or the  
statue in ,don ,giovanni4 ,cut the      
conference of the ,norns and the visit  
of ,valtrauta to ,brynhild out of ,night
 ,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 and the drama   
remains coherent and complete without   
them4 ,retain them1 and the play becomes
 connected by conversational references 
with the three music dramas2 but the    
connection establishes no philosophic   
coherence1 no real identity between the 
operatic ,brynhild of the ,gibichung    
episode 7presently to be related7 and   
the daughter of ,wotan and the ,first   
,mother4     ,,the ,,love ,,panacea  ,we
 shall now find that at the point where 
,the ,ring changes from music drama into

 opera1 it also ceases to be            
philosophic1 and becomes didactic4 ,the 
philosophic part is a dramatic symbol of
 the world as ,wagner observed it4 ,in  
the didactic part the philosophy        
degenerates into the prescription of a  
romantic nostrum for all human ills4    
,wagner1 only mortal after all1         
succumbed to the panacea mania when his 
philosophy was exhausted1 like any of   
the rest of us4  ,the panacea is by no  
means an original one4 ,wagner was      
anticipated in the year #ahai by a young
 country gentleman from ,sussex named   
,shelley1 in a work of extraordinary    
artistic power and splendor4 ,prometheus
 ,unbound is an ,english attempt at a   
,ring2 and when it is taken into account
 that the author was only #bg whereas   
,wagner was #dj when he completed the   
poem of ,the ,ring1 our vulgar          
patriotism may find an envious          
satisfaction in insisting upon the      
comparison4 ,both works set forth the   
same conflict between humanity and its  

gods and governments1 issuing in the    
redemption of man from their tyranny by 
the growth of his will into perfect     
strength and self-confidence2 and both  
finish by a lapse into panacea-mongering
 didacticism by the holding up of ,love 
as the remedy for all evils and the     
solvent of all social difficulties4     
,the differences between ,prometheus    
,unbound and ,the ,ring are as          
interesting as the likenesses4 ,shelley1
 caught in the pugnacity of his youth   
and the first impetuosity of his        
prodigious artistic power by the first  
fierce attack of the ,new ,reformation1 
gave no quarter to the antagonist of his
 hero4 ,his ,wotan1 whom he calls       
,jupiter1 is the almighty fiend into    
whom the ,englishman's ,god had         
degenerated during two centuries of     
ignorant ,bible worship and shameless   
commercialism4 ,he is ,alberic1 ,fafnir 
,loki and the ambitious side of ,wotan  
all rolled into one melodramatic demon  
who is finally torn from his throne and 

hurled shrieking into the abyss by a    
spirit representing that conception of  
,eternal ,law which has been replaced   
since by the conception of ,evolution4  
,wagner1 an older1 more experienced man 
than the ,shelley of #ahai1 understood  
,wotan and pardoned him1 separating him 
tenderly from all the compromising      
alliances to which ,shelley fiercely    
held him2 making the truth and heroism  
which overthrow him the children of his 
inmost heart2 and representing him as   
finally acquiescing in and working for  
his own supersession and annihilation4  
,shelley1 in his later works1 is seen   
progressing towards the same tolerance1 
justice1 and humility of spirit1 as he  
advanced towards the middle age he never
 reached4 ,but there is no progress from
 ,shelley to ,wagner as regards the     
panacea1 except that in ,wagner there is
 a certain shadow of night and death    
come on it3 nay1 even a clear opinion   
that the supreme good of love is that it
 so completely satisfies the desire for 

life1 that after it the ,will to ,live  
ceases to trouble us1 and we are at last
 content to achieve the highest         
happiness of death4  ,this reduction of 
the panacea to absurdity was not forced 
upon ,shelley1 because the love which   
acts as a universal solvent in his      
,prometheus ,unbound is a sentiment of  
affectionate benevolence which has      
nothing to do with sexual passion4 ,it  
might1 and in fact does exist in the    
absence of any sexual interest whatever4
 ,the words mercy and kindness connote  
it less ambiguously than the word love4 
,but ,wagner sought always for some     
point of contact between his ideas and  
the physical senses1 so that people     
might not only think or imagine them in 
the eighteenth century fashion1 but see 
them on the stage1 hear them from the   
orchestra1 and feel them through the    
infection of passionate emotion4 ,dr4   
,johnson kicking the stone to confute   
,berkeley is not more bent on           
common-sense concreteness than ,wagner3 

on all occasions he insists on the need 
for sensuous apprehension to give       
reality to abstract comprehension1      
maintaining1 in fact1 that reality has  
no other meaning4 ,now he could apply   
this process to poetic love only by     
following it back to its alleged origin 
in sexual passion1 the emotional        
phenomena of which he has expressed in  
music with a frankness and forcible     
naturalism which would possibly have    
scandalized ,shelley4 ,the love duet in 
the first act of ,the ,valkyries is     
brought to a point at which the         
conventions of our society demand the   
precipitate fall of the curtain2 whilst 
the prelude to ,tristan and ,isolde is  
such an astonishingly intense and       
faithful translation into music of the  
emotions which accompany the union of a 
pair of lovers1 that it is questionable 
whether the great popularity of this    
piece at our orchestral concerts really 
means that our audiences are entirely   
catholic in their respect for life in   

all its beneficently creative functions1
 or whether they simply enjoy the music 
without understanding it4  ,but however 
offensive and inhuman may be the        
superstition which brands such          
exaltations of natural passion as       
shameful and indecorous1 there is at    
least as much common sense in           
disparaging love as in setting it up as 
a panacea4 ,even the mercy and          
loving-kindness of ,shelley do not hold 
good as a universal law of conduct3     
,shelley himself makes extremely short  
work of ,jupiter1 just as ,siegfried    
does of ,fafnir1 ,mime1 and ,wotan2 and 
the fact that ,prometheus is saved from 
doing the destructive part of his work  
by the intervention of that very        
nebulous personification of ,eternity   
called ,demogorgon1 does not in the     
least save the situation1 because1      
flatly1 there is no such person as      
,demogorgon1 and if ,prometheus does not
 pull down ,jupiter himself1 no one else
 will4 ,it would be exasperating1 if it 

were not so funny1 to see these poets   
leading their heroes through blood and  
destruction to the conclusion that1 as  
,browning's ,david puts it 7,david of   
all people671 ,all's ,love2 yet all's   
,law4  ,certainly it is clear enough    
that such love as that implied by       
,siegfried's first taste of fear as he  
cuts through the mailed coat of the     
sleeping figure on the mountain1 and    
discovers that it is a woman2 by her    
fierce revolt against being touched by  
him when his terror gives way to ardor2 
by his manly transports of victory2 and 
by the womanly mixture of rapture and   
horror with which she abandons herself  
to the passion which has seized on them 
both1 is an experience which it is much 
better1 like the vast majority of us1   
never to have passed through1 than to   
allow it to play more than a recreative 
holiday part in our lives4 ,it did not  
play a very large part in ,wagner's own 
laborious life1 and does not occupy more
 than two scenes of ,the ,ring4 ,tristan

 and ,isolde1 wholly devoted to it1 is a
 poem of destruction and death4 ,the    
,mastersingers1 a work full of health1  
fun and happiness1 contains not a single
 bar of love music that can be described
 as passionate3 the hero of it is a     
widower who cobbles shoes1 writes       
verses1 and contents himself with       
looking on at the sweetheartings of his 
customers4 ,parsifal makes an end of it 
altogether4 ,the truth is that the love 
panacea in ,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods 
and in the last act of ,siegfried is a  
survival of the first crude operatic    
conception of the story1 modified by an 
anticipation of ,wagner's later1 though 
not latest1 conception of love as the   
fulfiller of our ,will to ,live and     
consequently our reconciler to night and
 death4     ,,not ,,love1 ,,but ,,life  
,the only faith which any reasonable    
disciple can gain from ,the ,ring is not
 in love1 but in life itself as a       
tireless power which is continually     
driving onward and upward--not1 please  

observe1 being beckoned or drawn by ,das
 ,ewig ,weibliche or any other external 
sentimentality1 but growing from within1
 by its own inexplicable energy1 into   
ever higher and higher forms of         
organization1 the strengths and the     
needs of which are continually          
superseding the institutions which were 
made to fit our former requirements4    
,when your ,bakoonins call out for the  
demolition of all these venerable       
institutions1 there is no need to fly   
into a panic and lock them up in prison 
whilst your parliament is bit by bit    
doing exactly what they advised you to  
do4 ,when your ,siegfrieds melt down the
 old weapons into new ones1 and with    
disrespectful words chop in twain the   
antiquated constable's staves in the    
hands of their elders1 the end of the   
world is no nearer than it was before4  
,if human nature1 which is the highest  
organization of life reached on this    
planet1 is really degenerating1 then    
human society will decay2 and no        

panic-begotten penal measures can       
possibly save it3 we must1 like         
,prometheus1 set to work to make new men
 instead of vainly torturing old ones4  
,on the other hand1 if the energy of    
life is still carrying human nature to  
higher and higher levels1 then the more 
young people shock their elders and     
deride and discard their pet            
institutions the better for the hopes of
 the world1 since the apparent growth of
 anarchy is only the measure of the rate
 of improvement4 ,history1 as far as we 
are capable of history 7which is not    
saying much as yet71 shows that all     
changes from crudity of social          
organization to complexity1 and from    
mechanical agencies in government to    
living ones1 seem anarchic at first     
sight4 ,no doubt it is natural to a     
snail to think that any evolution which 
threatens to do away with shells will   
result in general death from exposure4  
,nevertheless1 the most elaborately     
housed beings today are born not only   

without houses on their backs but       
without even fur or feathers to clothe  
them4     ,,anarchism ,,no ,,panacea    
,one word of warning to those who may   
find themselves attracted by            
,siegfried's ,anarchism1 or1 if they    
prefer a term with more respectable     
associations1 his neo-,protestantism4   
,anarchism1 as a panacea1 is just as    
hopeless as any other panacea1 and will 
still be so even if we breed a race of  
perfectly benevolent men4 ,it is true   
that in the sphere of thought1          
,anarchism is an inevitable condition of
 progressive evolution4 ,a nation       
without ,freethinkers--that is1 without 
intellectual ,anarchists--will share the
 fate of ,china4 ,it is also true that  
our criminal law1 based on a conception 
of crime and punishment which is nothing
 but our vindictiveness and cruelty in a
 virtuous disguise1 is an unmitigated   
and abominable nuisance1 bound to be    
beaten out of us finally by the mere    
weight of our experience of its evil and

 uselessness4 ,but it will not be       
replaced by anarchy4 ,applied to the    
industrial or political machinery of    
modern society1 anarchy must always     
reduce itself speedily to absurdity4    
,even the modified form of anarchy on   
which modern civilization is based3 that
 is1 the abandonment of industry1 in the
 name of individual liberty1 to the     
upshot of competition for personal gain 
between private capitalists1 is a       
disastrous failure1 and is1 by the mere 
necessities of the case1 giving way to  
ordered ,socialism4 ,for the economic   
rationale of this1 ,i must refer        
disciples of ,siegfried to a tract from 
my hand published by the ,fabian        
,society and entitled ,the              
,impossibilities of ,anarchism1 which   
explains why1 owing to the physical     
constitution of our globe1 society      
cannot effectively organize the         
production of its food1 clothes and     
housing1 nor distribute them fairly and 
economically on any anarchic plan3 nay1 

that without concerting our social      
action to a much higher degree than we  
do at present we can never get rid of   
the wasteful and iniquitous welter of a 
little riches and a deal of poverty     
which current political humbug calls our
 prosperity and civilization4 ,liberty  
is an excellent thing2 but it cannot    
begin until society has paid its daily  
debt to ,nature by first earning its    
living4 ,there is no liberty before that
 except the liberty to live at somebody 
else's expense1 a liberty much sought   
after nowadays1 since it is the         
criterion of gentility1 but not         
wholesome from the point of view of the 
common weal4     ,,siegfried ,,concluded
  ,in returning now to the adventures of
 ,siegfried there is little more to be  
described except the finale of an opera4
 ,siegfried1 having passed unharmed     
through the fire1 wakes ,brynhild and   
goes through all the fancies and        
ecstasies of love at first sight in a   
duet which ends with an apostrophe to   

leuchtende ,liebe1 lachender ,tod61     
which has been romantically translated  
into ,love that illumines1 laughing at  
,death1 whereas it really identifies    
enlightening love and laughing death as 
involving each other so closely as to be
 usually one and the same thing4        
,,night ,,falls ,,on ,,the ,,gods       
,,prologue  ,die ,gotterdammerung begins
 with an elaborate prologue4 ,the three 
,norns sit in the night on ,brynhild's  
mountain top spinning their thread of   
destiny1 and telling the story of       
,wotan's sacrifice of his eye1 and of   
his breaking off a bough from the ,world
 ,ash to make a heft for his spear1 also
 how the tree withered after suffering  
that violence4 ,they have also some     
fresher news to discuss4 ,wotan1 on the 
breaking of his spear by ,siegfried1 has
 called all his heroes to cut down the  
withered ,world ,ash and stack its      
faggots in a mighty pyre about          
,valhalla4 ,then1 with his broken spear 
in his hand1 he has seated himself in   

state in the great hall1 with the ,gods 
and ,heroes assembled about him as if in
 council1 solemnly waiting for the end4 
,all this belongs to the old legendary  
materials with which ,wagner began ,the 
,ring4  ,the tale is broken by the      
thread snapping in the hands of the     
third ,norn2 for the hour has arrived   
when man has taken his destiny in his   
own hands to shape it for himself1 and  
no longer bows to circumstance1         
environment1 necessity 7which he now    
freely wills71 and all the rest of the  
inevitables4 ,so the ,norns recognize   
that the world has no further use for   
them1 and sink into the earth to return 
to the ,first ,mother4 ,then the day    
dawns2 and ,siegfried and ,brynhild     
come1 and have another duet4 ,he gives  
her his ring2 and she gives him her     
horse4 ,away then he goes in search of  
more adventures2 and she watches him    
from her crag until he disappears4 ,the 
curtain falls2 but we can still hear the
 trolling of his horn1 and the merry    

clatter of his horse's shoes trotting   
gaily down the valley4 ,the sound is    
lost in the grander rhythm of the ,rhine
 as he reaches its banks4 ,we hear again
 an echo of the lament of the ,rhine    
maidens for the ravished gold2 and then1
 finally1 a new strain1 which does not  
surge like the mighty flood of the      
river1 but has an unmistakable tramp of 
hardy men and a strong land flavor about
 it4 ,and on this the opera curtain at  
last goes up--for please remember that  
all that has gone before is only the    
overture4  ,the ,first ,act  ,we now    
understand the new tramping strain4 ,we 
are in the ,rhineside hall of the       
,gibichungs1 in the presence of ,king   
,gunther1 his sister ,gutrune1 and      
,gunther's grim half brother ,hagen1 the
 villain of the piece4 ,gunther is a    
fool1 and has for ,hagen's intelligence 
the respect a fool always has for the   
brains of a scoundrel4 ,feebly fishing  
for compliments1 he appeals to ,hagen to
 pronounce him a fine fellow and a glory

 to the race of ,gibich4 ,hagen declares
 that it is impossible to contemplate   
him without envy1 but thinks it a pity  
that he has not yet found a wife        
glorious enough for him4 ,gunther doubts
 whether so extraordinary a person can  
possibly exist4 ,hagen then tells him of
 ,brynhild and her rampart of fire2 also
 of ,siegfried4 ,gunther takes this     
rather in bad part1 since not only is he
 afraid of the fire1 but ,siegfried1    
according to ,hagen1 is not1 and will   
therefore achieve this desirable match  
himself4 ,but ,hagen points out that    
since ,siegfried is riding about in     
quest of adventures1 he will certainly  
pay an early visit to the renowned chief
 of the ,gibichungs4 ,they can then give
 him a philtre which will make him fall 
in love with ,gutrune and forget every  
other woman he has yet seen4  ,gunther  
is transported with admiration of       
,hagen's cunning when he takes in this  
plan2 and he has hardly assented to it  
when ,siegfried1 with operatic          

opportuneness1 drops in just as ,hagen  
expected1 and is duly drugged into the  
heartiest love for ,gutrune and total   
oblivion of ,brynhild and his own past4 
,when ,gunther declares his longing for 
the bride who lies inaccessible within a
 palisade of flame1 ,siegfried at once  
offers to undertake the adventure for   
him4 ,hagen then explains to both of    
them that ,siegfried can1 after braving 
the fire1 appear to ,brynhild in the    
semblance of ,gunther through the magic 
of the wishing cap 7or ,tarnhelm1 as it 
is called throughout ,the ,ring71 the   
use of which ,siegfried now learns for  
the first time4 ,it is of course part of
 the bargain that ,gunther shall give   
his sister to ,siegfried in marriage4   
,on that they swear blood-brotherhood2  
and at this opportunity the old operatic
 leaven breaks out amusingly in ,wagner4
 ,with tremendous exordium of brass1 the
 tenor and baritone go at it with a     
will1 showing off the power of their    
voices1 following each other in canonic 

imitation1 singing together in thirds   
and sixths1 and finishing with a lurid  
unison1 quite in the manner of ,ruy     
,gomez and ,ernani1 or ,othello and     
,iago4 ,then without further ado        
,siegfried departs on his expedition1   
taking ,gunther with him to the foot of 
the mountain1 and leaving ,hagen to     
guard the hall and sing a very fine solo
 which has often figured in the programs
 of the ,richter concerts1 explaining   
that his interest in the affair is that 
,siegfried will bring back the ,ring1   
and that he1 ,hagen1 will presently     
contrive to possess himself of that     
,ring and become ,plutonic master of the
 world4  ,and now it will be asked how  
does ,hagen know all about the ,plutonic
 empire2 and why was he able to tell    
,gunther about ,brynhild and ,siegfried1
 and to explain to ,siegfried the trick 
of the ,tarnhelm4 ,the explanation is   
that though ,hagen's mother was the     
mother of ,gunther1 his father was not  
the illustrious ,gibich1 but no less a  

person than our old friend ,alberic1    
who1 like ,wotan1 has begotten a son to 
do for him what he cannot do for        
himself4  ,in the above incidents1 those
 gentle moralizers who find the serious 
philosophy of the music dramas too      
terrifying for them1 may allegorize     
pleasingly on the philtre as the        
maddening chalice of passion which1 once
 tasted1 causes the respectable man to  
forget his lawfully wedded wife and     
plunge into adventures which eventually 
lead him headlong to destruction4  ,we  
now come upon a last relic of the       
tragedy of ,wotan4 ,returning to        
,brynhild's mountain1 we find her       
visited by her sister ,valkyrie         
,valtrauta1 who has witnessed ,wotan's  
solemn preparations with terror4 ,she   
repeats to ,brynhild the account already
 given by the ,norns4 ,clinging in      
anguish to ,wotan's knees1 she has heard
 him mutter that were the ring returned 
to the daughters of the deep ,rhine1    
both ,gods and world would be redeemed  

from that stage curse off ,alberic's in 
,the ,rhine ,gold4 ,on this she has     
rushed on her warhorse through the air  
to beg ,brynhild to give the ,rhine back
 its ring4 ,but this is asking ,woman to
 give up love for the sake of ,church   
and ,state4 ,she declares that she will 
see them both perish first2 and         
,valtrauta returns to ,valhalla in      
despair4 ,whilst ,brynhild is watching  
the course of the black thundercloud    
that marks her sister's flight1 the     
fires of ,loki again flame high round   
the mountain2 and the horn of ,siegfried
 is heard as he makes his way through   
them4 ,but the man who now appears wears
 the ,tarnhelm3 his voice is a strange  
voice3 his figure is the unknown one of 
the king of the ,gibichungs4 ,he tears  
the ring from her finger1 and1 claiming 
her as his wife1 drives her into the    
cave without pity for her agony of      
horror1 and sets ,nothung between them  
in token of his loyalty to the friend he
 is impersonating4 ,no explanation of   

this highway robbery of the ring is     
offered4 ,clearly1 this ,siegfried is   
not the ,siegfried of the previous      
drama4  ,the ,second ,act  ,in the      
second act we return to the hall of     
,gibich1 where ,hagen1 in the last hours
 of that night1 still sits1 his spear in
 his hand1 and his shield beside him4   
,at his knees crouches a dwarfish       
spectre1 his father ,alberic1 still full
 of his old grievances against ,wotan1  
and urging his son in his dreams to win 
back the ring for him4 ,this ,hagen     
swears to do2 and as the apparition of  
his father vanishes1 the sun rises and  
,siegfried suddenly comes from the river
 bank tucking into his belt the         
,tarnhelm1 which has transported him    
from the mountain like the enchanted    
carpet of the ,arabian tales4 ,he       
describes his adventures to ,gutrune    
until ,gunther's boat is seen           
approaching1 when ,hagen seizes a       
cowhorn and calls the tribesmen to      
welcome their chief and his bride4 ,it  

is most exhilarating1 this colloquy with
 the startled and hastily armed clan1   
ending with a thundering chorus1 the    
drums marking the time with mighty      
pulses from dominant to tonic1 much as  
,rossini would have made them do if he  
had been a pupil of ,beethoven's4  ,a   
terrible scene follows4 ,gunther leads  
his captive bride straight into the     
presence of ,siegfried1 whom she claims 
as her husband by the ring1 which she is
 astonished to see on his finger3       
,gunther1 as she supposes1 having torn  
it from her the night before4 ,turning  
on ,gunther1 she says ,since you took   
that ring from me1 and married me with  
it1 tell him of your right to it2 and   
make him give it back to you4 ,gunther  
stammers1 ,the ring6 ,i gave him no     
ring--er--do you know him8 ,the         
rejoinder is obvious4 ,then where are   
you hiding the ring that you had from   
me8 ,gunther's confusion enlightens her2
 and she calls ,siegfried trickster and 
thief to his face4 ,in vain he declares 

that he got the ring from no woman1 but 
from a dragon whom he slew2 for he is   
manifestly puzzled2 and she1 seizing her
 opportunity1 accuses him before the    
clan of having played ,gunther false    
with her4  ,hereupon we have another    
grandiose operatic oath1 ,siegfried     
attesting his innocence on ,hagen's     
spear1 and ,brynhild rushing to the     
footlights and thrusting him aside to   
attest his guilt1 whilst the clansmen   
call upon their gods to send down       
lightnings and silence the perjured4    
,the gods do not respond2 and           
,siegfried1 after whispering to ,gunther
 that the ,tarnhelm seems to have been  
only half effectual after all1 laughs   
his way out of the general embarrassment
 and goes off merrily to prepare for his
 wedding1 with his arm round ,gutrune's 
waist1 followed by the clan4 ,gunther1  
,hagen and ,brynhild are left together  
to plot operatic vengeance4 ,brynhild1  
it appears1 has enchanted ,siegfried in 
such a fashion that no weapon can hurt  

him4 ,she has1 however1 omitted to      
protect his back1 since it is impossible
 that he should ever turn that to a foe4
 ,they agree accordingly that on the    
morrow a great hunt shall take place1 at
 which ,hagen shall thrust his spear    
into the hero's vulnerable back4 ,the   
blame is to be laid on the tusk of a    
wild boar4 ,gunther1 being a fool1 is   
remorseful about his oath of            
blood-brotherhood and about his sister's
 bereavement1 without having the        
strength of mind to prevent the murder4 
,the three burst into a herculean trio1 
similar in conception to that of the    
three conspirators in ,un ,ballo in     
,maschera2 and the act concludes with a 
joyous strain heralding the appearance  
of ,siegfried's wedding procession1 with
 strewing of flowers1 sacrificing to the
 gods1 and carrying bride and bridegroom
 in triumph4  ,it will be seen that in  
this act we have lost all connection    
with the earlier drama4 ,brynhild is not
 only not the ,brynhild of ,the         

,valkyries1 she is the ,hiordis of      
,ibsen1 a majestically savage woman1 in 
whom jealousy and revenge are           
intensified to heroic proportions4 ,that
 is the inevitable theatrical treatment 
of the murderous heroine of the ,saga4  
,ibsen's aim in ,the ,vikings was purely
 theatrical1 and not1 as in his later   
dramas1 also philosophically symbolic4  
,wagner's aim in ,siegfried's ,death was
 equally theatrical1 and not1 as it     
afterwards became in the dramas of which
 ,siegfried's antagonist ,wotan is the  
hero1 likewise philosophically symbolic4
 ,the two master-dramatists therefore   
produce practically the same version of 
,brynhild4 ,thus on the second evening  
of ,the ,ring we see ,brynhild in the   
character of the truth-divining instinct
 in religion1 cast into an enchanted    
slumber and surrounded by the fires of  
hell lest she should overthrow a ,church
 corrupted by its alliance with         
government4 ,on the fourth evening1 we  
find her swearing a malicious lie to    

gratify her personal jealousy1 and then 
plotting a treacherous murder with a    
fool and a scoundrel4 ,in the original  
draft of ,siegfried's ,death1 the       
incongruity is carried still further by 
the conclusion1 at which the dead       
,brynhild1 restored to her godhead by   
,wotan1 and again a ,valkyrie1 carries  
the slain ,siegfried to ,valhalla to    
live there happily ever after with its  
pious heroes4  ,as to ,siegfried        
himself1 he talks of women1 both in this
 second act and the next1 with the air  
of a man of the world4 ,their tantrums1 
he says1 are soon over4 ,such speeches  
do not belong to the novice of the      
preceding drama1 but to the original    
,siegfried's ,tod1 with its leading     
characters sketched on the ordinary     
romantic lines from the old ,sagas1 and 
not yet reminted as the original        
creations of ,wagner's genius whose     
acquaintance we have made on the two    
previous evenings4 ,the very title      
,siegfried's ,death survives as a strong

 theatrical point in the following      
passage4 ,gunther1 in his rage and      
despair1 cries1 ,save me1 ,hagen3 save  
my honor and thy mother's who bore us   
both4 ,nothing can save thee1 replies   
,hagen3 neither brain nor hand1 but     
,,siegfried',s ,,death4 ,and ,gunther   
echoes with a shudder1 ,,siegfried',s   
,,death6     ,a ,,wagnerian ,,newspaper 
,,controversy  ,the devotion which      
,wagner's work inspires has been        
illustrated lately in a public          
correspondence on this very point4 ,a   
writer in ,the ,daily ,telegraph having 
commented on the falsehood uttered by   
,brynhild in accusing ,siegfried of     
having betrayed ,gunther with her1 a    
correspondence in defence of the beloved
 heroine was opened in ,the ,daily      
,chronicle4 ,the imputation of falsehood
 to ,brynhild was strongly resented and 
combated1 in spite of the unanswerable  
evidence of the text4 ,it was contended 
that ,brynhild's statement must be taken
 as establishing the fact that she      

actually was ravished by somebody whom  
she believed to be ,siegfried1 and that 
since this somebody cannot have been    
,siegfried1 he being as incapable of    
treachery to ,gunther as she of         
falsehood1 it must have been ,gunther   
himself after a second exchange of      
personalities not mentioned in the text4
 ,the reply to this--if so obviously    
desperate a hypothesis needs a reply--is
 that the text is perfectly explicit as 
to ,siegfried1 disguised as ,gunther1   
passing the night with ,brynhild with   
,nothung dividing them1 and in the      
morning bringing her down the mountain  
,,through ,,the ,,fire 7an impassable   
obstacle to ,gunther7 and there         
transporting himself in a single breath1
 by the ,tarnhelm's magic1 back to the  
hall of the ,gibichungs1 leaving the    
real ,gunther to bring ,brynhild down   
the river after him4 ,one               
controversialist actually pleaded for   
the expedition occupying two nights1 on 
the second of which the alleged outrage 

might have taken place4 ,but the time is
 accounted for to the last minute3 it   
all takes place during the single night 
watch of ,hagen4 ,there is no possible  
way out of the plain fact that          
,brynhild's accusation is to her own    
knowledge false2 and the impossible ways
 just cited are only interesting as     
examples of the fanatical worship which 
,wagner and his creations have been able
 to inspire in minds of exceptional     
power and culture4  ,more plausible was 
the line taken by those who admitted the
 falsehood4 ,their contention was that  
when ,wotan deprived ,brynhild of her   
,godhead1 he also deprived her of her   
former high moral attributes2 so that   
,siegfried's kiss awakened an ordinary  
mortal jealous woman4 ,but a goddess can
 become mortal and jealous without      
plunging at once into perjury and       
murder4 ,besides1 this explanation      
involves the sacrifice of the whole     
significance of the allegory1 and the   
reduction of ,the ,ring to the plane of 

a child's conception of ,the ,sleeping  
,beauty4 ,whoever does not understand   
that1 in terms of ,the ,ring philosophy1
 a change from godhead to humanity is a 
step higher and not a degradation1      
misses the whole point of ,the ,ring4   
,it is precisely because the            
truthfulness of ,brynhild is proof      
against ,wotan's spells that he has to  
contrive the fire palisade with ,loki1  
to protect the fictions and conventions 
of ,valhalla against her4  ,the only    
tolerable view is the one supported by  
the known history of ,the ,ring1 and    
also1 for musicians of sufficiently fine
 judgment1 by the evidence of the       
scores2 of which more anon4 ,as a matter
 of fact ,wagner began1 as ,i have said1
 with ,siegfried's ,death4 ,then1       
wanting to develop the idea of          
,siegfried as neo-,protestant1 he went  
on to ,the ,young ,siegfried4 ,as a     
,protestant cannot be dramatically      
projected without a pontifical          
antagonist4 ,the ,young ,siegfried led  

to ,the ,valkyries1 and that again to   
its preface ,the ,rhine ,gold 7the      
preface is always written after the book
 is finished74 ,finally1 of course1 the 
whole was revised4 ,the revision1 if    
carried out strictly1 would have        
involved the cutting out of ,siegfried's
 ,death1 now become inconsistent and    
superfluous2 and that would have        
involved1 in turn1 the facing of the    
fact that ,the ,ring was no longer a    
,niblung epic1 and really demanded      
modern costumes1 tall hats for          
,tarnhelms1 factories for ,nibelheims1  
villas for ,valhallas1 and so on--in    
short1 a complete confession of the     
extent to which the old ,niblung epic   
had become the merest pretext and name  
directory in the course of ,wagner's    
travail4 ,but1 as ,wagner's most eminent
 ,english interpreter once put it to me 
at ,bayreuth between the acts of ,night 
,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 the master wanted
 to ,lohengrinize again after his long  
abstention from opera2 and ,siegfried's 

,death 7first sketched in #ahdh1 the    
year before the rising in ,dresden and  
the subsequent events which so deepened 
,wagner's sense of life and the         
seriousness of art7 gave him exactly the
 libretto he required for that outbreak 
of the old operatic ,adam in him4 ,so he
 changed it into ,die ,gotterdammerung1 
retaining the traditional plot of murder
 and jealousy1 and with it1 necessarily1
 his original second act1 in spite of   
the incongruity of its ,siegfried and   
,brynhild with the ,siegfried and       
,brynhild of the allegory4 ,as to the   
legendary matter about the world-ash and
 the destruction of ,valhalla by ,loki1 
it fitted in well enough2 for though1   
allegorically1 the blow by which        
,siegfried breaks the god's spear is the
 end of ,wotan and of ,valhalla1 those  
who do not see the allegory1 and take   
the story literally1 like children1 are 
sure to ask what becomes of ,wotan after
 ,siegfried gets past him up the        
mountain2 and to this question the old  

tale told in ,night ,falls ,on ,the     
,gods is as good an answer as another4  
,the very senselessness of the scenes of
 the ,norns and of ,valtrauta in        
relation to the three foregoing dramas1 
gives them a highly effective air of    
mystery2 and no one ventures to         
challenge their consequentiality1       
because we are all more apt to pretend  
to understand great works of art than to
 confess that the meaning 7if any7 has  
escaped us4 ,valtrauta1 however1 betrays
 her irrelevance by explaining that the 
gods can be saved by the restoration of 
the ring to the ,rhine maidens4 ,this1  
considered as part of the previous      
allegory1 is nonsense2 so that even this
 scene1 which has a more plausible air  
of organic connection with ,the         
,valkyries than any other in ,night     
,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 is as clearly    
part of a different and earlier         
conception as the episode which         
concludes it1 in which ,siegfried       
actually robs ,brynhild of her ring1    

though he has no recollection of having 
given it to her4 ,night ,falls ,on ,the 
,gods1 in fact1 was not even revised    
into any real coherence with the        
world-poem which sprang from it2 and    
that is the authentic solution of all   
the controversies which have arisen over
 it4  ,the ,third ,act  ,the hunting    
party comes off duly4 ,siegfried strays 
from it and meets the ,rhine maidens1   
who almost succeed in coaxing the ring  
from him4 ,he pretends to be afraid of  
his wife2 and they chaff him as to her  
beating him and so forth2 but when they 
add that the ring is accursed and will  
bring death upon him1 he discloses to   
them1 as unconsciously as ,julius       
,caesar disclosed it long ago1 that     
secret of heroism1 never to let your    
life be shaped by fear of its end4 99   
,so he keeps the ring2 and they leave   
him to his fate4 ,the hunting party now 
finds him2 and they all sit down        
together to make a meal by the river    
side1 ,siegfried telling them meanwhile 

the story of his adventures4 ,when he   
approaches the subject of ,brynhild1 as 
to whom his memory is a blank1 ,hagen   
pours an antidote to the love philtre   
into his drinking horn1 whereupon1 his  
memory returning1 he proceeds to narrate
 the incident of the fiery mountain1 to 
,gunther's intense mortification4 ,hagen
 then plunges his spear into the back of
 ,siegfried1 who falls dead on his      
shield1 but gets up again1 after the old
 operatic custom1 to sing about thirty  
bars to his love before allowing himself
 to be finally carried off to the       
strains of the famous ,trauermarsch4    
99 ,we must learn to die1 and to die in 
the fullest sense of      the word4 ,the
 fear of the end is the source of all   
lovelessness2 and this fear is generated
 only when love      begins to wane4    
,how came it that this loves the highest
      blessedness to all things living1 
was so far lost sight of      by the    
human race that at last it came to this3
 all that      mankind did1 ordered1 and

 established1 was conceived only in     
fear of the end8 ,my poem sets this     
forth4--,wagner to      ,roeckel1 #beth 
,jan4 #ahed4   ,the scene then changes  
to the hall of the ,gibichungs by the   
,rhine4 ,it is night2 and ,gutrune1     
unable to sleep1 and haunted by all     
sorts of vague terrors1 is waiting for  
the return of her husband1 and wondering
 whether a ghostly figure she has seen  
gliding down to the river bank is       
,brynhild1 whose room is empty4 ,then   
comes the cry of ,hagen1 returning with 
the hunting party to announce the death 
of ,siegfried by the tusk of a wild     
boar4 ,but ,gutrune divines the truth2  
and ,hagen does not deny it4            
,siegfried's body is brought in2        
,gunther claims the ring2 ,hagen will   
not suffer him to take it2 they fight2  
and ,gunther is slain4 ,hagen then      
attempts to take it2 but the dead man's 
hand closes on it and raises itself     
threateningly4 ,then ,brynhild comes2   
and a funeral pyre is raised whilst she 

declaims a prolonged scene1 extremely   
moving and imposing1 but yielding       
nothing to resolute intellectual        
criticism except a very powerful and    
elevated exploitation of theatrical     
pathos1 psychologically identical with  
the scene of ,cleopatra and the dead    
,antony in ,shakespeare's tragedy4      
,finally she flings a torch into the    
pyre1 and rides her war-horse into the  
flames4 ,the hall of the ,gibichungs    
catches fire1 as most halls would were a
 cremation attempted in the middle of   
the floor 7,i permit myself this gibe   
purposely to emphasize the excessive    
artificiality of the scene72 but the    
,rhine overflows its banks to allow the 
three ,rhine maidens to take the ring   
from ,siegfried's finger1 incidentally  
extinguishing the conflagration as it   
does so4 ,hagen attempts to snatch the  
ring from the maidens1 who promptly     
drown him2 and in the distant heavens   
the ,gods and their castle are seen     
perishing in the fires of ,loki as the  

curtain falls4     ,,forgotten ,,ere    
,,finished  ,in all this1 it will be    
observed1 there is nothing new4 ,the    
musical fabric is enormously elaborate  
and gorgeous2 but you cannot say1 as you
 must in witnessing ,the ,rhine ,gold1  
,the ,valkyries1 and the first two acts 
of ,siegfried1 that you have never seen 
anything like it before1 and that the   
inspiration is entirely original4 ,not  
only the action1 but most of the poetry1
 might conceivably belong to an         
,elizabethan drama4 ,the situation of   
,cleopatra and ,antony is unconsciously 
reproduced without being bettered1 or   
even equalled in point of majesty and   
musical expression4 ,the loss of all    
simplicity and dignity1 the             
impossibility of any credible scenic    
presentation of the incidents1 and the  
extreme staginess of the conventions by 
which these impossibilities are got     
over1 are no doubt covered from the     
popular eye by the overwhelming prestige
 of ,die ,gotterdammerung as part of so 

great a work as ,the ,ring1 and by the  
extraordinary storm of emotion and      
excitement which the music keeps up4    
,but the very qualities that intoxicate 
the novice in music enlighten the adept4
 ,in spite of the fulness of the        
composer's technical accomplishment1 the
 finished style and effortless mastery  
of harmony and instrumentation          
displayed1 there is not a bar in the    
work which moves us as the same themes  
moved us in ,the ,valkyries1 nor is     
anything but external splendor added to 
the life and humor of ,siegfried4  ,in  
the original poem1 ,brynhild delays her 
self-immolation on the pyre of          
,siegfried to read the assembled        
choristers a homily on the efficacy of  
the ,love panacea4 ,my holiest wisdom's 
hoard1 she says1 now ,i make known to   
the world4 ,i believe not in property1  
nor money1 nor godliness1 nor hearth and
 high place1 nor pomp and peerage1 nor  
contract and custom1 but in ,love4 ,let 
that only prevail2 and ye shall be blest

 in weal or woe4 ,here the repudiations 
still smack of ,bakoonin2 but the       
saviour is no longer the volition of the
 full-grown spirit of ,man1 the ,free   
,willer of ,necessity1 sword in hand1   
but simply ,love1 and not even          
,shelleyan love1 but vehement sexual    
passion4 ,it is highly significant of   
the extent to which this uxorious       
commonplace lost its hold of ,wagner    
7after disturbing his conscience1 as he 
confesses to ,roeckel1 for years7 that  
it disappears in the full score of      
,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 which was 
not completed until he was on the verge 
of producing ,parsifal1 twenty years    
after the publication of the poem4 ,he  
cut the homily out1 and composed the    
music of the final scene with a flagrant
 recklessness of the old intention4 ,the
 rigorous logic with which              
representative musical themes are       
employed in the earlier dramas is here  
abandoned without scruple2 and for the  
main theme at the conclusion he selects 

a rapturous passage sung by ,sieglinda  
in the third act of ,the ,valkyries when
 ,brynhild inspires her with a sense of 
her high destiny as the mother of the   
unborn hero4 ,there is no dramatic logic
 whatever in the recurrence of this     
theme to express the transport in which 
,brynhild immolates herself4 ,there is  
of course an excuse for it1 inasmuch as 
both women have an impulse of           
self-sacrifice for the sake of          
,siegfried2 but this is really hardly   
more than an excuse2 since the ,valhalla
 theme might be attached to ,alberic on 
the no worse ground that both he and    
,wotan are inspired by ambition1 and    
that the ambition has the same object1  
the possession of the ring4 ,the common 
sense of the matter is that the only    
themes which had fully retained their   
significance in ,wagner's memory at the 
period of the composition of ,night     
,falls ,on ,the ,gods are those which   
are mere labels of external features1   
such as the ,dragon1 the ,fire1 the     

,water and so on4 ,this particular theme
 of ,sieglinda's is1 in truth1 of no    
great musical merit3 it might easily be 
the pet climax of a popular sentimental 
ballad3 in fact1 the gushing effect     
which is its sole valuable quality is so
 cheaply attained that it is hardly     
going too far to call it the most       
trumpery phrase in the entire tetralogy4
 ,yet1 since it undoubtedly does gush   
very emphatically1 ,wagner chose1 for   
convenience' sake1 to work up this final
 scene with it rather than with the more
 distinguished1 elaborate and beautiful 
themes connected with the love of       
,brynhild and ,siegfried4  ,he would    
certainly not have thought this a matter
 of no consequence had he finished the  
whole work ten years earlier4 ,it must  
always be borne in mind that the poem of
 ,the ,ring was complete and printed in 
#ahec1 and represents the sociological  
ideas which1 after germinating in the   
,european atmosphere for many years1 had
 been brought home to ,wagner1 who was  

intensely susceptible to such ideas1 by 
the crash of #ahdi at ,dresden4 ,now no 
man whose mind is alive and active1 as  
,wagner's was to the day of his death1  
can keep his political and spiritual    
opinions1 much less his philosophic     
consciousness1 at a standstill for      
quarter of a century until he finishes  
an orchestral score4 ,when ,wagner first
 sketched ,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods  
he was #ce4 ,when he finished the score 
for the first ,bayreuth festival in     
#ahgf he had turned #fj4 ,no wonder he  
had lost his old grip of it and left it 
behind him4 ,he even tampered with ,the 
,rhine ,gold for the sake of theatrical 
effect when stage-managing it1 making   
,wotan pick up and brandish a sword to  
give visible point to his sudden        
inspiration as to the raising up of a   
hero4 ,the sword had first to be        
discovered by ,fafnir among the ,niblung
 treasures and thrown away by him as    
useless4 ,there is no sense in this     
device2 and its adoption shows the same 

recklessness as to the original         
intention which we find in the music of 
the last act of ,the ,dusk of the ,gods4
 99       99 ,die ,gotterdammerung means
 literally ,godsgloaming4 ,the          
,english versions of the opera are      
usually called ,the ,dusk of      the   
,gods1 or ,the ,twilight of the ,gods4  
,i have purposely      introduced the   
ordinary title in the sentence above for
 the      reader's information4         
,,why ,,he ,,changed ,,his ,,mind       
,wagner1 however1 was not the man to    
allow his grip of a great philosophic   
theme to slacken even in twenty-five    
years if the theme still held good as a 
theory of actual life4 ,if the history  
of ,germany from #ahdi to #ahgf had been
 the history of ,siegfried and ,wotan   
transposed into the key of actual life  
,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods would have 
been the logical consummation of ,das   
,rheingold and ,the ,valkyrie instead of
 the operatic anachronism it actually   
is4  ,but1 as a matter of fact1         

,siegfried did not succeed and ,bismarck
 did4 ,roeckel was a prisoner whose     
imprisonment made no difference2        
,bakoonin broke up1 not ,walhall1 but   
the ,international1 which ended in an   
undignified quarrel between him and     
,karl ,marx4 ,the ,siegfrieds of #ahdh  
were hopeless political failures1       
whereas the ,wotans and ,alberics and   
,lokis were conspicuous political       
successes4 ,even the ,mimes held their  
own as against ,siegfried4 ,with the    
single exception of ,ferdinand          
,lassalle1 there was no revolutionary   
leader who was not an obvious           
impossibilist in practical politics2 and
 ,lassalle got himself killed in a      
romantic and quite indefensible duel    
after wrecking his health in a titanic  
oratorical campaign which convinced him 
that the great majority of the working  
classes were not ready to join him1 and 
that the minority who were ready did not
 understand him4 ,the ,international1   
founded in #ahfa by ,karl ,marx in      

,london1 and mistaken for several years 
by nervous newspapers for a red spectre1
 was really only a turnip ghost4 ,it    
achieved some beginnings of             
,international ,trade ,unionism by      
inducing ,english workmen to send money 
to support strikes on the continent1 and
 recalling ,english workers who had been
 taken across the ,north ,sea to defeat 
such strikes2 but on its revolutionary  
socialistic side it was a romantic      
figment4 ,the suppression of the ,paris 
,commune1 one of the most tragic        
examples in history of the pitilessness 
with which capable practical            
administrators and soldiers are forced  
by the pressure of facts to destroy     
romantic amateurs and theatrical        
dreamers1 made an end of melodramatic   
,socialism4 ,it was as easy for ,marx to
 hold up ,thiers as the most execrable  
of living scoundrels and to put upon    
,gallifet the brand that still makes him
 impossible in ,french politics as it   
was for ,victor ,hugo to bombard        

,napoleon ,,iii from his paper battery  
in ,jersey4 ,it was also easy to hold up
 ,felix ,pyat and ,delescluze as men of 
much loftier ideals than ,thiers and    
,gallifet2 but the one fact that could  
not be denied was that when it came to  
actual shooting1 it was ,gallifet who   
got ,delescluze shot and not ,delescluze
 who got ,gallifet shot1 and that when  
it came to administering the affairs of 
,france1 ,thiers could in one way or    
another get it done1 whilst ,pyat could 
neither do it nor stop talking and allow
 somebody else to do it4 ,true1 the     
penalty of following ,thiers was to be  
exploited by the landlord and           
capitalist2 but then the penalty of     
following ,pyat was to get shot like a  
mad dog1 or at best get sent to ,new    
,caledonia1 quite unnecessarily and     
uselessly4  ,to put it in terms of      
,wagner's allegory1 ,alberic had got the
 ring back again and was marrying into  
the best ,walhall families with it4 ,he 
had thought better of his old threat to 

dethrone ,wotan and ,loki4 ,he had found
 that ,nibelheim was a very gloomy place
 and that if he wanted to live          
handsomely and safely1 he must not only 
allow ,wotan and ,loki to organize      
society for him1 but pay them very      
handsomely for doing it4 ,he wanted     
splendor1 military glory1 loyalty1      
enthusiasm1 and patriotism2 and his     
greed and gluttony were wholly unable to
 create them1 whereas ,wotan and ,loki  
carried them all to a triumphant climax 
in ,germany in #ahga1 when ,wagner      
himself celebrated the event with his   
,kaisermarsch1 which sounded much more  
convincing than the ,marseillaise or the
 ,carmagnole4  ,how1 after the          
,kaisermarsch1 could ,wagner go back to 
his idealization of ,siegfried in #ahec8
 ,how could he believe seriously in     
,siegfried slaying the dragon and       
charging through the mountain fire1 when
 the immediate foreground was occupied  
by the ,hotel de ,ville with ,felix     
,pyat endlessly discussing the          

principles of ,socialism whilst the     
shells of ,thiers were already battering
 the ,arc de ,triomphe1 and ripping up  
the pavement of the ,champs ,elysees8   
,is it not clear that things had taken  
an altogether unexpected turn--that     
although the ,ring may1 like the famous 
,communist ,manifesto of ,marx and      
,engels1 be an inspired guest at the    
historic laws and predestined end of our
 capitalistic-theocratic epoch1 yet     
,wagner1 like ,marx1 was too            
inexperienced in technical government   
and administration and too melodramatic 
in his hero-contra-villain conception of
 the class struggle1 to foresee the     
actual process by which his             
generalization would work out1 or the   
part to be played in it by the classes  
involved8  ,let us go back for a moment 
to the point at which the ,niblung      
legend first becomes irreconcilable with
 ,wagner's allegory4 ,fafnir in the     
allegory becomes a capitalist2 but      
,fafnir in the legend is a mere hoarder4

 ,his gold does not bring him in any    
revenue4 ,it does not even support him3 
he has to go out and forage for food and
 drink4 ,in fact1 he is on the way to   
his drinking-pool when ,siegfried kills 
him4 ,and ,siegfried himself has no more
 use for gold than ,fafnir3 the only    
difference between them in this respect 
is that ,siegfried does not waste his   
time in watching a barren treasure that 
is no use to him1 whereas ,fafnir       
sacrifices his humanity and his life    
merely to prevent anybody else getting  
it4 ,this contrast is true to human     
nature2 but it shunts ,the ,ring drama  
off the economic lines of the allegory4 
,in real life1 ,fafnir is not a miser3  
he seeks dividends1 comfortable life1   
and admission to the circles of ,wotan  
and ,loki4 ,his only means of procuring 
these is to restore the gold to ,alberic
 in exchange for scrip in ,alberic's    
enterprises4 ,thus fortified with       
capital1 ,alberic exploits his fellow   
dwarfs as before1 and also exploits     

,fafnir's fellow giants who have no     
capital4 ,what is more1 the toil1       
forethought and self-control which the  
exploitation involves1 and the          
self-respect and social esteem which its
 success wins1 effect an improvement in 
,alberic's own character which neither  
,marx nor ,wagner appear to have        
foreseen4 ,he discovers that to be a    
dull1 greedy1 narrow-minded             
money-grubber is not the way to make    
money on a large scale2 for though greed
 may suffice to turn tens into hundreds 
and even hundreds into thousands1 to    
turn thousands into hundreds of         
thousands requires magnanimity and a    
will to power rather than to pelf4 ,and 
to turn thousands into millions1        
,alberic must make himself an earthly   
providence for masses of workmen3 he    
must create towns and govern markets4   
,in the meantime1 ,fafnir1 wallowing in 
dividends which he has done nothing to  
earn1 may rot1 intellectually and       
morally1 from mere disuse of his        

energies and lack of incentive to excel2
 but the more imbecile he becomes1 the  
more dependent he is upon ,alberic1 and 
the more the responsibility of keeping  
the world-machine in working order falls
 upon ,alberic4 ,consequently1 though   
,alberic in #ahej may have been merely  
the vulgar ,manchester ,factory-owner   
portrayed by ,engels1 in #ahgf he was   
well on the way towards becoming ,krupp 
of ,essen or ,carnegie of ,homestead4   
,now1 without exaggerating the virtues  
of these gentlemen1 it will be conceded 
by everybody except perhaps those       
veteran ,german ,social-,democrats who  
have made a cult of obsolescence under  
the name of ,marxism1 that the modern   
entrepreneur is not to be displaced and 
dismissed so lightly as ,alberic is     
dismissed in ,the ,ring4 ,they are      
really the masters of the whole         
situation4 ,wotan is hardly less        
dependent on them than ,fafnir2 the     
,war-,lord visits their work1 acclaims  
them in stirring speeches1 and casts    

down their enemies2 whilst ,loki makes  
commercial treaties for them and        
subjects all his diplomacy to their     
approval4  ,the end cannot come until   
,siegfried learns ,alberic's trade and  
shoulders ,alberic's burden4 ,not having
 as yet done so1 he is still completely 
mastered by ,alberic4 ,he does not even 
rebel against him except when he is too 
stupid and ignorant1 or too romantically
 impracticable1 to see that ,alberic's  
work1 like ,wotan's work and ,loki's    
work1 is necessary work1 and that       
therefore ,alberic can never be         
superseded by a warrior1 but only by a  
capable man of business who is prepared 
to continue his work without a day's    
intermission4 ,even though the          
proletarians of all lands were to become
 class conscious1 and obey the call of  
,marx by uniting to carry the ,class    
struggle to a proletarian victory in    
which all capital should become common  
property1 and all ,monarchs1            
,millionaires1 ,landlords and           

,capitalists become common citizens1 the
 triumphant proletarians would have     
either to starve in ,anarchy the next   
day or else do the political and        
industrial work which is now being done 
tant bien que mal by our ,romanoffs1 our
 ,hohenzollerns1 our ,krupps1           
,carnegies1 ,levers1 ,pierpont ,morgans1
 and their political retinues4 ,and in  
the meantime these magnates must defend 
their power and property with all their 
might against the revolutionary forces  
until these forces become positive1     
executive1 administrative forces1       
instead of the conspiracies of          
protesting1 moralizing1 virtuously      
indignant amateurs who mistook ,marx for
 a man of affairs and ,thiers for a     
stage villain4 ,but all this represents 
a development of which one gathers no   
forecast from ,wagner or ,marx4 ,both of
 them prophesied the end of our epoch1  
and1 so far as one can guess1 prophesied
 it rightly4 ,they also brought its     
industrial history up to the year #ahdh 

far more penetratingly than the academic
 historians of their time4 ,but they    
broke off there and left a void between 
#ahdh and the end1 in which we1 who have
 to live in that period1 get no guidance
 from them4 ,the ,marxists wandered for 
years in this void1 striving1 with      
fanatical superstition1 to suppress the 
,revisionists who1 facing the fact that 
the ,social-,democratic party was lost1 
were trying to find the path by the     
light of contemporary history instead of
 vainly consulting the oracle in the    
pages of ,das ,kapital4 ,marx himself   
was too simpleminded a recluse and too  
full of the validity of his remoter     
generalizations1 and the way in which   
the rapid integration of capital in     
,trusts and ,kartels was confirming     
them1 to be conscious of the void       
himself4  ,wagner1 on the other hand1   
was comparatively a practical man4 ,it  
is possible to learn more of the world  
by producing a single opera1 or even    
conducting a single orchestral          

rehearsal1 than by ten years reading in 
the ,library of the ,british ,museum4   
,wagner must have learnt between ,das   
,rheingold and the ,kaisermarsch that   
there are yet several dramas to be      
interpolated in ,the ,ring after ,the   
,valkyries before the allegory can tell 
the whole story1 and that the first of  
these interpolated dramas will be much  
more like a revised ,rienzi than like   
,siegfried4 ,if anyone doubts the extent
 to which ,wagner's eyes had been opened
 to the administrative-childishness and 
romantic conceit of the heroes of the   
revolutionary generation that served its
 apprenticeship on the barricades of    
#ahdh-i1 and perished on those of #ahgj 
under ,thiers' mitrailleuses1 let him   
read ,eine ,kapitulation1 that          
scandalous burlesque in which the poet  
and composer of ,siegfried1 with the    
levity of a schoolboy1 mocked the       
,french republicans who were doing in   
#ahga what he himself was exiled for    
doing in #ahdi4 ,he had set the         

enthusiasm of the ,dresden ,revolution  
to his own greatest music2 but he set   
the enthusiasm of twenty years later in 
derision to the music of ,rossini4      
,there is no mistaking the tune he meant
 to suggest by his doggerel of          
,republik1 ,republik1 ,republik-lik-lik4
 ,the ,overture to ,william ,tell is    
there as plainly as if it were noted    
down in full score4  ,in the case of    
such a man as ,wagner1 you cannot       
explain this volte-face as mere jingoism
 produced by ,germany's overwhelming    
victory in the ,franco-,prussian ,war1  
nor as personal spite against the       
,parisians for the ,tannhauser fiasco4  
,wagner had more cause for personal     
spite against his own countrymen than he
 ever had against the ,french4 ,no doubt
 his outburst gratified the pettier     
feelings which great men have in common 
with small ones2 but he was not a man to
 indulge in such gratifications1 or     
indeed to feel them as gratifications1  
if he had not arrived at a profound     

philosophical contempt for the          
inadequacy of the men who were trying to
 wield ,nothung1 and who had done less  
work for ,wagner's own art than a single
 ,german ,king and he1 too1 only a mad  
one4 ,wagner had by that time done too  
much himself not to know that the world 
is ruled by deeds1 not by good          
intentions1 and that one efficient      
sinner is worth ten futile saints and   
martyrs4  ,i need not elaborate the     
point further in these pages4 ,like all 
men of genius1 ,wagner had exceptional  
sincerity1 exceptional respect for      
facts1 exceptional freedom from the     
hypnotic influence of sensational       
popular movements1 exceptional sense of 
the realities of political power as     
distinguished from the presences and    
idolatries behind which the real masters
 of modern ,states pull their wires and 
train their guns4 ,when he scored ,night
 ,falls ,on ,the ,gods1 he had accepted 
the failure of ,siegfried and the       
triumph of the                          

,wotan-,loki-,alberic-trinity as a fact4
 ,he had given up dreaming of heroes1   
heroines1 and final solutions1 and had  
conceived a new protagonist in          
,parsifal1 whom he announced1 not as a  
hero1 but as a fool2 who was armed1 not 
with a sword which cut irresistibly1 but
 with a spear which he held only on     
condition that he did not use it2 and   
who instead of exulting in the slaughter
 of a dragon was frightfully ashamed of 
having shot a swan4 ,the change in the  
conception of the ,deliverer could      
hardly be more complete4 ,it reflects   
the change which took place in ,wagner's
 mind between the composition of ,the   
,rhine ,gold and ,night ,falls ,on ,the 
,gods2 and it explains why he dropped   
,the ,ring allegory and fell back on the
 status quo ante by ,lohengrinizing4    
,if you ask why he did not throw        
,siegfried into the waste paper basket  
and rewrite ,the ,ring from ,the        
,valkyries onwards1 one must reply that 
the time had not come for such a feat4  

,neither ,wagner nor anyone else then   
living knew enough to achieve it4       
,besides1 what he had already done had  
reached the limit of even his immense   
energy and perseverance and so he did   
the best he could with the unfinished   
and for ever unfinishable work1 rounding
 it off with an opera much as ,rossini  
rounded off some of his religious       
compositions with a galop4 ,only1       
,rossini on such occasions wrote in his 
score ,excusez du peu1 but ,wagner left 
us to find out the change for ourselves1
 perhaps to test how far we had really  
followed his meaning4     ,,wagner',s   
,,own ,,explanation  ,and now1 having   
given my explanation of ,the ,ring1 can 
,i give ,wagner's explanation of it8 ,if
 ,i could 7and ,i can7 ,i should not by 
any means accept it as conclusive4      
,nearly half a century has passed since 
the tetralogy was written2 and in that  
time the purposes of many half          
instinctive acts of genius have become  
clearer to the common man than they were

 to the doers4 ,some years ago1 in the  
course of an explanation of ,ibsen's    
plays1 ,i pointed out that it was by no 
means certain or even likely that ,ibsen
 was as definitely conscious of his     
thesis as ,i4 ,all the stupid people1   
and some critics who1 though not stupid1
 had not themselves written what the    
,germans call tendency works1 saw       
nothing in this but a fantastic         
affectation of the extravagant          
self-conceit of knowing more about      
,ibsen than ,ibsen himself4             
,fortunately1 in taking exactly the same
 position now with regard to ,wagner1 ,i
 can claim his own authority to support 
me4 ,how1 he wrote to ,roeckel on the   
#bcrd4 ,august #ahef1 can an artist     
expect that what he has felt intuitively
 should be perfectly realized by others1
 seeing that he himself feels in the    
presence of his work1 if it is true     
,art1 that he is confronted by a riddle1
 about which he1 too1 might have        
illusions1 just as another might8  ,the 

truth is1 we are apt to deify men of    
genius1 exactly as we deify the creative
 force of the universe1 by attributing  
to logical design what is the result of 
blind instinct4 ,what ,wagner meant by  
true ,art is the operation of the       
artist's instinct1 which is just as     
blind as any other instinct4 ,mozart1   
asked for an explanation of his works1  
said frankly ,how do ,i know8 ,wagner1  
being a philosopher and critic as well  
as a composer1 was always looking for   
moral explanations of what he had       
created and he hit on several very      
striking ones1 all different4 ,in the   
same way one can conceive ,henry the    
,eighth speculating very brilliantly    
about the circulation of his own blood  
without getting as near the truth as    
,harvey did long after his death4  ,none
 the less1 ,wagner's own explanations   
are of exceptional interest4 ,to begin  
with1 there is a considerable portion of
 ,the ,ring1 especially the portraiture 
of our capitalistic industrial system   

from the socialist's point of view in   
the slavery of the ,niblungs and the    
tyranny of ,alberic1 which is           
unmistakable1 as it dramatizes that     
portion of human activity which lies    
well within the territory covered by our
 intellectual consciousness4 ,all this  
is concrete ,home ,office business1 so  
to speak3 its meaning was as clear to   
,wagner as it is to us4 ,not so that    
part of the work which deals with the   
destiny of ,wotan4 ,and here1 as it     
happened1 ,wagner's recollection of what
 he had been driving at was completely  
upset by his discovery1 soon after the  
completion of ,the ,ring poem1 of       
,schopenhaur's famous treatise ,the     
,world as ,will and ,representation4 ,so
 obsessed did he become with this       
masterpiece of philosophic art that he  
declared that it contained the          
intellectual demonstration of the       
conflict of human forces which he       
himself had demonstrated artistically in
 his great poem4 ,i must confess1 he    

writes to ,roeckel1 to having arrived at
 a clear understanding of my own works  
of art through the help of another1 who 
has provided me with the reasoned       
conceptions corresponding to my         
intuitive principles4  ,schopenhaur1    
however1 had done nothing of the sort4  
,wagner's determination to prove that he
 had been a ,schopenhaurite all along   
without knowing it only shows how       
completely the fascination of the great 
treatise on ,the ,will had run away with
 his memory4 ,it is easy to see how this
 happened4 ,wagner says of himself that 
seldom has there taken place in the soul
 of one and the same man so profound a  
division and estrangement between the   
intuitive or impulsive part of his      
nature and his consciously or reasonably
 formed ideas4 ,and since ,schopenhaur's
 great contribution to modern thought   
was to educate us into clear            
consciousness of this distinction--a    
distinction familiar1 in a fanciful way1
 to the ,ages of ,faith and ,art before 

the ,renascence1 but afterwards swamped 
in the ,rationalism of that movement--it
 was inevitable that ,wagner should jump
 at ,schopenhaur's metaphysiology 7,i   
use a word less likely to be mistaken   
than metaphysics7 as the very thing for 
him4 ,but metaphysiology is one thing1  
political philosophy another4 ,the      
political philosophy of ,siegfried is   
exactly contrary to the political       
philosophy of ,schopenhaur1 although the
 same clear metaphysiological           
distinction between the instinctive part
 of man 7his ,will7 and his reasoning   
faculty 7dramatized in ,the ,ring as    
,loki7 is insisted on in both4 ,the     
difference is that to ,schopenhaur the  
,will is the universal tormentor of man1
 the author of that great evil1 ,life2  
whilst reason is the divine gift that is
 finally to overcome this life-creating 
will and lead1 through its abnegation1  
to cessation and peace1 annihilation and
 ,nirvana4 ,this is the doctrine of     
,pessimism4 ,now ,wagner was1 when he   

wrote ,the ,ring1 a most sanguine       
revolutionary ,meliorist1 contemptuous  
of the reasoning faculty1 which he      
typified in the shifty1 unreal1 delusive
 ,loki1 and full of faith in the        
life-giving ,will1 which he typified in 
the glorious ,siegfried4 ,not until he  
read ,schopenhaur did he become bent on 
proving that he had always been a       
,pessimist at heart1 and that ,loki was 
the most sensible and worthy adviser of 
,wotan in ,the ,rhine ,gold4  ,sometimes
 he faces the change in his opinions    
frankly enough4 ,my ,niblung drama1 he  
writes to ,roeckel1 had taken form at a 
time when ,i had built up with my reason
 an optimistic world on ,hellenic       
principles1 believing that nothing was  
necessary for the realization of such a 
world but that men should wish it4 ,i   
ingeniously set aside-the problem why   
they did not wish it4 ,i remember that  
it was with this definite creative      
purpose that ,i conceived the           
personality of ,siegfried1 with the     

intention of representing an existence  
free from pain4 ,but he appeals to his  
earlier works to show that behind all   
these artificial optimistic ideas there 
was always with him an intuition of the 
sublime tragedy of renunciation1 the    
negation of the will4 ,in trying to     
explain this1 he is full of ideas       
philosophically1 and full of the most   
amusing contradictions personally4      
,optimism1 as an accidental excursion   
into the barren paths of reason on his  
own part1 he calls ,hellenic4 ,in others
 he denounces it as rank ,judaism1 the  
,jew having at that time become for him 
the whipping boy for all modern         
humanity4 ,in a letter from ,london he  
expounds ,schopenhaur to ,roeckel with  
enthusiasm1 preaching the renunciation  
of the ,will to ,live as the redemption 
from all error and vain pursuits3 in the
 next letter he resumes the subject with
 unabated interest1 and finishes by     
mentioning that on leaving ,london he   
went to ,geneva and underwent a most    

beneficial course of hydropathy4 ,seven 
months before this he had written as    
follows3 ,believe me1 ,i too was once   
possessed by the idea of a country life4
 ,in order to become a radically healthy
 human being1 ,i went two years ago to a
 ,hydropathic ,establishment1 prepared  
to give up ,art and everything if ,i    
could once more become a child of       
,nature4 ,but1 my good friend1 ,i was   
obliged to laugh at my own naivete when 
,i found myself almost going mad4 ,none 
of us will reach the promised land3 we  
shall all die in the wilderness4        
,intellect is1 as some one has said1 a  
sort of disease3 it is incurable4       
,roeckel knew his man of old1 and       
evidently pressed him for explanations  
of the inconsistencies of ,the ,ring    
with ,night ,falls ,on ,the ,gods4      
,wagner defended himself with unfailing 
cleverness and occasional petulances1   
ranging from such pleas as ,i believe a 
true instinct has kept me from a too    
great definiteness2 for it has been     

borne in on me that an absolute         
disclosure of the intention disturbs    
true insight1 to a volley of            
explanations and commentaries on the    
explanations4 ,he gets excited and      
annoyed because ,roeckel will not admire
 the ,brynhild of ,night ,falls ,on ,the
 ,gods2 re-invents the ,tarnhelm scene2 
and finally1 the case being desperate1  
exclaims1 ,it is wrong of you to        
challenge me to explain it in words3 you
 must feel that something is being      
enacted that is not to be expressed in  
mere words4     ,,the ,,pessimist ,,as  
,,amorist  ,sometimes he gets very far  
away from ,pessimism indeed1 and        
recommends ,roeckel to solace his       
captivity1 not by conquering the will to
 live at liberty1 but by the inspiring  
influences of the ,beautiful4 ,the next 
moment he throws over even ,art for     
,life4 ,where life ends1 he says1 very  
wittily1 ,art begins4 ,in youth we turn 
to ,art1 we know not why2 and only when 
we have gone through with ,art and come 

out on the other side1 we learn to our  
cost that we have missed ,life itself4  
,his only comfort is that he is beloved4
 ,and on the subject of love he lets    
himself loose in a manner that would    
have roused the bitterest scorn in      
,schopenhaur1 though1 as we have seen   
7,love ,panacea71 it is highly          
characteristic of ,wagner4 ,love in its 
most perfect reality1 he says1 is only  
possible between the sexes3 it is only  
as man and woman that human beings can  
truly love4 ,every other manifestation  
of love can be traced back to that one  
absorbingly real feeling1 of which all  
other affections are but an emanation1 a
 connection1 or an imitation4 ,it is an 
error to look on this as only one of the
 forms in which love is revealed1 as if 
there were other forms coequal with it1 
or even superior to it4 ,he who after   
the manner of metaphysicians prefers    
,,unreality to ,,reality1 and derives   
the concrete from the abstract--in      
short1 puts the word before the         

fact--may be right in esteeming the idea
 of love as higher than the expression  
of love1 and may affirm that actual love
 made manifest in feeling is nothing but
 the outward and visible sign of a      
pre-existent1 non-sensuous1 abstract    
love2 and he will do well to despise    
that sensuous function in general4 ,in  
any case it were safe to bet that such a
 man had never loved or been loved as   
human beings can love1 or he would have 
understood that in despising this       
feeling1 what he condemned was its      
sensual expression1 the outcome of man's
 animal nature1 and not true human love4
 ,the highest satisfaction and          
expression of the individual is only to 
be found in his complete absorption1 and
 that is only possible through love4    
,now a human being is both ,,man and    
,,woman3 it is only when these two are  
united that the real human being exists2
 and thus it is only by love that man   
and woman attain to the full measure of 
humanity4 ,but when nowadays we talk of 

a human being1 such heartless blockheads
 are we that quite involuntarily we only
 think of man4 ,it is only in the union 
of man and woman by love 7sensuous and  
supersensuous7 that the human being     
exists2 and as the human being cannot   
rise to the conception of anything      
higher than his own existence--his own  
being--so the transcendent act of his   
life is this consummation of his        
humanity through love4  ,it is clear    
after this utterance from the would-be  
,schopenhaurian1 that ,wagner's         
explanations of his works for the most  
part explain nothing but the mood in    
which he happened to be on the day he   
advanced them1 or the train of thought  
suggested to his very susceptible       
imagination and active mind by the      
points raised by his questioner4        
,especially in his private letters1     
where his outpourings are modified by   
his dramatic consciousness of the       
personality of his correspondent1 do we 
find him taking all manner of positions1

 and putting forward all sorts of cases 
which must be taken as clever and       
suggestive special pleadings1 and not as
 serious and permanent expositions of   
his works4 ,these works must speak for  
themselves3 if ,the ,ring says one      
thing1 and a letter written afterwards  
says that it said something else1 ,the  
,ring must be taken to confute the      
letter just as conclusively as if the   
two had been written by different hands4
 ,however1 nobody fairly well acquainted
 with ,wagner's utterances as a whole   
will find any unaccountable             
contradictions in them4 ,as in all men  
of his type1 our manifold nature was so 
marked in him that he was like several  
different men rolled into one4 ,when he 
had exhausted himself in the character  
of the most pugnacious1 aggressive1 and 
sanguine of reformers1 he rested himself
 as a ,pessimist and ,nirvanist4 ,in    
,the ,ring the quietism of ,brynhild's  
,rest1 rest1 thou ,god is sublime in its
 deep conviction2 but you have only to  

turn back the pages to find the         
irrepressible bustle of ,siegfried and  
the revelry of the clansmen expressed   
with equal zest4 ,wagner was not a      
,schopenhaurite every day in the week1  
nor even a ,wagnerite4 ,his mind changes
 as often as his mood4 ,on ,monday      
nothing will ever induce him to return  
to quilldriving3 on ,tuesday he begins a
 new pamphlet4 ,on ,wednesday he is     
impatient of the misapprehensions of    
people who cannot see how impossible it 
is for him to preside as a conductor    
over platform performances of fragments 
of his works1 which can only be         
understood when presented strictly      
according to his intention on the stage3
 on ,thursday he gets up a concert of   
,wagnerian selections1 and when it is   
over writes to his friends describing   
how profoundly both bandsmen and        
audience were impressed4 ,on ,friday he 
exults in the self-assertion of         
,siegfried's will against all moral     
ordinances1 and is full of a            

revolutionary sense of the universal law
 of change and renewal3 on ,saturday he 
has an attack of holiness1 and asks1    
,can you conceive a moral action of     
which the root idea is not renunciation8
 ,in short1 ,wagner can be quoted       
against himself almost without limit1   
much as ,beethoven's adagios could be   
quoted against his scherzos if a dispute
 arose between two fools as to whether  
he was a melancholy man or a merry one4 
,,the ,,music ,,of ,,the ,,ring  ,,the  
,,representative ,,themes  ,to be able  
to follow the music of ,the ,ring1 all  
that is necessary is to become familiar 
enough with the brief musical phrases   
out of which it is built to recognize   
them and attach a certain definite      
significance to them1 exactly as any    
ordinary ,englishman recognizes and     
attaches a definite significance to the 
opening bars of ,god ,save the ,king4   
,there is no difficulty here3 every     
soldier is expected to learn and        
distinguish between different bugle     

calls and trumpet calls2 and anyone who 
can do this can learn and distinguish   
between the representative themes or    
leading motives 7,leitmotifs7 of ,the   
,ring4 ,they are the easier to learn    
because they are repeated again and     
again2 and the main ones are so         
emphatically impressed on the ear whilst
 the spectator is looking for the first 
time at the objects1 or witnessing the  
first strong dramatic expression of the 
ideas they denote1 that the requisite   
association is formed unconsciously4    
,the themes are neither long1 nor       
complicated1 nor difficult4 ,whoever can
 pick up the flourish of a coach-horn1  
the note of a bird1 the rhythm of the   
postman's knock or of a horse's gallop1 
will be at no loss in picking up the    
themes of ,the ,ring4 ,no doubt1 when it
 comes to forming the necessary mental  
association with the theme1 it may      
happen that the spectator may find his  
ear conquering the tune more easily than
 his mind conquers the thought4 ,but for

 the most part the themes do not denote 
thoughts at all1 but either emotions of 
a quite simple universal kind1 or the   
sights1 sounds and fancies common enough
 to be familiar to children4 ,indeed    
some of them are as frankly childish as 
any of the funny little orchestral      
interludes which1 in ,haydn's ,creation1
 introduce the horse1 the deer1 or the  
worm4 ,we have both the horse and the   
worm in ,the ,ring1 treated exactly in  
,haydn's manner1 and with an effect not 
a whit less ridiculous to superior      
people who decline to take it           
good-humoredly4 ,even the complaisance  
of good ,wagnerites is occasionally     
rather overstrained by the way in which 
,brynhild's allusions to her charger    
,grani elicit from the band a little    
rum-ti-tum triplet which by itself is in
 no way suggestive of a horse1 although 
a continuous rush of such triplets makes
 a very exciting musical gallop4  ,other
 themes denote objects which cannot be  
imitatively suggested by music3 for     

instance1 music cannot suggest a ring1  
and cannot suggest gold2 yet each of    
these has a representative theme which  
pervades the score in all directions4   
,in the case of the gold the association
 is established by the very salient way 
in which the orchestra breaks into the  
pretty theme in the first act of ,the   
,rhine ,gold at the moment when the     
sunrays strike down through the water   
and light up the glittering treasure1   
hitherto invisible4 ,the reference of   
the strange little theme of the wishing 
cap is equally manifest from the first1 
since the spectator's attention is      
wholly taken up with the ,tarnhelm and  
its magic when the theme is first       
pointedly uttered by the orchestra4 ,the
 sword theme is introduced at the end of
 ,the ,rhine ,gold to express ,wotan's  
hero inspiration2 and ,i have already   
mentioned that ,wagner1 unable1 when it 
came to practical stage management1 to  
forego the appeal to the eye as well as 
to the thought1 here made ,wotan pick up

 a sword and brandish it1 though no such
 instruction appears in the printed     
score4 ,when this sacrifice to ,wagner's
 scepticism as to the reality of any    
appeal to an audience that is not made  
through their bodily sense is omitted1  
the association of the theme with the   
sword is not formed until that point in 
the first act of ,the ,valkyries at     
which ,siegmund is left alone by        
,hunding's hearth1 weaponless1 with the 
assurance that he will have to fight for
 his life at dawn with his host4 ,he    
recalls then how his father promised him
 a sword for his hour of need2 and as he
 does so1 a flicker from the dying fire 
is caught by the golden hilt of the     
sword in the tree1 when the theme       
immediately begins to gleam through the 
quiver of sound from the orchestra1 and 
only dies out as the fire sinks and the 
sword is once more hidden by the        
darkness4 ,later on1 this theme1 which  
is never silent whilst ,sieglinda is    
dwelling on the story of the sword1     

leaps out into the most dazzling        
splendor the band can give it when      
,siegmund triumphantly draws the weapon 
from the tree4 ,as it consists of seven 
notes only1 with a very marked measure1 
and a melody like a simple flourish on a
 trumpet or post horn1 nobody capable of
 catching a tune can easily miss it4    
,the ,valhalla theme1 sounded with      
solemn grandeur as the home of the gods 
first appears to us and to ,wotan at the
 beginning of the second scene of ,the  
,rhine ,gold1 also cannot be mistaken4  
,it1 too1 has a memorable rhythm2 and   
its majestic harmonies1 far from        
presenting those novel or curious       
problems in polyphony of which ,wagner  
still stands suspected by superstitious 
people1 are just those three simple     
chords which festive students who vamp  
accompaniments to comic songs by ear    
soon find sufficient for nearly all the 
popular tunes in the world4  ,on the    
other hand1 the ring theme1 when it     
begins to hurtle through the third scene

 of ,the ,rhine ,gold1 cannot possibly  
be referred to any special feature in   
the general gloom and turmoil of the den
 of the dwarfs4 ,it is not a melody1 but
 merely the displaced metric accent     
which musicians call syncopation1 rung  
on the notes of the familiar chord      
formed by piling three minor thirds on  
top of one another 7technically1 the    
chord of the minor ninth1 ci-devant     
diminished seventh74 ,one soon picks it 
up and identifies it2 but it does not   
get introduced in the unequivocally     
clear fashion of the themes described   
above1 or of that malignant monstrosity1
 the theme which denotes the curse on   
the gold4 ,consequently it cannot be    
said that the musical design of the work
 is perfectly clear at the first hearing
 as regards all the themes2 but it is so
 as regards most of them1 the main lines
 being laid down as emphatically and    
intelligibly as the dramatic motives in 
a ,shakespearean play4 ,as to the coyer 
subtleties of the score1 their discovery

 provides fresh interest for repeated   
hearings1 giving ,the ,ring a           
,beethovenian inexhaustibility and      
toughness of wear4  ,the themes         
associated with the individual          
characters get stamped on the memory    
easily by the simple association of the 
sound of the theme with the appearance  
of the person indicated4 ,its           
appropriateness is generally pretty     
obvious4 ,thus1 the entry of the giants 
is made to a vigorous stumping1 tramping
 measure4 ,mimmy1 being a quaint1 weird 
old creature1 has a quaint1 weird theme 
of two thin chords that creep down      
eerily one to the other4 ,gutrune's     
theme is pretty and caressing3          
,gunther's bold1 rough1 and commonplace4
 ,it is a favorite trick of ,wagner's1  
when one of his characters is killed on 
the stage1 to make the theme attached to
 that character weaken1 fail1 and fade  
away with a broken echo into silence4   
,,the ,,characterization  ,all this1    
however1 is the mere child's play of    

theme work4 ,the more complex           
characters1 instead of having a simple  
musical label attached to them1 have    
their characteristic ideas and          
aspirations identified with special     
representative themes as they come into 
play in the drama2 and the chief merit  
of the thematic structure of ,the ,ring 
is the mastery with which the dramatic  
play of the ideas is reflected in the   
contrapuntal play of the themes4 ,we do 
not find ,wotan1 like the dragon or the 
horse1 or1 for the matter of that1 like 
the stage demon in ,weber's ,freischutz 
or ,meyerbeer's ,robert the ,devil1 with
 one fixed theme attached to him like a 
name plate to an umbrella1 blaring      
unaltered from the orchestra whenever he
 steps on the stage4 ,sometimes we have 
the ,valhalla theme used to express the 
greatness of the gods as an idea of     
,wotan's4 ,again1 we have his spear1 the
 symbol of his power1 identified with   
another theme1 on which ,wagner finally 
exercises his favorite device by making 

it break and fail1 cut through1 as it   
were1 by the tearing sound of the theme 
identified with the sword1 when         
,siegfried shivers the spear with the   
stroke of ,nothung4 ,yet another theme  
connected with ,wotan is the ,wanderer  
music which breaks with such a majestic 
reassurance on the nightmare terror of  
,mimmy when ,wotan appears at the mouth 
of his cave in the scene of the three   
riddles4 ,thus not only are there       
several ,wotan themes1 but each varies  
in its inflexions and shades of tone    
color according to its dramatic         
circumstances4 ,so1 too1 the merry ham  
tune of the young ,siegfried changes its
 measure1 loads itself with massive     
harmonies1 and becomes an exordium of   
the most imposing splendor when it      
heralds his entry as full-fledged hero  
in the prologue to ,night ,falls ,on    
,the ,gods4 ,even ,mimmy has his two or 
three themes3 the weird one already     
described2 the little one in triple     
measure imitating the tap of his hammer1

 and fiercely mocked in the savage laugh
 of ,alberic at his death2 and finally  
the crooning tune in which he details   
all his motherly kindnesses to the      
little foundling ,siegfried4 ,besides   
this there are all manner of little     
musical blinkings and shamblings and    
whinings1 the least hint of which from  
the orchestra at any moment instantly   
brings ,mimmy to mind1 whether he is on 
the stage at the time or not4  ,in      
truth1 dramatic characterization in     
music cannot be carried very far by the 
use of representative themes4 ,mozart1  
the greatest of all masters of this art1
 never dreamt of employing them2 and1   
extensively as they are used in ,the    
,ring1 they do not enable ,wagner to    
dispense with the ,mozartian method4    
,apart from the themes1 ,siegfried and  
,mimmy are still as sharply             
distinguished from one another by the   
character of their music as ,don        
,giovanni from ,leporello1 ,wotan from  
,gutrune as ,sarastro from ,papagena4   

,it is true that the themes attached to 
the characters have the same musical    
appropriateness as the rest of the      
music3 for example1 neither the         
,valhalla nor the spear themes could1   
without the most ludicrous incongruity1 
be used for the forest bird or the      
unstable1 delusive ,loki2 but for all   
that the musical characterization must  
be regarded as independent of the       
specific themes1 since the entire       
elimination of the thematic system from 
the score would leave the characters as 
well distinguished musically as they are
 at present4  ,one more illustration of 
the way in which the thematic system is 
worked4 ,there are two themes connected 
with ,loki4 ,one is a rapid1 sinuous1   
twisting1 shifty semiquaver figure      
suggested by the unsubstantial1 elusive 
logic-spinning of the clever one's      
braincraft4 ,the other is the fire      
theme4 ,in the first act of ,siegfried1 
,mimmy makes his unavailing attempt to  
explain fear to ,siegfried4 ,with the   

horror fresh upon him of the sort of    
nightmare into which he has fallen after
 the departure of the ,wanderer1 and    
which has taken the form1 at once       
fanciful and symbolic1 of a delirious   
dread of light1 he asks ,siegfried      
whether he has never1 whilst wandering  
in the forest1 had his heart set        
hammering in frantic dread by the       
mysterious lights of the gloaming4 ,to  
this1 ,siegfried1 greatly astonished1   
replies that on such occasions his heart
 is altogether healthy and his          
sensations perfectly normal4 ,here      
,mimmy's question is accompanied by the 
tremulous sounding of the fire theme    
with its harmonies most oppressively    
disturbed and troubled2 whereas with    
,siegfried's reply they become quite    
clear and straightforward1 making the   
theme sound bold1 brilliant1 and serene4
 ,this is a typical instance of the way 
in which the themes are used4  ,the     
thematic system gives symphonic         
interest1 reasonableness1 and unity to  

the music1 enabling the composer to     
exhaust every aspect and quality of his 
melodic material1 and1 in ,beethoven's  
manner1 to work miracles of beauty1     
expression and significance with the    
briefest phrases4 ,as a set-off against 
this1 it has led ,wagner to indulge in  
repetitions that would be intolerable in
 a purely dramatic work4 ,almost the    
first thing that a dramatist has to     
learn in constructing a play is that the
 persons must not come on the stage in  
the second act and tell one another at  
great length what the audience has      
already seen pass before its eyes in the
 first act4 ,the extent to which ,wagner
 has been seduced into violating this   
rule by his affection for his themes is 
startling to a practiced playwright4    
,siegfried inherits from ,wotan a mania 
for autobiography which leads him to    
inflict on every one he meets the story 
of ,mimmy and the dragon1 although the  
audience have spent a whole evening     
witnessing the events he is narrating4  

,hagen tells the story to ,gunther2 and 
that same night ,alberic's ghost tells  
it over again to ,hagen1 who knows it   
already as well as the audience4        
,siegfried tells the ,rhine maidens as  
much of it as they will listen to1 and  
then keeps telling it to his hunting    
companions until they kill him4 ,wotan's
 autobiography on the second evening    
becomes his biography in the mouths of  
the ,norns on the fourth4 ,the little   
that the ,norns add to it is repeated an
 hour later by ,valtrauta4 ,how far all 
this repetition is tolerable is a matter
 of individual taste4 ,a good story will
 bear repetition2 and if it has woven   
into it such pretty tunes as the ,rhine 
maidens' yodel1 ,mimmy's tinkling anvil 
beat1 the note of the forest bird1 the  
call of ,siegfried's horn1 and so on1 it
 will bear a good deal of rehearing4    
,those who have but newly learnt their  
way through ,the ,ring will not readily 
admit that there is a bar too much      
repetition4  ,but how if you find some  

anti-,wagnerite raising the question    
whether the thematic system does not    
enable the composer to produce a music  
drama with much less musical fertility  
than was required from his predecessors 
for the composition of operas under the 
old system6  ,such discussions are not  
within the scope of this little book4   
,but as the book is now finished 7for   
really nothing more need be said about  
,the ,ring71 ,i am quite willing to add 
a few pages of ordinary musical         
criticism1 partly to please the amateurs
 who enjoy that sort of reading1 and    
partly for the guidance of those who    
wish to obtain some hints to help them  
through such critical small talk about  
,wagner and ,bayreuth as may be forced  
upon them at the dinner table or between
 the acts4     ,,the ,,old ,,and ,,the  
,,new ,,music  ,in the old-fashioned    
opera every separate number involved the
 composition of a fresh melody2 but it  
is quite a mistake to suppose that this 
creative-effort extended continuously   

throughout the number from the first to 
the last bar4 ,when a musician composes 
according to a set metrical pattern1 the
 selection of the pattern and the       
composition of the first stave 7a stave 
in music corresponds to a line in verse7
 generally completes the creative       
effort4 ,all the rest follows more or   
less mechanically to fill up the        
pattern1 an air being very like a       
wall-paper design in this respect4 ,thus
 the second stave is usually a perfectly
 obvious consequence of the first2 and  
the third and fourth an exact or very   
slightly varied repetition of the first 
and second4 ,for example1 given the     
first line of ,pop ,goes the ,weasel or 
,yankee ,doodle1 any musical cobbler    
could supply the remaining three4 ,there
 is very little tune turning of this    
kind in ,the ,ring2 and it is noteworthy
 that where it does occur1 as in        
,siegmund's spring song and ,mimmy's    
croon1 ,ein zullendes ,kind1 the effect 
of the symmetrical staves1 recurring as 

a mere matter of form1 is perceptibly   
poor and platitudinous compared with the
 free flow of melody which prevails     
elsewhere4  ,the other and harder way of
 composing is to take a strain of free  
melody1 and ring every variety of change
 of mood upon it as if it were a thought
 that sometimes brought hope1 sometimes 
melancholy1 sometimes exultation1       
sometimes raging despair and so on4 ,to 
take several themes of this kind1 and   
weave them together into a rich musical 
fabric passing panoramically before the 
ear with a continually varying flow of  
sentiment1 is the highest feat of the   
musician3 it is in this way that we get 
the fugue of ,bach and the symphony of  
,beethoven4 ,the admittedly inferior    
musician is the one who1 like ,auber and
 ,offenbach1 not to mention our         
purveyors of drawing-room ballads1 can  
produce an unlimited quantity of        
symmetrical tunes1 but cannot weave     
themes symphonically4  ,when this is    
taken into account1 it will be seen that

 the fact that there is a great deal of 
repetition in ,the ,ring does not       
distinguish it from the old-fashioned   
operas4 ,the real difference is that in 
them the repetition was used for the    
mechanical completion of conventional   
metric patterns1 whereas in ,the ,ring  
the recurrence of the theme is an       
intelligent and interesting consequence 
of the recurrence of the dramatic       
phenomenon which it denotes4 ,it should 
be remembered also that the substitution
 of symphonically treated themes for    
tunes with symmetrical eight-bar staves 
and the like1 has always been the rule  
in the highest forms of music4 ,to      
describe it1 or be affected by it1 as an
 abandonment of melody1 is to confess   
oneself an ignoramus conversant only    
with dance tunes and ballads4  ,the sort
 of stuff a purely dramatic musician    
produces when he hampers himself with   
metric patterns in composition is not   
unlike what might have resulted in      
literature if ,carlyle 7for example7 had

 been compelled by convention to write  
his historical stories in rhymed        
stanzas4 ,that is to say1 it limits his 
fertility to an occasional phrase1 and  
three quarters of the time exercises    
only his barren ingenuity in fitting    
rhymes and measures to it4 ,in          
literature the great masters of the art 
have long emancipated themselves from   
metric patterns4 ,nobody claims that the
 hierarchy of modern impassioned prose  
writers1 from ,bunyan to ,ruskin1 should
 be placed below the writers of pretty  
lyrics1 from ,herrick to ,mr4 ,austin   
,dobson4 ,only in dramatic literature do
 we find the devastating tradition of   
blank verse still lingering1 giving     
factitious prestige to the platitudes of
 dullards1 and robbing the dramatic     
style of the genuine poet of its full   
natural endowment of variety1 force and 
simplicity4  ,this state of things1 as  
we have seen1 finds its parallel in     
musical art1 since music can be written 
in prose themes or in versified tunes2  

only here nobody dreams of disputing the
 greater difficulty of the prose forms1 
and the comparative triviality of       
versification4 ,yet in dramatic music1  
as in dramatic literature1 the tradition
 of versification clings with the same  
pernicious results2 and the opera1 like 
the tragedy1 is conventionally made like
 a wall paper4 ,the theatre seems doomed
 to be in all things the last refuge of 
the hankering after cheap prettiness in 
art4  ,unfortunately this confusion of  
the decorative with the dramatic element
 in both literature and music is        
maintained by the example of great      
masters in both arts4 ,very touching    
dramatic expression can be combined with
 decorative symmetry of versification   
when the artist happens to possess both 
the decorative and dramatic gifts1 and  
to have cultivated both hand in hand4   
,shakespeare and ,shelley1 for instance1
 far from being hampered by the         
conventional obligation to write their  
dramas in verse1 found it much the      

easiest and cheapest way of producing   
them4 ,but if ,shakespeare had been     
compelled by custom to write entirely in
 prose1 all his ordinary dialogue might 
have been as good as the first scene of 
,as ,you ,like ,it2 and all his lofty   
passages as fine as ,what a piece of    
work is ,man61 thus sparing us a great  
deal of blank verse in which the thought
 is commonplace1 and the expression1    
though catchingly turned1 absurdly      
pompous4 ,the ,cent might either have   
been a serious drama or might never have
 been written at all if ,shelley had not
 been allowed to carry off its unreality
 by ,elizabethan versification4 ,still1 
both poets have achieved many passages  
in which the decorative and dramatic    
qualities are not only reconciled1 but  
seem to enhance one another to a pitch  
otherwise unattainable4  ,just so in    
music4 ,when we find1 as in the case of 
,mozart1 a prodigiously gifted and      
arduously trained musician who is also1 
by a happy accident1 a dramatist        

comparable to ,moliere1 the obligation  
to compose operas in versified numbers  
not only does not embarrass him1 but    
actually saves him trouble and thought4 
,no matter what his dramatic mood may   
be1 he expresses it in exquisite musical
 verses more easily than a dramatist of 
ordinary singleness of talent can       
express it in prose4 ,accordingly1 he   
too1 like ,shakespeare and ,shelley1    
leaves versified airs1 like ,dalla sua  
pace1 or ,gluck's ,che fare senza       
,euridice1 or ,weber's ,leise1 leise1   
which are as dramatic from the first    
note to the last as the untrammelled    
themes of ,the ,ring4 ,in consequence1  
it used to be professorially demanded   
that all dramatic music should present  
the same double aspect4 ,the demand was 
unreasonable1 since symmetrical         
versification is no merit in dramatic   
music3 one might as well stipulate that 
a dinner fork should be constructed so  
as to serve also as a tablecloth4 ,it   
was an ignorant demand too1 because it  

is not true that the composers of these 
exceptional examples were always1 or    
even often1 able to combine dramatic    
expression with symmetrical             
versification4 ,side by side with ,dalla
 sua pace we have ,il mio tesoro and    
,non mi dir1 in which exquisitely       
expressive opening phrases lead to      
decorative passages which are as        
grotesque from the dramatic point of    
view as the music which ,alberic sings  
when he is slipping and sneezing in the 
,rhine mud is from the decorative point 
of view4 ,further1 there is to be       
considered the mass of shapeless dry    
recitative which separates these        
symmetrical numbers1 and which might    
have been raised to considerable        
dramatic and musical importance had it  
been incorporated into a continuous     
musical fabric by thematic treatment4   
,finally1 ,mozart's most dramatic       
finales and concerted numbers are more  
or less in sonata form1 like symphonic  
movements1 and must therefore be classed

 as musical prose4 ,and sonata form     
dictates repetitions and recapitulations
 from which the perfectly unconventional
 form adopted by ,wagner is free4 ,on   
the whole1 there is more scope for both 
repetition and convention in the old    
form than in the new2 and the poorer a  
composer's musical gift is1 the surer he
 is to resort to the eighteenth century 
patterns to eke out his invention4      
,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century  ,when     
,wagner was born in #ahac1 music had    
newly become the most astonishing1 the  
most fascinating1 the most miraculous   
art in the world4 ,mozart's ,don        
,giovanni had made all musical ,europe  
conscious of the enchantments of the    
modern orchestra and of the perfect     
adaptability of music to the subtlest   
needs of the dramatist4 ,beethoven had  
shown how those inarticulate mood-poems 
which surge through men who have1 like  
himself1 no exceptional command of      
words1 can be written down in music as  
symphonies4 ,not that ,mozart and       

,beethoven invented these applications  
of their art2 but they were the first   
whose works made it clear that the      
dramatic and subjective powers of sound 
were enthralling enough to stand by     
themselves quite apart from the         
decorative musical structures of which  
they had hitherto been a mere feature4  
,after the finales in ,figaro and ,don  
,giovanni1 the possibility of the modern
 music drama lay bare4 ,after the       
symphonies of ,beethoven it was certain 
that the poetry that lies too deep for  
words does not lie too deep for music1  
and that the vicissitudes of the soul1  
from the roughest fun to the loftiest   
aspiration1 can make symphonies without 
the aid of dance tunes4 ,as much1       
perhaps1 will be claimed for the        
preludes and fugues of ,bach2 but       
,bach's method was unattainable3 his    
compositions were wonderful webs of     
exquisitely beautiful ,gothic traceries 
in sound1 quite beyond all ordinary     
human talent4 ,beethoven's far blunter  

craft was thoroughly popular and        
practicable3 not to save his soul could 
he have drawn one long ,gothic line in  
sound as ,bach could1 much less have    
woven several of them together with so  
apt a harmony that even when the        
composer is unmoved its progressions    
saturate themselves with the emotion    
which 7as modern critics are a little   
apt to forget7 springs as warmly from   
our delicately touched admiration as    
from our sympathies1 and sometimes makes
 us give a composer credit for pathetic 
intentions which he does not entertain1 
just as a boy imagines a treasure of    
tenderness and noble wisdom in the      
beauty of a woman4 ,besides1 ,bach set  
comic dialogue to music exactly as he   
set the recitatives of the ,passion1    
there being for him1 apparently1 only   
one recitative possible1 and that the   
musically best4 ,he reserved the        
expression of his merry mood for the    
regular set numbers in which he could   
make one of his wonderful contrapuntal  

traceries of pure ornament with the     
requisite gaiety of line and movement4  
,beethoven bowed to no ideal of beauty3 
he only sought the expression for his   
feeling4 ,to him a joke was a joke2 and 
if it sounded funny in music he was     
satisfied4 ,until the old habit of      
judging all music by its decorative     
symmetry had worn out1 musicians were   
shocked by his symphonies1 and1         
misunderstanding his integrity1 openly  
questioned his sanity4 ,but to those who
 were not looking for pretty new sound  
patterns1 but were longing for the      
expression of their moods in music1 he  
achieved revelation1 because1 being     
single in his aim to express his own    
moods1 he anticipated with revolutionary
 courage and frankness all the moods of 
the rising generations of the nineteenth
 century4  ,the result was inevitable4  
,in the nineteenth century it was no    
longer necessary to be a born pattern   
designer in sound to be a composer4 ,one
 had but to be a dramatist or a poet    

completely susceptible to the dramatic  
and descriptive powers of sound4 ,a race
 of literary and theatrical musicians   
appeared2 and ,meyerbeer1 the first of  
them1 made an extraordinary impression4 
,the frankly delirious description of   
his ,robert the ,devil in ,balzac's     
short story entitled ,gambra1 and       
,goethe's astonishingly mistaken notion 
that he could have composed music for   
,faust1 show how completely the         
enchantments of the new dramatic music  
upset the judgment of artists of eminent
 discernment4 ,meyerbeer was1 people    
said 7old gentlemen still say so in     
,paris71 the successor of ,beethoven3 he
 was1 if a less perfect musician than   
,mozart1 a profounder genius4 ,above    
all1 he was original and daring4 ,wagner
 himself raved about the duet in the    
fourth act of ,les ,huguenots as wildly 
as anyone4  ,yet all this effect of     
originality and profundity was produced 
by a quite limited talent for turning   
striking phrases1 exploiting certain    

curious and rather catching rhythms and 
modulations1 and devising suggestive or 
eccentric instrumentation4 ,on its      
decorative side1 it was the same        
phenomenon in music as the ,baroque     
school in architecture3 an energetic    
struggle to enliven organic decay by    
mechanical oddities and novelties4      
,meyerbeer was no symphonist4 ,he could 
not apply the thematic system to his    
striking phrases1 and so had to cobble  
them into metric patterns in the old    
style2 and as he was no absolute        
musician either1 he hardly got his      
metric patterns beyond mere quadrille   
tunes1 which were either wholly         
undistinguished1 or else made remarkable
 by certain brusqueries which1 in the   
true rococo manner1 owed their          
singularity to their senselessness4 ,he 
could produce neither a thorough music  
drama nor a charming opera4 ,but with   
all this1 and worse1 ,meyerbeer had some
 genuine dramatic energy1 and even      
passion2 and sometimes rose to the      

occasion in a manner which1 whilst the  
imagination of his contemporaries       
remained on fire with the novelties of  
dramatic music1 led them to overrate him
 with an extravagance which provoked    
,wagner to conduct a long critical      
campaign against his leadership4 ,thirty
 years ago this campaign was mentably   
ascribed to the professional jealousy of
 a disappointed rival4 ,nowadays young  
people cannot understand how anyone     
could ever have taken ,meyerbeer's      
influence seriously4 ,those who remember
 how his reputation stood half a century
 ago1 and who realize what a            
nothoroughfare the path he opened proved
 to be1 even to himself1 know how       
inevitable and how impersonal ,wagner's 
attack was4  ,wagner was the literary   
musician par excellence4 ,he could not1 
like ,mozart and ,beethoven1 produce    
decorative tone structures independently
 of any dramatic or poetic subject      
matter1 because1 that craft being no    
longer necessary for his purpose1 he did

 not cultivate it4 ,as ,shakespeare1    
compared with ,tennyson1 appears to have
 an exclusively dramatic talent1 so     
exactly does ,wagner compared with      
,mendelssohn4 ,on the other hand1 he had
 not to go to third rate literary hacks 
for librettos to set to music3 he       
produced his own dramatic poems1 thus   
giving dramatic integrity to opera1 and 
making symphony articulate4 ,a          
,beethoven symphony 7except the         
articulate part of the ninth7 expresses 
noble feeling1 but not thought3 it has  
moods1 but no ideas4 ,wagner added      
thought and produced the music drama4   
,mozart's loftiest opera1 his ,ring1 so 
to speak1 ,the ,magic ,flute1 has a     
libretto which1 though none the worse   
for seeming1 like ,the ,rhine ,gold1 the
 merest ,christmas tomfoolery to shallow
 spectators1 is the product of a talent 
immeasurably inferior to ,mozart's own4 
,the libretto of ,don ,giovanni is      
coarse and trivial3 its transfiguration 
by ,mozart's music may be a marvel2 but 

nobody will venture to contend that such
 transfigurations1 however seductive1   
can be as satisfactory as tone poetry or
 drama in which the musician and the    
poet are at the same level4 ,here1 then1
 we have the simple secret of ,wagner's 
preemminence as a dramatic musician4 ,he
 wrote the poems as well as composed the
 music of his stage festival plays1 as  
he called them4  ,up to a certain point 
in his career ,wagner paid the penalty  
of undertaking two arts instead of one4 
,mozart had his trade as a musician at  
his fingers' ends when he was twenty1   
because he had served an arduous        
apprenticeship to that trade and no     
other4 ,wagner was very far from having 
attained equal mastery at thirty-five3  
indeed he himself has told us that not  
until he had passed the age at which    
,mozart died did he compose with that   
complete spontaneity of musical         
expression which can only be attained by
 winning entire freedom from all        
preoccupation with the difficulties of  

technical processes4 ,but when that time
 came1 he was not only a consummate     
musician1 like ,mozart1 but a dramatic  
poet and a critical and philosophical   
essayist1 exercising a considerable     
influence on his century4 ,the sign of  
this consummation was his ability at    
last to play with his art1 and thus to  
add to his already famous achievements  
in sentimental drama that lighthearted  
art of comedy of which the greatest     
masters1 like ,moliere and ,mozart1 are 
so much rarer than the tragedians and   
sentimentalists4 ,it was then that he   
composed the first two acts of          
,siegfried1 and later on ,the           
,mastersingers1 a professedly comedic   
work1 and a quite ,mozartian garden of  
melody1 hardly credible as the work of  
the straining artifices of ,tanehauser4 
,only1 as no man ever learns to do one  
thing by doing something else1 however  
closely allied the two things may be1   
,wagner still produced no music         
independently of his poems4 ,the        

overture to ,the ,mastersingers is      
delightful when you know what it is all 
about2 but only those to whom it came as
 a concert piece without any such clue1 
and who judged its reckless counterpoint
 by the standard of ,bach and of        
,mozart's ,magic ,flute overture1 can   
realize how atrocious it used to sound  
to musicians of the old school4 ,when ,i
 first heard it1 with the clear march of
 the polyphony in ,bach's ,b minor ,mass
 fresh in my memory1 ,i confess ,i      
thought that the parts had got          
dislocated1 and that some of the band   
were half a bar behind the others4      
,perhaps they were2 but now that ,i am  
familiar with the work1 and with        
,wagner's harmony1 ,i can still quite   
understand certain passages producing   
that effect organ admirer of ,bach even 
when performed with perfect accuracy4   
,,the ,,music ,,of ,,the ,,future  ,the 
success of ,wagner has been so          
prodigious that to his dazzled disciples
 it seems that the age of what he called

 absolute music must be at an end1 and  
the musical future destined to be an    
exclusively ,wagnerian one inaugurated  
at ,bayreuth4 ,all great geniuses       
produce this illusion4 ,wagner did not  
begin a movement3 he consummated it4 ,he
 was the summit of the nineteenth       
century school of dramatic music in the 
same sense as ,mozart was the summit    
7the word is ,gounod's7 of the          
eighteenth century school4 ,and those   
who attempt to carry on his ,bayreuth   
tradition will assuredly share the fate 
of the forgotten purveyors of           
second-hand ,mozart a hundred years ago4
 ,as to the expected supersession of    
absolute music1 it is sufficient to     
point to the fact that ,germany produced
 two absolute musicians of the first    
class during ,wagner's lifetime3 one1   
the greatly gifted ,goetz1 who died     
young2 the other1 ,brahms1 whose        
absolute musical endowment was as       
extraordinary as his thought was        
commonplace4 ,wagner had for him the    

contempt of the original thinker for the
 man of second-hand ideas1 and of the   
strenuously dramatic musician for mere  
brute musical faculty2 but though his   
contempt was perhaps deserved by the    
,triumphlieds1 and ,schicksalslieds1 and
 ,elegies and ,requiems in which ,brahms
 took his brains so seriously1 nobody   
can listen to ,brahms' natural utterance
 of the richest absolute music1         
especially in his chamber compositions1 
without rejoicing in his amazing gift4  
,a reaction to absolute music1 starting 
partly from ,brahms1 and partly from    
such revivals of medieval music as those
 of ,de ,lange in ,holland and ,mr4     
,arnold ,dolmetsch in ,england1 is both 
likely and promising2 whereas there is  
no more hope in attempts to out-,wagner 
,wagner in music drama than there was in
 the old attempts--or for the matter of 
that1 the new ones--to make ,handel the 
starting point of a great school of     
oratorio4     ,,bayreuth  ,when the     
,bayreuth ,festival ,playhouse was at   

last completed1 and opened in #ahgf with
 the first performance of ,the ,ring1   
,european society was compelled to admit
 that ,wagner was a success4 ,royal     
personages1 detesting his music1 sat out
 the performances in the row of boxes   
set apart for princes4 ,they all        
complimented him on the astonishing push
 with which1 in the teeth of all        
obstacles1 he had turned a fabulous and 
visionary project into a concrete       
commercial reality1 patronized by the   
public at a pound a head4 ,it is as well
 to know that these congratulations had 
no other effect upon ,wagner than to    
open his eyes to the fact that the      
,bayreuth experiment1 as an attempt to  
evade the ordinary social and commercial
 conditions of theatrical enterprise1   
was a failure4 ,his own account of it   
contrasts the reality with his          
intentions in a vein which would be     
bitter if it were not so humorous4 ,the 
precautions taken to keep the seats out 
of the hands of the frivolous public and

 in the hands of earnest disciples1     
banded together in little ,wagner       
,societies throughout ,europe1 had ended
 in their forestalling by ticket        
speculators and their sale to just the  
sort of idle globe-trotting tourists    
against whom the temple was to have been
 strictly closed4 ,the money1 supposed  
to be contributed by the faithful1 was  
begged by energetic subscription-hunting
 ladies from people who must have had   
the most grotesque misconceptions of the
 composer's aims--among others1 the     
,khedive of ,egypt and the ,sultan of   
,turkey6  ,the only change that has     
occurred since then is that             
subscriptions are no longer needed2 for 
the ,festival ,playhouse apparently pays
 its own way now1 and is commercially on
 the same footing as any other theatre4 
,the only qualification required from   
the visitor is money4 ,a ,londoner      
spends twenty pounds on a visit3 a      
native ,bayreuther spends one pound4 ,in
 either case the ,folk1 on whose behalf 

,wagner turned out in #ahdi1 are        
effectually excluded2 and the ,festival 
,playhouse must therefore be classed as 
infinitely less ,wagnerian in its       
character than ,hampton ,court ,palace4 
,nobody knew this better than ,wagner2  
and nothing can be further off the mark 
than to chatter about ,bayreuth as if it
 had succeeded in escaping from the     
conditions of our modern civilization   
any more than the ,grand ,opera in      
,paris or ,london4  ,within these       
conditions1 however1 it effected a new  
departure in that excellent ,german     
institution1 the summer theatre4 ,unlike
 our opera houses1 which are constructed
 so that the audience may present a     
splendid pageant to the delighted       
manager1 it is designed to secure an    
uninterrupted view of the stage1 and an 
undisturbed hearing of the music1 to the
 audience4 ,the dramatic purpose of the 
performances is taken with entire and   
elaborate seriousness as the sole       
purpose of them2 and the management is  

jealous for the reputation of ,wagner4  
,the commercial success which has       
followed this policy shows that the     
public wants summer theatres of the     
highest class4 ,there is no reason why  
the experiment should not be tried in   
,england4 ,if our enthusiasm for ,handel
 can support ,handel ,festivals1        
laughably dull1 stupid and              
anti-,handelian as these choral         
monstrosities are1 as well as annual    
provincial festivals on the same model1 
there is no likelihood of a ,wagner     
,festival failing4 ,suppose1 for        
instance1 a ,wagner theatre were built  
at ,hampton ,court or on ,richmond      
,hill1 not to say ,margate pier1 so that
 we could have a delightful summer      
evening holiday1 ,bayreuth fashion1     
passing the hours between the acts in   
the park or on the river before sunset1 
is it seriously contended that there    
would be any lack of visitors8 ,if a    
little of the money that is wasted on   
grand stands1 ,eiffel towers1 and dismal

 ,halls by the ,sea1 all as much tied to
 brief annual seasons as ,bayreuth1 were
 applied in this way1 the profit would  
be far more certain and the social      
utility prodigiously greater4 ,any      
,english enthusiasm for ,bayreuth that  
does not take the form of clamor for a  
,festival ,playhouse in ,england may be 
set aside as mere pilgrimage mania4     
,those who go to ,bayreuth never repent 
it1 although the performances there are 
often far from delectable4 ,the singing 
is sometimes tolerable1 and sometimes   
abominable4 ,some of the singers are    
mere animated beer casks1 too lazy and  
conceited to practise the self-control  
and physical training that is expected  
as a matter of course from an acrobat1 a
 jockey or a pugilist4 ,the women's     
dresses are prudish and absurd4 ,it is  
true that ,kundry no longer wears an    
early ,victorian ball dress with        
ruchings1 and that ,fresh has been      
provided with a quaintly modish copy of 
the flowered gown of ,spring in         

,botticelli's famous picture2 but the   
mailclad ,brynhild still climbs the     
mountains with her legs carefully hidden
 in a long white skirt1 and looks so    
exactly like ,mrs4 ,leo ,hunter as      
,minerva that it is quite impossible to 
feel a ray of illusion whilst looking at
 her4 ,the ideal of womanly beauty aimed
 at reminds ,englishmen of the barmaids 
of the seventies1 when the craze for    
golden hair was at its worst4 ,further1 
whilst ,wagner's stage directions are   
sometimes disregarded as unintelligently
 as at ,covent ,garden1 an intolerably  
old-fashioned tradition of half         
rhetorical1 half historical-pictorial   
attitude and gesture prevails4 ,the most
 striking moments of the drama are      
conceived as tableaux vivants with posed
 models1 instead of as passages of      
action1 motion and life4  ,i need hardly
 add that the supernatural powers of    
control attributed by credulous pilgrims
 to ,madame ,wagner do not exist4 ,prima
 donnas and tenors are as unmanageable  

at ,bayreuth as anywhere else4 ,casts   
are capriciously changed2 stage business
 is insufficiently rehearsed2 the public
 are compelled to listen to a ,brynhild 
or ,siegfried of fifty when they have   
carefully arranged to see one of        
twenty-five1 much as in any ordinary    
opera house4 ,even the conductors upset 
the arrangements occasionally4 ,on the  
other hand1 if we leave the vagaries of 
the stars out of account1 we may safely 
expect always that in thoroughness of   
preparation of the chief work of the    
season1 in strenuous artistic           
pretentiousness1 in pious conviction    
that the work is of such enormous       
importance as to be worth doing well at 
all costs1 the ,bayreuth performances   
will deserve their reputation4 ,the band
 is placed out of sight of the audience1
 with the more formidable instruments   
beneath the stage1 so that the singers  
have not to sing ,,through the brass4   
,the effect is quite perfect4           
,,bayreuth ,,in ,,england  ,i purposely 

dwell on the faults of ,bayreuth in     
order to show that there is no reason in
 the world why as good and better       
performances of ,the ,ring should not be
 given in ,england4 ,wagner's scores are
 now before the world2 and neither his  
widow nor his son can pretend to handle 
them with greater authority than any    
artist who feels the impulse to         
interpret them4 ,nobody will ever know  
what ,wagner himself thought of the     
artists who established the ,bayreuth   
tradition3 he was obviously not in a    
position to criticize them4 ,for        
instance1 had ,rubini survived to create
 ,siegmund1 it is quite certain that we 
should not have had from ,wagner's pen  
so amusing and vivid a description as we
 have of his ,ottavio in the old ,paris 
days4 ,wagner was under great           
obligations to the heroes and heroines  
of #ahgf2 and he naturally said nothing 
to disparage their triumphs2 but there  
is no reason to believe that all or     
indeed any of them satisfied him as     

,schnorr of ,carolsfeld satisfied him as
 ,tristan1 or ,schroder ,devrient as    
,fidelio4 ,it is just as likely as not  
that the next ,schnorr or ,schroder may 
arise in ,england4 ,if that should      
actually happen1 neither of them will   
need any further authority than their   
own genius and ,wagner's scores for     
their guidance4 ,certainly the less     
their spontaneous impulses are          
sophisticated by the very stagey        
traditions which ,bayreuth is handing   
down from the age of ,crummles1 the     
better4     ,,wagnerian ,,singers  ,no  
nation need have much difficulty in     
producing a race of ,wagnerian singers4 
,with the single exception of ,handel1  
no composer has written music so well   
calculated to make its singers vocal    
athletes as ,wagner4 ,abominably as the 
,germans sing1 it is astonishing how    
they thrive physically on his leading   
parts4 ,his secret is the ,handelian    
secret4 ,instead of specializing his    
vocal parts after the manner of ,verdi  

and ,gounod for high sopranos1 screaming
 tenors1 and high baritones with an     
effective compass of about a fifth at   
the extreme tiptop of their ranges1 and 
for contraltos with chest registers     
forced all over their compass in the    
manner of music hall singers1 he employs
 the entire range of the human voice    
freely1 demanding from everybody very   
nearly two effective octaves1 so that   
the voice is well exercised all over1   
and one part of it relieves the other   
healthily and continually4 ,he uses     
extremely high notes very sparingly1 and
 is especially considerate in the matter
 of instrumental accompaniment4 ,even   
when the singer appears to have all the 
thunders of the full orchestra raging   
against him1 a glance at the score will 
show that he is well heard1 not because 
of any exceptionally stentorian power in
 his voice1 but because ,wagner meant   
him to be heard and took the greatest   
care not to overwhelm him4 ,such brutal 
opacities of accompaniment as we find in

 ,rossini's ,stabat or ,verdi's         
,trovatore1 where the strings play a    
rum-tum accompaniment whilst the entire 
wind band blares away1 fortissimo1 in   
unison with the unfortunate singer1 are 
never to be found in ,wagner's work4    
,even in an ordinary opera house1 with  
the orchestra ranged directly between   
the singers and the audience1 his       
instrumentation is more transparent to  
the human voice than that of any other  
composer since ,mozart4 ,at the         
,bayreuth ,buhnenfestspielhaus1 with the
 brass under the stage1 it is perfectly 
so4  ,on every point1 then1 a ,wagner   
theatre and ,wagner festivals are much  
more generally practicable than the     
older and more artificial forms of      
dramatic music4 ,a presentable          
performance of ,the ,ring is a big      
undertaking only in the sense in which  
the construction of a railway is a big  
undertaking3 that is1 it requires plenty
 of work and plenty of professional     
skill2 but it does not1 like the old    

operas and oratorios1 require those     
extraordinary vocal gifts which only a  
few individuals scattered here and there
 throughout ,europe are born with4      
,singers who could never execute the    
roulades of ,semiramis1 ,assur1 and     
,arsaces in ,rossini's ,semiramide1     
could sing the parts of ,brynhild1      
,wotan and ,erda without missing a note4
 ,any ,englishman can understand this if
 he considers for a moment the          
difference between a ,cathedral service 
and an ,italian opera at ,covent        
,garden4 ,the service is a much more    
serious matter than the opera4 ,yet     
provincial talent is sufficient for it1 
if the requisite industry and devotion  
are forthcoming4 ,let us admit that     
geniuses of ,european celebrity are     
indispensable at the ,opera 7though ,i  
know better1 having seen lusty troopers 
and porters1 without art or manners1    
accepted by fashion as principal tenors 
at that institution during the long     
interval between ,mario and ,jean de    

,reszke72 but let us remember that      
,bayreuth has recruited its ,parsifals  
from the peasantry1 and that the        
artisans of a village in the ,bavarian  
,alps are capable of a famous and       
elaborate ,passion ,play1 and then      
consider whether ,england is so poor in 
talent that its amateurs must journey to
 the centre of ,europe to witness a     
,wagner ,festival4  ,the truth is1 there
 is nothing wrong with ,england except  
the wealth which attracts teachers of   
singing to her shores in sufficient     
numbers to extinguish the voices of all 
natives who have any talent as singers4 
,our salvation must come from the class 
that is too poor to have lessons4