New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-02

come she should ever hear. my name
praised in the world of art she must re.
member that she had that evening maue
me what l then swore It vas my u1 hotai
and ran out into the world as II were
mad.
As the narrative proceeds one gets ac-
customed TO these moments OF exalta-
ton. In them you divine the essential
Wagner. the great artist whose creative
life is dependent upon mood Yet mana
in hand with the man of passion there
went the man of those everyday hard
ships." who was not of course, in the
least in love with them, but who seems,
curiously, to have had way OF making
the best Of whatever came into the day S
work. When, as young man VINO hdu
written a few pieces Of some promise, he
accented the post of conductor offered TO
him by the Magdeburg Theatre Company
and took up his duties at the httie
watering place of Lauchstadt, he was
reconciled TO an uninspiring task by the
iilenQllIltSS Vi liit i1NANSS' -'4''-@N~
whom he afterward married. But one
can see that even without the spur OF
love he knew how TO fight his battles.
Hard enough they were and long drawn
out into the bargain. He was sustained
not only by the half unconscious resolu-
ton of budding genius and by the practi-
cality at which we have glanced, but by
n certain innate selfish shrewdness
which all his life stood him in good
stead. Testifying to Minna's helpful
ness at Magdeburg, he writes sentence
which discloses merely the grateful lover
AT this time" he says, "Minna, with
her truly comforting assurance and firm
ness Of bearing, was tower Of strength
to me and the one thing l had left TO
fall back upon" More characteristic is
his remark on the reflections that led
him TO marry: 1T seemed 20 me as
though my stability as a citizen as well
as my professional success would be as
sured by a. recognized union with
Nina" II Wagner knew anything
dpOul lllt OihAAAsAi NpAANNAA'S " -'AN ~
knew on which side his bread was but
tered.
In talking about this book il is impos-
sible 10 avoid talking about Minna. 1t is
full of her. That fact, as it happens,
makes no contribution to our respect for
Wagner as a man. His sycophants have
been bad enough on the subject of his
relations with his first wife, but Wagner
himself is far worse. The truth, so far
as one may hope to get at it, would
seem TO be that at the outset Of his
career ne made the mistake of marrying
a woman Who was unqualified to live in
perfect harmony with him for years on
end and to prove herself a happy, in
spring companion. She did not have
genius, nor was she well educated. She
was nervous, fault finding, indscreet,
might be kept supplied with this worlds
goods and made comfortable. IL was not
long before she got on Wagner's nerves
and bored him half 10 death. Travers-
THE strange power she exercised over
me from the very first was in no wise
due 20 the fact that / regarded her in
any way as the embodiment Of my ideal;
soberness and seriousness q her char
acter. which supplemented what / felt
TO be wanting in my own and afforded
me the support that i'm my wanderings
after the IDEAL / knew to. be necessary
for me" II never crossed his mind to
ask whether Minna had found her ideal
in him or what sort Of Support" was
necessary 10 her II is true that they
lived together a good deal, that he
shared with her his always scanty
means. and that he was often patient
with her petulant and exacting ways.
But 10 read his side of the story is TO
find his sufferings in the foreground and
TO get the droll impression that no blame
whatever belongs on his shoulders The
subject OF his relations with Mathilde
Wesendonck is handled with all the com
pacency in the world, as though Mnna's
objections were in the worst possible
taste.
Wagner was, Of course. an incurable
sentimentalist. and in the domain Of the
emotions he moved about regardless of
the compass, convinced that whatever he
wished to do was right. What he has 10
say about his infatuation for the wife of
his friend Bdlow would be funny If II
were not little nauseating Here are
his notes. written toward the end of the