all that
mankind did, ordered, and established, was conceived only in
fear of the end? My poem sets this forth."--Wagner to
Roeckel, 25th Jan. 1854.

The scene then changes to the hall of the Gibichungs by the Rhine. It is
night; and Gutrune, unable to sleep, and haunted by all sorts of vague
terrors, is waiting for the return of her husband, and wondering
whether a ghostly figure she has seen gliding down to the river bank is
Brynhild, whose room is empty. Then comes the cry of Hagen, returning
with the hunting party to announce the death of Siegfried by the tusk of
a wild boar. But Gutrune divines the truth; and Hagen does not deny it.
Siegfried's body is brought in; Gunther claims the ring; Hagen will
not suffer him to take it; they fight; and Gunther is slain. Hagen then
attempts to take it; but the dead man's hand closes on it and raises
itself threateningly. Then Brynhild comes; and a funeral pyre is raised
whilst she declaims a prolonged scene, extremely moving and imposing,
but yielding nothing to resolute intellectual criticism except a very
powerful and elevated exploitation of theatrical pathos, psychologically
identical with the scene of Cleopatra and the dead Antony in
Shakespeare's tragedy. Finally she flings a torch into the pyre, and
rides her war-horse into the flames. The hall of the Gibichungs catches
fire, as most halls would were a cremation attempted in the middle
of the floor (I permit myself this gibe purposely to emphasize the
excessive artificiality of the scene); but the Rhine overflows its
banks to allow the three Rhine maidens to take the ring from Siegfried's
finger, incidentally extinguishing the conflagration as it does so.
Hagen attempts to snatch the ring from the maidens, who promptly drown
him; and in the distant heavens the Gods and their castle are seen
perishing in the fires of Loki as the curtain falls.

FORGOTTEN ERE FINISHED

In all this, it will be observed, there is nothing new. The musical
fabric is enormously elaborate and gorgeous; but you cannot say, as you
must in witnessing The Rhine Gold, The Valkyries, and the first two acts
of Siegfried, that you have never seen anything like it before, and that
the inspiration is entirely original. Not only the action, but most
of the poetry, might conceivably belong to an Elizabethan drama. The
situation of Cleopatra and Antony is unconsciously reproduced without
being bettered, or even equalled in point o