fer any judgment on
the prosody of Wagner's librettos. So far as I can understand them, they
are uncouth enough. On the other hand, dramatically they are admirably
constructed; and when we compare the words with the completed musical
setting we can see how the drama was, so to speak, always latent; the
words are as an invisible writing, on which the music is poured like a
liquid, and out starts the drama, unmistakable and irresistible.

In 1855 Wagner went to London to conduct a season of the Philharmonic
Society. That body invited him on the recommendation of Sainton, the
violinist, and the season was one of its most successful. The feuds that
arose, and the newspaper and other squabblings, have small interest for
us now; but it is certain that the finer spirits appreciated, or partly
appreciated, him, and Royalty flattered him. Into this period comes the
Paris performance of _Tannhaeuser_, which was a disgraceful failure--I
mean disgraceful to the Parisians, and especially to their Jockey Club,
which resolutely went to work to prevent the music being heard by
cat-calls and shoutings. The event was not of any great artistic
importance--indeed, it is hardly worth calling an event; it was only
one more sin on the soul of a musically benighted people.

Wagner's prospects were still of the poorest; he was still living mainly
on charity; but in 1859 he had finished _Tristan_, and much of the
_Ring_ was sketched or actually written. He was amnestied and free to
return to Germany, and he could do little good there. _Tristan_ was
accepted at Vienna, but the production was put off. He was busy on the
_Mastersingers_--busy with all manner of impracticable dreams, and could
not earn a livelihood. His concert tours brought him little or no
profit; in Paris a series of concerts cost him 10,000 francs, and where
on earth he found the money I do not pretend to know. He was fifty-one
years of age; his fortunes seemed at their very worst, the outlook was
of the blackest, when of a sudden all was changed. King Ludwig of
Bavaria sent for him, and promised to help him in every possible way. He
had many rebuffs to face, but from this time (1864) his ultimate victory
was assured.

MUNICH--TRIEBSCHEN, 1864-1871.

From the outset squabbles and intrigues made Wagner's life bitter. He
did not do things by halves, and when he had succeeded in getting the
music school of Munich re-organized to suit his wishes, with Buelow as
chief dir