rived, he sat
down, and shouting for joy, struck out the sailors' chorus. In seven
weeks the draft was complete--it is dated September 13, 1841. Want of
funds compelled him to leave Meudon and resume his treadmill
toil--this time in the Rue Jacob in Paris; but he began to score his
opera in the autumn and by the end of the year it was entirely
finished. He sent it to the Berlin Opera, and at once began to cast
round for another subject. He had demonstrated to his own complete
satisfaction that grand historical themes were the only useful
material for a thoroughly "up-to-date" (date 1842--seventy years ago)
composer; and while doing what may be called foraging work he had hit
upon the story of _The Saracen Young Woman_. We may presume that this
appealed to him in a mood of reaction after the intensely personal
quality of the _Dutchman_. That mood sent him back in the direction of
_Rienzi_. About the _Dutchman_ he never had the slightest illusion. He
knew it to be so far ahead of the time that nothing in the way of a
popular success was to be hoped for it. On the other hand, he had
perfect faith--a faith justified by the subsequent event--in _Rienzi_;
and since the Wagner of 1842 was by no means the Wagner of 1862, or
even of 1852, since also he had been half-starved for a couple of
years and money seemed to him a highly desirable thing, he naturally,
inevitably, was drawn towards a subject which promised as well, from
the box-office point of view, as _Rienzi_.

However, there is--or was in Wagner's case--a divinity that shapes our
ends. Much as he hungered after comforts, luxuries and the flesh-pots
of Egypt, the daemon within his breast was too strong for him. He had
planned a new work, more or less on the lines of _Rienzi_, and perhaps
some lucky or unlucky accident might have sent him the inspiration to
start with the music. But just at this juncture Lehrs' copy of the
_Saengerkrieg_ attracted his attention: the complete drama of
_Tannhaeuser_, and the first vague notion of _Lohengrin_, flashed upon
him. As he said, and as I have repeated, a new world was opened before
his amazed eyes. The _Saracen Young Woman_ and the rest all went to
the wall; and when on April 7, 1842, he set out for Dresden he had
different plans altogether in his head. Before he could start
Schlesinger advanced the money for more cornet-a-piston arrangements
of opera-airs, and he had to take the scores of those operas amongst
his luggage.

As