In its power and perfection it seems the
handiwork of one of the gods. The very truth of every phrase, and the
fulness of utterance with which every phrase expresses the emotion of
the moment, has given rise to a common delusion or absurdity: that in
the Wagnerian opera every phrase is evolved or developed out of the
previous one. If Wagner ever thought of adopting such an insane
procedure he would have been puzzled to know how and where to start.
He might, perhaps, have evolved the first from the last, and thus got
a perfect rounded whole--a serpent with its tail in its mouth. As a
matter of prosaic, or poetical, fact, Wagner, in all his work,
incessantly introduces fresh matter, and dozens of themes appear, are
worked out, and disappear entirely.

Now, when all this overgrowth of rubbishy comment is being swept away,
and those who contemned Wagner are disappearing with those who
battened on him and his memory, _Tristan and Isolda_ remains, a
world-masterpiece, the most powerful, beautiful, sweet and tender
embodiment to be found in any art of elemental human love in all its
splendour, loveliness, fearfulness, terror and utter selfishness.
Thousands of years hence, when Europe has sunk under the waves and
fresh continents have arisen, perhaps a stray copy by hazard preserved
in the Fiji Islands will come to light, will be deciphered by pundits,
and a new race will see in it a primitive but consummate work of art,
and the pundits will argue themselves black in the face about the name
of the composer, whether he was Wagner or another man of the same
name. In the meantime millions of our epoch will have understood it,
loved it, and seen in it a thousand times more than we see in it
to-day, and many thousand times more than I could say in the preceding
pages.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

VII

By way of a footnote to this chapter I may be allowed to add a few
words about the smaller characters. All that Wagner took from the old
legends was the suggestion for the two lovers who sinned and perished
for their sin. Crudely or coarsely, gentlemanly (as in Tennyson),
refined and spiritualized, that idea is the central idea of every form
of the tale. To these two people Wagner added Brangaena and Kurvenal,
and, taking only the name of King Mark, he created a new personage,
unlike any of the older versions of the man, necessary for the
exposition of his idea. Brangaena is the most difficult part to si