e was left alone with the younger children.
In 1826 Rosalie had gone to Prague; Albert and Clara were in Augsburg;
Louise had been in Breslau, had tried Berlin, then finally took a
permanent post at the theatre in Leipzig. So a move was determined on,
and the family made another migration in 1827. Richard stayed on for
some time, in connection with his schooling, I presume; then he
followed, incidentally taking the most momentous step in his young
life.

These five years had been for him profitable. He got the best part of
his education at Dresden, where he had skilful and sympathetic
masters; and almost, one may say, without knowing it he had received
an informal musical education which was profoundly to affect him as
soon as he started writing operas. I mean that he constantly attended
the opera while Weber was conductor, and Weber, who had been a friend
of Geyer's, used to call at the house to pass the time of day with the
widow. Richard looked up to him with awe and worshipped every bar of
his music; and this, together with a knowledge of the road Richard was
soon to take and of what he was to become, makes one wonder that he
had not already decided to compose another _Freischuetz_. But, as I
have said, the theatre--that is, the theatre with the spoken
drama--was his first love; and evidently it had a wondrous hold on
him, for after spending a rapturous evening with _Freischuetz_--first
given in Leipzig in 1822--he would return contentedly to his tragedy.
It took a stronger spirit even than Weber's to awaken the musical side
of his nature. But unconsciously the foundation had been laid, as we
shall have ample reason to understand before long. These years at
Dresden, too, are noteworthy, inasmuch as they saw the beginning of
some friendships, at least one of which was to prove lifelong and
invaluable to Richard.

III

When the family settled again in Leipzig one Ludwig van Beethoven died
(March 1827), and Wagner heard of this composer, it is said, for the
first time. It is all but unimaginable, yet there seems no reason to
doubt it. After all, that was not an age of halfpenny morning and
evening papers, and if composers were boomed the deed was accomplished
tranquilly in the houses of great society leaders, dukes and
archbishops, and the general public knew little of what was going on.
I dare say even in our newspaper age many a clever boy of fourteen has
never heard of Strauss or Josef Holbrooke, and Beethoven