word, nothing was done to
conciliate; everything was done to create resentment and opposition.
King Ludwig's unpopularity must not be forgotten. Not Bavarians only,
but all the German-speaking peoples, knew Bavarian national finances
to be in a deplorable, desperate condition, and it seemed to them
scandalous that State funds should be used--as, rightly or wrongly,
was thought--for Ludwig's own gross, unspeakable pleasures. While the
Germans were thus alienated, Wagner immediately after 1871 had stirred
up the wrath of the French by speaking of the German army as the
"world-conquerors"; he had angered the English musicians by the many
remarks concerning them uttered by or attributed to him after his
exploits with the Philharmonic society. He had written against the
Jews, and though their finest musicians were with him, the bulk were
against him.

That the performances were in many respects admirable, indeed without
any precedent, we are bound to believe. The artists, great and little,
had toiled for months to attain perfection. Most of the orchestra,
headed by Wilhelmj, had slaved without payment that there might be no
deficiencies in their department. The stage machinery, crude though it
seems to us nowadays when we read of it, was on all sides reckoned
marvellous. Interminable rehearsals had been held, Wagner supervising
them all. In the end, even the anti-Wagnerites who went to curse,
admitted that unheard-of results had been achieved: they would not
give in about the music, which remained, in their crass ears, "without
form or melody"; and we may therefore the more readily accept their
testimony as to Wagner's supremacy as a musical director. The late Mr.
Joseph Bennett's reports--and he was till his last breath a violent
anti-Wagnerite--are typical: they may be read in the files of the
_Daily Telegraph_, and are well worth reading. But, alas! when those
heartless people called accountants came to add up their mysterious
sums and to put figures on the credit side and on the debit side, they
proved incontestably that an appalling deficit was the most obvious
result of the whole proceedings; and if Wagner had any doubts, the
steady inflowing tide of bills to be met must have finally convinced
him. To pay the deficit, dresses and scenery had to be sold; and for a
time, at any rate, it was clear the theatre could not open again.
Wagner, in his old age, had to commence once again giving concerts, in
London amongst other