y a suggestion
for his "Flying Dutchman." It was in the French capital that Minna's
domestic qualities were given their most severe trial, for the composer
found little or no chance to produce his own works, and was forced to
gain a precarious living by the commonest musical drudgery. Probably her
constant care and economy were all that turned the scale in favour of
success. At length the Dresden authorities became interested in some of
the earlier operas, and Wagner was liberated from his dependent
position.

The stay in Dresden being cut short by the political troubles of 1848
and 1849, Wagner found a home in Zurich, where his wife soon joined him.
There he wrote or sketched the grand works that came to full fruition in
his later life. After years of exile, he came back to Germany, where his
pursuit of fortune was still in vain, and might have ended in suicide
but for the sudden patronage of his royal admirer, the mad King Ludwig
of Bavaria. It was at this time that the differences in character began
to cause domestic infelicity in the Wagnerian household. Finally the
pair separated, and, although he did not leave Minna in want, yet she
was compelled to pass the last few years of her life in seclusion and
loneliness, while he basked in the favour of royalty, and found the
high position that had so long been denied him. It is usually claimed by
Wagner's most rabid partisans that she was unable to hold her place in
the new surroundings, and that his genius needed a helpmate more in
sympathy with his high ideals. Admitting the truth of these assertions,
the fair-minded critic must accept them as an explanation, at least, of
his conjugal ingratitude, but Minna's faithful performance of duty in
the early days will not allow them to stand as a valid excuse.

Wagner's second marriage with Cosima, daughter of Liszt and divorced
wife of Von Buelow, resulted happily. The devotion of the new helpmate to
the Wagnerian cause has survived the master's death by many years, and
is still witnessed by the musical world. The domestic bliss of their
married life is well shown in the beautiful Siegfried Idyll, which
Wagner composed as a surprise for his wife on their son's birthday.

[Illustration: RICHARD AND COSIMA WAGNER.]

Among living composers gifted with musical wives, the most preeminent is
Richard Strauss. As Clara Schumann could perform her husband's works, so
the wife of Strauss, who is an excellent singer, is at her best wh