ly a
tragic one. This, at least, ought to hold good of all well-constituted and
good-spirited mortals, who are not in the least inclined to reckon their
unstable equilibrium between angel and _petite bete_, without further ado,
among the objections to existence, the more refined and more intelligent
like Hafis and Goethe, even regarded it as an additional attraction. It is
precisely contradictions of this kind which lure us to life.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} On the other
hand, it must be obvious, that when Circe's unfortunate animals are
induced to worship chastity, all they see and _worship_ therein, is their
opposite--oh! and with what tragic groaning and fervour, may well be
imagined--that same painful and thoroughly superfluous opposition which,
towards the end of his life, Richard Wagner undoubtedly wished to set to
music and to put on the stage, _And to what purpose?_ we may reasonably
ask.

3.

And yet this other question can certainly not be circumvented: what
business had he actually with that manly (alas! so unmanly) "bucolic
simplicity," that poor devil and son of nature--Parsifal, whom he
ultimately makes a catholic by such insidious means--what?--was Wagner in
earnest with Parsifal? For, that he was laughed at, I cannot deny, any
more than Gottfried Keller can.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} We should like to believe that "Parsifal"
was meant as a piece of idle gaiety, as the closing act and satyric drama,
with which Wagner the tragedian wished to take leave of us, of himself,
and above all _of tragedy_, in a way which befitted him and his dignity,
that is to say, with an extravagant, lofty and most malicious parody of
tragedy itself, of all the past and terrible earnestness and sorrow of
this world, of the most _ridiculous_ form of the unnaturalness of the
ascetic ideal, at last overcome. For Parsifal is the subject _par
excellence_ for a comic opera.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Is Wagner's "Parsifal" his secret laugh of
superiority at himself, the triumph of his last and most exalted state of
artistic freedom, of artistic transcendence--is it Wagner able to _laugh_
at himself? Once again we only wish it were so; for what could Parsifal be
if he were _meant seriously_? Is it necessary in his case to say (as I
have heard people say) that "Parsifal" is "the product of the mad hatred
of knowledge, intellect, and sensuality?" a curse upon the senses and the
mind in one breath and in one fit of hatred? an act of apostasy a