. Richard Wagner : his life and works . , said thesecritics, attribute this na-tional character almostexclusively and par ex-cellence to Wagnersworks, when they pro-ceed so evidently fromthe Greek theatre, and , , . . _, THE ANIMATED FORGE MOVEMENT. When thlS Origin and From the Schullze and Muller Ring oftlie Nibelungen, 1883. this resemblance are claimed as titles of glory by those who have given the bestexplanation of the masters theories? Now, could there betwo civilizations, two soils, two climates more dissimilar thanthose of Greece and Germany? And Wagner, in seeking totake upon himself
. Richard Wagner : his life and works . , said thesecritics, attribute this na-tional character almostexclusively and par ex-cellence to Wagnersworks, when they pro-ceed so evidently fromthe Greek theatre, and , , . . _, THE ANIMATED FORGE MOVEMENT. When thlS Origin and From the Schullze and Muller Ring oftlie Nibelungen, 1883. this resemblance are claimed as titles of glory by those who have given the bestexplanation of the masters theories? Now, could there betwo civilizations, two soils, two climates more dissimilar thanthose of Greece and Germany? And Wagner, in seeking totake upon himself the authorship of so glorious a filiation, hadfurnished weapons to those who, while confessing his pro-digious genius, denied that the national art was incarnatein the Trilogy, and that Germany had found what Italy andFrance possessed, — a lyric drama having an organismevolved from the race itself and from its soil. These criticisms, which are very clearly summed up inan important literary article by M. Gustave Frederix, certainly. Xl6 RICHARD WAGNER j bear witness to the mental culture of their authors, butfarther than that have not much real weight or , they bear less upon the work itself than upon thematerial conditions under which Wagner had brought it beforethe public, with the idea, as these critics seem to think, ofstamping it with an authentic national character. But thiswas not his idea. By all that is purely decorative, by histheatre and its architectural characteristics, he has alliedhimself, as he claimed to do, with the religious and dramaticfestivals of antique Greece. But it is only the outer garmentwhich he has borrowed ; the soul of the work, the subjectupon which he has fixed his choice is absolutely Germanicin its essence, as the music with which he has enriched itsprings from the purest German sources. These facts can-not fail to be recognized by anyone who will take thetrouble to study the poem and the score ; but the work mustbe stripped
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