ound for his attacks on Meyerbeer
and others; there are considerations to be taken into account while
one reads with humiliation and pity the correspondence between Wagner
and his benefactor, Liszt; but it is sad that an affectionate, humane,
intensely human, to say nothing of an artistic, nature, could so
blaspheme against the first principles of humanity.

In 1852 the poem of the "Nibelungen Ring Trilogy" was finished. In
1854 "Rheingold" (the introduction of "Vorabend") was ready, and "Die
Walkuere" (Part I.) in 1856. But "tired," as he said, "of heaping one
silent score upon another," he left "Siegfried" unfinished, and turned
to the story of "Tristan." The poem was completed in 1857, and the
music two years later. At last, in 1861, he received permission to
return to Germany, and in Vienna he had the first opportunity of
hearing his own "Lohengrin." For three years the struggle with fortune
seems to have been harder than ever before, and Wagner, in broken
health, had practically determined to give up the unequal contest,
when an invitation was sent him by Ludwig II., the young King of
Bavaria--"Come here and finish your work." Here at last was salvation
for Wagner, and the rest of his life was comparatively smooth. In 1865
"Tristan und Isolde" was performed at Munich, and was followed three
years later by a comic opera, "Die Meistersinger," the first sketches
of which date from 1845. "Siegfried" ("Nibelungen Ring," Part II.) was
completed in 1869, and in the following year Wagner married Cosima,
the daughter of Liszt, and formerly the wife of Von Buelow. His first
wife, from whom he had been separated in 1861, died at Dresden in
1866.

A theatre built somewhere off the main lines of traffic, and specially
constructed for the performance of Wagner's later works, must have
seemed the most impracticable and visionary of proposals in 1870; and
yet, chiefly through the unwearying exertions of Carl Tausig (and, after
his death, of the various Wagner societies), the foundation-stone of the
Baireuth Theatre was laid in 1872, and in 1876, two years after the
completion of the "Goetterdaemmerung" ("Nibelungen Ring," Part III.), it
became an accomplished fact. The first work given was the entire
"Trilogy;" and in July, 1882, Wagner's long and stormy career was
magnificently crowned there by the first performance of "Parsifal." A
few weeks later his health showed signs of giving way, and he resolved
to spend the winter at Ve