was first
given. This subject is used in connection with the notion of daylight as
a nuisance to lovers in the subsequent conversation of Tristan and
Isolda--a notion which we shall examine presently. Presently another
subject is heard, one of which extensive use is made in the first
scene--

[Illustration: Some bars of music]

The curtain rises. It is a sultry summer night; the black woods stand
round a garden; on the left is the castle of Mark, with a torch blazing
at the doorway, making the surrounding night blacker. Sounds of
hunting-horns are dying away in the distance. Brangaena and Isolda are
there listening, and Brangaena, to music of enchanting beauty, is
warning Isolda that the hunters can be no great way off. "Listen to the
brook," says Isolda. "How could I hear that if the horns were near?"
Then comes one of Wagner's matchless bits of painting--the brook
rippling through the silent night. Isolda is now going to extinguish the
torch, as a signal to Tristan that he may approach. Brangaena protests,
and warns Isolda against Melot, who has arranged this night hunt as a
trap to catch Tristan; and she bewails the officiousness which led her
to substitute the love-philtre for the poison. The rest of the scene may
be passed over. The music is woven out of themes just quoted, and
another which will play a big part in the love-duet:

[Illustration: Some bars of music]

Of course, Isolda prevails. Brangaena is sent to keep watch, and Isolda
throws down the torch to the Death motive. Tristan rushes in, and the
most passionate love-duet ever written begins.

After the first ecstasies have subsided the lovers converse. They must
talk about something--what should it be? As Wagner's thoughts were
occupied with Schopenhauer at the time, he makes them talk a sort of
pseudo-Schopenhauer. Light is their enemy; only in
night--extinction--can perfect joy be found. It was the deceitful
phantoms of daylight--worldly ambitions--that betrayed Tristan into
acting so basely towards Isolda (before the drama opens); it was the
light of the torch that kept him so long from her this night; and now in
the darkness they find rapturous peace. This is the substance of what is
said. Twice Brangaena warns them that the dawn is at hand, but they do
not heed her. Her songs are exquisite enough, surely, but the lovers,
steeped in their bliss, have no ears for them. Their own music is far
more beautiful:

[Illustration: Some bars of music]