red to prepare
specially for Vienna a more condensed work, the "Meistersingers." The
reply was, however, that the name of Wagner had for the present
received sufficient consideration, and that it was time to give a
hearing to some other composer. "This other name was Jacques
Offenbach," adds Wagner. It needs no comment.

Again followed concerts, first in Prague, where "Tristan" was
requested, then in Carlsruhe, where he had long been forgotten,
although the prince's own love for art had not been extinguished. The
Carlsruhe and Mannheim orchestras acknowledged that they now first
fully realized that they were artists. A negotiation for permanent
settlement at the grand-ducal court failed, owing to the opposition of
the courtiers. Wagner had demanded a court-carriage! Frederick the
Great has said, it is true, that geniuses rank with sovereigns; but
then this was too much, too much! Then too, he had, O horror! spent
the beautiful ducats which the grand-duke had presented him, in
entertaining of an evening the musicians who had executed the work.
Where would such pretensions, such extravagance lead? The same
courtiers, however, did not consider it robbery for many years
shamefully to abridge the income of their noble prince until they
finally stood disgraced themselves and escaped punishment only through
the inexhaustible kindness of their monarch.

In Loewenberg, in Breslau, and again in Vienna, everywhere Wagner met
with abundant success. But what of the real goal? "The public met him
with enthusiasm wherever he showed himself, but on the other hand the
leading critics remained cold or hostile and the directors of the
theatres closed their doors to him," his biographer, Glasenapp, says
truthfully enough. Of the Nibelungen-poem also no notice had been
taken except in a very narrow circle. Here and there a copy of the
little volume, bound in red and gold, could be found, but the owner
was sure to belong to the school of Liszt or Wagner. "How could the
poetic work of an opera-composer bear serious consideration in
contrast with the elaborate literary productions of professional
poets?" Wagner says with justice. He felt himself rejected everywhere,
and just where alone he desired admission.

"For me there shone no star that did not pale,
No cheering hope of which I was not reft;
To the world's whim, changing with every gale,
And all its vain caprices, I was left;
To nobler art my aspirations