eated a world of new life, and what is far more, has
aroused the genius of his people, aye, the very soul of mankind, and
has led his epoch and his nation to the achievement of new and
permanent intellectual results?

We now come to his first efforts towards the accomplishment of such
results. They were to cost hard labor, anxiety, struggles, and pain of
every kind indeed, but they were done and they stand to-day.

CHAPTER III.

1842-1849.

REVOLUTION IN LIFE AND ART.

Success and Recognition--Hofkapellmeister to the Saxon Court--New
Clouds--"Tannhaeuser" Misunderstood--The Myths of "The Flying
Dutchman" and "Tannhaeuser"--Aversion to Meyerbeer--The Religious
Element--"Lohengrin"--The Idea of "Lohengrin"--Wagner's
Revolutionary Sympathies--The Revolution of 1848--The Poetic
Part of "Siegfried's Death"--The Revolt in Dresden--Flight from
Dresden--"Siegfried Words."

"_Give me a place to stand._"--Archimedes.

In an enthusiastic account of the first presentation of the "Flying
Dutchman" in Riga, May, 1843, it is said: "The 'Flying Dutchman' is a
signal of hope that we shall soon be rescued from this wild wandering
in the strange seas of foreign music and shall find once more our
blessed home." In a similar strain, the _Illustrierte Zeitung_ said:
"It is the duty of all who really cherish native art to announce to
the fatherland the appearance of a man of such promise as Wagner."
Indeed Wagner himself says that the success of the work was an
important indication that we need but write "as our native sense
suggests." That he himself perceived a new era of the highest and
purest outpouring of a new spirit is shown in the composition of this
year (1843), the "Liebesmahl der Apostel," wherein he quotes from the
Bible: "Be of good cheer for I am near you and My spirit is with you."
A chorus of forty male voices exultingly proclaimed this promise from
the high church choir loft in Dresden, on the occasion of the
Maennergesangvereins-Fest.

"Rienzi" was performed in October 1842, and the "Flying Dutchman"
January 2, 1843, both meeting with an enthusiastic reception. Wagner
himself had conducted the rehearsals and secured the support of
newly won friends and such eminent artists as Schroeder-Devrient
and Tichatschek. His success gained for him the distinction of
Hofkapellmeister to the Saxon Court. The position once held by Weber
was now his. The objects which he had sought to accomplish seemed
with