Bruehl, where Richard was born, was now in the very heart of the
Jew quarter. The costumes, speech and gesticulation of these strange
animals left an indelible impression on him, and were, perhaps,
incidentally responsible for the notorious _Judaism in Music_ of 1850,
and all the fallacies contained in that deplorable essay. Richard got
his own way in most things, and the seeds were sown of the
self-confidence, egotism, selfishness--call it what you will--that was
to carry him through unheard-of difficulties and troubles in later
life, and was often, unfortunately, to show as an objectionable, even
odious, feature in his character. He still laboured at his tragedy,
killing off his personages and turning their noses into dust with the
careless facility and cheerfulness of buoyant boyhood. He had always
been fond of roaming the country, and he continued to nourish that
love of the pleasant earth which forced him to keep up the habit all
his life and resulted in the glorious pictorial music of the _Ring_.
He struggled in vain to conquer the piano-keys, and, indifferent to
the fable of the fox and the grapes, came to the satisfying conclusion
that the instrument was not worth mastering. We must remember that
through Louise he was in constant touch with the theatre, and it is
evident that he kept up the connection after her marriage to
Brockhaus the bookseller in 1828, for when the theatre was entirely
reformed next year Rosalie came as a principal lady and Heinrich Dorn,
who speedily became his friend, as conductor. Drama, literature,
school-tasks, open-air rambles, talks with Uncle Adolph--these
constituted his life. Now another element was to enter and overwhelm
all the rest.

CHAPTER III

EARLY LIFE (CONTINUED)

I

In the second half of the eighteenth century some enthusiasts at
Leipzig had founded a series of concerts, with a very small orchestra,
which were given in "Apel's house"; in 1781 they migrated to the
Gewandhaus, and by this name the concerts were afterwards known. In
still later days Mendelssohn became conductor, and for brilliance and
neatness the concerts were famous throughout the world; then Reinecke
came and they became the most slovenly in the world--in this fine
quality of slovenliness not even our London Philharmonic Society could
hope to rival them; also, as Reinecke was an acrid reactionary, no
modern music could get a hearing there. However, that did not greatly
matter; and the world