wordon'; and adds that the word 'Stabreim' is an abbreviation from 'Buchstabenreim' (lit. = 'spelling-rhyme'); that the first verse-half of the couplet ('Langzeile' or 'Liedstäbe') was called 'Stollen,' the second: 'Hauptstab,' or principal rhyme. -a circumstance emphasised by Wagner above. In his great tetralogy, the Ring des Nibelungen, the poet-composer has made almost exclusive use of this form of versification, amplifying its rules much in the same way as he amplified those of Music, from that plastic power of genius which melts all rules into new moulds. But the great characteristic of the Stabreim proper, he has almost invariably preserved, viz.:-the marking thereby of the accented, i.e. the root word, and the commencing of the line by a strong (or 'long') syllable. As a perfect specimen may he instanced: 'L achend muss ich dich lieben; | lachend will ich erblinden' (Siegfried,- last Scene) ; while a rich example of doubled and re-doubled Stabreim is found at the end of the Götterdämmerung: 'N icht Gut, nicht Gold, | noch Göttliche Pracht; | nicht Haus, nicht Hof, | noch herrischer Prunk: '-These specimens, taken at ramdom from the Ring, must suffice for the present purpose.- TR.
(18) Compare Die Meistersinger, Act 3.-'Ob euch gelang ein rechtes Paar zu finden, das zeigt sich jetzt an den Kinden,' 'If you've had wit to match your pair, that we shall see in their son and heir,'-where Hans Sachs is instructing Walther in the mysteries of the old Meistersingers' 'After-song.'-It is curious also that Wagner should have again hit upon the same thought as Schopenhauer, who explains the love of man to woman as governed by the 'Will-to-live' of their future progeny. -TR.
(19) 'Die einsame Dichtkunst-dichtete nicht mehr.'-Again it is impossible to translate 'dichten,' for lack of an English verb; our 'poetise' has a derogatory strain in it; 'compose' and 'indite' will neither of them here take the place of the German original; and we are forced upon a paraphrase, which may perhaps find justification from the analogous term for him who 'prophesies,' namely, 'Seer,'-which Carlyle has so often applied to the true Poet. - TR.
(20) 'O himmel! wie entstellt, wie unkennbar klangen ihm seine, in dichterische Musik gebrachten, Anschauungen entgegen !' Probably Wagner here refers to the opera-texts, such as Proserpina, written by Goethe for the Weimar Court-theatre, the direction of which was entrusted to him by the Duke; for in his article, 'Zukunftsmusik' (The 'Music of the Future,' vol. vii. of the Ges. Schriften) our author writes as follows: 'Goethe himself indited several opera-texts (libretti), and, in order to place himself on the level of that genre, he thought right to keep both his invention and his working-out as trivial as possible; so that it is only with regret, that we can see these extremely mawkish pieces numbered in the ranks of his poems. '-As to the allusion to the 'poodle' at the end of the present paragraph, it is an absolute statement of fact. In 1817 Goethe, who had long felt the growing impossibility of maintaining the high standard of the Weimar theatrical performances, in face of the favour shown to Kotzebue and his claptrap, finally laid down the reins of direction in consequence of the production, against his express desire, of a piece called the 'Hund des Aubry.' We cannot discover whether Kotzebue had a hand in this piece or not, for it is merely described in Schaefer's 'Life of Goethe' as imported from France; the biographer adds, that in it a rôle was assigned to a trained Poodle !-TR.
(21) (22) (23)-The same word, 'Öffentlichkeit,' is used in these three instances; it has seemed, however, impossible to translate this half abstract, half concrete term, excepting by the use of three different expressions, in order to keep touch with the meaning. -TR.
(24) From all that Wagner has written about Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, it cannot be doubted that it is to her that he here refers. Compare page 9 of the 'Autobiographic Sketch,' also 'A Pilgrimage to Beethoven,' the 'Communication to my Friends,' and 'On Actors and Singers.'-TR.
(25) Among these, the masters of the French-school of the beginning of this century should be specially noted.-R. Wagner.-See also p. 16, 'Autobiographic Sketch.'-TR.
(26) The title of this chapter, 'Der Mensch als künstlerischer Bildner aus natürlichen Stoffen,' presents many difficulties to the translator. If we possessed a good equivalent for 'Bildner' (from 'bilden,' to fashion, shape or form, e.g. a picture) that would cover the three different varieties of 'plastic' artist, we should still be short of a generally accepted substitute for 'Stoff.' The idea of the original is to include in the term 'stuff' not only the raw material, as in Architecture or Sculpture, but also the subject-matter, as in Landscape-painting. This being thus, perhaps we may be permitted to employ the word in the sense in which Shakespeare uses it, in the line 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on. '-TR.
(27) Compare Götterdämmerung, Act 3, 'Der Wecker kam; er küsst dich wach. . . . da lacht ihm Brünnhilde's Lust !'-TR.
(28) Certainly the provision of the useful, is the first and greatest necessity: but an epoch which can never soar beyond this care nor cast it behind it in order to attain the beautiful, but makes this care the sole prescriptor of every branch of public life and drags it even into Arta-that epoch is in truth barbarian. Yet it is only the most unnatural civilisation, that can produce such absolute barbarism: it is for ever heaping up obstructions to the useful, to give itself the air of for ever taking thought for utility alone.-R. WAGNER.
(29) It is a political crime to use this word: however, there is none which will better describe the direct antithesis of Egoism. Whosoever is ashamed to-day to pass current as an Egoist-and indeed no one will openly confess himself as such-must allow us to take the liberty of calling him a Communist. -R.WAGNER.
(30) The redemption of woman into participation in the nature of man is the outcome of christian-Germanic evolution. The Greek remained in ignorance of the psychic process of the ennobling of woman to the rank of man, To him everything appeared under its direct, unmediated aspect,-woman to him was woman, and man was man; and thus at the point where his love to woman was satisfied in accordance with nature, arose the spiritual demand for man.-R. WAGNER.
(31) One feels almost tempted to concoct a hybrid equivalent for this expressive 'ur-hellenisch,' and boldly write it down as 'ur-hellenic;' but the fear of a literary Mrs Grundy is too powerful for the rash desire. We cannot, however, help envying the Germans their pregnant prefix 'ur,' a shadow of which we fancy we may still detect in our English 'early,' 'ere -while' or 'erst'; again perhaps in our 'hoary'; and almost certainly in 'yore.'-TR.
(32) The words 'Skulptur' and 'Architektur' here appear for the first time, in the original. Hitherto these arts have been spoken of under the terms 'Baukunst' (the building art) and 'Bildhauerkunst' (the image- or likeness.hewer's art); but I have found it more convenient to employ, in general, the equivalents 'Sculpture' and 'Architecture.' Here, however, I have deemed it necessary to use the more exact, though more cumbersome expression 'the statuary's art,' in the opening of the sentence, in order to reserve the term 'Sculpture' to render the more general idea of 'carving,' in which sense it is evident that Wagner has here employed the Latin noun.- W.A.E.
(33) The personality of the Zurich exile here peeps out from beneath the robes of the art-philosopher. No one could feel more keenly than Wagner himself, at the time of writing this essay, the insufficiency of the suggested substitute, cut off as he then was from enjoyment of all the higher walks of art.-TR.
(34) The problem of the Theatrical edifice of the Future can in no wise be considered as solved by our modern stage buildings: for they are laid out in accord with traditional laws and canons which have nothing in common with the requirements of pure Art. Where speculation for gain, on the one side, joinr forces with luxurious ostentation on the other, the absolute interests of Art must be cryingly affected; and thus no architect in the world will be able to raise our stratified and fenced-off auditoria-dictated by the parcelling of our public into the most diverse categories of class and civil station-to conformity with any law of beauty. If one imagine oneself, for a moment, within the walls of the common Theatre of the Future, one will recognise with little trouble, that an undreamt width of field lies therein open for invention.-R. WAGNER.
(35) It can scarcely be indifferent to the modern landscape-painter to observe by how few his work is really understood to-day, and with what blear-eyed stupidity his nature-paintings are devoured by the Philistine world that pays for them; how the so-called 'charming prospect' is purchased to assuage the idle, unintelligent, visual gluttony of those same need-less men whose sense of hearing is tickled by our modern, empty music-manufacture to that idiotic joy which is as repugnant a reward of his performance to the artist as it fully answers the intention of the artisan. Between the 'charming prospect' and the 'pretty tune' of our modern times there subsists a doleful affinity, whose bond of union is certainly not the musing calm of Thought, but that vulgar slipshod sentimentality which draws back in selfish horror from the sight of human suffering in its surroundings, to hire for itself a private heavenlet in the blue mists of Nature's generality. These sentimentals are willing enough to see and hear everything: only not the actual, undistorted Man, who lifts his warning finger on the threshold of their dreams. But this is the very man whom we must set up in the forefront of our show !-R. WAGNER.
(36) It is a little difficult to quite unravel this part of the metaphor, for the same word 'Boden' is used twice
