The literature of ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ is already very large, and not a year passes without some addition to the long catalogue of works dealing with Wagner’s mighty drama.  Readers desirous of studying the tetralogy more closely, whether from its literary, ethical, or musical side, must refer to one or more of the many handbooks devoted to its elucidation for criticism on a more elaborate scale than is possible within the narrow limits of such a work as the present.

It has already been related how Wagner broke off, when midway through ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen,’ and devoted himself to the composition of a work of more conventional dimensions.  The latter was ’Tristan und Isolde.’  Produced as it was in 1865, four years before ‘Das Rheingold,’ it was the first of Wagner’s later works actually to see the light.  Round its devoted head, therefore, the war of controversy raged more fiercely than in the case of any of Wagner’s subsequent works.  Those days are long past, and ‘Tristan’ is now universally accepted as a work of supreme musical loveliness, although the lack of exciting incident in the story must always prevent the profanum vulgus from sharing the musician’s rapture over the deathless beauties of the score.

Isolde, the daughter of the King of Ireland, is sought in marriage by Marke, the King of Cornwall, and Tristan, his nephew, has been sent to bring the princess to England.  Before the beginning of the drama Tristan had slain Morold, Isolde’s lover, and sent his head to Ireland in place of the tribute due from Cornwall.  He himself had been wounded in the fight, and when washed by the tide upon the shores of Ireland, had been tended by Isolde.  To conceal his identity he assumed the name of Tantris, but Isolde had recognised him by a notch in his sword, which corresponded with a splinter which she had found imbedded in Morold’s head.  Finding the murderer of her lover in her power, her first impulse had been to slay him, but as she lifted the sword she found that love had conquered hate, and she let Tristan depart unscathed.  When he returned as the ambassador of his uncle, her love changed to indignation that he who had won her heart should dare to woo her for another.  The scene of the first act is laid on board the vessel which is conveying her to Cornwall.  She vows never to become the bride of Marke, and opening a casket of magic vials, bids Brangaene, her attendant, pour one which contains a deadly poison into a goblet.  Then she summons Tristan from his place at the helm, and bids him share the draught with her.  Tristan gladly obeys, for he loves Isolde passionately, and prefers death to a life of hopeless yearning.  But Brangaene has substituted a love philtre for the poison, and the lovers, instead of the pangs of death, feel themselves over-mastered by an irresistible wave of passion.  As the shouts of the sailors announce the arrival of the ship, Tristan and Isolde meet in a long embrace.