idea that showed he had grown into the Richard Wagner we all know.  He toiled away at the theatre, nearly driving the singers crazy with the ceaseless work he demanded from them; and to his family, when they had news from him or of him, it must have seemed as though he had already one foot on the ladder and it was only a matter of time for him to climb to the dizzy height of Hofkapellmeister of one of the larger opera-houses.  No one, however, who had only known Richard prior to this period could realize how rapidly the new environment was to form and ripen his character.

He was now about twenty-three years of age and a master of his trade.  He had written two operas and saw little likelihood of either being played—­for his advantage, at least.  He had composed some instrumental things, but he knew that the theatre and not the concert-room was his vocation.  He must have reflected that even writers of successful operas had died in poverty, either utterly abject, as Mozart died, or comparative, as Weber died.  On the other hand Rossini had made a fortune and Meyerbeer was making one.  What then?  Well, Wagner wanted neither to die poor nor to die at all:  all his life he claimed from the world luxuries as a right.  He felt his powers at least equal to Rossini’s and far superior to Meyerbeer’s (though at this time he ranked Meyerbeer high).  His artistic conscience was not so sensitive as it afterwards became:  he actually liked the sparkling French and Italian stuff which was so popular.  So, then, he would challenge Meyerbeer on his own ground!  And as all the musical fashions had to come from Paris he would go to Paris and make a bid for fortune.  Such must have been the process of reasoning which led Wagner to take his first great step in life.

For the present it is sufficient to say that out of Bulwer Lytton’s novel Rienzi he took material to weave a libretto that would afford opportunities for a great spectacular opera; and set to work and wrote two acts of the music.  Finally he took ship from Pillau to London, bringing with him his wife and dog, with the intention of reaching Paris ultimately.  And on that journey I must leave him for the present, pausing a little to consider the music he had composed up to this time (not including the incomplete Rienzi).

CHAPTER IV

JUVENILE WORKS

With the exception of Die Feen, nothing composed by Wagner prior to Rienzi calls for serious attention, nor would receive any attention whatever were not the author’s name Wagner.  He himself did not distress his soul about the fate of his early works:  he knew too well their value; but when a Wagner cult came into existence these things of small importance were acclaimed, one by one as they came to light, as things of, at any rate, the highest promise.  Not even that can justly be claimed for them. Die Feen has a certain atmosphere