Tannhaeuser immortalises the adolescence of the European races of mankind; the third stage is not even anticipated.

Lohengrin, the principal interest of which is other than erotic, represents a transitional phase between the second and the third stage; body and soul are no longer regarded as warring against each other; a greater harmony beyond either is dimly divined.  Lohengrin has set out from a distant, transcendental kingdom to find earthly happiness in Elsa’s love—­but he is doomed to disappointment.  I will not analyse the theme, but rather quote a few passages from Wagner:  “Lohengrin is seeking the woman who is ready to believe in him; who will not ask him who he is and whence he comes, but love him as he is and because he is so....  Lohengrin’s only desire is for love, to be loved, to be understood through love.  In spite of the superior development of his senses, in spite of his intense consciousness, he desires nothing more than to live the life of an ordinary citizen of this earth, to love and be loved—­to be a perfect specimen of humanity.”  Wagner further speaks of his longing to find “the woman”; the female principle, quite simply, for ever appearing to him under new forms; the woman for whom the Flying Dutchman longed in his unfathomable distress; the woman who, like a radiant star, guided Tannhaeuser from the voluptuous caverns of the Venusberg to the pure regions of the spirit, and drew Lohengrin from his dazzling heights to the warm bosom of the earth.  We find here the new form of love, not yet fully comprehended but desired and anticipated in art.

In Tristan and Isolde it is attained completely and in its highest perfection.  We possess in Wagner’s letters to Matilda Wesendonk, and in the diary written for her, the documents of the personal experience out of which Tristan grew, and which unfold one of the most touching love-stories.  As I have already discussed Tristan and Isolde in a previous chapter, I will here only quote a passage from a letter written by Wagner and addressed to Liszt at the time of his first meeting with Matilda; it fully expresses the harmony of the third stage.  “Give me a heart, a mind, a woman’s love in which I can plunge my whole being—­who will fully understand me—­how little else I should need in this world!”

It is very significant that side by side with Tristan we have Die Meistersinger, composed a little later on.  Here the third stage of love is realised in its idyllic possibility; the synthesis has been given the shape of middle-class matter-of-factness, that is to say, the fulfilment of love in marriage:  “I love a maid and claim her hand!” For this reason the work, although the fundamental idea is not erotic, is entitled to be placed by the side of Tristan with its demand for the absolute metaphysical consummation of love.

It is an amazing fact that the same genius should have experienced and portrayed both stages so perfectly.  Doubtless Tannhaeuser and Tristan are the most personal self-revelations of the great lover, pulsating with passion, and far remote from the colossal objective world of the Niebelungs, the lofty serenity of Lohengrin and the wisdom of Parsifal.