It is evident that two souls so sympathetic could not long remain in proximity without craving a closer union.  “Coming events cast their shadows before,” remarks one who often was present during the Biebrich visit of the Von Buelows to Wagner.

How deeply Cosima sympathized with Wagner’s aims even then is shown by another episode of this visit.  One evening the composer outlined to his friends his plans for “Parsifal,” adding that it probably would be his last work.  The little circle was deeply affected, and Cosima wept.  Strange prescience!  “Parsifal” was not produced until twenty years later, yet it proved to be the finale of Wagner’s life’s labors.

The incident has interest from another point of view.  It shows that Wagner had his plans for “Parsifal” fairly matured in 1862, and that it was not, as some critics, who see in it a decadence of his powers, claim, a late afterthought, designed to give to Bayreuth a curiosity somewhat after the facon of the Oberammergau “Passion Play.”  Decadence?  Henry T. Finck, the most consistent and eloquent champion Wagner has had in America, sees in it no falling off in the composer’s genius; nor do I. Wagner’s scores always fully voice his dramas,—­“Parsifal” as completely as any.  The subject simply required different musical treatment from the heroic “Ring of the Nibelung” and the impassioned “Tristan.”

In a letter written by Wagner in June, 1864, occurs this significant sentence:  “There is one good being who brightens my household.”  The “good being” was Cosima, who from now on was destined to fill his life with the sunshine of love and of devotion to his art.

“Since I last saw you in Munich,” Wagner writes to a friend, “I have not again left my asylum, which in the meanwhile also has become the refuge of her who was destined to prove that I could well be helped, and that the axiom of my many friends, that ‘I could not be helped,’ was false!  She knew that I could be helped, and has helped me:  she has defied every disapprobation and taken upon herself every condemnation.”

This was written in June, 1870, a year after Cosima had borne him Siegfried, and two months before their marriage.  For in August, 1870, the following announcement was sent out: 

“We have the honor to announce our marriage, which took place on the 25th
of August of this year in the Protestant Church in Lucerne. 
  Richard Wagner. 
  Cosima Wagner, nee Liszt.

“August 25, 1870.”

When, in 1882, I attended the first performance of “Parsifal” in Bayreuth, I had frequent opportunity of seeing Wagner and Frau Cosima.  Probably the best view I had of them together, and of Franz Liszt at the same time, was at a dinner given by Wagner to the artists who took part in the performances.  It was in one of the restaurants near the theatre on the hill overlooking Bayreuth.  Wagner’s entrance upon the scene was highly theatrical.