There are two other points, one legendary, one historical, which ought to be mentioned for the sake of those who like to know the sources of stories like that of Lohengrin.  The ancient Angles had a saga which told of the arrival in their country of a boat, evidently sailless, oarless, and rudderless, containing only a child surrounded by arms and treasure.  They brought him up and called him Skeaf (from which word our “sheaf"), because he lay upon a bundle of grain.  He became king of the people, and, when he felt death upon him, commanded to be carried back to the shore where he had been found.  There lay the boat in which he had come, and when his dead body was placed in it, it moved away of its own accord.  From him descended a race of kings.  Here, I am inclined to see a survival of the story of Danae and her child Perseus found floating on the sea in a chest, as sung by Simonides.  The historical element in “Lohengrin” is compassed by the figure of the king, who metes out justice melodiously in the opening and closing scenes.  It is King Henry I of Germany, called the Fowler, who reigned from A.D. 918 to 936.  He was a wise, brave, and righteous king, who fought the savage Huns, and for his sake the management of the festival performances at Bayreuth, in 1894, introduced costumes of the tenth century.

Footnotes: 

{1} John P. Jackson’s translation.

{2} In Mr. John P. Jackson’s translation:—­

  Ne’er with thy fears shalt task me,
  Nor questions idly ask me: 
  The land and from whence I came,
  Nor yet my race and name.

CHAPTER XVII

“Hansel und Gretel”

In many respects “Hansel und Gretel” is the most interesting opera composed since “Parsifal,” and, by being an exception, proves the rule to which I directed some remarks in the chapter on “Don Giovanni.”  For a quarter of a century the minds of musical critics and historians have been occupied at intervals with the question whether or not progress in operatic composition is possible on the lines laid down by Wagner.  Of his influence upon all the works composed within a period twice as long there never was a doubt; but this influence manifested itself for the greater part in modifications of old methods rather than the invention of new.  In Germany attempts have been made over and over again to follow Wagner’s system, but though a few operas thus produced have had a temporary success, in the end it has been found that the experiments have all ended in failures.  It was but natural that the fact should provoke discussion.  If no one could write successfully in Wagner’s manner, was there a future for the lyric drama outside of a return to the style which he had striven to overthrow?  If there was no such future, was the fact not proof of the failure of the Wagnerian movement as a creative