THE-CASE-OF-WAGNER N1ETZSCHE-CONTRAWAGNER THE-TWILIGHTOF-THE-IDOLS

THE-ANTICHRIST FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

FROM-THE- LIBRARY-OF TWNITYCOLLEGE TORONTO

PRESENTED gy tos* David

Ouchterlony

(0

THE WORKS OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Gbc Worhs

VOL.

of

ffriefcricb

A GENEALOGY OF MORALS

I.

POEMS WILLIAM

Translated by

A.

HAUSSMANN and JOHN GRAY [Ready March

VOL.

1899.

THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA A BOOK FOR ALL AND NONE

II.

Translated by

ALEXANDER TlLLE. [Ready April

VOL.

20,

24,

1899.

THE CASE OF WAGNER

ill.

NIETZSCHE CONTRA WAGNER THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS THE ANTICHRIST Translated by

THOMAS COMMON. [Ready May

22,

1899.

Other Volumes to follow.

LONDON

T

.

FISHER U N W N I

This sole authorised edition of the Collected Works of Friedrich Nietzsche is issued under the editorship of TILLE, Ph.D., Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. It is based on the final German edition (Leipzig: C. G. Naumann) prepared by Dr. Fritz Kocgcl, and is published under the supervision of the

ALEXANDER

NictzscJie-Archiv at Nauinburg. Copyright by Macmillan and Co. All rights reserved.

in

the

United States

THE CASE OF WAGNER NIETZSCHE CONTRA

WAGNER

THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS THE ANTICHRIST BY FRIEDR1CH

TRANSLATED

NIETZSCHE

THOMAS COMMON

LONDON T.

FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1899

BY

1313

CONTENTS Page

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

THE CASE OF WAGNER

xxiii

Preface

A

vii

I

Letter from Turin of May, 1888

5

Postscript

43

Second Postscript

51

Epilogue

56

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

WAGNER

Preface

61

63

Where

I

admire

65

Where

I

make

67

Wagner

as a

Objections

Danger

A Music without We Antipodes Where Wagner Wagner

How The

a

Future

belongs to

as the Apostle of Chastity

I got free

from Wagner

Psychologist speaks

Epilogue

69 71

73

76 79 82

84 89

CONTENTS

VI

Page

THE TWILIGHT OF THE

IDOLS

95

Preface

97

Apophthegms and Darts

99

The PiQblenL of -Socrates "Reason"

How

the

in

107

116

Philosophy

"True

World"

finally

became a Fable

124

Morality as Anti-naturalness

126

The

134

four great Errors

The Improvers

What

the

of

Mankind

Germans

lack

Roving Expeditions of an Inopportune Philosopher

My

Indebtedness to the Ancients

The Hammer speaketh

THE ANTICHRIST

147

154 164

222 233 237

Preface

239

The

241

Antichrist

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION If

it

be the task of philosophy

departments of learning into an uncontradictory

the various

the philosophy

whole,

to unite the results of

of half a century

that

spinning in the

died

mode

the

out,

higher

Although

ago.

longer

regarded as the

Above

all,

of speculative

science,

with

its

results

unavoidable presuppositions, has within the tury won a place in general esteem making philosophy

has

the

any longer

to

doctrine of evolution

1859 from Darwin

s

"Origin

and

the

in

discoveries.

s

"Evidence

ley

logical all

significance.

last half it

impossible

More it

cen

especially

received in

changed most of position on the earth,

his

his relation to the lower animals,

sophy has been compelled to define

new

shape

no

is

of Species

the genera] concepts about man, his descent

it.

neglect

means

well as with

as

its

for

cobweb-

tradition

for a philosopher s

test

than

position

intellectual

of Spinoza or Hegel has by no

continuation

natural

Germany and

of the present age in

Great Britain can claim a somewhat

its

and philo

position towards these

Whilst ever since the appearance of Hux Man s Place in Nature" in 1863 bio

as to

particularly phylogeny and ontogeny, have been busy to establish even the which bear on the ascent of beings by con

science,

and

over the world

minor

facts

tinual evolution,

and

to

collect ever

new evidence upon I

the

X

INTRODUCTION

method of

that development, English philosophy, so far as has taken any notice of evolutionarism, has endeavoured

it

show

to

that

sexual and

cannot possibly account century, has been called

natural

selection

"

human

and elimination

the middle of last

since

for what,

"

It

progress.

ced every attempt to apply that principle to

and the rated

two

"

movement

tribes of primeval

into

if

competition,

one

tribe

his

man,

faithful

"

society

"

"

living in the

(other

included a great

and

thetic,

in

human

Darwin himself inaugu When Descent of Man.

progress of civilisation.

that

has denoun

same country, came

circumstances

number

"

the

being equal)

of courageous,

members who were always ready

sympa to

warn

each other of danger, to aid and defend each other, this would succeed better and conquer the other. That

tribe

"

sounds but

like

an application of natural selection to sociology, What we should have expected to

the very opposite.

is

hear from the great teacher of the is

an

entirely different proposition.

which (including

the

weak and

"

struggle for existence

"

In a tribe the members of sick)

assist

each other

in

of danger natural selection must soon come to an end, a kind of panmixy must arise and lead to a rapid decline of individual strength and thereby of the tribe it

every kind

The

self.

last

"Darwinism"

oning.

the "

fit

chapter

(1889)

is

of

Mr.

Alfred

a sample of the

Russel

same way

Wallace

s

of reas

This unwillingness to acknowledge the selection of and the elimination of the unfit as pre-requisites of

human

"

has, quite recently, reacted upon general by producing the Neo-Lamarckism of Sir Francis Galton and Mr. William Bateson.

progress

biological theories

whenever they touch upon the more complex problems of human existence, dare not apply to them the principles they would not question for a moment If scientists themselves,

INTRODUCTION

XI

realm of the organic world outside of man, how can if philosophers have still less courage? Mr. Herbert

in the

one wonder Spencer

own

s

philosophical development has been one long

campaign against natural selection and elimination, and in His fight with favour of heredity of acquired characters. Professor drift

Weismann

is

of Mr. Spencer

The whole

only an incidental skirmish.

thought almost

s

spired by the question

:

how

to

appears

evade and

be

to

in

the logical

veil

consequences of Darwin s evolutionarism for human existence? If that were the task he set for himself, his reasoning could scarcely

have been better than

it

is.

That he uses the word

evolution so frequently does not matter in the

he terms evolution

is

utterly at variance with

cept of development as

the natural

What

least.

Darwin

s

con

result of a struggle for

by a misunderstanding can he be called the philosopher of Darwinism, for he has never got beyond Lamarck s ideas of natural development by accumulation of existence.

Only

acquired qualities. at the

Nor have any

problem from any other

of

side.

his

disciples

looked

In the works of his

Mr. John Fiske, the gulf between Darwinism and philosophical evolutionarism becomes even more apparent, closest follower,

for

not

Mr. Fiske, despite his rival his great master

much in

greater rhetorical

gift,

does

the art of complicating expres

sion or in the patient elaboration of long lines of argument

the

of which

point

is

concealed

until

the

last

moment.

be evolved, an entirely new humanity began in of Hence the the universe was opened. chapter history forth the life of the nascent soul came to be first in im to

"When

portance,

and the bodily

Henceforth

life

became subordinated

to

it.

appeared that the process of zoological change had come to an end, and the process of psychological change was to take its place. These sentences from Mr. Fiske s it

"

I*

INTRODUCTION

Xii

book on

(1884) may be taken as position taken up by English

Destiny of

"The

Man"

the

fairly representative of

towards Darwin

philosophy

until quite recently,

doctrine

s

whenever the words

of

evolution.

"higher"

and

Thus, "lower"

were used about the animal world they were unconsciously applied in two absolutely different meanings, according as

man was meant

man

more

physical strength, its

be included or

to

world without

animal

life

In regard to the with greater

not.

meant

"

"

higher

richly differentiated,

more dangerous enemies, means of motion and of getting

against

effective

geny which otherwise

at

the

as

qualification

birth,

of

individual

gifted

food,

self-defence

for

"

higher

was used

of man,

however,

it

more

having pro

almost

acquisition always stand in the foreground. "

with

as

differentiation

Bodily

parents.

the

is

though smaller,

:

able to defend

perfect

and the

and

When

food-

the word

meant something

The savage tribes with their natural forces quite different. unimpaired were regarded as the lower types, and civilised man, although in ill-health, lame and unable to earn a penny

all

his

life,

as the

"

"

"

"

Higher

higher.

in this sense

may be taken as almost identical with more socially dependent, with milder customs, able to enjoy mental pleasures, unable :

to live

At any

under any conditions but those of modern civilisation. rate the word was used regardless of any faculty of

self-defence

or self-maintenance,

logical superiority

and other bodily

in

the

power

capacity.

The

regardless

of any physio

of locomotion,

in strength

fragile person with special

but with a progeny as fragile and strengthas himself, was without hesitation assumed as "greater"

intellectual gifts, less

man with who presents

than the ability

and daughters.

the

strong

body and average mental

his nation with half a

dozen able sons

INTRODUCTION

xiii

Thus the whole of the animal world was measured by two standards, was estimated according to two utterly diffe rent principles. These standards were nowhere denned, these

principles

There

were never examined.

point in the line of evolution at which

one

greater becomes the confusion when,

ceases

of man,

valuation

longer taken

his

to

apply

begins.

are

qualities

and regard

consideration

into

fixed

in arriving at a

intellectual

general

no

and the other

the Still

standard

is

could be said that

it

is

had only

no to

the extent of his subjection to the traditional restrictions of action

called

Whenever

morality.

that

is

the chain be

so,

tween the two standards which may be said

to exist in the

In the first case disappeared completely. being among a species is that which leaves

former case has the

"

"

higher

and more numerous progeny,

the stronger the

"

"

being

higher

which

that

is

of such acts as are believed

does

in the latter case

a

larger

number

serve certain ends particu

to

esteemed by a certain portion of the community to which it belongs. In the first case the superiority of the

larly

individual

of

superiority

own

acts

In the to the

tested

is

in

its

progeny

the individual

is

first

by the quality of

is

and

only

in

refers

the

English philosophy

of evolution

Morals ")

process

to

;

in

the second

the imagination of the

of the

century that of this duplicity of

present

become aware

has

Samuel Alexander in 1892

of ethical

in nature

in

their alleged or real happiness.

nineties

standard. While Professor

preted the

its

the

growth of the qualities of the species

fellow beings

in

second case the

in the

assumed welfare of a small community. case the superiority is physiological and refers

for

case the superiority exists merely

It

;

tested

(in

his

evolution

Essay on

still

inter

as the continuation "

Natural Selection

two independent thinkers, the Right Hon. Arthur

INTRODUCTION

Xiv

James Balfour and Professor Huxley, almost simultaneously dis covered the gulf between the two standards. But both solve the discrepancy

the

in

same way.

Regarding the

intellec

tual-moral or simply moral standard as unquestionably superior to the physiological they gladly sacrifice the latter to it, thus that

at

arriving

of thought

unity

in

requisite

every

true

philosophy.

Mr. Balfour in his

on Progress (1891) came can hardly refuse our support

"Fragment

conclusion that

to the

"we

improvement of the race may

to the view that the general in

some

lead

respects

a

to

deterioration

constitution of the individual.

the

in

natural

Humanity, must have a tendency to mitigate the harsh methods by which Nature has wrought out the variety and the per fection of organic life. And however much man as he is civilisation, progress

itself,

moulded by the

ultimately

man

gain,

he

as

"

the

If

lose.

social forces

born into

is

who

sceptic,

race

under

"

can,

improvement position

the

traditional

accepts social

at

the

prejudices

the

who is

unfortunate

forces in

general

modern

up is

more

improvement

pends,

not

to

ask

of the

called

an

himself from

free

He

daring.

physiological

not only silently consequences of the

but goes so far as to wish to

life,

that the ethical

on imitating the "

he yet

his

"Let

calls

Romanes us under

of society de

process, it."

"

in

progress

cosmic

running away from it, but in combating he calls it an audacious proposal thus to

cosm against the macrocosm

to

somewhat discouraging

this

unable

them immeasurably. Huxley said Lecture on Evolution and Ethics (1893), all,

be

rightly

increase

stand, once for

enough

"

circumstances,

takes

all,

scientist

not sceptic

is

the question whether such a

the

surrounding him may world must somewhat

less

still

And

in

although micro

pit the

man s

ends higher

INTRODUCTION

ends than

XV

and hopes that such an of success. measure with certain a meet may the

ends

of nature

"

"

enterprise

Bentham, when the belief in a mythological origin of the moral law was sufficiently shaken to raise apprehensions con the

cerning

further

of that

validity

circumscribed the

law,

the ideal of one flock

on earth

Christian ideal of happiness

by an abstract term as the maximisation

and one shepherd

of happiness, the greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number. fic "

Huxley

the

of as

fitting

many

merely circumscribes the ethical process to replace

This

is

confronted

mark

is

to

Origin

he does not question arrives

at the

in scienti

it

of Species

"

as

But he

"

or propose

it

proposition that

extinguish the cosmic process,

it

is

it.

the point at which English philosophy like

Our

:

it,

"

s

possible to survive.

as

Thus he

modification.

any

similarly circumscribes

from Darwin

terms borrowed

the

morality,

itself

age which

by

a

we know

startling

to

now

stands

interrogation

be the

result of a

development limited to man and extending over a few thousand years under all kinds of climatic, economical and literary influences, is asked to pronounce judgment upon

social

the whole exist

of the cosmic process.

merely

constantly record,

in

men s minds and

changing

are they to

in every particular

all

through

create a to

new

The moral known

are

the

period

world,

an

ideals,

to

which

have been

of

historical

ethical

the world of reality

world

?

opposed was once generally believed that the world at large was governed by the same moral laws which were supposed It

govern human society, that whole realm of nature, that there

to

human

justice

ruled

the

were punished, good actions rewarded, and judgment passed. Darwinism has for ever put an end to that concept of a moral order of a unisins

INTRODUCTION

XVI

verse of peace.

It

now

is

for existence

struggle

development

the

to

man now

all

to

think

and measure

physiological,

and

civilisation,

art,

The

struggle.

in spite of

If,

infinitely.

of forcing

his

Darwin has enabled us to apply to should we not look at him as a being above

Why

?

higher

which

standard

nature

all

own moral why should not we measure man by

dares

standard upon nature the

of that

effects

moral realm has thus been limited that,

and that

rages everywhere,

due

is

generally admitted that a severe

religion

of

first

by

the value of his

all

their effect

upon

his species,

by the standard of physiology ? It is not easy to say beforehand to what results such a would

valuation

undertake

to

the

currency of our time. rate will

any two of

and

lead,

thus

is

it

task

worthy of a great thinker

of transvaluing the intellectual

Whatever be the

be gained,

viz.,

that

we

result,

one thing

at

no longer have

shall

"

mutually contradictory concepts of progress, and but have only one standard, the lower, "

different, "

"

higher

"

"

physiological.

Among in

who have come forward

the independent thinkers

modern German}

,

Friedrich Nietzsche, the

first

to

under

take this task, stands foremost.

Although the period of his so late as the eighth decade was power greatest of the century, he has already become an European event and given rise to an independent school of like Hegel, creative

Be the ultimate judgment of thought on the continent. modern thought upon him what it may, certain it is that

To a large philosophy can no longer neglect his works. extent because of his highly condensed, epigrammatic and elliptic

cult

style,

even

known

in

which makes sometimes the

for a this

German country

to attain, until

full

meaning

diffi

he has been almost un

a few

years

ago.

But

it

is

INTRODUCTION

XV11

that the publication of a complete English edition of works prepared with the greatest possible care will make them known to all who are interested in the great mental

hoped his

problems of the age.

The

present volume, which initiates

the last four of Nietzsche

The

and December 1888.

them

whatever

is

all:

Physiology as is

small,

what

sole standard

mena be

Physiology

the is

sole

the

as

human, whether

drift

culture,

on what

good und what

is

facts

and

of thought per of value of

criterion

or religion!

called art, culture,

arbiter

by which the

and

civilisation

But one

the fourth with Christianity.

vades

two deal with music, the

first

some problems of

with

third

the series, contains

composed between May

s writings,

bad

is

great

and what

Physiology as the

!

of history and the pheno

of our time can be tried, and by which they have to

tried

and

to

receive

the

verdict

of

the

origin

on the great

issue

:

decline, or ascent?

The

circumstances

of

the

of this

parts

volume are simple though sad enough. As the} stand they all products of the last eight months of the year 1888.

are

"The

Case of

Wagner"

was sketched

and the manuscript completed of June.

The two

added during

for "

"

Postscripts

in

May 1888

in

Turin

the press before the end

and the

"Epilogue"

The pamphlet appeared

were

in

September small book another 1888. thereafter Immediately "Idlings of a Psvchologist was begun which was finished by the July.

"

beginning of September.

During the printing the

title

was

changed into a parody of Wagner s "Twilight of the Gods," and the book named "Twilight of the Idols." Besides, the chapter the

were

"What

the

Germans

Roving Expeditions inserted.

On

Sep.

lack"

of an

"

3

and some sections of

Inopportune

Philosopher"

Nietzsche applied himself to the

INTRODUCTION

XV111

a work

of

completion

number

the

philosophy,

had occupied

that

and was projected

of years "

Transvaluation

of

mind

his

He had

"

Values.

all

a

for

masterpiece in

as his

by him extensive preliminary sketches of the entire work, but having altered the original plan had to rewrite almost The plan on which he now worked was the the whole. following

The

:

of four books,

title

of the whole work, which was to consist

was

to

be

"

towards a Transvaluation

was

called

"

:

The

of Christianity. 3

and

the

30,

name

"The

"

The

Free

A

Immoralist.

Spirit.

:

Morality

the

Book

First

most

of the

of

the

"

Dionysos.

Transvaluation

which had appeared in 1876 "

"

Inopportune

Contemplations,

having made

"

Wagner

various

of Nietzsche from Wagner,

made

They

in

the

fourth

of

The

Case

of

speak of an apostasy

December

I

admire"

"Where

I

make

"Wagner as a I.

later

than

"Richard

1888,

Wagner

are taken from the following places

"Where

Part

critics

"

from

"Joyful

Objections" "

Danger,

i.

Aphorism 134.

Science,"

from

from

"Joyful

Nietzsche

in

Wagner

Baireuth,"

:

Aphorism Science,"

87.

Aphorism 368. Vol II. "

"Human,

all

Wagner

as

and

of

The con

a selection of most of the passages refering to

from his writings*

*

in

:

"

:

"

Baireuth,"

called

"

"

his

bear

kind of

fatal

and the Fourth Book

;

to

of Philosophy

Criticism

Nietzsche turned once more to Wagner. trast between his first Wagner attempt, Richard

Values

Book

Essay towards a Criticism final form between Sep.

A

Philosophy of Eternal Recurrence.

From

Essay

The Third Book was

"

Criticism

"

Ignorance

its

The

"

The Second Book was intended

Movement.

as a Nihilistic

Values.

An

received

It

An first

Will to Power.

all

Antichrist.

"

1888.

The

of

All-too-Human,

INTRODUCTION

order

in

show

to

antagonists.

and

he

that

the

After

satirical

XIX

Wagner

pleasantries

were of

natural

the

first

pamphlet he wished, besides, to point to the graver side the

of

case

He

of Wagner.

arranged

the

inde

twelve

pendent passages,* the style of which he changed somewhat, Nietzsche contra Wagner into a little book printed in the "

"

An

Intermezzo he had put in between the second and third passage he later withdrew. "Nietzsche

last

weeks of 1888.

was to appear in course of 1889, But even perhaps Twilight of the Idols previous to the he was not fated to see the publication of his last three contra

Wagner"

"

".

writings or even to finish his

Transvaluation of

"

all Values."

In the middle of the winter of 1888/9 he succumbed to a serious nervous disturbance which led to hopeless insanity and a temporary confinement in a lunatic asylum. Since

summer

the

relatives at

"

"

as a Danger.

Part

Aphorism

A

II.

i.

Antipodes"

Where Wagner

"Wagner Evil,"

his

Human, All-too-Human,

"

Vol

II.

Vol

II.

"

165. "

from

All-too-Human,

"Human,

"

171.

from

to

"

Aphorism 370. Beyond Good and

Science,"

"Joyful

belongs

from

"

"

Evil,

Sec

as

the Apostle

of Chastity,

"

i.

from

"Beyond

Good and

Section 256.

A Genealogy Essay Third, Sections 2 and 3. I got free from Wagner" from "Human, All-too-Human,"

Wagner of

under the care of

254 and 256.

tions

as the Apostle of Chastity.

2.

and

"

3.

from

"

Morals,"

"How

Vol "

Aphorism

lived

has never, however, again been

from

"

2.

Music without a Future

"We

"

He

Naumburg.

Wagner

Part

"

1890 he has

of

The

II,

Preface, Sections 3 "

Psychologist speaks

269 and 270. "Epilogue" from

"Joyful

and

from

4. "

Science,"

Beyond Good and

"

Evil,

Preface, Sections 3 and 4.

Sections

INTRODUCTION

XX

able to write or give directions about the publication of his

works, which passed into the hands of his heirs and relatives. "

The

1889.

January Wagner"

of

Twilight

of

The

the first

Idols

"

did

impression of

not "

appear until Nietzsche contra

1888 was never published, and the

little

pam

phlet was only issued with "The Antichrist," in Vol. VIII of Nietzsches Werke which appeared towards the end of 1894, with 1895 on the titlepage.

For most of the position of

the four

and dates regarding the com

facts

works

of

German

Koegel

present

volume,

Thomas Common,

has been translated by Mr. obliged to Dr. Fritz

the

s

which

the Editor

is

Nachbericht in Vol. VIII of the

edition.

ALEXANDER

TILLE.

THE CASE OF WAGNER NIETZ SCHE CONTRA WAGNER; THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS; THE ;

ANTICHRIST

THE CASE OF WAGNER A MUSI CIAN S PROBLEM BEING A LET TER FROM TURIN, MAY 1888 :

:

"idcndo

dicere sever urn

.

.

.

PREFACE relieve

I

myself a

It

little.

is

not solely out of

sheer wickedness that I praise Bizet at the expense of in this

Wagner

work. In the midst of

much

pleasantry,

bring forward a case which is serious enough. It was my fate to turn the back on Wagner to be fond I

;

of

No

aught afterwards was a triumph.

one, perhaps,

had been more dangerously entangled in Wagnerism, no one has defended himself harder against it, no one has been more glad to get rid of

word wanted

Is there a

who knows how

I

for

it.

A

If I

it ?

should designate

long history

were a

it

!

!

moralist,

Perhaps

self-

But the philosopher never loves mora neither does he love fancy words

overcoming. lists

.

.

.

.

What of himself

does a philosopher ?

To overcome

With what, strife ? With the

"timeless."

hardest

just the child of his age.

his

firstly

age

then,

and

!

has he to

I

am

.

lastly require

in himself, to

characteristics in

Well

.

become

wage

the

which he

is

the child of this

PREFACE

2

age, just like

Wagner,

of

conscious

it

I

;

The problem reasons for

defended myself against

most

"Good

it.

When

that problem.

itself

of decadence

me

occupied

a decadent ; I am, however,

e.,

.

defended

philosophic spirit

has

/

against

is,

and

Evil"

is

had

have

I

;

which

that

in fact,

profoundly

My

it.

it.

only a variety of

one has learned to discern the

one also understands morality, one understands what conceals itselt under its holiest

symptoms of

decline,

names and valuation-formube life,

tives

life

.

discipline

.

I

:

was morbid

For such a task

.

had

in

to

impoverished

namely,

;

desire for the end, great lassitude. I

Morality nega

required

some

self-

engage in combat against whatever

me, including Wagner, including Schopen

modern

all

"

humanity. "A pro found estrangement, coolness, and sobriety with refe rence to everything temporary or opportune and as hauer,

including

;

my

highest wish,

the

of Zarathustra,

eye

an eye,

an immense height, surveys the whole phenomenon of man, looks down on it ...

which,

To

exalted

to

what

such an object

attain

be appropriate

What

?

sacrifice "

"

self-overcoming

!

would not

What

"

self-

"

denying My most important experience was a convalescence !

Wagner Not malady. that

belongs only to

If in

Wagner

my

would wish

that I

is

;

maladies.

to

be ungrateful to

this

work

I

maintain the proposition

hurtful,

I

want none the

this

less

to

PREFACE maintain

pensable

whom,

to

to

may

people

the

in spite of

3

it

all,

In

philosopher.

Wagner

other

perhaps get along without

indis

is

departments

Wagner

;

the

philosopher, however,

is

not free to dispense with him.

The philosopher has

to

be the bad conscience of

time

;

his

he must possess its best know But where would he find a better initiated

for that purpose

ledge.

guide for the labyrinth of modern soul, a more elo

quent psychological expert than Wagner? Modernism speaks its most familiar language in Wagner it con :

ceals

neither

its

sense of shame.

good nor

And

its

reversely

a clear notion about what

is

evil, :

it

has lost

all its

when one has formed

good and

evil in

Wagner,

one has almost determined the value of modernism. I

understand perfectly, when a musician says now,

I

Wagner, but I no longer stand any other music. should however also understand a philosopher who

hate I

"

"

"

declared,

no help

Wagner siimmarises modernism. There it we must first be Wagnerians "...

for

;

is

I

heard

will

yesterday

believe

you

it

the

?

masterpiece of Bizet for the twentieth time.

I again in succeeded held out with meek devotion, again not running away. This victory over my impatience How such a work -perfects one One surprises me. I

!

becomes a

And

"

"

really,

masterpiece I

have

one

s self

by

influence.

its

every time

appeared to myself,

I

have heard Carmen, to be more of a philosopher, a I have become better philosopher than at other times :

Five

so patient, so happy, so Indian, so sedate

hours sitting

:

the

first

stage of holiness

ture to say that Bizet s orchestra music sole orchestration I yet endure

music which

is all

orchestration, at

that

at

the

same

is

time,

the

artificial,

three

ho\v

Wagnerian orchestration

!

I

ven

almost the

That other orchestra

?

the rage at present, the

once brutal,

thereby speaking to soul

May

!

and

call

\

it

innocent

of

senses

detrimental I

Wagnerian "

to

"

modern

me

is

the Sirocco.

THE CASE OF WAGNER

An

unpleasant sweat breaks out on me.

time

music seems to

This

My

me

to

be

it

does not produce sweat.

everything

proposition of subtle,

vidual. it

my

What

is

with light feet

It is

good "

easy

the

:

This music

^Esthetics.

is

ap ami ;

first

wicked,

is

remains popular at the same has the subtlety of a race, not of an indi

and it

time,

runs

divine

"

It

perfect.

proaches lightly, nimbly, and with courtesy. able,

good

an end.

at

is

fatalistic

It is rich.

completes

;

it

;

it

It is precise.

It builds,

it

organises,

thus the antithesis to the polypus

is

Have more painful, melody. accents been ever heard on the stage ? And tragic how are they obtained ? Without grimace Without in

"

music,

"

infinite

!

counterfeit

coinage

Without the imposture of the

!

Finally, this music takes the auditor for grand style an intelligent being, even for a musician here also !

;

Bizet

Wagner, who, whatever else the most un courteous genius in

the contrast to

is

he was, was certainly

(Wagner takes us

the world.

he says until one

just as if

,

a thing again and again until one despairs, believes

it.)

And Bizet

once more,

exhorts me.

auditor.

my of

Is

ears it.

before

I

I

it

become

a better

man when

Also a better musician, a better

at all possible to listen better

under

seem dangers

this

this

music,

to assist at

which

I its

?

I

bury

hear the very reason production

accompany

any

I

tremble

hazardous

THE CASE OF WAGNER

am

I

enterprise,

of which Bizet

fortune

of

think

I

after

it

to

.

spirit

.

.

free f that

it

gives

one becomes so much more

that

?

thought

all,

For quite other thoughts the time Has it been

it.

run through my mind at noticed that music makes the

wings

of

good And, curiously or I don t know

innocent.

is

don t think of

I

enough,

how much

strokes

by

enraptured

7

a philosopher, the more one becomes a musician

The grey heaven of by

lightnings

filigree

grasped summit.

And

;

the light

of things ;

abstraction thrilled,

the

;

as for

enough

strong

it

?

were, the

all

problems ready to be

great

the universe surveyed as from a mountain I

have

answers

just defined

into

fall

my

philosophical

pathos.

lap unexpectedly

a

;

little

hail-shower of ice and wisdom, of solved problems

Where am is

I

?

makes me

good makes me productive.

tude, nor

have

This work "

Bizet

Saviour.

"

I

saves

also

Bizet s

;

north,

and

all

ideal.

Even

the

dramatic

from.

It

possesses,

the

has borrowed shortest

above

all,

Wagner

is

is

.

.

All that

have no other

grati

good.

not the

work one takes

humid

passion,

I

any other proof of what

With

the

productive.

.

only

leave of the

steam of the Wagnerian saves

action

us

there

from Merimee the logic route,

stern

what belongs

necessity.

to the

warm

in It cli-

THE CASE OF WAGNER mate,

the dry ness

in

respects,

all

ferent

of the climate

the

German

has not a French or a

African

destiny hangs over

;

not hitherto of

find

look

.

we

did

:

I

it

gaiety

is

envy

the

in

How

.

.

happiness benefit us

its

but

gay Its

this sensibility,

expression

scorched sensibility of

is

;

is

with

music

cultured

We

!

yellow afternoons

the

contemplate the out

ever see the sea smoother ?

lascivious

And how

cultured maiden

love as

the

nature

war of

hatred.

Not

the

love of a

Senta - sentimentality

Love, which in

!

the sexes, and in

know

I

No

of

* !

its

cludes

yes

:

!

expedients

/ myself have

Senta

is

one of

Wagner

!

s

killed her

my Carmen

itself

so terribly, as in

itself

Jose, with which the

Oh my Carmen *

and

no case where tragic humour,

so strenuously, has formulated

Don

But

basis their mortal

its

which forms the essence of love, has expressed the last cry of

How love

Finally, love,

as fatality, cynical, innocent, cruel,

fate,

thus true to is

"

!

!

natiire /

!

once to be satiated

for

melancholy into

retranslated again "

learns

insatiability

its

for

which did

tranquilisingly the Moorish dance appeals to us

even our

short,

Bizet

more southern, more tawny, more

this

Europe

sensi

happiness

sudden, and without forgiveness.

dif

different

gaiety. its

it,

having had the courage for

Here a

a

itself,

This music

a different gaiety.

bility,

Here,

limpidezza.

altered.

is

expresses

sensuality

its

air,

;

adored

female personages.

"

!

work con

THE CASE OF WAGNER

Such a conception of love is

worthy of a philosopher)

work

of art

among

only one which

(the

rare

is

9

it

;

distinguishes a

thousands of others.

average, artists do like

For, on an

the world, or worse even

all

they misunderstand love. Wagner also has mis understood it. People imagine they are unselfish in love because they seek the advantage of another often

being,

But

so

for

being

.

rule.

He

.

far

he

if

terror,

own

to

possess

advantage. other

the

no exception to this from thinking, What need you if I love you ? he becomes a himself

is

"

"

it,

L Amour

not loved in return.

is

word one gains one s

est de toits les

sequent,

their

want

they

Even God is

to

opposition

doing

about

trouble

this

.

in

sentiments

lorsqu

il

cst

case with gods and le

plus

bless e,

le

egoiste, et,

with

men

par con

moins genereux

(B.

Constant).

You

me

?

already see

//

how much

faut meditcrraniser

la

music improves musique : I have

this

reasons for using this formula (Beyond Nr. 255).

The

return to nature, to health, to gaiety, to

youth, and to virtue

!

And

yet

I

most corrupt of the Wagnerians ... taking to

Good and Evil,

Wagner

seriously

.

.

.

Ah,

was one of the I

this

was capable of old magician

what extent has he imposed upon us

thing

his

art

furnishes

is

a

!

The

magnifying -glass.

!

first

We

THE CASE OF WAGNER

IO

look into

comes

we don t

it,

even

great,

a wise rattlesnake

us about

becomes great

Wagner !

All his

about

"devotion,"

everything be

trust our eyes

life

.

.

What

.

he has rattled before about

"loyalty,"

"purity;"

with a panegyric on chastity, he withdrew from the And we have believed him corrupt world

But you do not of

the problem

.

.

!

to

listen

to

Wagner

me

You

?

prefer even

of Bizet

that

.

don t

I

?

The problem it has its charm. even a venerable problem. There is nothing which Wagner has meditated on more pro

undervalue

it

of salvation

myself,

is

foundly than salvation vation.

works time

;

his opera

;

Someone always wants to be saved in Wagner s at one time it is some little man, at another some

is

it

woman

little

And with what opulence he What rare, what profound Wagner for

the opera of sal

is

that

is

his problem.

varies his leading motive sallies

!

Who

was

!

but

it

taught us that innocence has a preference

saving

sinners

interesting

Or

(the

case

in

Tann-

even the Wandering Jew will be saved, will become settled, if he marries (the case in ?

hduser]

the Flying prefer

to

Kundry best

to

that

Dutchman]

in Parsifal]

be

Or

?

that corrupt

that

young

old

women case

(the

of

hysterics like

saved

by their doctor (the case in Or that handsome girls like best to be

Lohengrin] ? saved by a cavalier in

Or

?

be saved by chaste youths

the Master-singers]

who ?

is

Or

a Wagnerian

(the

that even married

case

women

THE CASE OF WAGNER are willingly saved

Or

that

a cavalier (the case of Isolde]

by

old

"the

I I

God,"

?

he has compromised

after

himself morally in every respect,

is

finally

freethinker and immoralist (the case in the

saved by a

Nibelung

s

Do Ring] ? Admire especially this last profundity understand it ? I take good care not to understand you !

it

...

may be

That other lessons also

these

w orks,

one

can

r

I

be

and

ballet

derived from

would rather prove than deny. to

brought

to virtue

a

by

despair

(once more

That

Wagnerian

case of Tann-

the

That the worst consequences may result if one does not go to bed at the right time (once more

hduser]

\

That one should never know

the case of Lohengrin].

too exactly case

whom

one question

me

Answer

who on

in his

that sooner

(for

and

Tristan

of Lohengrin],

perfect husband,

told

one marries

Isolde

extols

the

a certain occasion has only

mouth

But why have you not Nothing was simpler than that "

:

"

?

!

In truth : cannot

:

the third time the

"What

tell

it>

them dost ask

Remains

unanswered.

for aye

"

Lohengrin contains a solemn proscription of investi gation and questioning. Wagner, accordingly, ad vocates the

and must and

Christian

doctrine,

"

believe.

holiest to

be

It is

shalt

believe,

an offence against the highest

scientific

.

.

preaches the sublime doctrine the most

"Thou

vagabond person

.

The Flying Dutchman that woman makes even

settle

down,

or, in

Wagnerian

THE CASE OF WAGNER

12

language,

Granted that

ask a question.

same time be

the

desirable

Wandering Jew,

He

?

of no

is

lated into actuality

these

woman

What becomes

?

it

at

of the a

by

are

more

interest to us.

Trans

the danger of artists, of geniuses

:

the

"

Wandering Jews

women

adoring

:

would

true,

simply ceases to be the eternal wanderer,

he marries,, and

for

is

it

the liberty to

adored and settled down

"

"

woman

Here we take

him.

"saves"

anyone has sufficient

are

their

character

to

in

"lies

ruin.

Hardly

being cor

resist

when he finds himself treated being saved as a god he forthwith condescends to woman. Man "

"

rupted

:

is

before

cowardly

women know

(perhaps precisely is

that

many

feminine

eternally

of feminine

most celebrated

the

in

is

cases

cases),

sometimes

even

in

:

love

love

only a more refined parasitism, a nestling in

a

a

strange body what expense always to the host Goethe s fate in moralic-acid, old-maidenish Ger soul,

strange

Ah

all

In

it.

!

at

many

-

!

known.

is

Germans

;

he

He was

always a scandal to the has had honest admirers only among "

Jewesses.

round

Schiller,

their

according

Goethe

"

"

?

to

ears

w ith r

their

For the

noble

"

"

Schiller,

high-flown

taste.

Why

who

blustered

phrases,

did

Mountain of Venus,

he was

they reproach "

and because

he had composed Venetian epigrams. Klopstock had there was a time already preached to him on morals ;

when Herder had

a preference for the

word

"Priapus,"

THE CASE OF WAGNER

13

when speaking of Goethe. Even Wilhelm Meister was only regarded as a symptom of decadence, of going to the dogs in morals. The menagerie of "

"

"

tame

"

cattle

which

it

exhibits,

and the

"

meanness

who

the hero, exasperated Xiebuhr, for example,

"

of

finally

breaks out into a lamentation which Biterolf* might have chanted Hardly anything can produce a more "

:

painful impression than a great

of

wings, and seeking

its

far

while

lower,

cultured maiden little

it

virtuosity in

renounces the

was however

every sort of

courts

its

mind despoiling

something

higher"

"

in

Wartburg

in

spirit

Goethe.

He

music.

but he does

Goethe

that

such a

way

it

in

saved

is

Wagner

saves Goethe,

of the

the part

has

cultured ;

a

set

:

The

.

all

the

"

unclean

this history

to

goes without saying, that he adroitly takes

maiden

at

the

saves him,

prayer

.

Germany-

crossed themselves before Goethe, before the "

.

especially roused

"

itself

same a

time.

cultured

maiden draws him iipivard What Goethe would have thought of Wagner ? Goethe once proposed to himself the question, What .

.

.

"

is

the danger which hovers over

fate of the romanticist

by chewing "

again.

adds

epilogue

*

A

and :

Parsifal that

to

Wagner

s

the

over

-The philosopher

answer.

Tannhduser.

:

"Suffocation

absurdities

religious

higher values perhaps

personage in

romanticists

His answer was,

?"

In fewer words

an

of the

last

moral

all

still

Holiness seen

the

by the

THE CASE OF WAGNER

14

populace and woman, the horizon

who

all

are

however,

it

myopic.

naturally

ideal

for

philosophers,

every other horizon, a mere misap

like

is

of the

For

prehension, a sort of door-closing of the region where

commences

their

world

ideal,

their desirability

only

ne

la philosophic

.

.

their

their

danger,

Expressed more politely pas au grand nombre. II :

.

sujfit

hii faut la saintete.

recount

further

I

belongs to

It

Ring.

the this

For the half of

saved.

in

racters

in

He

it.

his

world

conventions"

ideologist.

sought for

"

it

in the

believed

Runic cha

?

"

"

like

world

?

from

that

all

How does one How does one

"

the

old

old

He commences

his procreation

already

is

world,

old

get rid of the evil

do away with old

?"

does.

the

every revolutionary

Only by declaring war against That (traditional usage and morality).

fried

who

That means from customs, laws, morals,

society rest on.

society

story

Whence comes all Wagner asked himself. From

he answered,

institutions,

the

is

of myths, he believed that he found in Sieg

evil in the

in

a

himself

Wagner life, Wagner has

it

fried the typical revolutionist.

and

also

none but a Frenchman has ever

as

revolution,

believed

It is

place.

of salvation, only, this time, is

of the Nibelung s

story

early with

"conventions"

is it,

a declaration of

what Sieg very early

:

war against

THE CASE OF WAGNER

5

he comes into the world through adultery

morality

and incest ... is

I

not the legend, but

It is

the inventor of this radical trait

has corrected the legend

he commenced he casts aside

Whatever

:

Siegfried

.

.

.

on

;

he follows only the

all

tradition,

all

Wagner who continues as first

to

the

reverence,

on the old

attack

principal undertaking, however,

emancipating woman fried and Brunnhilde

is

the

;

fear.

He

runs

His

Deities.

purpose of

for the

saving Brunnhilde

"

impulse, all

displeases him, he stabs down.

irreverently

he

this point

Sieg sacrament of free love "...

;

dawn of the golden age the twilight of the Gods of old morality evil is done away with Wagner s vessel ran merrily on this course for a

the

;

.

!

time.

long

Wagner sought

Here, undoubtedly,

.

.

his

What happened ? A misfortune. The went on a reef Wagner was run aground.

highest goal. vessel

The

;

was Schopenhauer s

reef

philosophy

was run aground on a contrary view had he

hauer

music

set to

In addition,

had

it

long over

formed

it

;

Wagner was ashamed.

Optimism.

was an optimism

He was

optimism.

?

his

a

The

reef if

purpose,

on which

real

was

he

he interpreted the

epithet

it

infamous

He

thought

seemed desperate ...

way be

which Schopen

once more ashamed.

out of the difficulty finally

it

for

malicious

situation

Wagner What

;

of things.

as

meaning of

dawned on wrecked

his

A

mind.

how would

the goal, the ultimate his

voyage

?

To be

I

THE CASE OF WAGNER

6

wrecked here

was a goal

that

Bene navigavi

also.

cum naufragium fed And he translated the Nibelung s Ring into Schopenhauerism. Everything goes wrong, everything goes to ruin, the new world .

is

bad as the

as

makes

a sign

earlier

.

.

honour of

Nothingness, the Indian Circe,

old.

who

Brunnhilde,

.

had

design

.

.

take

to

of a Socialistic Utopia in which

Schopenhauer

book of the

to

"

all will

She has

do.

a

song

in

in anticipation

be

"

well,

first

has

to study

she has to put into verse the fourth

;

World

"

was saved Wanner o salvation.

to

else

with

world

free love, solacing the

now something

according to the

leave

The

as Will

In

...

all

and Representation. seriousness, that was a "

which Wagner is indebted immense. It was only the philo

service for

Schopenhauer

is

sopher of decadence

who

enabled the

of deca

artist

dence to discover himself.

The it

at

is

artist of decadence

my

here that

all

inclined

to

Wagner

a

man

is

the word.

seriousness commences.

be

a

decadent ruins our health Is

that

at all

?

quiet

spectator,

typical

decadent,

with his corrupt

taste,

am

when

not this

and music along with it. Is he not rather a disease ?

Everything he touches he makes morbid music morbid.

A

I

And

who feels who claims

he has made

himself necessary that

it

is

a higher

THE CASE OF WAGNER

who knows how

taste,

make

to

I

his

7

depravity be

regarded as a law, as a progress, as fulfilment.

And nobody

defends himself.

of

Wagner s power

becomes prodigious, the smoke of incense steams around him, the misunderstanding about him seduction

by no means the poor

"

calls

itself

"

whom

spirit exclusively

is

it

Gospel

he has convinced.

should like to open the windows a

I

More

air

Air

little.

!

!

does not surprise

It

in

selves

about

would

surprise

themselves a

me

them

that people deceive

Germany. The contrary The Germans have created for

Wagner me.

in

Wagner whom

they can worship; they

were never psychologists, they are grateful by mis But that people also deceive them understanding. selves about

in Paris

Wagner

!

where people are almost

And

nothing else but psychologists.

where things are even

still

How

in Paris.

not

recognised it

:

People skies.

he

is

by

its

Petersburg

!

divined which are not divined intimately related to the entire

European decadence must Wagner to

in St.

it

as

a

be,

decadent.

Protagonist,

its

when he

He

greatest

is

belongs

name

.

.

.

honour themselves by exalting him to the For it is already a sign of decadence that

no one defends himself against Wagner. Instinct is weakened. What should be shunned attracts people.

What the

drives

lips.

still

faster

You want

an

into

the

example?

abyss

is

put to

One need

only

I

THE CASE OF WAGNER

8

observe the regime which the anaemic, the gouty, and the

diabetic

the vegetarian

To

diet.

recognise what is deny one s self \vhat is

able to

and

the vegetarian

;

may be

stimulus

a

sound enough exhaustion

;

by

to

on

is

master,

children I

art

him

by what

allured

is

Disease

!

morbid.

itself

increases

Wagner

he allures

account that

Oh, the rattlesnake joy of "

just

the

little

!

Wagner s

:

The problems which he brings upon

nothing

stage

is

must be

only, a person

when he always saw to

a sign of youth

is

give prominence to this point of view

is

the

come

"

:

that

weak and exhausted.

the old

hurtful,

for such a stimulus

it

strengthening

his pot-herbs.

life

of

Definition

a

hurtful, as hurtful, to be

The exhausted

vitality.

hurtful

the

who needs

a being

:

themselves.

for

prescribe

but problems of hysterics

convulsiveness of his emotion,

,

the

his over-excited sensi

which

always asked for stronger stimulants, his instability, which he disguised as prin ciples, and, not least, the choice of his heroes and

bility,

his

heroines,

taste,

regarded as physiological types

of morbid individuals

!

)

:

(a

altogether these

gallery

symptoms

represent a picture of disease about which there can

no mistake.

be is

perhaps

nothing

is

better

Wagner known

studied

est at

more than

unc

nevrose.

present,

at

the Protean

Nothing

any

character

of degeneracy, which here crystallises as art and

Our

physicians

and

physiologists

have

in

rate

artist.

Wagner

THE CASE OF WAGNER

most interesting case, Just because nothing

their case.

least a

at is

ig

very complete

more modern than

this

and over-excitability Wagner is the modern

entire morbidness, this decrepitude

of

nervous mechanism,

the

artist

the

excellence,

par

In his art there

in the

mixed,

is

of modernism.

Cagliostro

most seductive manner,

the things at present most necessary for

everybody

the three great stimulants of the exhausted, brutality, artifice,

and innocence

Wagner

is

a

(idiocy).

great

ruin

He

music.

for

has

divined in music the expedient for exciting fatigued

sesses

no small inventive

ability in the art of

up once more the most exhausted, and to life those

hypnotic

all

who

are half-dead.

passes, he upsets,

strongest.

the

He

he has thus made music morbid.

nerves

nerves,

The

success

like

He

is

pos

pricking

calling

back

the master of

the bulls, the very

of

Wagner his and consequently on women

success

has

on

made

the ambitious musical world disciples of his magical

art.

And

At

present

not the ambitious only, the shrewd also

money

is

made by morbid

only

.

.

music,

our great theatres live by Wagner.

I

again allow myself a

the case that the Success of

took

form,

and

that,

little

gaiety.

Wagner became

disguised

as

a

I

suppose

embodied,

philanthropic

THE CASE OF WAGNER

2O

musical savant,

do you think cumstances ?

My

mixed among young artists. How would express itself under the cir

it

it

it

friends,

would

ourselves.

among

than good music.

It

easier

is

What,

if,

us have five words

let

say,

make bad music

to

apart from that,

were

it

more advantageous ? more effective, more per suasive, more inspiriting, more sure ? more Wagnerian ? also

Pulchruvi

est

understand

paucorum hominuvi. Bad enough

Latin,

we

advantage. The beautiful has

What

of that.

is

understand our

also

perhaps

thorns

its

We

!

we

;

are aware

the good, then, of beauty

Why

?

not rather the grand, the sublime, the gigantic, that

which moves the

once more

be gigantic than to be beautiful

easier to

aware of that

We

And

masses ?

know

best that

sit

.

.

we

are

.

the masses, in

;

is

it

:

it,

we know

German

the theatre.

The

youths, horned Siegfrieds

and other Wagnerians, require the sublime, the pro the

found,

And

complish. the

the others that

culture - cretins,

the

feminine,

good

the

overpowering.

He who

divine

Let

;

us

he

sit

the

biases,

in

short

is

have strong

all

eternally

the people

;

and the

one kind of

logic.

he who raises us

who makes

us imaginative

Messrs,

the musicians

decide,

the theatre

in

sublime, the profound,

Those

upsets us

little

digesters,

similarly require the

"

Thus much we can ac

overpowering.

is "

is :

profound.

let

us upset

THE CASE OF WAGNER them,

us raise them,

let

make them

us

let

2

I

imaginative.

Thus much we can accomplish.

As

regards the making imaginative,

our conception of

"

"

style

has

its

here that

is

it

Above more com

starting point.

must be no thought Nothing is promising than a thought But the state of mind which all,

there

!

!

precedes thought,

the travail of yet unborn thoughts,

the promise of future thoughts, the world

before

God

created

as

w as r

it

a recrudescence of chaos

it

chaos makes imaginative

.

.

.

.

.

.

In the language of the master

but without

infinity,

:

melody. In the second place, as concerns the upsetting,

it

Let us study

already belongs in part to physiology.

them persuade first of all the instruments. Some even the bo\vels (they open the doors, as Handel The colour says), others charm the spinal marrow. of

of sound

is

decisive here

;

what resounds

Let us refine on this point

indifferent.

!

use of wasting ourselves on other matters characteristic

in

sound,

attributed to our genius

jecture

in

our sounds

us strike them dead,

Above be

all,

.

us

?

give

the

is

Let us be

foolishness

to

when we Let us

!

let

that upsets

thunder,

even

almost

is

What

much

It

!

to

con

irritate the nerves,

make

.

however, passion

Nothing

is

let

use of lightning and

upsets.

Let there

no misunderstanding among us with regard

passion.

is

less

expensive than passion.

to

One

THE CASE OF WAGNER

22

can dispense with not have

need

use passion.

learned

Beauty

against beauty

.

And

.

the

one

anything, let

is difficult:

friends,

about

serious

.

!

my

disparage,

the virtues of counterpoint, one

all

melody us

let

more

my

Application sanctifies

And

.

.

:

immoral.

is

The

Parsifal.

of

\vant

melody

We

Proof :

are

melody

fine

melodies are again loved

Melody

:

Principle

we

disparage

more dangerous than a Nothing more certainly ruins the taste. friends, if fine

Let us

!

if

disparage,

is

Nothing

always

us guard ourselves

still

us

let

ideal,

can

!

are .

!

!

lost,

.

.

Palestrina.

even

melody

.

this

the definition of passion.

is

Passion

gymnastics of the loathsome on the rope of enharmonics. Let us dare, my friends, to be loath or

the

some

Let us splash before us, undismayed, the mire of the most odious harmonies It is thus only that we Let us not spare our hands

Wagner

!

has dared

it

!

!

!

become natural

A

last

Let us

to

raise

can do,

men,

we

walk above the let

.

.

!

Perhaps

be idealists ! If this

we

thing

.

counsel

it

is

embraces

it

is

all in

!

Bumbuui

at least the wisest.

In order

ourselves must be exalted. clouds, let us

!

there

is

:

not the most expedient

harangue the

us surround ourselves with grand symbols

suin

one

Let us infinite, !

no better counsel.

SurLet

be our argument let fine feeling be our advocate. Virtue still wins the case against

"

fulness of heart

"

"

;

"

THE CASE OF WAGNER "

counterpoint.

He who makes

us better

be that he was not good himself been the conclusion of mankind. it

make mankind

better

(one thereby becomes

a

"

Seeking

"classic").

after so-called beauty,

German

us remain

!

classic

serves for recreation,

?

how

could

such has always

Let us therefore

"

:

after ignoble sense -excitement,

has enervated the Italians

Even Mozart s

relation to music

of

way

let

;

consolation

was

!

Let us never admit that music

frivolous after all ... "

"

one thereby becomes good even Schiller became

!

has told us by

Wagner

23

"

that

"

it

cheers up,

"

that

"

it

fur

Let us never furnish enjoyment ! nishes enjoyment. we are lost, if people again think of art as hedonis "

tic

On

... That belongs to the bad eighteenth century the other hand, nothing might be it

(we say verbo.

hour when

it is

sympathy. will save

.

more advisable

And

let

us

choose the

suitable to look black, to sigh publicly,

to sigh in a Christian "

.

hypocrisy, sit venia

apart) than a dose of

That gives dignity.

.

Man

hivi?"

manner, to exhibit large Christian

depraved who will save him ? What Let us not answer. Let us be careful.

is

:

Let us struggle against our ambition, which would like to found religions. But nobody must venture to doubt that we save him, that our music alone brings salvation

.

.

.

(Wagner s Essay,

"

Religion and Art

").

THE CASE OF WAGNER

24

7

Enough

Enough

!

fear

I

!

sinister

have been too plainly recognised under of

the picture

lines

decline

a

The

also in the artists.

in

will

reality

art,

my

cheerful

of a

decline

a decline of character,

latter,

would perhaps receive a provisory expression with this

formula his

player, talent

for

A

the musician

art

my

principal work,

Physiology of Art total

this

now becoming

is

a stage-

developing more and more into a I shall have an opportunity (in a

is

lying.

chapter of "

:

")

which bears the

of showing

transformation of art into

in

detail

title,

how

stage -playing

is

an expression of physiological degene ration (more exactly, a form of hysterics) as any of

just as definite

the corruptions and weaknesses of the art inaugurated

by Wagner

;

for

which

optics,

posture before

it.

the

example,

of

restlessness

continual

necessitates

changing

One understands nothing

of

its

of

Wagner

him a sport of nature, a an accident. He was no defec

so long as one only sees in caprice, "

tive,

a whim, or "

"

abortive,

or

"

"

"

contradictory,

genius as has oc

casionally been said.

Wagner was something

a typical decadent, in

whom

all

If

whose

characteristics

anything

is

all

"

free will

interesting

in

Wagner,

it

as

innovation in

principles

complete,

was

were determined by

with which a physiological trouble, as procedure,

"

is

lacking,

necessity.

the logic

practice

and

crisis

and in

THE CASE OF WAGNER advances step by

taste,

25

from conclusion to con

step,

clusion.

confine myself this time solely to the question

I

of

What

style.

the

is

characteristic

of

all

literary

no longer resides in the whole. The word gets the upper hand and jumps out of the sentence, the sentence stretches too far and decadencel

It

that

is

the

life

obscures the meaning of the page, the page acquires

longer a whole. of decadence

of

gation of

the

"

equal

whole

of the

the expense

at

life

But

that

the

will,

the language of morality,

in

widened

individual,"

rights for

"

all.

Life,

life

a

to

always becoming more

as

he

Everywhere hostility and chaos,

striking,

ceased to live altogether

Wagner seeks

want

life.

it

;

is

one

ascends to

The whole has

summed

composite,

an unnatural product.

is

not the

hallucination

of tones,

how he

at

but

appropriate

to admire him, see

separates,

theory,

political

higher forms of organisation.

artificial,

liberty

pushed back into the most in

There

"

equal vitality, vibration

minute structures, the others poor paralysis, distress, and torpor, or

up,

no

is

always anarchy of the atoms, disgre-

:

and exuberance of

ever

whole

the simile for every style

is

commencement

of gestures

semeiotic

him

arrives

the

at

at

for

;

little

If

tones.

work here

:

unities,

his

power exhausts

itself

:

these

you

how he how he

animates them, inflates them, and renders them

But by so doing

in

visible.

the rest

THE CASE OF WAGNER

26 is

How

worth nothing.

mode

laic is his

how

pitiable, "

of

how

confused,

his attempt to pierce

"

developing,

one another, things which have not grown out of one another His manner here reminds one of

at least into

!

Frcrcs

the

Wagner s aroused

G on court,

dc

whose

other respects also.

in

so

for

much

for

A

of pity

sort

principle his incapacity

creating organically, that he asserts a

where we

"

is

That Wagner has

trouble.

masked under the guise of a

approaches

style

"

dramatic

assert

merely his incapacity for any style, corresponds to an audacious habit which has accompanied Wagner all his life he posits a principle style

:

where he lacks a faculty (very different in this respect, let us say in passing, from old Kant, who loved another kind of audacity whenever he lacked a prin :

ciple,

he posited a

Once more

let it

of admiration in

the

in

faculty

be said that

and love

elaboration

right to

human beings Wagner is only worthy

"

"

in

.

.

.).

the invention of mimittce,

of details

here

;

we have

proclaim him as a master of the

as our greatest miniaturist in music,

first

every rank,

who compresses

into the smallest space an infinitude of

meaning and

sweetness.

His wealth of colours, of demi-tints, of the

mysteries

of

vanishing

degree that almost afterwards.

ception at

of

If

all

Wagner

present pleases

other musicians

will

you

in

spoils

light,

is

us to

such

a

seem too robust

believe me, the highest con

not

to

his works.

be

got

from

what

That has been

in-

THE CASE OF WAGNER vented to persuade the masses

back

presence of

in

it,

What do we

fresco.

of the Overture of

Wagner

all

Tannhauser ? or

music apart from the theatre

me

too impudent

care for the agacante brutality

flavour and spoils the taste.

seems to

one of our class bounds

as before an

for

the Circus

Whatever has become popular

of the Walkyrie ? s

;

27

is

in

of a doubtful

The Tannhauser March

to raise a suspicion of Philistinism

the

;

Overture of the Plying Dutchman is much ado about nothing the Prelude to Lohengrin gave the first ex ;

ample, only too insidious, only too successful, of

one

may

hypnotise with music

(I

dislike all

how

music that

has no higher ambition than to persuade the nerves). Apart, however, from Wagner the magnetiser and fresco -painter, little

there

is

yet a

Wagner who

deposits

jewels in his works, our greatest melancholist in full

music,

of flashes, delicacies, and

words of comfort

which no one has anticipated him, the master of the tones of a melancholy and comatose happiness in

.

A

lexicon of the most familiar language of

nothing

but

short

phrases

of from

five

the virtue of the decadents, pity

"

Very good for this decadent,

!

if

But how can one one

is

lose

.

Wagner,

to

fifteen

measures, nothing but music which nobody knows

Wagner had

.

one

.

.

.

.

.

.

s taste

not perchance a musician,

THE CASE OF WAGNER

28 if

one

versely

You

not perchance a decadent one s self

is

How

!

we can t do it aware who Wagner

are not

is it

great stage-player

Does there

!

?

Just attempt

is

at

he

;

is

a

exist

all

are

They them

.

.

.

art

Wagner s

a hundred

atmospheres

unavoidable

.

.

who

of attitude,

pale,

pathos,

choke one

?

Do

comparable

yourselves

kind

of

is

this

attitude

so

every

definitely

breath

to let

unwillingness

this

is

a tyrant,

taste,

This holding the

?

it

just,

has such convincing power

be of

an ex

dread-inspiring duration of is

enough

to

!

else

a musician at

in

liistrio,

a

higJier

the

At

all ?

greatest

least

he was

an

namely,

degree,

the

mime,

astonishing threatrical genius that the

in

most

Germans have

our scenic artist par excellence.

His place

is

with the grand must not be true geniuses of winch he confounded. is a and Beethoven that blasphemy and Wagner

elsewhere than

in

!

with the weight of

where momentary suspense

Was Wagner something

every

the

sees

treme feeling escape,

had,

more

nothing of

the stage-player

Who

else

everything-

Wagnerian

bow

:

overthrows

pathos

conditions

presses

Wagner

.

kind of resistance.

fore

a

and breathless

they understand

Wagnerians,

!

and nevertheless Wagner becomes master over

music

his

benumbed,

it

quite

profound, a more oppressive effect in the theatre

look at these youths

Re

"

?

the

end an

in the history of music,

injustice

even to

Wagner

.

.

.

He was

THE CASE OF WAGNER also

a

as

respects

because

the

became a musician, he became a poet, tyrant

compelled him

Wagner

to

himself

speak more

make

tudes,

nothing about

out

not a musician by

all

definitely

out of

for

it

domi

surably increased Victor

lawfulness, in

proved and to order

in

music,

for strengthening

for the

suggestion,

He

instinct.

required, a theatrical rhe

for expression,

here

and an innovator of the

the

all

style

what he

Wagner might

esque.

is

genius

stage -player

finds

by abandoning

means

a

toric,

his

him,

One

as long as one has not found out his

Wagner was

to

in

it.

instinct.

nating

this

9

only that which he \vas in other

musician

he

:

2

atti

psychologically pictur for

pass

first

an

inventor

he has immea

rank

speaking power of music ; he of music as language. Pro

tJie

Hugo

vided always one grants that music may, under cer tain

not

conditions,

ancilla

be

dramaturgica. %

music,

Wagner s

under protection by theatrical taste,

is

speech, tool,

music,

three,

he

When

becomes

not

or

taken

taste, a very tolerant

simply bad music, perhaps the

has ever been made.

count

but

worst that

a musician can no longer "

"

dramatic,

he

becomes

"

Wagnerian

"...

has almost discovered what magic can be wrought with a music decomposed and reduced, as it

Wagner

were, to the elementary. His consciousness of it goes so far as to be disquieting, like his instinct for finding

THE CASE OF WAGNER

30

The elemen

a higher lawfulness and a style unnecessary.

sound, movement, colour, in short, the

tary suffices

of music.

sensuality

musician from

wants

any kind of musical conscience

he wants nothing but

effect,

knows

never calculates as a

Wagner

that on which he has to operate

which every one possesses who

sessed,

the stage

he has also Schiller

;

which has

to

player

sit

virtue

in

at

his

as true

must not be true

been formulated

A

that

at

by Talma

all. :

it

psychology of the stage-player, not doubt it his morality also. never true.

But

it is

As long in addition,

for the

person

in

what has

The

r

a stage-

to operate

proposition has

contains it

is

w orld,

discernment in

a certain

viz.,

!

connected with

is

contempt

feet.

of having

advance of other men,

s

he

which Schiller pos

respect, the unscrupulousness

this

he

;

And He has,

effect.

the

contains

entire

us

let

Wagner s music

taken as true, and so

it

is

is

all right.

and Wagnerian they think of Wagner even as rich, as a

as people continue childish,

paragon of lavishness, as a great landed proprietor in the empire of sound. They admire in him what young

French people admire in Victor Hugo, the royal Later on people admire both of them for generosity. "

"

the very reverse reasons

:

as

masters and models of

economy, as prudent amphitryons. Nobody equals them in the ability to present an apparently princely table

at

a

modest

cost.

The Wagnerian, with

his

THE CASE OF WAGXER

3

I

devout stomach, becomes satiated even with the fare

which

however, who, alike stance

more than "

"

books and

in

anything"

else,

Speaking

are

does

Wagner

plainly,

whom

for

we

others,

want sub

in music,

and

feasts hardly suffice,

represented off.

We

master conjures up for him.

his

merely

much worse

not

us

give

enough to chew. His rccitatwo little meat, some what more bone, and very much sauce has been wherewith by me "Alia genovese do not mean to flatter the Genoese, but

christened tainly

;"

As

the older recitative, the recitative secco.

Wagnerian

occasion

The

I

leading motive,

telligence for

assign to

"

"

it

for

"arias"

If I

it.

lack

were pressed,

the value of an

ideal

dispensing with

the

of

Wagner

are

still

I cer

rather

would perhaps

I

toothpick,

of

rest

as

the

And now

left.

the

for

culinary in

all

an

food. I

do

not say a word more.

In is

sketching

above

itself to

all

him

dramatic

action,

is

Wagner

likewise,

That which

a stage-player.

first

suggests

a scene with an absolutely sure effect,

a veritable actio *, with a haut-retief of gesture, a scene *

the

Note.

It

has

been a

veritable

word drama has always been

not the only one who errs here the matter even the philologists, ;

;

ancient drama action

misfortune

translated all

by the world

who ought

"

is

to

for ^Esthetics

action. still

know

that

"

\Vagner

is

in error

about

better.

The

had grand pathetic scenes in view, it just excluded (relegated it previous to the commencement, or behind the scene).

THE CASE OF WAGNER

32

which

he thinks

iipsets ;

this

out thoroughly,

it

only out of this that he derives his characters.

is

All

the rest follows therefrom in accordance with a tech

economy which has no reasons

nical It

not

is

indulge

the

it

;

of

public

decides now-a-days

:

stronger than

other,

the

He

between.

act,

tests for

With such of

requires

hard

of

logic

:

each

and of

first

work

all

much sage

stupidity

to guarantee to

he begins with the third

;

work by

its

final effect.

but what did

is

A

drama unawares.

a

him

Wagner

in

no

drama

ever care

it Let us repeat was not the public he had to indulge, it was mere Ger

!

:

One knows

!

"

as every other stage-player

himself his

creating

Corneille

mans

to

"

a theatrical talent for guide, one

danger

about logic

has

Wagner

a series of strong scenes,

seeks

self the effect of his

he

subtle.

merely the nineteenth century. Wagner to the one thing needful

is

would decide with regard in much the same manner

in

Corneille

be

to

the technical problem in solving

which the dramatist applies sweats blood

:

all

his

power and

to give necessity to the plot,

and

often like

wise to the denouement, so that both are possible only in

one way, so that both give the impression of free

dom

(principle of the least expenditure of force).

The word

"

drama

"

is

signifies

"event,

"

"history,

local

and according to Dorian usage both words in a hieratic sense. The oldest

of Doric origin,

"

drama represented

Now

legend,

the

"

sacred

"

history

on

which the

establishment of the cult rested (consequently no doing, but a happening: in Dorian does not at all signify to do "

").

THE CASE OF WAGNER sweats the least blood here

Wagner

33 it is

;

certain that

he makes the least expenditure of force on plot and You may put any one of Wagner s denouement.

under the microscope

"

"

plots

I

;

promise you will

Nothing more en livening than the plot of Tristan, unless it be that of the Master -singers. Wagner is not a dramatist let have to laugh

\vhat

at

see.

you

;

us not be imposed upon

was

that

word

he

all "

"

He

!

loved the word

in his writings, is nevertheless

drama,

New

in the

same manner

Testament

as the

word

purely

Wagner

:

toward the word

affected superiority

al

"

opera "

"

"),

in the

spirit

From

purely a misunderstanding.

is

"

;

The

always loved fancy \vords.

a misunderstanding (and shrewd policy

ways much

drama

"

first, he was not enough of a psychologist for the drama he avoided instinctively psychological motiva

the

;

tion.

By what means

crasy in Parisian

its

place

Wagner

without for the

does

.

a

I

.

.

Wagner

woman s

really

Wagner do

got to sing

!

!

Erda.

Erda

not

it

let

?

very

us say in

knows how

work

to

invention, are of quite an

woman s

voice

that

Let us take the case voice.

An

entire act

does not do

!

But

What woman He emancipates the oldest Up old grandmother You have

moment none

"

.

give an example.

requiring a

in the world,

always putting idiosyn

Very modern, is / The plots,

by means of dramatic

other kind.

of

.

very decadent

!

passing, which

out

.

By

?

of the

"

heroines

"

are free.

"

!

sings.

!

Wagner s purpose

is 3

served.

THE CASE OF WAGNER

34

He

immediately discharges the old dame again.

you come

really did

In summa

"

again

!

Retire

? :

Why

Please go to sleep

!

scene

a

"

of

full

mythological

horrors, which makes the Wagnerians imaginative But the contents of the Wagnerian texts their .

.

.

"

!

"

mythical contents, their eternal contents

How

:

does one test these contents, these eternal con

tents

The chemist

!

the

into

Wagner more

still

Question

!

gives the reply into

real,

into civil

cruel,

To speak

modern

the

life

!

one translates

:

What

let

be

us

then becomes

have attempted it. Nothing more entertaining, nothing more recommendable for pleasure walks, than to recount Wagner of

Wagner

!

to one s self in

Parsifal as

a

in confidence, I

more modern proportions candidate

in

divinity,

:

for

with

example, a public

school education (the latter indispensable for pure folly*}.

What

surprises one then

experiences

!

Would you

Wagnerian heroines, each and all, when one has only stripped them of their heroic trap believe

it

that the

are like

pings,

counterparts

of

Madame Bovary

!

And how

one comprehends, inversely, that Flaubert liberty to translate his heroine into Scandi

was at

navian, or Carthaginian, and then to offer her, mytho-

whole,

to

Wagner as Wagner appears

logised,

a to

libretto.

Yes, taken as a

have had no

interest in

any

other problems than those which at present interest *

Nietzsche here refers to the etymology of Parsifal (pure fool)

which Wagner adopted.

THE CASE OF WAGNER petty Parisian decadents.

Always

35

from

just five steps

Nothing but quite modern problems, nothing but problems of a great city ! don t you doubt it ... Have you remarked (it belongs to this associa the hospital

!

!

Wagnerian heroines have no The despair They cannot have children

of ideas) that the

tion

children

?

.

with which

Wagner

permitting Siegfried to be

modern

his sentiments

"

emancipates

woman

.

.

has dealt with the problem of

"

born

were on

at

all,

this point.

Siegfried

but without hope of posterity.

Parsifal which perplexes us How has he done that ? father of Lohengrin

Finally, a fact

:

here to recollect that

Wagnerus

"

chastity

the

is

Have

!

we

how

reveals

works miracles ?

"

.

.

.

dixit princeps in castitate auctoritas.

10

A

word

writings

:

in

yet,

passing,

concerning

other things,

are

Wagner s

a school of

among The system of procedure which Wagner

they

expediency.

be employed in a hundred other cases, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Perhaps I shall have uses, is to

a claim to public gratitude,

if I

give precise expression

most valuable principles of procedure Whatever Wagner cannot accomplish is objection

to his three

:

able.

Wagner might unwilling

owing

accomplish

much more,

but he

to strictness of principle. 3*

is

THE CASE OF WAGXER

36

Whatever Wagner can accomplish,

.

.

will

no one has anticipated, no one ought to imi

imitate,

tate

no one

Wagner

.

divine

is

.

.

.

These three propositions are the quintessence of

Wagner s

writings

Not literature

reason.

all

the rest

:

the music up

"

literature.

now

till

has had need of

one does well here to seek for a satisfactory Is it that Wagner s music is too difficult to :

understand

Or

?

he

did

would be understood too

the contrary,

fear

that

easily,

understand

to

enough

difficult

"

is

it

that

it

would not

be

In fact, he has

?

all

one phrase that his music does not But more Infinitely more simply mean music "Not simply music "no musician speaks in such a

his life repeated

:

!

manner able to

.

.

.

be said once more, Wagner was un cut out of the block he had no choice at all, !

Let

it

;

he was obliged tudes,

!

!

to

formulae,

make

patch- work

reduplications,

"

motives,"

centuplications

musician he remained a rhetorician

:

;

atti

as

a

on that account

he was compelled as a matter of principle to bring the It implies, into the foreground. Music is device, "

"

always just a means

"

"

;

that

was

his theory, that w^as

possible for him.

But no musician

the only praxis at

all

thinks in such

Wagner had need of litera persuade all the world to take his

a way.

order to

ture in

music seriously, to take

meant of the

it

"

Infinity "

Idea.

;

"

all

his life

What

as profound,

"because

it

he was the commentator

does Elsa signify

?

There

is

THE CASE OF WAGNER

no doubt however the

people"

Elsa

:

into a complete revolutionist

Let us recollect that

Hegel and Schelling led found

out, that

the unconscious spirit of

"

is

idea I necessarily developed

this

("with

"*).

Wagner was young when men s minds astray that he ;

he grasped firmly what only a German

takes seriously

the

"

Idea,"

that

obscure, uncertain, mysterious clearness

is

37

an

;

something

among Germans

that

and

objection,

to say,

is

is

logic

disproof.

Schopenhauer has, with severity, accused the epoch of Hegel and Schelling of dishonesty with severity, and also with injustice he himself, the old pessimistic :

no way acted

false-coiner, has in

more celebrated

his

morality out of the

"

more honestly

Let us leave

contemporaries.

game

is

Hegel

:

a flavour

.

.

only

a

!

himself equal to

merely made for

which he has immortalised

!

application of

himself a style which

it "

to

Music as came the heir of Hcgcl And how Wagner was understood .

of

men who were even

written

.

enthusiastic

sent enthusiastic for is

.

/

Wagner Above

:

Quotations from Wagner.

Idea

in

sort

Hegelian

German youth "

"

"-

are at pre

his school

the

all,

felt

He

!

The same

for Hegel,

understood him. The two words,

*

!

A

he be

"

Infinity "

!

he invented

music

meant

And

.

German, but a European flavour which he flavour which Wagner understood hot

than

"

infinite

and

"

signi-

THE CASE OF WAGNER

38

he enjoyed an incomparable pleasure in hearing them. It is not with music that Wagner has won the youth over to himself, it is with ficance

the

"

quite sufficed

Idea

"

"

the mysteriousness of his

it is

:

;

of hide-and-seek

a hundred symbols,

among

game

art, its its

poly-

of the ideal, which has led and allured these

chromy

youths to

Wagner

!

genius for forming

Wagner s

is

it

sweeping and roving through the his ubiquity and nullibiety air, precisely the same proceedings with w^hich once Hegel misled and clouds, his gripping,

seduced

the

youths

multiplicity, fulness,

as

in

were,

it

In

!

and

the

of

Wagner s

arbitrariness, they are justified,

o\vn eyes

their

midst

they

are

"

saved."-

They hear with trembling how in his art the sublime symbols become audible with gentle thunder out of the they are not out of temper if the cloudy distance atmosphere here sometimes becomes grey, frightful, ;

and

For they are

cold.

each

bad weather, German w eather, r

Woden of

their

is

bad w eather

God

r

.

.

.

youths, such as they

Wagner what w e la

:

They are

:

uality

;

others,

gay a scienza

lofty logic

like

;

are

Wagner

right,

is

these

how could they we Halcyonians,

light

feet

the tremor of southern light

perfection

related

;

wit,

to

himself!

God German

the

miss in miss in

fire,

grace,

the dance of the stars, haughty intellect

;

.

all

Woden, however,

:

r

him

and

.

.

;

the smooth sea

THE CASE OF WAGNER

39

I I

I

have explained where

not to the history his

of music.

Wagner

a

:

what

Nevertheless,

is

The advent of momentous event, which

import for the history of music

the stage-player in music

belongs to

?

gives occasion to reflect, perhaps also to fear. In a for

mula, ness

and

"Wagner

of musicians, their

such a dangerous

Never has the upright genuineness," been put to

Liszt." "

It is easily

test.

enough understood

no longer one has to be a stage-

great success, the success with the masses,

on the side of genuineness, player in order to obtain

it

Victor

!

:

is

Hugo and Richard

Wagner they imply one and the same truth, that in declining civilisations, wherever the arbitrating power falls into the hands of the masses, genuineness becomes superfluous, disadvantageous, and a drawback. It

is

only

awakens great enthusiasm. Thus dawns the golden age for the stage-player for him and all that is related to his species. Wagner marches

the stage-player that

with drums and

still

fifes

at the

head of

of display, of virtuosity

elocution,

;

all

the artists of

he has

first

con

vinced the leaders of the orchestras, the machinists, and theatrical singers.

orchestra

:

he

"

Not saved

forget the musicians of the

to "

them from tedium

movement which Wagner the domain of thereto

knowledge

.

.

.

The

created encroaches even on ;

entire sciences belonging

emerge slowly out of a scholasticism which

THE CASE OF WAGNER

4O is

To

centuries old.

give an example,

which Riemann has rendered

attention to the service to rhythmics

he

;

the

is

first

who

of an ugly

made

has

music

essential idea of punctuation in

by means

I call special

word he

(it

current the

is

a pity that

"

calls

it

phrasing

").

All

these,

the

most worthy of regard, eimong the worshippers

of

Wagner

I

with

it

say

are

they

The same

Wagner.

instinct

him

another, they see in

simply

to

right

unites

the

are

gratitude,

best,

worship

them with one

their highest type,

they feel

themselves transformed and elevated to power, even great power, ever since he inflamed them with his

to

peculiar

fluence of sphere,

much

much

never been so

has

there

anywhere, the

if

has really been beneficent.

Wagner

in

In this

thought,

much work. Wagner has with a new conscience what

purpose, so

these artists

all

Here indeed,

ardour.

so

inspired

they at

:

present require of themselves, what they obtain from themselves, they have never required before

time

different

to

demanded, there

rule.

Wagner a

"

rule

is

is

there

severe

the good, the

Taste

for

:

most

the

excellent,

cspressivo at

is

is

;

"

effect.

any

Even

price,

difficult

blaming, there

talent

such as

is

is

is

rarely

regarded as the not even voice.

no longer necessary only sung with a ruined voice

dramatic

A

that.

rules in the theatre since the spirit of

spirit

Wagner began praising,

modest

they w^ere too

formerly

Wagner s

:

that has

excluded.

The

demanded by

the

is

THE CASE OF WAGNER decadence

ideal, the

Wagnerian with talent.

Virtue only

nor voice, nor talent

Wagner

Germanics

s

:

self-denial."

is

is

taste,

only one thing needful

Germanics

/

.

.

of

Definition

.

obedience and long legs ...

:

that

Neither

"

there

stage

along badly

ideal, gets

the proper thing here

is

to say, drilling, automatism,

for

4!

It is full

of

deep significance that the advent of Wagner coincides both facts furnish with the advent of the Empire "

"

;

long

and

one

of

proof

the

same thing

obedience

and

There has never been better obedience

legs.

there has never been better

The

commanding.

nerian musical directors, in particular, are

;

Wag

worthy of

an age which posterity will one day designate with timorous reverence, the classical age of war. Wagner understood how to command by that means he was ;

the great teacher also.

He commanded

orable will

as

himself

to

himself,

Wagner, who

:

the

life-long

as the inex discipline of

perhaps furnishes

the

most

example of self-tyranny which the history of supplies (even Alfieri, otherwise most nearly

striking art

related

to

him,

has been

surpassed.

Remark

of a

Turinese). 12

By means are

insight that our

more worthy of adoration than

ousness

who

of this

yet

stage -players

ever, their danger-

not

been

conceived as less

doubts

what

I

has

am

after

what

.

.

.

are

But the

THE CASE OF WAGNER

42 three

demands

for

tude,

and

love

my mouth

my

which

my

for art,

resentment,

have

at

my

solici

present opened

?

That the theatre may not become the master of art. That the stage-player may not become the corrupter of the gemiine ones. That mnsic may not become an art of

lying.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.

POSTSCRIPT The

gravity of the last words permits

me

in this

some passages from which at least leave no

place to communicate in addition

an

dissertation,

imprinted

doubt concerning dissertation

is

of

consciousness

Wagner s

to this

success,

formidable,

almost

was

three

resistance

his

exists

still

Even

present.

it

was

of

Wagner which he encountered among s

it

strong,

gloomy hatred

like a

fourths

at

obscure

triumph, did not outroot

But formerly

feeling radically. it

What Wagner Wagner costs dear. An

costs us.

entitled,

The adherence

The

seriousness in this matter.

my

life

this

was

throughout

That

-time.

us Germans,

cannot be estimated highly enough, nor sufficiently honoured. against

not

a

refute

We

defended

disease

a

not

disease,

ourselves

with

but

against

arguments with

him

as

one does

obstruction,

with

with aversion, with loathing, with a sullen seriousness, as if a great danger prowled around us

mistrust,

THE CASE OF WAGNER

44

The

in him.

gentlemen compromised them

aesthetic

when, out of three schools of German philo sophy they made an absurd attack upon Wagner s and for "-what did he care principles with selves,

"

"if"

even his own

for principles,

have had enough of reason themselves every

hibit

An

instinct

is

"if"

The Germans, however,

!

in their instincts to

and

weakened when

by rationalising itself

weakens

it

is

it

rationalised; If there

itself.

spite of the totality

indications that, in

decadence, there yet resides in the

of

injurious to

all

valued

to

us.

European character

hope

pense with so

:

much

P"rance

Wagner under us,

no

could

healthfulness.

what

should like least

I

does honour to

It

are

German

see this stolid resistance to

among

even

us

and threatens danger,

for

of

a degree of healthfulness, an instinctive scent for is

pro

this matter.

in

"for"

it

permits dis

longer

The Germans,

the

rctarders

par excellence in history, are at present the most backward among, the civilised peoples of Europe

:

has

this

its

they are thus re

advantage,

latively the youngest.

The adherence

mans have only dread of him

to

Wagner

quite

lately

*

NOTE.

"Was

reasons for asking trait

whatsoever.

unlearned

the desire to get rid of

them on every occasion*. Wagner

Do you German

difficult to

this.

It

is

Being

a

great

learner,

The Ger

costs dear.

at

sort

of

him came upon

recollect a curious

We

all ?

discover in

he

a

has

have

some

him any German

learned

to

imitate

POSTSCRIPT

45

occurrence, in which, just at the end, that old feeling

Wagner

the

at

happened

his

"-was

!

its

appearance

Wagner

celebrated.

how

everybody admired a taste Wagner have a privilege the

first

Salvation

enough

made

!)

"

inscription

:

the

to

Everybody admired the

read.

it

"

sublime inspiration which had dictated

singular

It

?

the

that

in

immediately became Saviour

of

funeral

Germany, that of Munich, depo tomb a wreath, the inscription on which

Society

on

sited

made

quite unexpectedly,

again,

which the partisans of

in

but

;

this inscription,

many

the

same

little

Salvation

from

the

also

was

(it

correction in "

Saviour

!

People recovered breath.

The adherence measure

it

movement has

upon

that to

of

the

Geyer. in

put worse.

is

Whom has his

the arrogance of the layman,

else,

of the idiotic art-amateur.

much

Let us

dear.

civilisation.

brought into the foreground ? What and more reared into magnitude ?

More than anything

sition

costs

Wagner

really

more

it

to

in its effect

German

that

is

all.

He

organises societies just

His character

itself

is

in

oppo

what has hitherto been regarded as German not to speak His father was a stage-player named German musician !

A

Geyer

is

almost an Adler*

circulation as the

I confess

my

"

Life

of

.

.

What

.

Wagner

has hitherto

been

"

distrust of every point

is

fable convemte,

which

rests solely

if

not

on the

testimony of Wagner himself. He had not pride enough for any truth whatsoever about himself, nobody was less proud he remained, just like Victor Hugo, true to himself even in biographical matters, he ;

remained a stage player. *

Geyer

(vulture)

and Adler (eagle) are both names of Jewish

families.

THE CASE OF WAGXER

46

now, he wants to make

his

"taste"

prevail,

he would

even to become the judge in rebus musicis et musicantibus. In the second place, an ever greater

like

indifference to

severe, noble, conscientious training

all

the service of art

in

for

it

mula

;

plain words, insolent dilettanteism (the for

in

for

the belief in genius substituted

;

the

third

the

absurdity

be found

to

is

it

and worst of

place,

a

of

In

in the Master-singers].

belief

in

Theatrocracy

all,

;

of the

a precedence

theatre, in the right of sovercignity of the theatre over

the

rians a is

:

over art

arts,

.

.

But one has

.

hundred times

to tell the

to their face

what the theatre

always just something in subterposition to

always something merely secondary,

Even Wagner has changed

suitably falsified for them.

of that

nothing

good opera matters of

.

.

.

:

is

Bayreuth

The

theatre

big opera

taste, the theatre is

this

Wagner just proves he depraved the taste, for the opera

an insurrection of the

The

He

is

vocation,

case

of

he gained the multitude, he depraved even our taste :

!

The adherence of the

but never

a form of demolatry in

is

masses, a plebiscite against good taste.

make

art,

something vul

something suitably adapted for the masses,

garised,

it

Wagne-

to

mind

possessed

?

of

everything,

Wagner costs dear. What does Does Wagner free the mind ?every in

ambiguity,

fact,

which

every

persuades

equi the

undecided, without making them conscious what they

POSTSCRIPT

are persuaded

Wagner

to.

There

the grand style.

is

thereby a seducer in

is

nothing fatigued, nothing

and derogatory to matters, which would not be

decrepit, nothing dangerous to

world

the

spiritual

under

taken

secretly

the

in

47

life

his

by

protection

luminous husks of the

He

ideal.

flatters

is

it

art,

obscurantism which he conceals

blackest

the

in

nihil

every

and disguises it in music, he every kind of Christianity, and every religious

(Buddhistic) instinct

istic

flatters

form of expression of decadence. ears

of

has

that

everything

:

impoverished

Let us open our grown up on the soil

the

life,

entire

transcendence and another world, has in its

sublimest

too

prudent

advocate use

to

sensuality, which, in

not

turn,

of

Wagner s

art

formulae

in

is

(Wagner

but in persuasion

formulae), its

coinage

false

of

again makes the mind

tender

and

w^ork

in this respect his greatest masterpiece. Parsifal

will

is

fatigued.

always maintain

seduction,

work,

I

as

was never

/

so,

His

at least understand

admire that

I

myself; not

it

it

.

.

.

better inspired than at the end.

quisiteness in

the

alliance

Wagner

Do you

ness acting as a

of beauty casts, as

it

s earlier art

:

it

?

it

Wagner The ex-

and disease were, a

is

shadow

appears too bright, too

understand that

shadow

last

place in the art of

chief

stroke of genius ...

its

here carried so far that

healthy.

the

should like to have composed

having done

over

Music as Circe ...

?

Health and bright

as an objection almost

?

.

.

.

THE CASE OF WAGNER

48

We

so

are

far

pure fools already

.

.

Never was

.

there a greater connoisseur of musty, hieratic perfumes, there never lived such an expert in the

of

the

all

little

uberant, of piness art

my

drink,

You nowhere

!

of

knowledge

the tremulous and ex

all

the femininism in the thesaurus of hap

all

Just

!

infinite,

find

Ah

.

.

more pleasant mode of

a

of forgetting your manliness

enervating your mind, under a rose-bush .

the philtres of this

friends,

old magician

this

!

This

!

How he makes war Klingsor of all the Klingsors against us therewith against us, the free spirits How !

!

!

humours every cowardice of modern soul with Siren tones There was never such a mortal hatred

he

!

One

of

knowledge

to

escape being

!

be a Cynic one requires to be able

here

seduced

requires to

;

Well

to bite to avoid worshipping.

Cynic warns thee

The adherence

to

canem

Wagner

.

.

The proximate

Wagner

alcohol.

It dulls,

Specific effect

:

TheWagnerian I myself,

effect,

s

it

is

!

The

costs dear. I observe the

relatively

influence

old seducer

.

who have long been exposed

youths

taste.

cave

!

to

his infection.

innocent,

relates

to

like a continuous use of

obstructs the stomach with phlegm.

degeneracy of the sense of rhythm. at last

comes

to call rhythmical,

borrowing a Greek proverb,

call

what

"

agitating

The corruption of the conceptions is undoubtedly much more dangerous. The youth be comes a moon -calf an idealist." He has got the

swamp."

"

POSTSCRIPT

science, in that respect he stands at the height

beyond

On

of the master.

losopher

the other hand, he plays the phi

he writes Bayreuth journals

;

name

in the

problems

the

of the

ruin

he solves

;

all

of the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Master. The most is

49

disquieting thing, to be sure,

You may go

nerves.

at

night

and everywhere you hear instruments violated with solemn fury a savage through any of the larger

cities,

What

howling mingling therewith. the

are

youths

rhymes

hydropathic

already).

seems to

conscience :

establishment.

A

:

in

medical language,

me

either the

made

masters

if

has saved

a

Wagnerienne

?

is

therefore

seriousness

to

But they have One cannot serve two

choice.

one of them

much

too

one or the

their

woman,

is

that a physician could not put this

alternative with

-

already

for

?-

Bayreuth

.

;

women. What,

brides

-

.

.

from Bayreuth Bereits bereut (rued for is bad he is fatal to Wagner youths

typical telegram

It

taking place

Wagner

worshipping with

itself

is

other.

called

Wagner

Wagner.

woman

has built Bayreuth

Entire sacrifice, entire devotion, they have

him.

Woman

nothing they would not give him.

The Wagnerienne

she stands naked before him.

most gracious equivocalness she embodies

Wagner s

cause

impoverishes

becomes touching,

herself in favour of the master, she

to

be found in

at

the

present

:

her sign, his cause

He plunders us Ah, this old robber triumphs of our youths, he takes even our women as plunder, .

.

.

!

4

THE CASE OF WAGNER

50

and drags them taur

!

What

into his cavern

.

Ah,

.

.

he has already cost us

!

Mino

this old

Every year

trains

of the finest maidens and youths are led into his laby

may devour

rinth, that

he

strikes

the cry

up

"

:

them,

Off to Crete

every year !

all

Off to Crete

Europe "

!

SECOND POSTSCRIPT My On

it

letter,

appears,

is

liable to a

misapprehension.

countenances the indications of gratitude

certain

show themselves

I

;

hear even a discreet mirth.

I

should

many things, to be understood. new animal ravages in the vineyards of

prefer here, as in

But

since a

German xera,

intellect,

nothing

Kreuzzeitung

I

say

Centralblatt.

the profoundest

a sufficient reason

a

word

of

is

itself attests this to

the Literarisches

Germans

worm, celebrated Rhinoany longer understood. The

the Empire

them ...

why

me, not to speak of

have given

I

books they

at

to

all

the

possess

they should not understand

If in this

work

I

make an

attack

on Wagner and incidentally on a German taste, if I have hard words for the Bayreuth cretinism, I should like least of all to make an entertainment "

therewith for any other musicians.

do not come into consideration

Things are bad everywhere.

in

"

Other musicians

presence of Wagner.

The decay

is

universal. 4*

THE CASE OF WAGNER

52

The

disease

Wagner s name

If

deep seated.

is

name

the ruin of music, as Bernini s

fies

ruin of sculpture, he

He

not

is

has only accelerated

way

almost

instantaneous

his

that

He had

downwards,

descent,

believed in

rate

it

the

of traditional

!

end

;

;

emotion

at

the expression of impoverished

present

still

I

know

incomplete *

It is

referred to.

is

;

always more nerves

.

.

.

What

is

set

aside

who

is at

but only music which

more

is

self-

refinement as

;

in

:

nobody

sufficiently

music

indifferent

capacity,

is

at

an overture out of the

"better"

more

the abuse

;

the overliveliness of

;

life

in a position to cut

Wagner s,

was

.

at present

any price

and nobody knows him* famous does not create

cisive,

.

only one musician

block,

with

.

power

strong, sufficiently proud,

confident, or sufficiently healthy

in place of flesh.

that

the false coinage in the imi

which

tation of great forms, for

the smallest details

the

others hesitate

means without the justifying

that of attaining the

sufficiently

into

"

"

the decline of organising

:

the

That which Nothing else others have in common I enume

that distinguishes them.

Wagner and

:

in

sure,

he did not stop

it,

The

before any logic of decadence.

cause.

before

the naivete of decadence

He

superiority.

its

be

to

tempo,

one stands frightened

such a

abysm.

typifies the

by any means

its

typi

indifferent,

present

comparison

more inde because the

by the presence of the com-

Peter Gast, a disciple and friend of Nietzsche,

who

is

here

SECOND POSTSCRIPT

Wagner was complete

pletc.

;

53

but he was complete cor

he was courage, he was will, he was convic corruption of what import, then, is Johannes Brahms His good fortune was a German mis ruption tion

;

in

!

.

.

.

apprehension

:

he was taken

an antagonist to

Wagner

for

Wagner s needed

\vas

not produce indispensable music,

much music

instance too

enough

for

poverty

!

.

.

it

antagonist,

That does

!

produces

in the first

you are not rich, be proud The sympathy which Brahms If

!

.

and undeniably inspires, apart altogether from such party interest and party misunderstanding, was for a long time an enigma to me, until finally, here

there

almost by accident,

I

came

he operated

to perceive that

on a certain type of persons. He has the melancholy of impotency he does not create out of plenitude, he is thirsty for plenitude. If one deducts his imitations, ;

what he borrows exotic

of copying,

art

peculiarity, all

either

modern forms of

who

little

the

from the great ancient or the he is a master in the style

there remains,

the longing

mood

all

who

of a person, too

little

long,

by

"impersonal,"

of a

further find

on

of

class

we

Wagner

find

fifty

.

.

That

is

are dissatisfied. centralised

.

.

.

divined

He

That

is

He

is

unsatisfied

the

what they

especially the musi ladies.

Wagnerienne

paces further

by too

is

the peripheristic understand,

love him on that account. cian

.

most striking

as his

Fifty just

paces as

we

on than Brahms,

the Wagnerienne, a better stamped,

more

interesting,

THE CASE OF WAGNER

54

above

and,

he

moving, as long as mourns over himself

becomes

he

cold,

Brahms

more gracious type.

a

all,

he

that

in

more

of no

is

secret

in

is

is

he

"

;

imme

interest to us,

he becomes the heir of the

diately that

or

reveries,

modern

"

is

classics

.

.

.

One likes to speak of Brahms as the heir of Beethoven I know of no more considerate euphemism. All that :

makes pretensions

at present

music

is

with respect to

false

it

respect to us

:

is

or

suffi

the instinct of most

False with

"

people protests

they do not want to be deceived though myself, to be sure, should still prefer this type to the

against that I

us,

involves a casuistry with

regard to the worth of the two cases. "

in

grand style

This alternative

itself.

ciently thought-worthy, for

"

"

with respect to

false

eitJier

thereby

to the

other

;

with respect to

("false

Expressed more simply

Brahms

One

or

Wagner

.

.

may subsume

the

for

Brahms

.

a

This

itself"}. "

"

:

is

example, of Goldmark

:

What be

done

things.

be

can a

in It

Nothing,

is

done

one

masterly

main

can

may at

exhibit one s

present,

manner,

cure

do not

Wagner, for Queen of Shcba one

is

only

here only that honesty

however,

thing, of the

well

I

of

apes

with his

belongs to the menagerie

other

of the

musicians under the conception of Brahms.

say a word of the sagacious

taste.

poor in spirit no stage-player.

many

good

my

is

is

music

thing, of the fatality

what the

still

in

self.

can small

possible.

the

main

of being the

SECOND POSTSCRIPT

55

expression of a physiological contradiction,

The

modern.

of being

best instruction, the most conscientious

most thorough intimacy with the old all that masters, yea, even isolation in their society the

schooling,

or, speaking more strictly, illusory ; one has no because longer the physical capacity which be it that of the strong race of a is presupposed is

only palliative,

:

Handel, be

it

the overflowing animality of a Rossini.

Not everyone has the right is

true

of whole

excluded

itself

epochs.

that

there

to

The still

every teacher

that in

somewhere

in

possibility exist,

:

not

is

Europe, remains of stronger races, men typically in opportune from thence a delayed beauty and perfection :

even

music might still be hoped for. It is only exceptions we can still experience under the best for

circumstances. valent,

music.

that

From

the rule that corruption

corruption

is

fatalistic,

is

pre

no God can save

EPILOGUE Let us for

a

order to take breath, withdraw

in

finally,

moment from

world to which

narrow

the

all

concerning the worth of persons condemn the mind. philosopher requires to wash his hands questions

A

after "

case

he of

Modern.

has

so

himself

occupied

long "

I give has in Every age

Wagner.

my its

with

conception

the

of the

quantum of energy,

quantum determining what virtues are permitted to It has either the vir it, what virtues are proscribed. a

tues of ascending

life,

and then

it

resists to the utter

or it is itself most the virtues of descending life an epoch of descending life, and then it requires the ;

virtues of decline, then solely

by

^Esthetics

is

"

self

is

hates

all

that justifies itself

by superabundance of strength. indissolubly bound up with these biological

plenitude, is

presuppositions there

it

:

classical

there

is

decadence

aesthetics,

a chimera, like

all

the

idealism.

"

aesthetics,

beautiful

in

and it

In the narrower

EPILOGUE

57

no greater contrast than that of master morality and morality sphere of so-called moral values there

valuation

Christian

to

according

up on a thoroughly morbid

the latter

:

soil (the

the romances of Dostoiewsky depict) ("Roman,"

"heathen,"

versely, as the symbolic

of ascending of

life,

"classical,"

of the will to

as Christian morality denies "self-renunciation"

communicates embellishes,

to it

types

master morality

;

insult.

are

These

both

("

as the principle

power just

as instinctively

"the

God,"

other

things out of

its

fulness

it

"The

antithetical

indispensable

:

world,"

forms

in

im

things,

it

a Christian term of the optics of values

they are modes

of

seeing

refutations.

not refute Christianity, one does not refute

To have combated pessimism

combats a philosophy was the acme of learned The concepts true and untrue have not, "

"

"

"

idiocy.

glorifies,

rationalises the world, the latter

a disease of the eye. as one

world,"

nothing but negations). The former

which one does not reach with reasons and

One does

re

"Renaissance")

poverishes, blanches, and mars the value of

denies the world.

which

language of well-constitutedness

Master morality affirms,

life.

grown

Gospels present

us precisely the same physiological

to

it

is

any meaning in optics. That against which alone one has to defend one s self is the not be sen falsity, the instinctive duplicity, which will

as

it

seems

to

me,

sible of these antitheses as antitheses

with Wagner, for example,

who

:

as

was the case

possessed

no

little

THE CASE OF WAGNER

58

masterliness in such

To

falsities.

look enviously towards

master morality, noble morality (the Icelandic legend is almost its most important document), and at the same time to have in his mouth the contrary doctrine, the "

"

Gospel of the Lowly,

passing, let

me

need of salvation

!

... In

admire the modesty of the Bayreuth. I myself should not

say that

who go

Christians

the

to

I

endure certain words out of the mouth of Wagner. There are conceptions which do not belong to Bay reuth

What

.

.

.

A

?

Wag-

Wagner in his days was positively feminini generis) ? Let me say

neriennes, perhaps by old

Christianity adjusted for

Wagneriennes

(for

once more that the Christians of today are too modest me ... If Wagner was a Christian, then Liszt w as r

for

perhaps a Church-Father the essence of

all

The need

!*

Christian needs, has

with such harlequins

nothing to do

the sincerest form of ex

is

it

;

of salvation,

pression of decadence, the most convinced and most painful affirmation of tices.

The

Le moi

Christian wishes to get loose from himself.

has,

glorifying of

life

;

*

is

Liszt

it

roots

a

gratitude. s

because

On

triumphing the

self -affirming,

equally needs "

in

its

self-

sublime symbols heart

great art belongs here

art, all

was Wagner

the

is

it

practices, but only

All beautiful

its

reversely,

^^/"-affirmation,

of both

Noble morality, master

est toujours Jiaissable.

morality,

and

sublime symbols and prac

in

it

is :

too

"

full.

the essence

the other hand, one cannot

father-in-law.

EPILOGUE discount from

59

an instinctive aversion from the deca

it

dents, a disdain, a horror even, before their

such

almost

is

:

The noble Roman

demonstration.

its

symbolism

recognised Christianity as a fee da superstitio ; I here

how

remind you taste, felt

for

more

Goethe, the last

One

with regard to the cross. valuable, for

But such a no exception.

German

of noble

seeks in vain

more indispensable

contrasts.*

falsity as that of the Bayreuthians

We

of the Christian

all

know

the unaesthetic conception "

"

gentleman.

now

is

Indeed that innocence

the midst of contradictions, that

"

good conscience

"

in in

modern par excellence ; one almost defines modernism by it. Modern man represents biologically is

lying,

a contradiction of moral values, he

sits

between two

one breath, Yea and Nay. What chairs, wonder, then, that just in our time, falsity itself became

he says

in

and even genius

flesh

?

what wonder

that

Wagner

It was not without reason that among us ? But I named Wagner the Cagliostro of modernism we all, unconsciously and involuntarily, have in our "

dwelt

"

.

selves

*

.

.

standards, phrases, formulae, and moralities

of

furnished the first in of Morals formation concerning the contrast between "noble morality" and "Chris tian morality there is perhaps no more decisive modification of thought

My

Note.

"

"

Genealogy

"

;

in the history of religious

and moral knowledge.

That book,

my

touch

what belongs to me, has the good fortune to be accessible others have only to the most elevated and the most rigorous minds not got ears for it. One has to have one s passion in things, where stone

for

:

nobody has

it

at present

THE CASE OF WAGXER

60

contradictory origin,

would

regarded physiologically,

we

are

A

diagnostic of modern soul what commence with ? With a resolute incision

spurious ... it

into this contradictoriness of instincts, with the disent

of

angling

its

antithetical

vivisection performed on

The

case

of

philosopher gratitude

.

Wagner

this .

.

work,

is

its

moral

values,

most instructive

a fortunate

one

hears,

is

with

a

case.

for

the

inspired

by

case

NIETZSCHE CONTRA WAGNER: THE BRIEF OF A PSYCHOLOGIST

PREFACE The following ed out of

my

chapters are

rather carefully select

all

some

older writings

to 1877,

they are perhaps simplified

above

they are shortened.

all,

Wagner or

myself:

we

are antipodes. Something further

be understood

:

my

Copenhagen

and Stockholm,

New -York I

have not them

Germany

And

.

.

love just

Crispi

.

.

I

as

much

intelligent people will

alliance

.

I

.

in

Paris,

in

Europe s Flatland, might perhaps also have a word as

Triple alliance

.

.

an

in

to whisper in the ear of Messrs, I

is

readers everywhere, in Vienna, in St. Peters

in

burg,

for example, that this

but not for Germans ...

essay for psychologists,

have

read in succession,

leave no doubt concerning either Richard

they will

will also

When

them go back here and there,

of

...

I :

never

the Italians,

whom

Quousque tandem,

with the

"

"

Empire

make aught but

an

a mes

.

Turin, Christmas-tide 1888.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE.

WHERE I

believe

can do best attention little

promise

of,

they Their

which know how

actual perfection, new,

in

soil.

The

and vineyard

them, and

know what

do not

they are too conceited for that.

give

on their

garden

ADMIRE

directed to something prouder than those

plants

grow up ful,

is

often

artists :

I

their

equal quality.

love

There

final is

and beauti

excellency of their

superficially

and is

rare,

their

are

not

any

other, has the genius for finding the tones

liar

to suffering,

for

giving speech to

him

in

oppressed, tortured souls, misery.

No

by of

more than

a musician, who,

dumb

own

estimated

insight

to

pecu and even

one equals

the colours of the late autumn, the indescri

bably pathetic happiness of a

last,

he knows

alder-last,

sound

alder-

those enjoyment secretly haunted midnights of the soul when cause and effect seem to have gone out of joint and

shortest

;

a

for

every instant something can originate out of nothing. draws his resources best of all out of the lowest

He

depth of

human

happiness, and as

it

were out of

its

WAGNER

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

66

drained goblet, where the bitterest and most nauseous

end

drops have at the

met with the

the

good or the bad end-

He knows

sweetest.

that

self-

weary

impelling of the soul which can no longer leap or yea, not even \valk that

is

he has the shy glance of pain

;

concealed, of understanding without comfort, of

leave-taking without confession of

secret misery, he

all

fly,

;

yea, as the

Orpheus

greater than anyone, and

is

through him only, much which was hitherto inexpressible and even seemingly

much has been added

unworthy of art which only the likewise

many

belonging

the cynical revolts, for greatest

sufferers

are

example, of

and

capable,

and microscopic matters as it were the scales of its

small

quite

the

to

to art

soul,

amphibious nature, yes, he is the master of minutiae. But he does not wisli to be so His character loves !

rather ting

.

the .

He

.

walls

large

to

fails

and

different taste

and the audacious wall-pain observe that his

inclination

he paints

his

proper master-pieces, which are

one measure

sorely cians.

sets

I

in length,

becomes quite good,

perhaps there only. that

broken

concealed there, concealed from himself,

:

short, often only

there that he

a

and

antithetical optics,

likes best of all to sit quietly in the corners of

down houses

has

spirit

is

is

is

and

very

not

till

perfect,

one who has suffered

pre-eminence over the other musi Wagner in everything in which he

his

admire

Wagner

great,

it

all

himself to music.

67

WHERE That

not to

is

MAKE

I

say that

healthy,

and

there

Wagner.

My

objections to

logical objections

by

^Esthetics

My I

no

I

of

least

regard

this

where

all

are physio

be served

what purpose same under aesthetic

:

is

music as speaks of

it

Wagner s music

for

the

disguising

OBJECTIONS

to

formulae

?

certainly nothing but applied Physiology.

is

of

"matter

breathe

longer

my

fact,"

"

petit fait

vrai,"

when once

easily

this

is

that

music

operates on me, that my foot immediately becomes angry at it and revolts my foot has need of measure, :

even the young German Kaiser cannot

dance, march

march according

to

Wagner s

Kaiser-march,

my

foot

from music the raptures which lie in good walking, stepping, and dancing. But does not my stomach also protest ? my heart ? my circulation ? desires first of all

do not

bowels

my

fret

hoarse thereby ...

Do

?

I

not unawares become

In order to listen to

Wagner

I

need pastilles Ge raudel And so I ask myself, what it at all that whole body specially wants from my music ? For there is no soul ... I believe it wants .

.

.

is

Ls

alleviation

:

as

accelerated

by

as

leaden

if iron,

golden,

wants

light, bold,

tender, to

the animal functions were to be

if all

take

-tw^

life

wanton, self-assured rhythms

were

unctuous its

/

to lose

melodies.

repose in

the

/Ar^yA AI f

/fff f.:-C

its

heaviness

My

;

by

melancholy and

hiding-places

WAGXER

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

68

abysses of perfection

:

for that

purpose

But Wagner makes people morbid. is

me

the theatre to

its

mob

which the

ecstasies in

has

The convulsions

?

satisfaction

and who

It

?

my

at present

excellence-

person thereby sinks in again seen

;

:

I

"

moral

mob

"

"

!

my

non-success

am

I

have, from the this

art of the

which profound Success in the theatre a scorn

that

artist has.

every

not

is

the theatre

for

soul,

"

its

obvious that

is

essentially antitheatrically constituted

masses par

of

The whole pantomime hocus-

?

pocus of the stage-player

bottom of

need music.

I

Of what account

estimation,

till

then I prick up

he

my

is

never

and

ears

But Wagner was the reverse (besides the Wagner who had made the lonesomest of all music), essentially a theatre man and stage-player,

begin to esteem

.

.

.

perhaps the most enthusiastic mimomaniac that has And in passing, we existed, even as a musician .

.

.

would say that if it has been Wagner s theory, the drama is the end, music is always but the means, "

"

his praxis, close,

on the contrary, from the beginning to the

has been,

well as music, a

means

"

is

the attitude

is

the end, the drama, as

always only the mea.ns.

for elucidating, strengthening,

Music as

"

and internalising

the dramatic pantomime and stage-player concreteness

and the Wagnerian drama only an occasion interesting attitudes

other instincts,

the

stage-player in

all

!

He

for

possessed, along with

commanding

instincts

and everything

:

;

many all

the

of a great

and, as

we have

WAGXER

AS A DAXGER

also as a musician.

said,

I

once made

without trouble, to a Wagnerian

and Wagnerians

was reason

!

I

honest with yourself

pur

this clear,

sang,

!

for

we

"

Be but a

little

more

are not in Bayreuth.

In

only honest in the mass, as in

Bayreuth people

are

dividuals they

they deceive themselves.

lie,

not

clearness

do not say a word more. There

adding further

for

69

They

leave

home when they go to Bayreuth, they right to their own tongue and choice, to

themselves at

renounce the

even to their courage, as they have it and within their own four walls with respect to

their taste,

use

it

God and

the world.

Nobody

takes the most refined

sentiments of his art into the theatre with him, least of is

all

who works

the artist

for the theatre,

solitude

wanting, the perfect does not tolerate witnesses.

the theatre one becomes mob, herd,

woman,

In

Pharisee,

I

voting animal,

patron, idiot

Wagnerian

:

there even

the most personal conscience succumbs to the levelling

charm

of the

great

multitude,

there

rules, there one becomes neighbour

/*

.

.

the

neighbour

."

)

W/Vr^ (,4p*>

WAGNER AS A DANGER The

object which recent music pursues in

at present called "

infinite

"

melody

what

is

by a strong though obscure name one can explain to one s self by going

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

70

WAGNER

gradually losing secure footing on the

into the sea,

bottom, and finally submitting one at discretion

one has to swim.

:

the element

s self to

In older music, in an

elegant, or solemn, or passionate to-and-fro, faster

slower, one to dance.

had

The

to do

something quite

and

namely,

different,

proportion necessary thereto, the ob

servance of definite balance in measures of time and intensity, extorted

from the soul of the hearer a conti

nuous

consideration,

cooler

breeze,

on

the

between

contrast

which originated

from

this

consideration,

and the breath of enthusiasm warmed through, the charm of all good music rested. Richard Wagner

wanted another kind of movement

he overthrew the

physiological pre-requisite of previous music.

hovering the

no longer walking, dancing

decisive

just seeks to

word

is

intensity, at times

it

all

Swimming,

.

Perhaps

.

"

Infinite

melody of measure and symmetry

thereby

break up

said.

"

.

derides

it

even

it

has

wealth

its

of invention precisely in what sounded to the ears of

Out

former times as rhythmical paradox and abuse.

of an imitation, out of a predominance of such a taste, there might arise such a danger to music that a greater

could not even be imagined

the complete degeneration

of rythmical feeling, chaos in place of rhythm

.

.

.

The

danger reaches its climax when such a music rests always more and more upon entirely naturalistic stageplaying and pantomime, which, subject to no law of plastic

art,

desire

effect

and nothing more

.

.

.

The

A MUSIC WITHOUT A FUTURE espressivo at

any

price,

the slavery of attitude

What formance

seem

would

?

it

and music

in

that

end

really

be the

.

.

virtue of a per

first

the performing musical artists at present

(as

to

believe),

under

attain

hautrelief which cannot be

circumstances a

all

surpassed

Is

?

not

this,

applied, for example, to Mozart, the special sin

against tender,

the

of Mozart,

spirit

amorous

spirit

the

mention the seriousness of the

But you think that statue,"

was

a gracious, golden

is

seriousness, and not that of a German to

enthusiastic,

gay,

of Mozart, who, fortunately,

not German, and whose seriousness

Not

.

1

to

when

the

is

the service, in

music

all

that all music

is

Philistine

.

"marble statue"

music of the

must spring

"

.

.

.

.

.

marble

forth out of the

wall and agitate the hearer to his very bowels .... It

is

only thus that music

is

said

to

operate

!

Who

Something on which a noble must never operate, the masses! the immature! the used up the morbid the idiots the Wagnerians / ... is

there operated upon?

artist

!

!

!

A MUSIC WITHOUT A FUTURE Music,

up on

the

of

all

soil

the of a

arts

that

certain

know how civilisation,

to

grow makes its

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

72

appearance

most

WAGNER

perhaps because

last of the plants,

and consequently arrives

intrinsic,

the

it is

latest

in the

autumn and withering of each civilisation. It was only in the art of the Dutch masters that the soul of the Middle Ages found

Christian

tone-architecture

the

is

its

their

dying echo,

posthumous, though genuine

and equally legitimate sister of Gothic. It was only Handel s music that the best re-echoed out of the

in

of Luther and

soul

wilich

his

kin

:

the heroic Jewish

become music, not

the Old Testament

ment.

It

was reserved

for

the

Mozart to pay

New

Testa

in clinking

gold pieces the balance due to the age of Louis

and the in

ideals,

original

music

music,

and Rossini s music

s

century sang

broken

Racine and Claude Lorrain

art of

Beethoven

latest

itself out,

a

the century of enthusiasm,

swan s song. its

notwithstanding

originated out of a

*i~ VlV ,

civilisat-in"

sunken

-a iurtnwith

All true,

national

are

Wagner s

its

pre-requisites.

legends and songs

")

in

all

it

;

for

-./nose basis is rapidly

civilisation.

indigenous (so-called

of"

Perhaps even our predominance and

Catholicism of sentiment, and a delight in "

XIV

was only

that the eighteenth

and ^fugitive happiness. is

;

it

ambition, has but a brief space of time before it

trait,

gave the Reformation a touch of greatness,

A

certain

some ancient

existence, or nuisance,

appropriation

which learned

of old

prejudice

had

taught us to see something Germanic par excellence

we laugh

at

that

now,

and the new

inspiration

of

WE

ANTIPODES

73

these Scandinavian monsters with a thirst for ecstatic

and supersensuality

sensuality

giving of

Wagner

passions,

and nerves, would

Wagner

spirit of

music, should not

of

itself:

for

in respect to

music

also

know how is

taking"

express plainly the

to speak

a woman,,.

We

this itself, like

unambiguously must not allow

ourselves to be misled with regard to this affairs

the fact that for the

by

moment we

national

wars,

ultramontane

of

state

of

are living

The age

precisely in the reaction within the reaction.

of

and

materials, characters,

provided that

s music,

all

this

all

:

martyrdom,

this

whole interlude-character which the circumstances of

Europe assist

at

present

are

such art as that of

glory,

without

thereby

possessed

Wagner

in obtaining a

guaranteeing"

The Germans themselves have no

WE It will

commencement

modern world with some and

to

future

a future.

it

.

.

fact,

sudden

.

ANTIPODES

be remembered perhaps,

friends, that at the

in

may,

of,

at least I

among my

rushed upon

this

errors and overestimates,

any case as a hopeful person. I understood who knows from what personal experiences ? the philo in

sophical pessimism

symptom

of the

nineteenth century as the

of a higher thinking power, of a

phal fulness of

life

more trium

than had found expression in the

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

74

WAGNER

Hume, Kant, and Hegel,

philosophy of

I

took tragical

perception for the choicest luxury of our civilisation,

most precious, most noble, most dangerous mode of squandering, but always, on the ground of its super as

its

abundance, as

its

Wagner s

preted

permitted luxury. I similarly inter music in my own way, as the expres

sion of a Dionysian powerfulness of soul, I believed that I heard in

force of

it

suppressed for ages, finally relieves

life,

whether

indifferent as to civilisation

the earthquake with which a primitive

all

that at present calls itself

shaken thereby.

is

misunderstood,

It

obvious what I

is

obvious in like manner what

is

it

itself,

Wagner and Schopenhauer myself every philosophy may be regarded as

bestowed icpon

Every

art,

.

and

medicine

life

decaying

helping :

expedient

of

.

.

a or

adv^Incing

they always presuppose suffering and

But there are two kinds of

sufferers.

I

sufferers

on

:

the one hand those suffering from the superabundance of

who want

life,

a

Dionysian

art

and

similarly

a

and prospect with regard to life, and on the other hand those suffering from the impoverish

tragic insight

ment

of

who

life,

sea, or else ecstasy,

desire

repose,

stillness,

smooth

convulsion, intoxication furnished

and philosophy. The revenge on life itself the most voluptuous kind of ecstasy for such impover

by

art

ished ones

Wagner deny

!

.

.

.

To

just like

life,

the double requirement of the latter

Schopenhauer corresponds

they calumniate

it

;

they both

they are thereby

my

WE The

antipodes.

75

richest in fulness of

God and man, may of the

ANTIPODES

life,

the Dionysian

not only allow himself the spectacle

and the questionable, but even the

frightful

frightful deed, and every luxury of destruction, de composition and denial, with him the evil, the sense

and the loathsome appear as it were permitted, as a con as they appear to be permitted in nature

less,

superabundance of the procreative, which out of every desert is still restorative powers able to create a luxuriant orchard. On the other hand of the

sequence

those suffering most, the poorest in

most

need

volence in

that

thinking

God who "

of

Heiland

is

well

as

quite

;

at

present

as

in

specially

called

is

practice

a

also

similarly

would have

peaceableness

gentleness,

which

life,

God logic,

:

and

bene

humanity

if

possible,

a a

for

the

the

understand-

sick,

ableness of existence as a conception, even for idiots the typical "

"

"

like the

freethinkers,

beautiful souls,

"

are

decadents

all

;

"

"

idealists,

and

in short, a certain

warm, fear-excluding narrowness and inclusion in opti mistic horizons which permit stupefaction ... In this

manner

I

gradually learned to understand Epicurus,

the antithesis of a Dionysian Christian,

who,

who, with the doctrine, out the principle of

he

is

beyond

something

in

;

in like

manner the

only a species of Epicurean

in fact, is "

Greek

belief

Hedonism

all intellectual

advance of

makes

"

blessed,

carries

as far as possible

till

righteousness ... If I have

all

psychologists,

it

is

that

WAGNER

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

76

my

is

insight

sharper for that nicest and most insidious

species of inference a posteriori in which most errors

made

are

the inference from the

:

from the deed

to the doer,

work

to

its

originator,

from the ideal to him who

from every mode of thinking and valuing In respect to to the ruling requirement behind it. needs

it,

artists of

every kind,

distinction

of

:

has the hatred of

become

life

now make

I

creative here

life,

became

hatred

new

Flaubert, a

:

of this

or the superabundance

creative, in Flaubert the

edition of Pascal, but as

with instinctive judgment at bottom

artist

est toujours liaissablc, I tout".

.

He

.

lwmme n

they both

felt

:

an

"Flaubert

est rien, I ceuvre est

when he composed, himself when he thought

tortured himself

as Pascal tortured

quite

main

In Goethe, for example,

?

the superabundance

use

"

"

Unselfishness

"

unegotistic.

the

"

de cadence-^rmc\^\Q, the will to the end in art as well as in morals.

WHERE WAG^R Even

at the present

time France

is still

the seat of

the most intellectual and refined civilisation of Europe,

and the high school of taste but one must know how to find this France of taste. The Norddeutsche :

"

"

Zcitung,

for

example,

or

he

mouthpiece, sees in the French,

me,

I

seek for the . ,

fa

h(. A

black

r if AT-

(}

part

who

has

it

"barbarians,"

for

his

as

for

of earth, where

"

the

WHERE WAGXER BELONGS TO ought to be Norddeutsche

"

slaves

of the

in

freed,

the

77

neighbourhood

He who

belongs to that France keeps himself well concealed there may be .

.

.

:

number

a small

sides perhaps

in

whom

men who do

embodied and

it is

be

lives,

not stand upon the strongest

legs, in part fatalistic, melancholy, sick,

in part

over-

pampered, over-refined, such as have the ambition to be artificial but they have in their possession all the elevation and delicacy that is still left in the In this France of intellect, which

world.

also the

is

France of pessimism, Schopenhauer is at present more at home than he ever has been in Germany his principal ;

work twice ably, so

French

translated already, the second time admir

that I (he

an accident

now

prefer to read Schopenhauer in

was an accident among Germans, the Germans have no fingers for

as I

am

us, they have they only claws). Not to speak of Heinrich Heine I adorable Heine they say in Paris who has long ago passed over into the flesh

have no fingers

at

all,

and blood of the profounder and more soul-breathing What would German horned lyric poets of France.

know how

cattle

a nature

would

!

deal with the delicatesses of such

Finally, as regards

seize

that Paris

to

is

with hands,

not

perhaps

the proper soil for

Wagner

it

French music shapes the it

"

dme

Richard Wagner

moderne,"

itself

the

:

:

one

with

fists,

the

more

according to the needs of

more

it

already does so sufficiently.

becomes Wagnerian,

One must

not allow

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

WAGNER

be misled here by Wagner himself sheer wickedness of Wagner to mock at Paris one

s self to

agony

in

theless a

in its

Germany Wagner is never mere misunderstanding who would be more :

young

Kaiser, for example

movement

than

Wagner

The

?

remains

fact

who

nevertheless, for everyone

certain,

was

In

1871 ...

incapable of understanding anything of the

it

is

acquainted

French European Romanticism and Richard Wagner are very closely connected. Altogether dominated by literature up to their eyes and ears the first artists of Europe possessing with the

of

a universal literary

civilisation, that

writers, poets, intermediaries

and

arts,

mostly even themselves

culture,

and blenders of the senses

altogether fanatics of expression, great dis

domain of the sublime,

coverers in the

loathsome and the shocking, in

effect,

in

in

display,

altogether talented far

still

also

of the

greater discoverers

the art of the shop window,

beyond

virtuosi

their geniuses,

through and through with dismal accesses to every thing which seduces, allures, forces, or upsets, born enemies of logic

and the straight

line,

covetous of

the foreign, the exotic, the monstrous, and of

a

the

senses

and

rashly-venturing,

understanding.

magnificently-violent,

and high up-pulling kind of to

teach to

mass

their

On

century

the conception of

it

artists, is

"artist."

all

opiates

the

w hole, r

high-flying,

who had

first

the century of the

But

sick

.

.

.

79

WAGNER AS THE APOSTLE OF CHASTITY i

Is this

our

mode

?

From German heart came this vexed ululating From German body this self-lacerating ?

?

Is ours this priestly hand-dilation,

This incense-fuming excitation

?

Is ours this plunging, faltering, brangling,

This, sweet as sugar, ding-dong-dangling

?

This sly nun ogling, Ave-hour-bell tinkled, This whole false rapturous flight beyond the heavens star-sprinkled Is this our

Think well

!

Ye

mode still

For what ye hear

is

?

,

.

.

?

stay for ingression

Rome,

Rome

,

.

s faith

.

without

expression.

Chastity and sensuality are not

necessarily

anti

thetical; every true marriage, every genuine love-affair

beyond any such which this antithesis

is

not at least

all

be

to

antithesis.

be a tragical

who

it

really exists,

the case with

cheerful mortals,

But

all

in those cases in

fortunately needs

antithesis.

better

are not at

all

This might at

constituted,

more

disposed, without

further ado, to reckon their fluctuating state

of equi-

WAGNER

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

SO

betwixt

librium

and petite

angel

bete

among

the

arguments against existence, the finest, the brightest, such as Hafiz and Goethe, have even discerned an additional

charm

that allure to

therein.

life

.

.

It is just

But

.

if,

chastity,

worship in

it

they

antithesis

but too plain, see and

own antithesis and oh, one how much tragic grunting and eager

same

and absolutely superfluous which Richard Wagner at the end of his

that

!

is

only their

can imagine with ness

as

will,

on the other hand, the can be induced to wor

ill-constituted beasts of Circe

ship

such contradictions

painful

days undoubtedly intended to set to music and pro duce on the stage. For what purpose really f we

may

reasonably ask. 3

Here, to be sure, that other question cannot be

avoided what had :

(alas,

Wagner

so very unmanly)

really to

"rustic

do with that manly

simplicity,"

the poor devil

and country lad, Parsifal, whom, by such insidious means, he finally succeeded in making a Roman Catholic

meant seriously f For that people have laughed over him I would least of all dispute, nor would Gottfried Keller do so ...

what

?

was

this

One might wish meant which,

to

tragedian

that the

be gay,

precisely

Parsifal

really

Wagnerian Parsifal had been

like a finale or satiric in

a due

Wagner had

and

drama, with

worthy manner, the

intended to take his farewell

WAGNER

AS THE APOSTLE OF CHASTITY

of us, also of himself, and above

all

8

I

of tragedy, namely,

with an excess of the greatest and most wanton parody

on the tragical itself, on all the awful earth-earnestness and earth-sorrowfulness of the past, on the stupidest form of the antinaturalness of the ascetic ideal

For Parsifal

surmounted. excellence as his

.

.

Are we

.

laugh of superiority at himself,

secret

finally

an operetta theme par to understand Wagner s Parsifal is

as the

triumph of his greatest, finally attained artistic freedom

and

artistic

to laugh at himself

wish that

?

were so

it

.

is

"

(as

the product of a

has been

said,

one might

what sense could we attach

for

:

meant

have been

I

As

.

.

to a Parsifal seriously

suppose

Wagner, who knows how

other-worldness

?

Is

it

told) that

really necessary to

Wagner s

maddened hatred

Parsifal

of perception,

an anathema on sense and and sensuality ? in one breath, in a fit of hatred ? an apostasy "

intellect,

intellect

and return to

sickly, Christian,

And

worst of

finally,

annulment of an all

his

all,

artist

who had

for the

will-power,

and obscurantist

ideals

the self-negation and striven so

opposite,

far,

?

self-

with

namely, for the

And

highest spiritualising and sensualism g of his art

?

not only of his

Let us

recollect

how

art,

but of his

enthusiastically

in the footsteps of

life

as well.

Wagner

once walked

Feuerbach the philosopher.

Feuer-

bach s phrase of healthy sensuality," echoed in the third and fourth decades of this century to Wagner as "a

to

many

other

Germans

they called themselves the

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

82

young Germans older

like

word of

the

Wagner unlearn

WAGNER

former creed

his

Did the

salvation.

Very

?

likely

he did judging from the disposition he evinced toward !

the end of his

life

the hatred of

life

Flaubert

?

.

.

to iinteach his first belief

got the upper hand

For Parsifal

.

a

is

.

.

.

in him,

work

Has as

in

of cunning,

of revengefulness, of secret poison-brewing, hostile to

the pre-requisites of of chastity

life

The preaching

a bad work.

;

an incitement to antinaturalness

is

:

I despise

everyone who does not regard Parsifal as an outrage on morals.

HOW

I

GOT FREE FROM WAGNER i

As

far

back as the summer of 1876,

the period of the farewell

first festival

plays,

middle of

in the

my heart had taken

cannot stand anything ambi and since Wagner s return to Germany, he of

Wagner.

I

guous had condescended step by step to everything that I despise even to Anti-Semitism ... It was, in fact, ;

high time to take got proof of

most

that.

triumphal,

farewell

then

soon

:

Richard Wagner, while

in

despairing decadent, sank

truth

down

I

apparently the

become

a

decayed,

suddenly, helpless and

disjointed, before the Christian cross

German then with eyes

enough

.

in his head,

.

.

or

Was

there no

sympathy

in

HOW

I

GOT FREE FROM WAGNER

83

his conscience, for this awe-inspiring spectacle

only one

I the

who

from

siiffered

Was

?

Enough,

it ?

to

myself the unexpected event, like a flash of lightning, had left, and also that subse

illuminated the position I

quent horror which every one

who

feels

When

unconsciously through a fearful danger. further on alone, I shivered sick,

more than

sick,

;

I

went

not long thereafter I

namely, fatigued

the incessant undeceiving concerning

mained

has passed

for the inspiration of us

:

was

by

fatigued

that yet re

all

modern men, concerning

the strength, labour, hope, youth, and love squandered

on

all

istic

sides

falsity

;

fatigued out of disgust for the whole ideal

and softening of conscience, which here

once more had scored a victory over one of the bravest fatigued, finally, and not least, by the grief of an unrelent ing suspicion mistrust to I

was henceforth condemned

that I

more profoundly,

to despise

;

to

more profoundly,

be more profoundly alone, than ever before. For had had no one but Richard Wagner ... I was

condemned perpetually

to the

Germans

.

.

.

Lonely, henceforth, and sadly mistrustful of myself, I

then,

not without

indignation,

took

sides

against

myself, and for everything which gave pain

was hard upon me

;

that brave pessimism

I thus

which

found the is

the

way

to,

and

again to

antithesis 6*

of

all

WAGNER

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

84

would appear to me, the way to myself, to my task That concealed and imperious something for which for a long time we have had no name, until it finally proves itself to be and

idealistic falsity,

as

also,

it

.

our task,

tyrant in

this

every attempt which

from

it,

for

it

every

happen

.

us retaliates

we make

shirk

to

for

frightfully

or escape

it

every premature decision, for every thinking

ourselves equal to those of for

.

activity,

whose number we are

however honourable

to distract us

it

may

not,

be,

from our main business

if

nay

even, for every virtue which might shield us from the

sternness

of

our special responsibility.

Sickness

is

always the answer, when we are inclined to doubt con cerning our right to our task, w hen we begin to make r

it

easier

for

ourselves in any respect.

same time

frightful at the

It is

!

our alleviations for

which we must do the severest penance

want afterwards for us

:

Strange and

!

And

to return to health, there is

we must burden

ourselves

were ever burdened before

if

we

no choice

heavier than

we

.

THE PSYCHOLOGIST SPEAKS i

The more

a psychologist, a born, an unavoidable

psychologist and soul-diviner, turns his attention to the

more

select cases

and

individuals, the greater

becomes

THE PSYCHOLOGIST SPEAKS

>5

by sympathy. He needs more than another man. For cor

danger of suffocation

his

sternness and gaiety

of higher

ruin

the

ruption,

men,

the

is

rule

it

:

is

dreadful to have such a rule always before one s eyes.

The manifold

tortures of the psychologist

and has then

discovered this ruin, case throughout "

unblessedness "

late

!

in

of higher

almost every

in

eternal

this

man,

.

every psychologist, a

common and

that

he

always

.

.

tell-tale

preference for intercourse

well-ordered men, such as betrays

requires

curing,

of flight and forgetfulness

he

that

conscience.

He

is

easily silenced before the

his his

judgment of

how

others,

others re

and glorify where he has per

verence, admire, love,

his

upon

a

possessed by a fear of his memory.

he hears with unmoved countenance

ceived,

needs

away from what

insight, his incisions, his business have laid

is

too-

-may perhaps one day become ruin One perceives, in almost

own

with

He

"

every sense

the cause of his

sort

has once

history discovered this entire internal

all

"

who

or he even conceals his silence

agreement with some

by expressing

superficial opinion.

Perhaps

the paradox of his situation gets to be so horrible that the

"

educated classes,

"

on

their part, learn great re

verence precisely where he has learned great sympathy

and great contempt cases nothing

.

.

.

And who knows

more than

this

took place,

was worshipped, and the God was only ficial

animal

.

.

.

if in all

-that

great a

God

a poor sacri

Success has always been the greatest

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

86

and the work, the deed

liar

The

the

great statesman,

WAGNER a success as well

is

are

unrecognisable

;

work

the

philosopher, only invents him

said to have created

it

wards, is

in the

current

world of

who

discoverer,

away

of the

The

...

are reverenced, are poor

the

conqueror,

are disguised in their creations, hidden

until

artist,

little fictions

men,"

is

it,

as they

composed

historical values spurious

they

of the

has created

"great

.

.

.

after

coinage

.

Those great

example, such as Byron, Musset, Poe, Leopardi, Kleist, Gogol I do not ven ture to as

name much avowedly

they

for

poets,

greater names, but I think are

and

must

men

be,

them of

the

moment, sensuous, absurd, five-fold, light-minded and with souls in which hasty in mistrust and in trust ;

usually some flaw has revenge by their works

to

be concealed

for

an inner contamination, often

often taking

;

seeking forgetfulness with their upward

flights

from

memory, idealists out of the neighbourhood swamp what torments these great artists are,

a too-true

of the

and the so-called higher men generally, for him who has once found them out We are all advocates of .

the mediocre ...

woman and far

(who

is

alas, also,

beyond her

It is

.

.

conceivable that

it

is

just

from

clairvoyant in the world of suffering,

ready to help and save

"to

an extent

po\vers) that they experience so easily

THE PSYCHOLOGIST SPEAKS outbreaks

of

multitude, above

all

those

unlimited

87

which the

sympathy,

the reverent multitude, overloads

with inquisitive and self-satisfying interpretations.

sympathising deceives

woman would it

is

itself

constantly as to

like to believe that

the heart finds

tentious,

and

love

how

is

out

liable to error it

how

its

power love can do all,

a superstition peculiar to herself.

knows

This :

who

Alas, he

poor, helpless, pre

even the

best, the deepest

rather destroys than saves

.

.

.

3

The

intellectual

man who

loathing and haughtiness of any

has suffered profoundly

it

almost deter

mines rank, how profoundly a person can suffer, the chilling certainty, with which he is entirely imbued and coloured, that in virtue of his suffering he knows

more than the shrewdest and wisest could know, that he has been familiar with, and at home in many distant, worlds,

frightful

of which

"you

know

nothing"

.

.

.

this tacit intellectual haughtiness, this pride of the elect

perception, of the

deems

all

"initiated,"

of the almost sacrificed,

kinds of disguises necessary to protect

itself

from contact with over-officious and sympathising hands, and, in general, from all that is not its equal in Profound suffering makes noble it separates. most refined forms of disguise is Epi curism, and a certain ostentatious boldness of taste,

suffering.

One

of the

;

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

88

which

takes

the

suffering

in defence against all that

There are

"

gay men

cause, on account of

WAGNER

and puts itself sorrowful and profound.

lightly,

is

who make

"

it,

they are misunderstood,

wish to be misunderstood. There are

which make use of

science,

appearance and because the that a person false

is

conclusion

which would

superficial .

.

.

use of gaiety, be

:

and then

minds,

gives a gay

it

scientific

spirit

suggests

they wish to mislead to a insolent

free,

and deny that

they are disjointed, incurable souls

Hamlet

they "

scientific

because

There are

fain conceal

"

folly itself

may be

unhappy over-assured knowledge.

it

at the is

the

minds

bottom

the case of

mask

for

an

EPILOGUE

I

have often asked myself

if I

am

obligation to the hardest years of

not under deeper

my

than to any

life

As my innermost nature tea.ches me, all necessary, when viewed from an elevation and other.

sense of a great economy,

also the useful in

is

that

is

in the itself,

one should not only bear it, one should love it ... Amor fati: that is my innermost nature. And as long sickness, do I not owe to it un utterably more than to my health ? I owe to it a higher health, such a health as becomes stronger by regards

my

everything that does not

my

philosophy ...

It

is

kill

it

!

/ owe

to

it

also

great affliction only that

is

the ultimate emancipator of the mind, as the instruc

makes an

tor of strong suspicion which

U, a of

true,

the

affliction

correct

alphabet,

only

are burned as

X, that before

is,

the

X

out of every

the penultimate letter last

...

It

that long, slow affliction in it

is

great

which we

were with green wood, which takes

NIETZSCHE CONTRA

QO

WAGNER

compels us philosophers to descend into our ultimate depth and divest ourselves of all trust, that

time,

all

good-nature, glossing, gentleness, and averageness,

where we have perhaps formerly I doubt whether such affliction

know

that

of

will,

he

may

by

his

"

humanity. us

improves

:

but I

Be it that we learn deepens us ... with our pride, our scorn, our strength

it

to confront

installed our "

it

doing like the Indian who, however sorely be tortured, takes revenge on his tormentor

bad tongue into

affliction

;

be

we withdraw from

that

it

into

dumb, benumbed, self-forgetfulness, and self-extinc

nothingness,

deaf self-surrender,

from such long, dangerous exercises of selfmastery one emerges as another man, with several

tion

;

additional interrogation will to question

more

strictly,

than

has

above

sternly,

with the

more wickedly, more

ever been questioned on life

May

all,

henceforward more, more profoundly,

more

Confidence in problem.

marks,

it

quietly

earth before

.

.

.

life itself has become a gone never be believed that one has

is

;

thereby necessarily become a gloomy person, a moping owl Even love to life is still possible, only one loves !

differently ...

us doubts

The other

It is

the love to a

woman

that causes

.

strangest thing

is this

second

taste.

taste,

a

>>

*.

:

one has afterwards an

Out

of such

abysses,

-

"