Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/169

 been forbidden to draw a certain curtain or open a certain door, who is haunted by the thought of doing so and does not resist it. Parody dogs the steps of this part of the story. Nietzsche, with his passion for satirising Wagner, quite saw this. "Lohengrin, or the importance of making sure of the civil status of the person one marries," is the way he puts it. It is only too easy no doubt to ridicule a fine work which offers one absurd aspect, and I readily allow that the unity of tone, sustained inspiration, and fine radiance of the music, correct or minimise in the performance the effect of disproportion and inequality resulting from this absurd element mingled with elements that are natural and noble. These defects are none the less real, and not to be shocked at this infantile aspect of the drama one must surely have an imagination that lacks culture, and is very easily pleased.

This drama has, according to Wagner, a high philosophic trend. But there is one strange point—or rather, it is only too comprehensible—to which I cannot too emphatically draw attention. What we find infantile in his theme is precisely what he himself, when he undertakes to annotate it and bring out its philosophic meaning, thinks greatest. And those elements of invention of which we can scarcely make sense are the very ones to convey, according to him, the most precious and sublime meanings. Listen to him—this is German!

"Elsa is the unconscious, the spontaneous, in the bosom of which the conscious, thoughtful being of Lohengrin aspires to find its deliverance (or, its redemption: Erlösung); but this aspiration itself is traceable to the unconscious, necessary, and spontaneous element in Lohengrin's being, by which he feels his