32.
When a dramatist speaks about himself he plays a part: this is inevitable.
When Wagner speaks about Bach and Beethoven he speaks like one for whom he would fain be taken. But he impresses only those who are already convinced, for his dissimulation and his genuine nature are far too violently at variance.
33.
Wagner struggles against the "frivolity" in his nature, which to him the ign.o.ble (as opposed to Goethe) const.i.tuted the joy of life.
34.
Wagner has the mind of the ordinary man who prefers to trace things to _one_ cause. The Jews do the same: one _aim_, therefore one Saviour. In this way he simplifies German and culture; wrongly but strongly.
35.
Wagner admitted all this to himself often enough when in private communion with his soul. I only wish he had also admitted it publicly. For what const.i.tutes the greatness of a character if it is not this, that he who possesses it is able to take sides even against himself in favour of truth.
_Wagner"s Teutonism._
36.
That which is un-German in Wagner. He lacks the German charm and grace of a Beethoven, a Mozart, a Weber; he also lacks the flowing, cheerful fire (_Allegro con brio_) of Beethoven and Weber. He cannot be free and easy without being grotesque. He lacks modesty, indulges in big drums, and always tends to surcharge his effect. He is not the good official that Bach was. Neither has he that Goethean calm in regard to his rivals.
37.
Wagner always reaches the high-water mark of his vanity when he speaks of the German nature (incidentally it is also the height of his imprudence); for, if Frederick the Great"s justice, Goethe"s n.o.bility and freedom from envy, Beethoven"s sublime resignation, Bach"s delicately transfigured spiritual life,-if steady work performed without any thought of glory and success, and without envy, const.i.tute the true _German_ qualities, would it not seem as if Wagner almost wished to prove he is no German?
38.
Terrible wildness, abject sorrow, emptiness, the shudder of joy, unexpectedness,-in short all the qualities peculiar to the Semitic race! I believe that the Jews approach Wagner"s art with more understanding than the Aryans do.
39.
A pa.s.sage concerning the Jews, taken from Taine.-As it happens, I have misled the reader, the pa.s.sage does not concern Wagner at all.-But can it be possible that Wagner is a Jew? In that case we could readily understand his dislike of Jews.(17)
40.
Wagner"s art is absolutely the _art of the age_: an aesthetic age would have rejected it. The more subtle people amongst us actually do reject it even now. The _coarsifying_ of everything aesthetic.-Compared with Goethe"s ideal it is very far behind. The moral contrast of these self-indulgent burningly loyal creatures of Wagner, acts like a _spur_, like an irritant and even this sensation is turned to account in obtaining an _effect_.
41.
What is it in our age that Wagner"s art expresses? That brutality and most delicate weakness which exist side by side, that running wild of natural instincts, and nervous hyper-sensitiveness, that thirst for emotion which arises from fatigue and the love of fatigue.-All this is understood by the Wagnerites.
42.
_Stupefaction or intoxication_ const.i.tute all Wagnerian art. On the other hand I could mention instances in which Wagner stands _higher_, in which real joy flows from him.
43.
The reason why the figures in Wagner"s art behave so madly, is because he greatly feared lest people would doubt that they were alive.
44.
Wagner"s art is an appeal to inartistic people; all means are welcomed which help towards obtaining an effect. It is calculated not to produce an _artistic effect_ but an effect upon the _nerves in general_.
45.