His visit to an uncle Geyer at Eisleben--The Kreuzschule, Dresden--His facility for languages--His modesty--Wagner a small man--Personal appearance described--Wonder of school professors at unusual mental activity of the delicate small boy--A prey to erysipelas--Love of practical joking--Incident of the Kreuzschule roof--An adept in all bodily exercises--His acrobatic feats--Love for his mother--Affection for animals.....10
Richard Wagner enters the Kreuzschule, Dresden, December, 1822--Translation of part of the “Odyssey” by private work--Begins to learn English to read Shakespeare--Writes prize elegy in Germany at eleven years of age--Theodore Körner, pupil of the Kreuzschule and poet of freedom--Metrical translation of Romeo’s monologue--His first lessons on the piano--Hatred of finger exercises--Berlioz--Up to fourteen his aspirations distinctly musical.....20
Return to Leipzic--The Stadttheater; Rosalie and Louise--Jews, their treatment by Leipzic townspeople--Wagner’s attitude towards them--His first love a Jewess--At the St. Nicolas school three years, St. Thomas school and the University a few months each--Describes himself during his Leipzic school-days as “wild, negligent, and idle”--Reprehensible gambling of his mother’s pension--Crisis of his life--Haydn’s symphonies at the theatres and Beethoven’s symphonies in the concert-room--Beethoven a pessimist--Haydn and Mozart optimists--Resolve to become a musician--Private study of theory--His first overture, 1830, laughed at--His marvellously neat penmanship--Takes lessons from Cantor Weinlig--Writes a sonata without one original idea or one phrase of more than common interest--Beethoven his daily study--Weber and Beethoven his models--Combines in himself the special gifts of both, the idealism of the former and the reasoned working of the latter.....26
Revolution and romanticism at the beginning of the nineteenth century--Its effect on Wagner--First grand symphony for orchestra--Mendelssohn and Wagner--Wondrous dual gift of music and poesy--Portion of an opera, “The Wedding,” engaged at Würzburg--Albert Wagner--Life at Würzburg--First opera, “The Fairies”--Schroeder-Devrient and “The Novice of Palermo”--Stage manager at Magdeburg, 1834--Views upon German National drama and national life.....44