The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms Part 10

I gained an insight into the injustice of _idealism_, by noticing that I avenged myself on Wagner for the disappointed hopes I had cherished of him.

73.

I leave my loftiest duty to the end, and that is to thank Wagner and Schopenhauer publicly, and to make them as it were take sides against themselves.

74.

I counsel everybody not to fight shy of such paths (Wagner and Schopenhauer). The wholly _unphilosophic_ feeling of remorse, has become quite strange to me.

_Wagner's Effects._

75.

We must strive to oppose the false after-effects of Wagner's art. If he, in order to create Parsifal, is forced to pump fresh strength from religious sources, this is not an example but a danger.

76.

I entertain the fear that the effects of Wagner's art will ultimately pour into that torrent which takes its rise on the other side of the mountains, and which knows how to flow even over mountains.(18)

FOOTNOTES

1 It should be noted that the first and second editions of these essays on Wagner appeared in pamphlet form, for which the above first preface was written.

2 Fisher Unwin, 1911.

3 T. N. Foulis, 1910.

4 See _Richard Wagner_, by Houston Stuart Chamberlain (translated by G. A. Hight), pp. 15, 16.

5 Constable & Co., 1911.

6 See Author's Preface to "The Case of Wagner" in this volume.

7 Senta is the heroine in the "Flying Dutchman"-_Tr._

8 A character in "Tannhauser."-_Tr_.

9 See "The Will to Power," vol. ii., authorised English edition.-_Tr._

_ 10 Note._-It was a real disaster for aesthetics when the word drama got to be translated by "action." Wagner is not the only culprit here, the whole world does the same,-even the philologists who ought to know better. What ancient drama had in view was _grand pathetic scenes_,-it even excluded action (or placed it _before_ the piece or _behind_ the scenes). The word drama is of Doric origin, and according to the usage of the Dorian language it meant "event,"

"history,"-both words in a hieratic sense. The oldest drama represented local legends, "sacred history," upon which the foundation of the cult rested (-thus it was not "action," but fatality. d??? in Doric has nothing to do with action).

11 Hegel and his school wrote notoriously obscure German.-_Tr._

12 Was Wagner a German at all? There are reasons enough for putting this question. It is difficult to find a single German trait in his character. Great learner that he was, he naturally imitated a great deal that was German-but that is all. His very soul contradicts everything which hitherto has been regarded as German, not to mention German musicians!-His father was an actor of the name of Geyer.... That which has been popularised hitherto as "Wagner's life"

is _fable convenue_ if not something worse. I confess my doubts on any point which is vouched for by Wagner alone. He was not proud enough to be able to suffer the truth about himself. n.o.body had less pride than he. Like Victor Hugo he remained true to himself even in his biography,-he remained an actor.

13 This undoubtedly refers to Nietzsche's only disciple and friend, Peter Gast-_Tr._

14 My "Genealogy of Morals" contains the best exposition of the ant.i.thesis "_n.o.ble morality_" and "_Christian morality_"; a more decisive turning point in the history of religious and moral science does not perhaps exist. This book, which is a touchstone by which I can discover who are my peers, rejoices in being accessible only to the most elevated and most severe minds: the others have not the ears to hear me. One must have one's pa.s.sion in things, _wherein_ no one has pa.s.sion nowadays.

15 An allusion to Schiller's poem: "Das verschleierte Bild zu Sais."-_Tr._

16 What Schiller said of Goethe.-_Tr._

17 See note on page 37.

18 It should be noted that the German Catholic party is called the Ultramontane Party. The river which can thus flow over mountains is Catholicism, towards which Nietzsche thought Wagner's art to be tending.-_Tr._