Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreutha goad tormenting him; exasperated by continual deprivation, hisjudgment gave way to excess whenever his poverty was for once suddenlyeased. His life became ever more complicated; but theexpedients by means of which he handled it became ever bolder andmore inventive, though they were in fact merely the emergencyactions of the dramatist, designed to deceive only fo r a moment. Assoon as he needs them he has them, and they are used up just asquickly. Seen fr om close to and without love, Wagner' s life has, torecall an idea of Schopenhauer's, much of the comedy about it, andmarkedly grotesque comedy at that. How the feeling and recognitionthat whole stretches of his life are marked by a grotesque lackof dignity must affect an artist who, more than any other, can breathefreely only in the sublime and more than sublime - that is somethingfor the thinker to reflect on.In the midst of all this activity, of which only a detailed accountcan evoke the degree of pity, horror and admiration it deserves,there was unfolded a talent for learning quite extraordinary evenamong Germans, the nation most gifted in learning; and in thistalent there again appeared a danger even greater than that attendinga life apparently unstable and rootless and confusedly directed byrestless illusion. From an experimenting novice Wagner grew intoan omniscient master of music and of the stage and in all technicalmatters an innovator and developer. No one will any longer contestthat he has provided the supreme model for all art in the grand manner.But he became even more, and to become it he was spared as littleas anyone else would be the task of appropriating to himself all thatis highest in culture. And how he did it! It is a joy to see; he acqttiredand absorbed it from all sides, and the bigger and heavier the structurebecame, the firmer grew the arch of thought that was to orderand control it. And yet it has rarely been made so hard for anyone todiscover the way into the sciences and skills, and often he had toimprovise these ways in for himself. The rejuvenator of the simpledrama, the discoverer of the place of the arts in a true human society,the poetic elucidator of past philosophies of life, the philosopher,the historian, the aesthetician and critic, the master of language, themythologist and my tho-poet who fo r the first time enclosed thewhole glorious, primeval structure within a ring and carved upon itthe runes of his spirit - what an abundance of knowledge Wagnerhad to assemble and encompass to be able to become all that! Andyet the weight of it as a whole did not stifle his will to action, nor didthe attractions of its individual aspects entice him aside. To judge205