| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: abstention from opera; and Siegfried's Death (first sketched in
1848, the year before the rising in Dresden and the subsequent
events which so deepened Wagner's sense of life and the
seriousness of art) gave him exactly the libretto he required for
that outbreak of the old operatic Adam in him. So he changed it
into Die Gotterdammerung, retaining the traditional plot of
murder and jealousy, and with it, necessarily, his or~gmal second
act, in spite of the incongruity of its Siegfried and Brynhild
with the Siegfried and Brynhild of the allegory. As to the
legendary matter about the world-ash and the destruction of
Valhalla by Loki, it fitted in well enough; for though,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: 21; II. iv. 4; V. iii. 52; VII. v. 18, and VI. ii. 13; "Anab." I.
ix. 27; II. i. 9; where "adjutants," "orderlies" would seem to be
implied.
[6] Al. "to prevent whole divisions losing their way." Cf. "Anab."
VIII. iii. 18.
Again, if there is prospect of danger on the march, a prudent general
can hardly show his wisdom better than by sending out advanced patrols
in front of the ordinary exploring parties to reconnoitre every inch
of ground minutely. So to be apprised of the enemy's position in
advance, and at as great a distance off as possible, cannot fail to be
useful, whether for purposes of attack or defence; just as it is
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: should these stories, if true, as no doubt they were, be omitted?
[43] Cf. Plat. "Crit." 44 B.
When the trial drew to an end, we are told, the master said:[44]
"Sirs, those who instructed the witnesses that they ought to perjure
themselves and bear false witness against me, alike with those who
listened to their instruction, must be conscious to themselves of a
deep impiety and injustice.[45] But for myself, what reason have I at
the present time to hold my head less high than I did before sentence
was passed against me, if I have not been convicted of having done any
of those things whereof my accusers accused me? It has not been proved
against me that I have sacrificed to novel divinities in place of Zeus
The Apology |
