Ludwig the Second, King of Bavaria. Clara Tschudi
expected in vain. The King hesitated to say the decisive word; as a matter of fact, he never said it. People tried to guess the reason. Some thought that the Tsarina’s too great eagerness for the match had cooled his own ardour for it. Others thought that the beauty-loving youth had hesitated because he had discovered that the little Russian Princess had a higher heel on one foot than on the other. Hardly any one suspected the real reason. It must be sought in Ludwig’s restless, undecided temperament, and in his inborn aversion to entering the married state.1
1 The Archduchess Maria married some years later the second son of Queen Victoria, Prince Alfred, later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. ↑
CHAPTER V
King Ludwig and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner, in the preface to his Niebelungenlied, asks the following question:—“Is the prince to be found who will make possible the representation of my work?” Ludwig of Bavaria read these lines as Crown Prince, and exclaimed, with enthusiasm: “When I am a King I will show the world how highly I prize his genius!”
Hardly a month after his accession Ludwig sent his private secretary, Herr von Pfistermeister, to invite Wagner to Munich. The secretary sought Wagner first in Vienna; but the poet-musician had been obliged to flee the Austrian capital for some place where his pursuers could not reach him, having been threatened with arrest for debt. He was traced to some friends in Stuttgart. There the King’s emissary delivered to him a photograph of Ludwig and a ring, set with a ruby, and informed him that, as the stone in the ring glowed, so his ruler burned with longing to behold him.
On his sixteenth birthday the Crown Prince of Bavaria had been present at a representation of Lohengrin. This opera had made the deeper impression on him from the fact that the legend of the swan knights was connected with Hohenschwangau, which, as we know, had been from his childhood his favourite place of residence. During the years preceding his ascent of the throne his interest in the “musician of the future” increased. When visiting his aunt, the Duchess Ludovica, at Possenhofen, he had found Wagner’s compositions on her pianoforte, and from this time forth he studied his works with zeal. Ludwig was not the possessor of any distinctly musical gifts. A musician who gave him lessons on the piano was even of opinion that he was wanting in ear; and Wagner’s works probably attracted him more from their fantastic poetry than on account of their musical qualities.
It was with feelings of joyful expectation that the master accepted the young King’s invitation. He arrived at Munich at the beginning of May (1864), and was received with consideration. His personality made a strong impression on Ludwig, who assured him of his favour and warm interest. “The unthinkable, and the only thing that I required, has become a reality. Heaven has sent me a patron. Through him I live and understand myself!” exclaimed the poet-musician to friends who were awaiting him on his return from the Palace. After staying a few days in the Bavarian capital he continued his journey to Vienna, being now able, thanks to Ludwig’s generosity, to discharge his debts. He soon, however, returned to Munich, and Pfistermeister, in the name of his master, bade him welcome to a beautifully situated villa on the lake of Starnberg, where he might live undisturbed for his art.
Ludwig was in residence at this time at the adjacent Schloss Berg, where Wagner frequently visited him, and performed his works before him. The master’s imagination, poetry, his attractive manner, all transformed the royal enthusiast’s admiration into blind admiration. The elder man exerted a superhuman power over the youth, and his proximity had a positively electrifying effect on the King. Their life together became a decisive event in the lives of both. Full of pity for him, and happy in the consciousness of being able to assist him, Ludwig wrote on the day following their first meeting: “Feel assured that I will do all that lies in my power to make reparation to you for your earlier sufferings. I will for ever chase away the trifling sorrows of everyday life from your head. I will give you the repose you require, so that undisturbed in the pure sphere of your art you can unfold your genius in its entirety. … Unknowingly you were the only source of my joys. From my earliest years you were to me a friend who as no other spoke to my heart, my best teacher and upbringer.” In spite of their difference in age it is placed beyond a doubt, that Wagner from the first moment warmly reciprocated the feelings of his protector. He thus writes to his friend Frau von Wille (May 1864): “He (the King) is unhappily so handsome and so intellectual, so full of soul and so glorious, that I fear his life must disappear like a fleeting dream of gods in this commonplace world. He loves me with the tenderness and warmth of first love. He knows me and all about me, and understands me as he does his own soul. He wishes me to live with him altogether, to work, rest, and have my works performed. He will give me everything I may require for this purpose. I am to complete the “Ring”; and he will have them put on the stage in the manner I desire. I am to be my own master, not Kapelmeister, nothing except myself and his friend! … All need is to be taken away from me, I am to have all that I require, only I am to remain with him! … You cannot imagine the charm of his glance. I only hope he may live; it is a real marvel!” Of their personal intercourse he writes, on another occasion: “I always hasten to him as to a loved one. It is a glorious intercourse … and, in addition, this kind care of me, this charming modesty of the heart when he assures me of his happiness in possessing me. We often sit for hours lost in the contemplation of one another.” The same feeling of exuberant joy is apparent in a letter written on the 20th of May to his friend Weissheimer: “Only two words to assure you of the indescribable happiness which has become my lot. Everything has happened in such a manner that it is impossible to imagine it more beautiful. Thanks to the affection of the young King, I am for all time insured against every pecuniary care. I can work, I need not trouble myself about anything. No title, no functions, no duties! As soon as I wish anything staged the King places everything I require at my disposal. … My young King is a wonderful dispensation of fate to me. We love one another as only master and pupil can love one another. He is happy in having me and I am happy on account of him. … And then he is so beautiful, so profound, that daily intercourse with him carries me away, and gives me an entirely new life.”
Already at this time, however, he adds: “You can imagine what a vast amount of envy I meet with!”
The same year he addresses Ludwig:1
“O, König! Holder Schirmherr meines Lebens!
Du, höchster Güte wonnereicher Hort!
Was Du mir bist, kann staunend ich nur fassen,
Wenn mir sich zeigt, was ohne Dich ich war.
Du bist der holde Lenz, der neu mich schmückte,
Der mir verjüngt der Zweig und Aeste Saft;
Es war dein Ruf, der mich der Nacht entrückte,
Die winterlich erstarrt hielt meine Kraft.
Wie mich Dein hehrer Segengruss entzückte,
Der wonnenstürmisch mich dem Leid entrafft,
So wandl’ ich stolzbeglückt nun neue Pfade
Im sommerlichen Königreich der Gnade.”
At the beginning of October, Wagner moved from the lake of Starnberg to Munich, Ludwig having given him a furnished villa in Brienner Strasse. The royal gardeners transformed an adjoining garden into a pretty park, and he was granted a considerable monthly pension. The intercourse between the friends continued apparently undisturbed;