The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎617v] (125/239)

94
RICHARD AND MINNA WAGNER.
gives me suddenly my first correct idea of Raphael through the
wonders of his giant red portfolio. . . . Yes, just as my uncle told
him on the staircase of his house in Rome, ‘ And were you the
archangel Raphael himself, I must be going now,’ though he bore
me on the wings of his wealth to every height and depth of all
creation, I still say ‘Alexander, from between me and the
sun
“ Frau Wesendonck, alas! is ill. She is expecting [six weeks
hence] and a cough has developed—not without some anxiety, to
judge by the account. This lady, of whom I saw a beautiful por
trait in oils, must, in fact, be a dear angel of goodness ! She
regretted not being able to see me—but I had been received with
so much friendship, and Herr Wesendonck behaved with such com
plete absence of side, that I ventured to leave my Geneva address
and beg for kind news of the health of the lady of the house.
Herr Wesendonck read me a letter from Wagner, which unfor
tunately doesn’t confirm the good conclusions we had drawn from
his silence. He says, ‘ Wherever I try to drive a nail to tighten
up my life, it will not hold! And the doctor tells me, You abso
lutely must not work at present—it is destroying you out and
out! ’ Write to him as often as you can—insist upon [your niece]
Seraphine writing also; I will write to him myself either to-day or
directly I get to Geneva ! It’s urgent.
“Imagine it! Wagner wrote to Wesendonck about that
journey of mine—and just as if I had undertaken it at my own
expense ! ... Of course I demolished that illusion by the simple
truth.’’
It is generally these little touches that tell the most, and the
last simple reference shows the full veracity of Wagner’s old
remark, that Mathilde kept no secrets from her husband ; for that
letter was addressed to her, as we have seen already. But the
whole reception given to Cornelius, himself a perfect stranger, is
striking evidence of the light in which Otto Wesendonck regarded
Wagner. On this side of the picture, at least, there was no
animosity.
A graceful little epilogue. —Cornelius writes to Standhartner
some five weeks after : “ Wesendonck has had the great kindness,
not only to give me news of his wife’s better health, but at the same
time to make me the most delicate present. He has sent me, in
quite admirable drawings, six sheets of them, those Psyche
pictures of Raphael’s the photographs of which so much im
pressed me. That is a gift which makes one proud, in place of
shaming one.” So Cornelius steals a couple of days from his
Cid to frame his thanks in verse—we may be sure with no refrain
of “ Alexander, get from between me and the sun ! ”
William Ashton Ellis.