felt that Wagner was too insistent—suspicious, too, where there was no need to be; if he made any assertion of independence, Wagner seemed to resent it. The difficulties were smoothed over while Wagner was near at hand in Tribschen, but when he removed to Bayreuth (1872), misunderstandings sometimes lingered. Invitations involving so long a journey he could not always accept, and sometimes he was not exactly in the mood for accepting them. We find him touched, for instance, on hearing that Wagner had spoken coolly, and as if disappointed, about "The Use and Harm of History for Life," because there had been no mention of his [Wagner's] special cause in it; and once, when a friend told him that Wagner was taking it ill that he had not accepted an invitation, he replied that while he could not conceive how any one could be more loyal to Wagner than he was (if he could be, he would be), yet he must keep his freedom in minor points and abstain from too frequent personal intercourse to the very end of preserving his loyalty in the higher sense.[1] Two or three other circumstances may be mentioned. During one of his visits to Bayreuth, Nietzsche played the "Triumphlied" of Brahms, which he particularly liked. Wagner was not pleased, and fell into a passion at Nietzsche's praise—showed himself "not great," as Nietzsche remarked at the time to his sister. Then Wagner's stories and jokes in broad Saxon sometimes offended him—and when Wagner saw this, he seemed to ply them the more. In truth Wagner was a little of a Bohemian in manners and conversation, and his occasional rudeness and coarseness wounded Nietzsche's ideal sentiment about him.[2] Further, though, as stated, Nietzsche was slightly influenced, he could not really follow Wagner in his aversion for the Jews. Nothing perhaps shows better his natural nobility than his practically lifelong superiority to anti-Semitism—for though many excuses can be given for this sentiment, no noble nature can share it.
But doubts were also insinuating themselves as to Wagner's art. Was there not acting in it at times, striving for effect? The ecstatic seemed often violent, was not sufficiently naïve.[3]
