and wishes to slay Siegmund. Siegmund wishes to kill Sieglinda also, but Brünnhilda does not allow it, and he fights with Hunding. Brünnhilda defends Siegmund, but Wotan defends Hunding. Siegmund's sword breaks, and he is killed. Sieglinda runs away.

Act III. The Valkyries (divine Amazons) are on the stage. The Valkyrie Brünnhilda arrives on horseback, bringing Siegmund's body. She is flying from Wotan, who is chasing her for her disobedience. Wotan catches her, and as a punishment dismisses her from her post as a Valkyrie. He also casts a spell on her, so that she has to go to sleep and continue asleep until a man wakes her. When someone wakes her she will fall in love with him. Wotan kisses her; surrounds her.

she falls asleep. He lets off fire, which We now come to the Second Day. The dwarf Mime. forges a sword in a wood. Siegfried appears. He is a son born from the incest of brother with sister (Siegmund with Sieglinda), and has been brought up in this wood by the dwarf. In general the motives for the actions of everybody in this production are quite unintelligible. Siegfried learns his own origin, and that the broken sword was his father's. He orders Mime to re-forge it, and then goes off. Wotan comes in the guise of a wanderer and relates what will happen: that he who has not learnt to fear will forge the sword and will defeat everybody. The dwarf conjectures that this is Siegfried, and wants to poison him. Siegfried returns, forges his father's sword, and runs off, shouting, "Heiho heiho heiho! Ho ho! Aha! oho! aha! Heiaho! heiaho! heiaho! Ho! ho! Hahei! hoho! hahei!"

And we get to Act II. Alberich sits guarding a giant, who, in form of a dragon, guards the gold he has received. Wotan appears, and for some unknown reason foretells that Siegfried will come and kill the dragon. Alberich wakes the dragon and asks him for the ring, promising to defend

him from Siegfried. The dragon won't give up the ring. Exit Alberich. Mime and Siegfried appear. Mime hopes the dragon will teach Siegfried to fear. But Siegfried does not fear. He drives Mime away and kills the dragon, after which he puts his finger, smeared with the dragon's blood, to his lips. This enables him to know men's secret thoughts, as well as the language of birds. The birds tell him where the treasure and the ring are, and also that Mime wishes to poison him. Mime returns and says out loud that he wishes to poison Siegfried. This is meant to signify that Siegfried, having tasted dragon's blood, understands people's secret thoughts. Siegfried, having learnt Mime's intentions, kills him. The birds tell Siegfried where Brünnhilda is, and he goes to find her.

Erda. Erda prophesies to
Siegfried appears, quarrels
Suddenly Siegfried's sword

Act III. Wotan calls up Wotan, and gives him advice. with Wotan, and they fight. breaks Wotan's spear, which had been more powerful than anything else. Siegfried goes into the fire to Brünnhilda and kisses her; she wakes up, abandons her divinity, and throws herself into Siegfried's arms.

Third Day. Prelude. Three Norns plait a golden rope and talk about the future. They go away. Siegfried and Brünnhilda appear. Siegfried takes leave of her, gives her the ring, and goes away.

Act I. By the Rhine. A king wants to get married and also to give his sister in marriage. Hagen, the king's wicked brother, advises him to marry Brünnhilda and to give his sister to Siegfried. Siegfried appears; they give him a drugged draught, which makes him forget all the past and fall in love with the king's sister, Gutrune. So he rides off with Gunther, the king, to get Brünnhilda to be the king's bride. The scene changes. Brünnhilda sits with the ring. A Valkyrie comes to her and tells her that Wotan's spear is

broken, and advises her to give the ring to the Rhine nymphs. Siegfried comes and by means of the magic helmet turns himself into Gunther, demands the ring from Brünnhilda, seizes it, and drags her off to sleep with him.

Act II. By the Rhine. Alberich and Hagen discuss how to get the ring. Siegfried comes, tells how he has obtained a bride for Gunther and how he spent the night with her but put a sword between himself and her. Brünnhilda rides up, recognises the ring on Siegfried's hand, and declares that it was he, and not Gunther, who was with her. Hagen stirs everybody up against Siegfried, and decides to kill him next day when hunting.

Act III. Again the nymphs in the Rhine relate what has happened. Siegfried, who has lost his way, appears. The nymphs ask him for the ring but he won't give it up. Hunters appear. Siegfried tells the story of his life. Hagen then gives him a draught which causes his memory to return to him. Siegfried relates how he aroused and obtained Brünnhilda, and everyone is astonished. Hagen stabs him in the back, and the scene is changed. Gutrune meets the corpse of Siegfried. Gunther and Hagan quarrel about the ring, and Hagan kills Gunther. Brünnhilda cries. Hagen wishes to take the ring from Siegfried's hand, but the hand of the corpse raises itself threateningly. Brünnhilda takes the ring from Siegfried's hand, and when Siegfried's corpse is carried to the pyre she gets on to a horse and leaps into the fire. The Rhine rises, and the waves reach the pyre. In the river are three nymphs. Hagen throws himself into the fire to get the ring, but the nymphs seize him and carry him off. One of them holds the ring; and that is the end of the matter.

The impression obtainable from my recapitulation is of course incomplete. But however incomplete it may be it is certainly infinitely more favourable than the impression which results from reading the four booklets in which the work is printed.

PART XIV

TOLSTOY'S VIEW OF ART

THE substance of the following article appeared in the Contemporary Review, August 1900, as a reply to critics who had misquoted, misrepresented, or misunderstood Tolstoy. Their attacks were too ephemeral for it to be necessary to reproduce the polemical part of the reply; but, as previously remarked, what is worth preserving is an explanation of Tolstoy's position, which as it obtained his unqualified approval is conclusive on certain matters in dispute. In order to give the statement in the words Tolstoy endorsed I have retained some passages which have appeared in previous chapters of this book, and can only apologize to my readers for these repetitions.

Tolstoy had great difficulty in presenting his opinions (especially his religious and philosophic opinions) to the world. Several of his books were prohibited in Russia. Those printed in Geneva were carelessly edited, and (missing the attention Tolstoy usually gave to his proof-sheets) contained errors that tripped up his translators. Other works of his,

permitted in Russia, were tampered with by the Censor, who struck out what Tolstoy wrote and inserted words he objected to, as, for instance, was the case in the Russian edition of What is Art?

But, for non-Russian readers, the heaviest blow to Tolstoy's reputation as a clear and sane thinker was struck, not by the Censor, but by translators who failed to reproduce his thought. Versions of some of his most serious works appeared containing much absolute nonsense. They were issued at a time when readers, surprised that a novelist should

undertake philosophic work, were wondering whether they ought to regard Tolstoy seriously in his new rôle; and they caused some to conclude that, as a philosopher, he need not be taken seriously.1

A man who spoke the truth as he saw it under constant risk of persecution, whose works were suppressed or mutilated at home and badly edited abroad, who was translated so that he was made to assert what he in fact denied, has a special claim to fair treatment at the hands of reviewers. But this claim. was not always recognized.

His rank among the foremost writers of fiction was not questioned; but some of his philosophical works treating of human conduct, activities, institutions, and beliefs, had a different fate. When What is Art? appeared, it had a mixed reception, though some leading critics saw its value and one of them hailed it as "the most important essay in pure criticism of recent years, and destined to become a classic."

Tolstoy had in this book said much that was new, startling, and not quickly digestible; and he had expressed it so caustically, had been so severe on critics, specialists, professional artists, and art-schools, as well as on whole groups of people from spiritualists to scientists—including fifty or more well-known people then living, into the bargain -he had, in fact, hit out so freely and so hard that counterattacks of considerable asperity were inevitable. In reply to such attacks the following pages were written.

No department of science, as Véron justly remarks, has been more generally abandoned to the dreams of the metaphysicians than esthetic philosophy. The task Tolstoy undertook

1 The existence of such editions was a factor in inducing one hundred and twenty very distinguished English and American writers, dramatists, critics, and publicists, to endorse a letter written by G. Bernard Shaw to the press, in 1922, asking the public to support the "Maude Tolstoys," in the Oxford University Press edition, and thus make commercially possible the completion of a reliable and satisfactory rendering of Tolstoy's works in English.