Who would not rather remain at home,
receiving the world, than go knocking, humbly or arrogantly, at many
doors, offering an entertainment, perhaps unwelcome? The artist must
always be at cautious enmity with his public, always somewhat at its
mercy, even after he has conquered its attention. The crowd never really
loves art, it resents art as a departure from its level of mediocrity;
and fame comes to an artist only when there is a sufficient number of
intelligent individuals in the crowd to force their opinion upon the
resisting mass of the others, in the form of a fashion which it is
supposed to be unintelligent not to adopt. Bayreuth exists because
Wagner willed that it should exist, and because he succeeded in forcing
his ideas upon a larger number of people of power and action than any
other artist of our time. Wagner always got what he wanted, not always
when he wanted it. He had a king on his side, he had Liszt on his side,
the one musician of all others who could do most for him; he had the
necessary enemies, besides the general resistance of the crowd; and at
last he got his theatre, not in time to see the full extent of his own
triumph in it, but enough, I think, to let him die perfectly satisfied.
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