Wagner's prospects were still of the poorest; he was still living mainly
on charity; but in 1859 he had finished _Tristan_, and much of the
_Ring_ was sketched or actually written. He was amnestied and free to
return to Germany, and he could do little good there. _Tristan_ was
accepted at Vienna, but the production was put off. He was busy on the
_Mastersingers_--busy with all manner of impracticable dreams, and could
not earn a livelihood. His concert tours brought him little or no
profit; in Paris a series of concerts cost him 10,000 francs, and where
on earth he found the money I do not pretend to know. He was fifty-one
years of age; his fortunes seemed at their very worst, the outlook was
of the blackest, when of a sudden all was changed. King Ludwig of
Bavaria sent for him, and promised to help him in every possible way. He
had many rebuffs to face, but from this time (1864) his ultimate victory
was assured.




MUNICH--TRIEBSCHEN, 1864-1871.


From the outset squabbles and intrigues made Wagner's life bitter. He
did not do things by halves, and when he had succeeded in getting the
music school of Munich re-organized to suit his wishes, with Bülow as
chief director, the local musicians felt they had little cause to love
him. Bülow was appointed kapellmeister of the Court Theatre; reforms,
peculiarly disagreeable to those reformed, were set on foot; and
singers, players, _régisseurs_, who had anticipated sleeping away their
existence in the good old fashion, were violently awakened by this
reckless adventurer, charlatan, and what not, who had won the King's