If this incident is true it is exquisitely pretty and touching; if not, it
is highly absurd and ridiculous, but the same may be said of many
hypothetical historical incidents. At all events, the financial
arrangements which followed upon the discovery of the MS. and the price
demanded for it by the Wagnerian housemaid convinces me absolutely of its
authenticity.

To me it is not strange that Wagner should choose to immortalize the story
of Bluebeard, for the interesting and inspiring myth has been used in all
ages and in all countries. It differs slightly in the various versions. In
some, the shade of the villain's beard is robin's-egg and in others indigo;
in some the fatal key is blood-stained instead of broken; while in the
matter of wives the myth varies according to the customs of the locality
where it appears: In monogamous countries the number of ladies slain is
generally six, but in bigamous and polygamous countries the interesting
victims mount (they were always hung high, you remember) to the number of
one hundred and seventeen.

I ought, perhaps, to confess to you that there are critics who still deny
the authenticity of this work, although they concede that it is full of
Wagner's spirit and influence and may have been produced by some ardent
follower or pupil; one steeped to the eyebrows in mythologic lore and
capable of hurling titanic tonal eccentricities against the uncomprehending
ear-drum of the dull and ignorant herd. There are those, too, who think
that some disciple of Richard II.,--Strauss, not Wagner,--had a hand in the
orchestration, simply because his "Sinfonia Domestica" occupies itself with
the same sweet history of the inglenook which is the basis of the Bluebeard
libretto. Strauss's symphony is worked out along more tranquil lines, to be
sure, but it is only the history of a single day of married life and a day