On February 13, 1883, Wagner sent word that the family should not wait for him at lunch. In his study he did some work on his article “On the Womanly in the Human.” After writing in his notes the words, “All the same, women’s emancipation is proceeding only in an atmosphere of ecstatic convulsion. Love—tragedy,” he suffered a heart attack. He died in Cosima’s arms at around 3:30 p .m . The report of Wagner’s physician in Venice, Dr. Friedrich Keppler, on Wagner’s illness and the cause of his death was as follows: “Richard Wagner suffered from an advanced enlargement of the heart, in particular of the right ventricle, accompanied by fatty de generation of the heart tissue. In addition to this, he suffered from a fairly extensive enlargement of the stomach and an internal hernia in the right groin. The latter was particularly difficult to keep in check and had in any case been maltreated by the use of an extremely unsuitable truss, so that the very first advice I gave him was a prescription for a suitable truss. “The complaints from which Richard Wagner suffered during the last months of his life consisted primarily of disorders located in the stomach and intestines, in particular a high degree of meteorism,* and, along with this, though as a secondary feature, painful disturbances of the heart action, caused both by a direct mechanical restriction of the chest space as a consequence of the massive accumulation of gases from stomach and intestines, and by reflexive influence of the stomach nerves on the heart nerves; this finally led to the rupture of the right ventricle and precipitated the catastrophe. It cannot be doubted that the in numerable psychical agitations to which Wagner was daily exposed on account of his particular mental outlook, his sharply pronounced attitude toward a whole series of burning problems in the fields of art, science, and politics, and his noteworthy social position, contributed much to his unfortunate end. “The actual attack which so abruptly terminated the master’s life must have had a similar cause, but it is not for me to speculate on this matter.“The medical treatment I prescribed for Wagner consisted of massage of the abdomen and the application of a suitable truss. I avoided the use of medicaments as much as possible, since Wagner had the bad habit of taking medicines prescribed for him by various physicians whom he had consulted previously, often in great quantities all together.”
Paul von Joukowsky described Wagner’s death in a letter written on February 22, 1883, to Malwida von Meysenbug: “It was as glorious as his life. We were all waiting for him to appear at table, for he had sent word to us to begin lunch without him. In the meantime he had sent for the doctor on account of his usual spasmsj then at about 2:30 he sent Betty to fetch Frau Wagner. The doctor came at 3:00, which made us all feel easier; but around 4 o’clock, since nobody had come out of his room, we became worried; then suddenly Georg appeared and told us simply that it was all over. He died at around 3 o’clock in the arms of his wife, without suffering, falling asleep with an expression on his face of such nobility and peace that the memory of it wiU never leave me. She was alone with him the whole of the first day and night, but then the doctor managed to persuade her to go into another room. Since then I have not seen her, and I shall never see her again; nobody will, except for the children and Gross and his wife, since he is their legal guardian. She will live in the upper rooms of the house, existing only for his memory and for the children; everything else in life has ceased to exist for her. So write only to the children, for she will never read a letter again. Since her dearest wish, to die with him, was not fulfilled, she means at least to be dead to all others and to lead the only life fitting for her, that of a nun who will be a constant source of divine consolation to her children. That is great, and in complete accord with all else in her life..; .”Certainly Cosima’s first intention was exactly as Joukowsky described it. In her desire for death she refused all nourishment for many hours after Wagner died, then, yielding to the inevitable, cut off her hair and laid it in Wagner’s coffin. Hidden from sight in black robes, she accompanied her husband’s body in the train back to Bayreuth. At Wahnfried it was carried to the grave at the bottom of the garden by Muncker, Feustel, Gross, Wolzogen, Seidl, Joukowsky, Wilhelmj, Forges, Levi, lUchter, Standhartner, and Niemann. Daniela, Isolde, Eva, and Siegfried walked beside the coffin—^Blandine, expecting her first child, was not present. Only after their friends had left did Cosima emerge from the house to join her children as the coffin was lowered into the grave. Among the messages of condolence was one from Hans von Bulow which said simply, Soeur, il faut vivre” [“Sister, life must go on”]. It took Cosima a long time to accept this truth, and for more than a year after Wagner’s death she lived alone with her children in Wahn- fried, receiving nobody. For the performances of Parsifal given in the festival theater in the summer of 1883 Emil Scaria (the Gurnemanz) assumed artistic control, as did Anton Fuchs (the Klingsor) in the following year.
But a warning from some of the participants, conveyed to her by her daughters, that the performances were losing the special quality Wagner himself had given them at last induced Cosima, a year after his death, to come out of her seclusion and assume active control of the festival. This was one reason; another was that trouble was threatening in connection with the inheritance. Wagner had left no will, and Cosima heard that efforts were being made by his more nationalistically minded supporters, Heckel among them, to persuade Liszt and Hans von Billow to rescue the festivals from the jewish influence of Levi. In fact, there was no likelihood of LSzt’s or von Billow’s complying, but Cosima realized that the time had come for her to assert her authority. Only tentatively at first: she had a curtained box constructed beside the stage, from which she could watch rehearsals unseen, and from it she dispatched notes of guidance and reproof to Levi and the various participants. In 1886 she at last assumed full control of the festival theater with the staging there of Tristan und Isolde.
No one's reading all that shit my guy
>>25040376>Love—tragedyFitting last words for the Master.
