Richard Wagner | Page 5

of Carl Friedrich's
death he came from Dresden to attend to the burying of the dead and
the nourishing of the living. The details of this first period of Richard's
ill-fortune do not amount to a great deal and are unimportant, since our
subject is Richard, and his mother, brother and sisters only so far as
their lives and characters influenced Richard. Albert, the eldest of the
children, was now fourteen years old; he was at the Royal school in
Meissen, and there he remained. Rosalie went to dwell with a friend of
Geyer's, a lady who lived at Dresden. Louise was adopted by a Frau
Hartwig, also at Dresden. Richard in his cradle remained with his
mother and the younger members of the tribe in Leipzig.
And so presently life began to move on as before, while the dead man
slept in his grave. But immediately fresh troubles came. Albert fell
dangerously ill and was threatened with a total breakdown of his health;
Richard was an ailing infant; and a change in the arrangements of the
theatrical company which provided Geyer with a portion of his income
compelled him to remain in Dresden continuously. This proved really a
stroke of good fortune. Glasenapp, basing his calculations on I know
not what authorities or documents, computes that his earnings as an
actor at this time came to £156 a year, and there seems every reason to
think he was at least fairly well paid for his portraits. It was not enough
to be shared between two families, or, we had better say, to be devoted
to the up-keep of two homes. He determined rapidly on a bold stroke.
That he was in love with Frau Wagner is more than any one can declare
with confidence; but she was an amiable, bright woman, a good mother
and thrifty housekeeper; and it is likely enough that she had inspired a
deep affection in a singularly loving man. After the recovery of Albert
the widow had gone for a change to Dresden; and there Geyer resolved
to marry her--and resolved quickly; for Carl Friedrich died in
November 1813, and early in 1814 the marriage took place. Soon after,
the new Frau Geyer returned to Leipzig; then the whole family
migrated to Dresden, where Richard was to pass from babyhood into
boyhood and spend the first fourteen years of his life.
II

The Geyer-Wagner family set up their tent in the Moritz-strasse in
Dresden, which belonged to the seventeenth or eighteenth century--was
in fact almost mediæval. Life must have been atrociously narrow and
trammelled to any free spirit. But Germany did not produce many of
that sort at the time, and those she did produce were quickly silenced in
gaol. Whether Geyer had yearnings for outward liberty cannot be said;
but if he had he gave no expression to them, being himself a court
player and a semi-court painter. Undoubtedly the main thing to him
was that in the drowsy court air he could at least earn the means of
bringing up adequately the large family he had taken on his shoulders.
He played constantly in all sorts of parts, and in his off hours painted;
he also wrote a number of theatre pieces of varying type and
importance--none of which concern us here. His wife enjoyed a period
of peace in which to attend to her husband, children and house, as a
faithful hausfrau should. If Geyer was industrious and much occupied,
he nevertheless found time to cultivate friendships, and some of them
in later days were continued by Richard.
The whole life of the circle went on around the theatre or in it; it must
have been their whole world, for of culture other than of the theatre
there is no indication--save one or two half-hearted remarks of Geyer's
at a slightly later period. They admired Goethe and Schiller, of course,
and knew their theatre works; they knew of the Romantics in so far as
they affected the theatre; it seems to have been only through the theatre
they saw anything or could see anything. Breathing the theatrical
atmosphere constantly, one after another of Geyer's step-children
caught the theatre malady (for it will be admitted that men or women
must have something the matter with them if they deliberately choose a
theatrical life); and within a few years three of them were appearing on
the stage. Albert left school and went to the university to study
medicine; after a very brief struggle he gave this up, studied singing,
and in 1819 or 1820 made his debut as a light-opera tenor. Before this
Geyer had warned him against taking such a course; but apparently he
was obdurate. On May 2 of the former year Rosalie had first appeared
as an actress in a piece