tianity, to Buddhism, as well as to princes[1]—but at last they proved too much. We today can see that "Parsifal" was a further, more pronounced expression of the same tendencies; but "Parsifal" came later.
A variety of dissatisfactions and doubts were thus at work in Nietzsche's mind, and the revulsion at Bayreuth in 1876 was only a culminating episode. j
I have said that Nietzsche left Bayreuth never to return. This does not mean, however, that there was an open break with Wagner. The two met in Sorrento the following autumn, and their relations were outwardly much as of old. But the old warm sympathy no longer existed between them—and one incident estranged Nietzsche the more. Wagner was now at work on "Parsifal," and, as if aware that the composition of a play of just this character was hardly in keeping with the views he had so often expressed, he sought to explain to Nietzsche certain religious sensations he had been having, certain inclinations to Christian dogmas—as, for instance, how he had been edified by the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Nietzsche could only listen in silence—it seemed to him impossible that one who had been so outspoken and so thorough in his unbelief could go back; he thought that Wagner was practising on himself. It was another disillusionment. He noted down: "I am not able to recognize any kind of greatness which does not include honesty with oneself; playing a part inspires me with disgust; if I discover anything of this order in a man, all his performances count for nothing; I know that they have everywhere down at bottom this theatrical character."[2] k Despite even this there was no open break. This came two years later still—and in connection with a singular coincidence. Nietzsche had finished a new book, Human, All-too-Human (the first product of what we may call his second period), and was sending copies of it to Wagner and Frau Cosima in Bayreuth, along with some humorous verses of dedication. But exactly at the same time there came to him from Wagner a beautiful copy of the text of "Parsifal," with the inscription, "Cordial greetings and wishes to his dear friend Friedrich Nietzsche," and signed "Richard Wagner, Oberkirchenrath [member of the
