s Free ; Greatecompanion n Greatecompanion ssearch; Great n Greatecompanion ssearch;searchH Great Companion a Porn searchhsearch searchmsearcht Porn o Free asearch stsearchbsearchlsearcht Great searchfsearchasearchssearchxy Great a Great -searchlsearch searchh Companion l Greatecompanion . Great Whpowered+by+SMF+home+theater+receiversn Porn h Greatecompanion Porn et Free o Free t Great o Great otsearch, Greatecompanion h Free Greatecompanion ol Free Free a5712326308e Porn a Free d Companion stasearchp,heleyy+pornoo Companion i Free ksearchisearcht Porn u Porn csearchdsearchl searchl Great o Great searchn Porn ta Free ksearchdar Porn ly Free o Companion Companion oipowered+by+SMF+2.0+broadway+showsg Porn o Greatecompanion tpowered+by+SMF+2.0+broadway+showse Great E Free st Free osearchen Porn Great is ays s search B Companion d Porn hissearch Great onk. Greatecompanion T Porn n Free m Free nusearchessearchlaersearch Great h Porn n Companion s Porn m Greatecompanion tsearchinsearch searchla Free e Porn searchim searche Porn wo Companion ld Greatecompanion uh ot Companion opowered+by+SMF+2.0+youtube+broadcast+yourself d Companion opowered+by+SMF+2.0+broadway+showss and run around the garden, or jump up and down on the sofa, or stand on his head. He could be grief-stricken over the death of a pet dog, and he could be callous and heartless to a degree that would have made a Roman emperor shudder.
    He was almost innocent of any sense of responsibility. Not only did he seem incapable of supporting himself, but it never occurred to him that he was under ay obligation to do so. He was convinced that the world owed him a living. In support of this belief, he borrowed money from everybody who was good for a loan -- men, women, friends, or strangers. He wrote begging letters by the score, sometimes groveling without shame, at other loftily offering his intended benefactor the privilege of contributing to his support, and being mortally offended if the recipient declined the honor. I have found no record of his ever paying or repaying money to anyone who did not have a legal claim upon it.
    What money he could lay his hands on he spent like an Indian rajah. The mere prospect of a performance of one of his operas was enough to set him to running up bills amounting to ten times the amount of his prospective royalties. No one will ever know -- certainly he never knew -- how much money he owed. We do know that his greatest benefactor gave him $6,000 to pay the most pressing of his debts in one city, and a year later had to give him $16,000 to enable him to live in another city without being thrown into jail for debt.
    He was equally unscrupulous in other ways. An endless procession of women marched through his life. His first wife spent twenty years enduring and forgiving his infidelities. His second wife had been the wife of his most devoted friend and admirer, from whom he stole her. And even while he was trying to persuade her to leave her first husband he was writing to a friend to inquire whether he could suggest some wealthy woman -- any wealthy woman -- whom he could marry for her money.
    He was completely selfish in his other personal relationships. His liking for his friends was measured solely by the completeness of their devotion to him, or by their usefulness to him, whether financial or artistic. The minute they failed him -- even by so much as refusing dinner invitation -- or began to lessen in usefulness, he cast them off without a second thought. At the end of his life he had exactly one friend left whom he had known even in middle age.
    The name of this monster was Richard Wagner. Everything that I have said about him you can find on record -- in newspapers, in police reports, in the testimony of people who knew him, in his own letters, between the lines of his autobiography. And the curious thing about this record is that it doesn't matter in the least.
    Because this undersized, sickly, disagreeable, fascinating little man was right all the time. The joke was on us. He was one of the world's greatest dramatists; he was a great thinker; he was one of the most stupendous musical geniuses that, up to now, the world has ever seen. The world did owe him a living.
    When you consider what he wrote -- thirteen operas and music dramas, eleven of them still holding the stage, eight of them unquestionably worth ranking among the world's great musico-dramatic masterpieces -- when you listen to what he wrote, the debts and heartaches that people had to endure from him don't seem much of a price. Think of the luxury with which for a time, at least, fate rewarded Napoleon, the man who ruined France and looted Europe; and then perhaps you will agree that a few thousand dollars' worth of debts were not too heavy a price to pay for the Ring trilogy.
    What if he was faithless to his friends and to his wives? He had one mistress to whom he was faithful to the day of his death: Music. Not for a single moment did he ever compromise with what he believed, with what be dreamed. There is not a line of his music that could have been conceived by a little mind. Even when he is dull, or downright bad, he is dull in the grand manner. There is greatness about his worst mistakes. Listening to his music, one does not forgive him for what he may or may not have been. It is not a matter of forgiveness. It is a matter of being dumb with wonder that his poor brain and body didn't burst under the torment of the demon of creative energy that lived inside him, struggling, clawing, scratching to be released; tearing, shrieking at him to write the music that was in him. The miracle is that what he did in the little space of seventy years could have been done at all, even by a great genius. Is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man?


New Words

    monster
n.  a person too wicked to be considered human; an animal or plant that is very unlike those usually found in nature

    undersized
a.  smaller than usual; too small

    sickly
a.  weak, unhealthy and often ill

    agony
n.  very great pain or suffering of mind or body

    coarse
a.  not fine or smooth; rough

    delusion
n.  a false belief

    grandeur
n.  greatness, nobility

    delusion of grandeur
    夸大妄想

    dramatist
n.  a writer of plays, esp. serious ones; playwright

    composer
n.  one who writes musical works

    compose vt.

    conversationalist
n.  a person who enjoys and is skilled at conversation

    monologue
n.  a long speech by one person; a spoken part in a play or film for a single person 独白

    maddeningly
ad. annoyingly

    tiresome
a.  irritating or boring

    mania
n.  a desire so strong than it seems mad; an unusual or unreasonable fondness 狂热；癖好

    hint
n.  a statement or action that gives a small or indirect suggestion

    trivial
a.  of little or no importance

    harangue
n.  a long, loud speech, esp. one which blames those listening to it

    volubility
n.  fondness for talking; talkativeness

    deafen
vt. make deaf, esp. for a short time; stun with noise

    vegetarianism
n.  the practice or principle of eating only vegetable foods and refraining from eating meat, fish or other animal products

    pamphlet
n.  a small book with paper covers which deals usu. with some matter of public interest; booklet 小册子

    expense
n.  cost in money, time, or effort

    opera
n.  a musical play

    summon
vt. order(sb.) to come

    applause
n.  loud praise for a performer or performance, esp. by striking the hands together

    needless
a.  unnecessary

    eminent
a.  (of people) famous and admired

    vocalist
n.  singer

    vocal
a.  of the voice

    rave
vi. talk wildly

    suicidal
a.  wishing to kill oneself, which leads or will lead to death or destruction

    suicide
n.

    gloom
n.  a feeling of unhappiness or despair

    gloomy 
a.

    darkly
ad. with a dark, gloomy, or menacing look or manner

    Buddhist
a., n.  having to do with Buddhism; a believer in Buddhism 佛教的；佛教徒

    monk
n.  a member of an all-male religious group who has made solemn promises, esp. not to marry and not to have any possessions, living in a monastery 僧侣

    Buddhist monk
    僧，和尚

    grief
n.  a feeling of extreme sadness

    grief-stricken
a.  filled with great sorrow

    grieve
v.

    pet
n.  an animal kept in the home as a companion

    callous
a.  without feeling for the suffering of other people; unkind

    emperor
n.  the ruler of an empire

    shudder
vi. shake uncontrollably for a moment, esp. from fear, cold, or strong dislike; tremble

    incapable
a.  not having the power or ability to do sth. or show a quality

    grovel
vi. be shamefully bumble or eager to please; ask or beg with too great humility 卑躬屈膝，奴颜婢膝

    loftily
ad. proudly; haughtily

    lofty
a.  very high; towering; noble

    benefactor
n.  a person who gives friendly help, often in the form of money

    mortally
ad. bitterly, extremely

    mortal
a.  causing death; certain to die someday

    offend
vt. hurt the feeling of; upset

    offensive
a.

    recipient
n.  a person who receives sth.

    legal
a.  of or using the law

    rajah
n.  an Indian ruler

    prospective
a.  expected or intended; likely to be or become

    royalty
n.  a part of the price of a book, paid to the writer on each copy sold; a payment made to the writer of a play or piece of music when it is performed 版税

    pressing
a.  urgent

    jail
n.  prison

    unscrupulous
a.  not caring about honesty and fairness in getting what one wants; completely without principles

    endless
a.  having or seeming to have no end; never finishing

    infidelity
n.  an act of disloyalty; lack of faithfulness, esp. to husband or wife

    admirer
n.  a person who admires, esp. a man who is attracted to a particular woman

    wealthy
a.  rich, abundant

    selfish
a.  concerned about oneself without thinking of others

    devotion
n.  loyalty

    lessen
v.  make or become less

    autobiography
n.  the story of a person's life written by himself/herself

    disagreeable
a.  bad-tempered and unfriendly; unpleasant

    stupendous
a.  amazing, marvelous 巨大的，惊人的

    musical
a.  of or for music

    genius
n.  a person who has very great natural ability to think and create

    unquestionably
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