64 Nietzscheof tragedy, the pathos of fate was displaced by intrigues and calcula-
dons. The representation of life forces became the staging of cleverly
devised machinations. The mechanism of cause and effect dislodged the
link between guilt and expiation. On the stage, discussion took the place
of song. The action onstage forfeited its mystery, and the protagonists
suffered because of banal miscalculations. The prevailing mood of
tragedy was lost. "We get the feeling," Nietzsche concluded, "that all of
these characters met their end as a result not of tragedy but of errors in
logic" (1,546; ST).
Nietzsche treated Socrates as a symptom of a radical and momentous
cultural transformation that had carried over into his own era. The will
to knowledge overwhelmed the life forces of myth, religion, and art.
Human life breaks away from the obscure roots of its instincts and pas-
sions as if being had to justify itself to consciousness. Life strained
toward the light, and dialectics triumphed over the dark music of fate.
An optimistic hope was aroused that life could be corrected, steered, and
calculated by consciousness. Music drama might have died of "delusion,
will, and woe" (1,132; BT% 20), but its death would not be permanent.
Nietzsche's lecture concluded with hints of a possible rebirth of Greek
tragedy. Richard Wagner was not mentioned by name, but it is likely that
all audience members would have realized that he was meant.
Will the renewed music drama be able to take hold, and will it be able
to reawaken a feeling for the tragic abysses in an age of optimism that
had been steered by the sciences? These were the questions Nietzsche
pondered at the close of his lecture. He indicated that the fate of the
music drama in the present era would depend on the strength of its
antagonist, the "Socratism of our days." His original lecture manuscript,
which he sent to the Wagners in Tribschen, concluded with the sentence
'This Socratism is the current Jewish press: need 1 say more?" (14,101).
Classifying subversive knowledge as a "Jewish" principle reflected a
basic conviction in the Wagner household. Perhaps Nietzsche had
adopted it from the Wagners. Even so, Cosima Wagner considered it
necessary to warn this young admirer. "I do have one request for you