So much for the question of Liszt and Faust, which Mr. Ellis dragged in so gleefully to help his own case and Wagner's. In the absence of any new facts, I contend that it is abundantly clear that Liszt too called Faust a symphony only because he did not know it. If Wagner is to be whitewashed at all, it must be by a less brittle brush than this. As regards his disparagement of both Cellini and Faust, the defence seems to me to have broken down completely; he knew nothing of either of them.
E. N.
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[64] It should be borne in mind that Liszt himself was writing a "Faust Symphony" during the period covered by this controversy. He speaks of having finished it, in fact, in the letter to Wasielewski of this very date, 14th December. His constant use of the term to describe his own work might easily account for his transferring it unconsciously to that of Berlioz.
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