'the whole dramatic and moral point of the opera is
lost.' That difficulty is overcome by the imagi- native skill of Henze. But by that time the seeds of disbelief, weakening at any rate the dramatic and moral point, have already been sown—dis- belief not in the particular poem but in the poet himself. Auden has deliberately presented a man who in his daily life is a creature of egoism, infantilism and tyrannical selfishness. We see him despising his contemporaries Rilke and Hof- mannsthal, avidly noting down Frau Mack's visions, trampling on the adoring Griffin (that he knows she fulfils herself through subjection only makes it worse—the Master is never more odious than in his magnanimity), injected with monkey glands and kept in physical health by the doctor (Irregular stools, inspiration cools'— Osborne's Luther would hardly agree), admiring himself for scoffing at himself for admiring him- self, and using all humanity as pulp for the pro- ducts of his genius.
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