When King Ludwig's summons at length reached him[Wagner], it raised him from the depths of despondency to a pinnacle of hope he had never theretofore attained. He had, indeed, begun to despair of his works ever being performed at all, and was on the verge of melancholy madness when the Royal Wittelsbach, in taking him by the hand, saved his reason from overthrow and, in all probability, his life to boot. Since that fortunate conjuncture in his career Tristan and Isolde has been successfully produced at Munich, Berlin, Leipzig, Weimar and Hamburg — last, though not least, at London, where during the summer of 1882 it drew two of the largest audiences ever gathered together within the walls of Old Drury.