Act I., Scene 2, Elsa's Song (page 35).

Ver.07/27/01*END*

This etext was produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu> with

the online distributed proofreaders team of Charles Franks

Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 (1889)

By Richard Wagner; Franz Liszt; Francis Hueffer (translator)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, Volume 1

INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

The German musical genius Richard Wagner (1811-1883) could be

considered to be one of the ideological fathers of early 20th

century German nationalism. He was well-suited for this role.

Highly intelligent, sophisticated, complex, capable of imagining

whole systems of humanistic philosophy, and with an intense need

to communicate his ideas, he created great operas which, in

addition to their artistic merits, served the peculiar role of

promoting a jingoistic, chauvenistic kind of Germanism. There are

things in his operas that only a German can fully understand,

especially if he would like to see his country closed off to

outsiders. It is unlikely, however, that Wagner expected these

ideas to achieve any popularity. Time and again he rails against

philistines, irrational people and politicians in his letters.

With great exasperation and often depression he expressed little

hope that his country would ever emerge out of its "philistinism"

and embrace "rational" ideas such as he propagated. Add to this

the great difficulties he had in getting his works performed, and

one might assume that he felt himself to be composing, most of

the time, to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great, intensely

beloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatly

appreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million,

and even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterie

incapable of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering the

sorry state of music and intellectualism in Wagner's time and

setting, he surely would have been surprised if his operas and

his ideas achieved any wide currency. That he continued to work

with intense energy to develop his ideas, to fix them into

musical form and to propagate them, while knowing that probably

no sizeable population would ever likely take note of them, and

while believing that his existence as an underappreciated,

rational individual in an irrational world was absurd and futile,

is a testimony to the enormous will-power of this "ubermensch."

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The best introduction to this important correspondence of the two

great musicians will be found in the following extract from an

autobiographical sketch written by Wagner in 1851. It has been

frequently quoted, but cannot be quoted too often, describing, as

it does, the beginning and the development of a friendship which

is unique in the history of art.

"Again I was thoroughly disheartened from undertaking any new

artistic scheme. Only recently I had had proofs of the

impossibility of making my art intelligible to the public, and

all this deterred me from beginning new dramatic works. Indeed, I

thought everything was at an end with my artistic creativeness.

From this state of mental dejection I was raised by a friend. By

the most evident and undeniable proofs he made me feel that I was

not deserted, but, on the contrary, understood deeply by those

even who were otherwise most distant from me; in this way he gave

me back my full artistic confidence.

"This wonderful friend has been to me Franz Liszt. I must enter a

little more deeply into the character of this friendship, which,

to many, has seemed paradoxical.

"I met Liszt for the first time during my earliest stay in Paris,

and at a period when I had renounced the hope, nay, even the wish

of a Paris reputation, and, indeed, was in a state of internal

revolt against the artistic life I found there. At our meeting

Liszt appeared. to me the most perfect contrast to my own being

and situation. In this world, to which it had been my desire to

fly from my narrow circumstances, Liszt had grown up from his

earliest age, so as to be the object of general love and

admiration at a time when I was repulsed by general coldness and

want of sympathy. In consequence, I looked upon him with

suspicion. I had no opportunity of disclosing my being and

working to m, and, therefore, the reception I met with on his

part was altogether of a superficial kind, as was indeed quite

natural in a man to whom every day the most divergent impressions

claimed access. My repeated expression of this feeling was

afterwards reported to Liszt, just at the time when my "Rienzi"

at Dresden attracted general attention. He was surprised to find

himself misunderstood with such violence by a man whom he had

scarcely known, and whose acquaintance now seemed not without

value to him. I am still touched at recollecting the repeated and

eager attempts he made to change my opinion of him, even before

he knew any of my works. He acted not from any artistic sympathy,

but was led by the purely human wish of discontinuing a casual

disharmony between himself and another being; perhaps he also

felt an infinitely tender misgiving of having really hurt me

unconsciously. He who knows the terrible selfishness and

insensibility in our social life, and especially in the relations

of modern artists to each other, cannot but be struck with

wonder, nay, delight, by the treatment I experienced from this

extraordinary man.

"This happened at a time when it became more and more evident

that my dramatic works would have no outward success. But just

when the case seemed desperate Liszt succeeded by his own energy

in opening a hopeful refuge to my art. He ceased his wanderings,

settled down at the small, modest Weimar, and took up the

conductor's baton, after having been at home so long in the

splendour of the greatest cities of Europe. At Weimar I saw him

for the last time, when I rested a few days in Thuringia, not yet

certain whether the threatening prosecution would compel me to

continue my flight from Germany. The very day when my personal

danger became a certainty, I saw Liszt conduct a rehearsal of my

"Tannhauser", and was astonished at recognizing my second-self in

his achievement. What I had felt in inventing this music he felt

in performing it; what I wanted to express in writing it down he

proclaimed in making it sound. Strange to say, through the love

of this rarest friend, I gained, at the moment of becoming

homeless, the real home for my art, which I had longed for and

sought for always in the wrong place.

"At the end of my last stay in Paris, when ill, miserable, and

despairing, I sat brooding over my fate, my eye fell on the score

of my "Lohengrin", totally forgotten by me. Suddenly I felt

something like compassion that this music should never sound from

off the death-pale paper. Two words I wrote to Liszt; his answer

was the news that preparations for the performance were being

made on the largest scale the limited means of Weimar would

permit. Everything that men and circumstances could do was done

in order to make the work understood. Success was his reward, and

with this success he now approaches me, saying, 'Behold we have

come so far; now create us a new work that we may go still

further.'"

Wagner's words, as above quoted, may have seemed an exaggerated

tribute of gratitude to many. After reading these letters one

comes to the conclusion that they are the expression of a plain

fact. It is a well-known French saying that in every love affair

there is one person who adores while the other allows himself to

be adored, and that saying may, with equal justice, be applied to

the many literary and artistic friendships of which, pace the

elder D'Israeli, history knows so many examples. Petrarch and

Boccaccio, Schiller and Goethe, Byron and Shelley immediately

occur to the mind in such a connection; but in none of these is

the mutual position of giver and receiver of worshipper and

worshipped so distinctly marked as in the case under discussion.

Nature itself, or, at least, external circumstances, had indeed

almost settled the matter. In the earlier stages of this

friendship the worldly position of the two men was a widely

different one. Liszt was at the time perhaps the most famous

musician alive, and although he had voluntarily abandoned an

active career, he remained the friend of kings and ecclesiastic

potentates, and the head and centre of an admiring school of

disciples.

Wagner at the same period was, in familiar language--nobody. He

had lost his position at the Royal Opera at Dresden through his

participation in the revolutionary rising of 1849, and he was an

exile from his country. As an artist his antecedents were not

very glorious. He had written three operas, all of which had met

with fair success, but none of which had taken real hold of the

public, and the Court theatres of Germany were naturally not very

prone to favour the interests of an outlawed rebel. In spite of

this disparity of fortune, it is curious to see how the two men,

almost from the first, assume the mutual position already

indicated. Liszt, from the beginning, realizes, with a self-

abnegation and a freedom from vanity almost unique in history,

that he is dealing with a man infinitely greater than himself,

and to serve the artistic and personal purposes of that man he

regards as a sacred duty.

Wagner's attitude in the matter will be judged differently by

different people, according to the opinion they have of the

permanent and supreme value of his work. He simply accepts the

position as he finds it. "Here am I," he may have said to

himself, "with a brain teeming with art work of a high and

lasting kind; my resources are nil, and if the world, or at least

the friends who believe in me, wish me to do my allotted task,

they must free me from the sordid anxieties of existence." The

words, here placed in quotation marks, do not actually occur in

any of the letters, but they may be read between the lines of

many of them. The naivete with which Wagner expresses himself on

this subject is indeed almost touching, and it must be owned that

his demands for help are, according to English notions at least,

extremely modest. A pension of 300 thalers, or about,œ45 of our

money, which he expects from the Grand Duke of Weimar for the

performing right of his operas, is mentioned on one occasion as

the summit of his desire. Unfortunately, even this small sum was

not forthcoming, and Wagner accordingly for a long time depended

upon the kindness of his friends and the stray sums which the

royalties on his operas brought him as his sole support. He for

himself, as he more than once declares, would not have feared

poverty, and with the touch of the dramatic element in his

nature, which was peculiar to him, would perhaps have found a

certain pleasure in going through the world, an artistic

Belisarius asking the lovers of his art for their obolus. But he

had a wife (his first wife), weak in health, and anxious of mind,

and to protect her from every care is his chief desire--a desire

which has something beautiful and pathetic in it, and is the

redeeming feature of the many appeals for a loan, and sometimes

for a present, which occur in these letters.

Liszt was only too willing to give, but his means were extremely

limited. He had realized large sums during his artistic career;

but he was liberal almost to a fault, and poor artists, inundated

Hungarian peasants, and the Beethoven monument at Bonn profited a

great deal more by his successes than he did himself. What little

remained of his savings had been settled upon his aged mother and

his three children, and at the time here alluded to his only

fixed income was the salary of less than [pounds] 200, which he

derived from the Weimar Theatre. This explanation he himself

gives to Wagner, in answer to the following remarkable sentence

in one of that master's letters:--"I once more return to the

question, can you let me have the 1,000 francs as a gift, and

would it be possible for you to guarantee me the same annual sum

for the next two years?" The 1,000 francs was forthcoming soon

afterwards, but poor Liszt had to decline the additional

obligation for two other years.

The above passage is quoted as an instance of many others, and

one must admire the candour of Wagner's widow, who has not

suppressed a single touch in the picture of this beautiful

friendship. But Liszt's help was not limited to material things.

What was infinitely more valuable to Wagner, and what excited his

gratitude to even more superlative utterance, was the confidence

which Liszt showed in his genius, and without which, it is no

exaggeration to say, Wagner's greatest works would probably have

remained unwritten.

The first performance of "Lohengrin" at Weimar, which was really

the starting-point of his fame, has already been alluded to.

Every further step in his career was watched and encouraged by

the loving sympathy of Liszt, and when Wagner, overpowered by the

grandeur and difficulties of his "Nibelungen" scheme, was on the

point of laying down the pen, it was Liszt who urged him to

continue in his arduous task, and to go on in spite of all

discouragement.

It must not, however, be thought that Wagner alone derived

benefits from this remarkable friendship. Not only did he in his

turn encourage Liszt in the career of a composer of great and

novel works, but he distinctly raised the intellectual and

artistic level of his friend. Liszt's nature was of a noble, one

may say, ideal kind, but he had lived in dangerous surroundings,

and the influence of the great world and of the glaring publicity

in which a virtuoso moves, had left its trace on his

individuality. Here, then, the uncompromising idealism, the

world-defying artistic conviction of Wagner, served as a tonic to

his character. If the reader will refer to Letter 21, or at least

to that portion of it which has been vouchsafed by Madame Wagner,

he will see how necessary the administration of such a tonic was

to a man who even at that time could think it necessary to

deprecate the "superideal" character of "Lohengrin", and to

advise in a scarcely disguised manner that the Knight of the

Grail should be brought a little more within the comprehension of

ordinary people. All the more beautiful is it to see how Liszt is

ultimately carried away by the enthusiasm of his great friend,

how he also defies the world, and adopts the device "L'art pour

l'art" as his guiding principle. Altogether the two friends might

have said to each other in the words of Juliet:--

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more

I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite." A few

words should be said of the spirit in which the translator has

undertaken his extremely difficult task. There are in these pages

many things which are of comparatively little interest to the

English reader,--allusions to circumstances and persons with

which he cannot be expected to be familiar, especially as the

latter are frequently veiled by initials. There is no doubt that

judicious omissions might have made these pages more readable and

more amusing. But then such a book as this is not meant to amuse.

It is almost of a monumental character, and his deep respect for

that character has induced the translator to produce its every

feature,--a remark which applies to manner no less than to

matter. In consequence, not a line has been omitted, and the

manners and mannerisms of the writers have been preserved as far

as the difference of the two languages would allow. Such

effusions of German enthusiasm as "dearest, best, most unique of

friends," "glorious, great man," and the italics which both

Wagner and Liszt employ with a profusion of which any lady might

be proud, have been scrupulously preserved. These slight touches

give a racy flavour to the letters; and although they may

occasionally call forth a smile, they will, no doubt, be

appreciated by those who with Sterne "can see the precise and

distinguishing marks of national character more in these

nonsensical minutiae than in the most important matters of

state."

That the task of reproducing these minutiae without doing too

much violence to the English idiom was an extremely difficult

one, the experienced reader need not be told. Liszt, it is true,

writes generally in a simple and straightforward manner, and his

letters, especially those written in French, present no very

great obstacles; but with Wagner the case is different. He also

is plain and lucid enough where the ordinary affairs of life are

concerned, but as soon as he comes upon a topic that really

interests him, be it music or Buddhism, metaphysics or the

iniquities of the Jews, his brain gets on fire, and his pen

courses over the paper with the swiftness and recklessness of a

race-horse, regardless of the obstacles of style and

construction, and sometimes of grammar. His meaning is always

deep, but to arrive at that meaning in such terrible letters, for

example, as those numbered 27, 35, 107, 255, and many others,

sometimes seems to set human ingenuity at defiance. It would of

course have been possible, by disentangling dove-tailed sentences

and by giving the approximate meaning where the literal was

impossible, to turn all this into fairly smooth English. But in

such a process all the strength and individual character of the

original would inevitably have been lost. What I have endeavoured

to do is to indicate the diction which a man of Wagner's peculiar

turn of mind would have used, if he had written in English

instead of in German.

To sum up, this translation of the correspondence is intended to

be an exact facsimile of the German original. To supply notes and

a serviceable index, to give a clue to the various persons who

are hidden under initials--all this must be left to another

occasion, provided always that the Wagner family consents to such

a course, and that the interest shown by English readers in the

work as it stands holds out sufficient inducement to so toilsome

a piece of work.

FRANCIS HUEFFER.

CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, VOLUME 1 (OF A 2-VOLUME SET)

I.

DEAR SIR,

If I take the liberty to trouble you with these lines, I must in

the first instance rely solely on the great kindness with which

you received me during your last short stay in Paris in the late

autumn of last year, when Herr Schlesinger casually introduced me

to you. There is, however, still another circumstance which

encourages me to this step: My friend Heinrich Laube, the author,

wrote to me last summer from Carlsbad that he had there made the

acquaintance of one of your countrymen, who boasted of being your

friend; that he had spoken to that gentleman of me and my plans,

and engaged his interest in me to such an extent that he (the

gentleman) of his own accord promised to introduce me to YOU, as

he was on the point of starting for another watering-place, where

he would be sure to meet you.

You observe, dear sir, with what remote and uncertain

contingencies I am obliged to connect my great hope; you observe

how anxiously I cling to feeble possibilities to attain a

priceless boon. Was that promise ever fulfilled, and could it

have been? My eternally unlucky star almost forbids me to believe

it. The question, however, I owed to myself, and all I ask for at

present is the honour of a Yes or a No!

With full admiration, your most devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

25, RUE DU HELDER, PARIS, March 24th, 1841.

2.

DEAR SIR,

At last you are within safe reach of me, and I take this long-

desired opportunity to gain you, as far as is in my power, for

our scheme of celebrating Weber's memory by a worthy monument to

be erected in Dresden. You are just on the point of crowning your

important participation in the erection of the Beethoven

monument; you are for that purpose surrounded by the most

important musicians of our time, and in consequence are in the

very element most favourable to the enterprise which of late has

been resumed chiefly through my means. As no doubt you heard at

the time, we have transferred Weber's remains to the earth of his

German home. We have had a site for the intended monument

assigned to us close to our beautiful Dresden theatre, and a

commencement towards the necessary funds has been made by the

benefit performances at the Dresden, Berlin, and Munich theatres.

These funds, however, I need scarcely mention, have to be

increased considerably if something worthy is to be achieved, and

we must work with all our strength to rouse enthusiasm wherever

something may still be done. A good deal of this care I should

like to leave to you, not, you may believe me, from idleness, but

because I feel convinced that the voice of a poor German composer

of operas, compelled to devote his lifelong labour to the

spreading of his works a little beyond the limits of his

province, is much too feeble to be counted of importance for

anything in the world. Dear Herr Liszt, take it well to heart

when I ask you to relieve me of the load which would probably be

heaped on me by the reproach that I had compromised our dear

Weber's memory, because it was none other than I, weak and

unimportant as I am, who had first mooted this celebration. Pray,

do what you can in order to be helpful to our enterprise, for

gradually, as I observe the vulgar indifference of our theatres,

which owe so much to Weber, I begin to fear that our fund might

easily remain such as it is at present, and that would be

tantamount to our having to commence with very inadequate means

the erection of a monument which doubtless would have turned out

better if a more important personality had started the idea.

I add no more words, for to you I have probably said enough. The

committee of which I am a member will apply to you with proper

formality. Would that you could let us have a gratifying answer,

and that my application might have contributed a little towards

it!

With true esteem and devotion, I am yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

MARIENBAD, August 5th, 1845

3.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

On and off I hear that you remember me very kindly and are intent

upon gaining friends for me; and I could have wished that, by

staying in Dresden a little longer, you had given me an

opportunity of thanking you personally and enjoying your company.

As I perceive more and more that I and my works, which as yet

have scarcely begun to spread abroad, are not likely to prosper

very much, I slowly familiarize myself with the thought of

turning to account your friendly feeling towards me a little,

and, much as I generally detest the seeking and making of

opportunities, I proceed with perfect openness to rouse you up in

my favour. There is at Vienna, where you happen to be staying, a

theatrical manager, P.; the man came to me a year ago, and

invited me to produce "Rienzi" at his theatre in the present

spring. Since then I have not been able to hear again from him,

but as our "Tichatschek" goes to his theatre in May for an

extensive starring engagement, and thereby the possibility of a

good representation of "Rienzi" would be given, the backing out

on the part of this P. begins to make me angry. I presume that

he, who is personally stupid, has been subsequently set against

my opera by his conductor, N. For this Capellmeister N. has

himself written an opera, which, because our King had heard it

and disliked it elsewhere, was not produced at Dresden, and the

wretched man probably thinks he owes me a grudge for it, although

I had no influence whatever in the matter. However trivial such

considerations may be in themselves, they and similar ones

largely furnish the real cause why works like mine occasionally

die in Germany; and as Vienna for pecuniary reasons, apart from

anything else, is of importance to me, I go straight to you, most

esteemed friend, to ask that you will set Manager P.'s head

right, in favour of an early performance of my "Rienzi" at his

theatre. Pray do not be angry with me.

I have ventured to send you through Meser the scores of my

"Rienzi" and "Tannhauser," and wish and hope that the latter will

please you better than the former.

Let me thank you sincerely for the great kindnesses you have

shown me. May your sentiments remain always the same towards

Your faithfully devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, March 22nd, 1846

4.

DEAR FRIEND,

Herr Halbert tells me you want my overture to Goethe's "Faust."

As I know of no reason to withhold it from you except that it

does not please me any longer, I send it to you, because I think

that in this matter the only important question is whether the

overture pleases you. If the latter should be the case, dispose

of my work; only I should like occasionally to have the

manuscript back again.

You will now have to go through capellmeister agonies of the

first quality; so I can imagine, and my opera is just the kind of

thing for that to one who takes a loving interest in it. Learn to

know these sufferings; they are the daily bread I eat. May God

give you strength and joy in your hard work.

From my heart yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, January 30th, 1848

5.

MOST EXCELLENT FRIEND,

You told me lately that you had closed your piano for some time,

and I presume that for the present you have turned banker. I am

in a bad state, and like lightning the thought comes to me that

you might help me. The edition of my three operas has been

undertaken by myself; the capital I have borrowed in various

quarters; I have now received notice to repay all the money, and

I cannot hold out another week, for every attempt to sell my

copyrights, even for the bare outlay, has in these difficult

times proved unsuccessful. From several other causes the matter

begins to look very alarming to me, and I ask myself secretly

what is to become of me. The sum in question is 5,000 thalers;

after deducting the proceeds that have already come in and

without claim to royalties, this is the money that has been

invested in the publication of my operas. Can you get me such a

sum? Have you got it yourself, or has some one else who would pay

it for the love of you? Would it not be interesting if you were

to become the owner of the copyright of my operas? My friend

Meser would continue the business on your account as honestly as

he has done on mine; and a lawyer could easily put the thing in

order. And do you know what would be the result? I should once

more be a HUMAN BEING, a man for whom existence would be

possible, an artist who would never again in his life ask for a

shilling, and would only do his work bravely and gladly. Dear

Liszt, with this money you will buy me out of slavery! Do you

think I am worth that sum as a serf? Let that be known soon to

Your most devoted

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, June 23rd, 1848

6.

BEST OF FRIENDS,

Here am I fighting for death or life, and do not know what the

end will be. I have written to my lawyer to tell him of my last

hope: that by your energetic interference my affairs may possibly

be arranged. Your name will go far in the transaction, but your

person still farther; let me have the latter for a day, but very

soon. According to news which has reached me here, I shall next

Wednesday or Thursday have to undertake a journey which will keep

me away from Dresden for a fortnight. Performances of my operas I

cannot, for that and other reasons, offer you. Could you make up

your mind to come here very quickly even without the expectation

of one of my operas? If I offer you no performances, you shall,

on the other hand (that is my most ardent wish), possess all my

operas as your hereditary property. Do come! Your personality

will do much good, more than my personality will be able to do

all my life; for I cannot help myself.

Best greetings, excellent friend!

Wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, July 1st, 1848

7.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Last night I wrote to Herr von Villen and asked him to talk over

and arrange with your lawyer and Herr Meser the affair of the

scores, and then to let me have a positive and precise answer. I

cannot possibly come to Dresden for the present. May God grant

that the state of your affairs turn out to be such as to enable

me to offer you my small and much-enfeebled services, being, as I

am,

Your sincere and devoted admirer and friend,

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, July 4th, 1848

8.

BEST OF FRIENDS,

Cordial greetings, and best thanks for the many and manifold

troubles you have taken on my behalf.

I had promised Princess Wittgenstein news as to the performance

of my "Tannhauser;" but I cannot for the present give you any

other than that the opera will not be performed either Sunday or

Monday, as I had promised, owing chiefly to the indisposition of

Tichatschek. Even if he were well, it could not take place, as we

have first of all to satisfy a "star," Formes. Probably

"Tannhauser" will not be possible till about a week later.

In any case I hope soon to see you again, and am glad

accordingly. May I ask you to remember me to the Princess?

I am wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, September 6th, 1848

9.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Although I dare scarcely hope that you can act upon it, I hasten

to let you know that "Tannhauser" is announced for performance

here on Sunday next, September 24th.

On Friday, 22nd, there will be a jubilee concert of our orchestra

in celebration of its existence for three hundred years, and on

that occasion a piece of my latest opera, "Lohengrin," will,

amongst other things, be heard. According to a previous

arrangement, I consider it my duty to let you know this, and

should certainly be very glad to welcome you, and perhaps

Princess Wittgenstein (to whom please give my best compliments),

on these occasions, although I must fear that my news may come at

an inconvenient moment.

Yours with all my heart,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, September 19th, 1848

10.

MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Cordial greetings, and best thanks for the kind remembrance in

which you hold me. For a long time I have felt it my duty to

write to you. Lord knows why I have never done so. May it not be

too late even today.

Will you really in this evil time undergo the nuisance of

tackling my "Tannhauser"? Have you not yet lost your courage in

this arduous labour, which only in the luckiest case can be

grateful? "In the luckiest case," I say, for only if the actors,

especially of the principal parts, are equal to their most

difficult task, if the unaccustomed nature of that task does not

frighten them and cripple their good intentions, only then the

lucky case can happen of the performance being comprehensible and

effective. If one circumstance gives me hope of success, it is

that you have undertaken the task. You can do many, many things;

of that I am persuaded.

I am very glad you are settled in Weimar, and I hope that not

only Weimar, but you, will profit by it. At least, we shall

remain near each other.

I live in a very humbled condition and without much hope. I

depend on the goodwill of certain people. Every thought of

enjoying life I have abandoned, but--let me tell you this for

your comfort--I am alive in spite of it all, and do not mean to

let any one kill me so easily.

Remember me kindly to Herr von Zigesar, who has written to me

very courteously. The points mentioned in his letter have, I

hope, been settled verbally by Herr Genast, especially that about

the honorarium, which I am willing to give up altogether. Please

remember me also to Herr Genast, and let me soon have some news

of you.

I remain in cordial devotion yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, January 14th, 1849

11.

(TO HERR VON ZIGESAR)

HIGHLY ESTEEMED SIR,

Accept my most hearty thanks for your kind letter, which has

given me much joy. I confess that I scarcely thought this the

time to gain sympathy for my works, less on account of the

present political commotion, than because of the absence of all

real earnestness, which has long ago disappeared from the public

interest in the theatre, giving way to the most shallow desire

for entertainment. You yourself are anxious about the reception

of my opera at the hands of the Weimar public, but as at the same

time you evince your sympathy for that work so cordially, you

will, I may hope, agree with me when I openly charge your

excellent predecessors with the responsibility for your being

obliged to suspect the public of an ill-regulated and shallow

taste. For as we educate a child, so he grows up, and a

theatrical audience is equally subject to the effects of

training. But I am unjust in accusing Weimar of a fault which

during the last generation has invaded all the theatres in the

world, the more so as I lay myself open to the suspicion of doing

so in the self-conceited interest of a work which perhaps for

different reasons, derivable from intrinsic faults, may be

exposed to the displeasure of the public. However that may be,

your care for my work is in the circumstances all the more

gratifying and meritorious, and I offer you my most cordial

thanks. The pleasure of a visit to you at Weimar I am compelled,

for reasons connected with my local affairs, to leave to another

time. That the performance of my opera would not answer my

expectations is the least thing I fear; for from firm conviction

I have the most favourable opinion of what diligence and good-

will can do, while I know, on the other hand, how little without

these two the amplest resources can achieve for true art. As I

can be certain of these chief requirements at your theatre, I

feel justified in offering to you, all others concerned, and

especially my friend Liszt, my best thanks in advance; and no

excessive anxiety shall trouble me. I sincerely wish that the

exalted lady whose birthday is to be celebrated will think the

success of your labour worthy of acknowledgment.

With much esteem, I have the honour to remain

Yours most sincerely,

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, February 8th, 1849

12.

MUCH-ESTEEMED FRIEND,

Herr von Zigesar has lately written to you to say with how much

zeal and with what ever-increasing admiration and sympathy we are

studying your "Tannhauser." If you could make it possible to come

over for the last rehearsal on the 15th and attend the

performance on the 16th, we should all be truly delighted. Let me

know the day before, because of engaging a room, etc.

Cordial thanks for sending me the "Faust" overture.

Hoping to see you soon,

Your sincerely devoted

F. LISZT

February 9th, 1849

13.

DEAR FRIEND LISZT,

From all I hear you have recently added to the unequalled

successes of your former life and artistic activity a new one,

which probably is not inferior to the foremost of its

predecessors, and in many respects perhaps surpasses them all. Do

you suppose I cannot judge of this from a distance? Hear if I

can.

No theatre in the world has so far thought it advisable to

perform my opera "Tannhauser" four years after its production; it

was left to you to settle down for a time from your world-wide

travels at a small court theatre, and at once to set to work so

that your much-tried friend might at last get on a little. You

did not talk or fuss; you yourself undertook the unaccustomed

task of teaching my work to the people. Be sure that no one knows

as well as I what it means to bring such a work to light in

existing circumstances. Who the deuce does not conduct operatic

rehearsals nowadays? You were intent not only upon giving the

opera, but upon making it understood and received with applause.

That meant to throw yourself into the work body and soul, to

sacrifice body and soul, to press and exert every fibre of the

body, every faculty of the soul, towards the one aim of not only

producing your friend's work, but of producing it splendidly and

to his advantage. You had to be sure that it would succeed, for

only with a view to success had you begun the work; and therein

lies the force of your character and of your ability--you have

succeeded. If I have judged your beautiful action rightly, if I

have understood you, I hope you will understand me too when, in

words as brief and precise as was your action, I say to you,

I THANK you, dear friend!

You, however, wished not only to benefit my work, but to benefit

me as well; you know that my position is that of a somewhat

hemmed-in, forsaken, solitary man. You desired to make friends

for me, and had a sufficiently good opinion of my work to think

that the spreading of it abroad would gain friends for me. Dear

friend, by that very means you have at this moment lifted me up

as by a charm. It is not to complain, but merely to convince you

of the force of that impression, when I tell you that just now,

in the very week when you gave my "Tannhauser" at Weimar, our

manager insulted me in so gross a manner that for several days I

was discussing with myself whether I should bear any longer to be

exposed to such infamous treatment for the bite of bread that my

service here gives me to eat, and whether I should not rather

throw up art and earn my bread as a labourer, to be at least free

from the despotism of malignant ignorance. Thank God! The news

from Weimar and Tichatschek's greetings and accounts have again

strengthened me. I once more have courage to suffer.

This also I owe to you!

D.V.--I shall soon see you again, dear, worthy, helpful friend.

Last week it was impossible to ask my tormentor for a short leave

of absence; otherwise I should have liked to come, if only to

spend a few cheerful and animated hours with you and to tell you

the delight I feel in you. In the meantime be satisfied with

this. It comes from my fullest heart, and tears are in my eyes.

From Herren von Zigesar, Biedenfeld, and Genast I simultaneously

received letters of joyfullest and friendliest import; I answer

them all at once by making you my interpreter, and through you

greet those gentlemen with all my heart. Hold me dear as before.

I give to you in return what is in me, and what therefore I call

my own.

God bless you, dear Liszt.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, February 20th, 1849

14.

DEAREST FRIEND,

So much do I owe to your bold and high genius, to the fiery and

magnificent pages of your "Tannhauser," that I feel quite awkward

in accepting the gratitude you are good enough to express with

regard to the two performances I had the honour and happiness to

conduct. However that may be, your letter has given me the

liveliest pleasure of friendship. I thank you with all my heart

for the thanks you proffer me. Once for all, number me in future

amongst your most zealous and devoted admirers; far or near,

count on me and dispose of me.

Herren Zigesar, Genast, and Biedenfeld have described to you in

detail the impression which your masterpiece has made on our

public. In the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung you will find a few

lines I have sent to Brockhaus by his demand. Biedenfeld has put

the little article into shape. I shall send you by post the

article that appeared in our Gemeindeblatt, where is also printed

the prologue of Schober, who had the sense to turn "Tannhauser"

to good account. Talking of people with good sense, do you know

what I mean to do? No more nor less than to appropriate for the

piano, after my fashion, the overture of "Tannhauser and" the

whole scene "O du mein holder Abendstern" of the third act. As to

the former, I believe that it will meet with few executants

capable of mastering its technical difficulties, but the scene of

the "Abendstern" should be within easy reach of second-class

pianists.

If you will propose to Meser to have it engraved, or if you will

allow me to dispose of it for the benefit of H. or Sch., I should

like to have it published soon. Perhaps, if you have no

objection, I should dispose of it in favour of an album for which

my assistance has been asked for the last two months--the album

published by the "Ladies' Society for the German Fleet." In vain

I told them that I suffered from a drought of both manuscripts

and ideas; they would not leave me alone; and I have just

received another letter from a nice lady, who gives it me nicely.

Write to me as to the destination you prefer for your

"Abendstern;" and when we meet, I shall have the impertinence to

play you with my two hands your overture, such as I have prepared

it for my particular use.

Remember me very affectionately to Tichatschek; he has been an

admirable artist and a charming comrade and friend. It will be a

true pleasure to me to see him here again in the month of May,

according to his promise. If you could on the same occasion

dispose of a few days, we should be only too happy to see you. In

the meantime, dearest friend, believe me from my heart and soul

your devoted admirer and friend,

FR. LISZT

February 26th, 1849

P.S.--A very beautiful and accomplished hand wishes to add a few

lines to this letter; if you have found if tedious to read me,

you could have no better compensation.

15.

Allow me, dear sir, to add another voice to the chorus of

admiration which sings "Gloria" to the author of the double poem

of "Tannhauser." If others have more right than I to speak to you

of the sublime artistic expression which you have given to such

deep emotions, I yet venture to tell you how souls lost in the

crowd who chant to themselves your "Sangerkrieg" are penetrated

by your harmonies, which contain all the fine and delicate shades

of idea, sentiment, and passion.

We had hoped to see you for a moment at Weimar, and I clung to

that hope all the more as I wanted to express to you my thanks

for the kindness you showed me during my stay at Dresden. Let me

add to these the other thanks which I owe you for the wonderful

moments during which I listened to your melodies, expressive of

the fascinating charms of the sirens who dwell on the banks of

our imagination, and of those piercing cries wrung from us by the

extinction of the perfumes of their enchanted home,--for those

thoughts which elevate us in their humility, that despair which

throws us "without fear against swords, when the soul is pierced

by a very different sword of grief," those elegies which one

whispers only to the evening star, those prayers which bear away

the soul on their wings.

Grant, sir, that the thoughts which so much passion and beauty

awake in hearts knowing what strange secrets lie hidden in

passion, and adoring splendour and beauty, may reach you and tell

you how deep is the admiration which this master work will excite

at all times and everywhere in those who have once visited these

resplendent and dolorous regions of the soul.

Believe, above all, in the admiration which has been given to you

here, and which we should be so happy to express to you

personally. I am amongst those most desirous of seeing you, sir,

and of repeating from mouth to mouth the expression of the

admiring and devoted sentiments of which I ask you to be a

thousand times assured.

CAROLYNE WITTGENSTEIN

February 25th, 1849

16.

DEAREST FRIEND,

A thousand thanks for your letter! We are going on nicely

together. If the world belonged to us, I believe we should do

something to give pleasure to the people living therein. I hope

we two at least shall agree with each other; let those who will

not go with us remain behind,--and thus be our alliance sealed!

What shall I do with the beautiful letter I received together

with your own? Have I really so pleased your esteemed friend with

my feeble work that she thought it worth while to give me such

great and unexpected joy in return? She indeed has fully effected

her purpose, but I can scarcely credit that my work alone should

have produced a similar impression upon the spirituelle Princess;

and I am probably right in surmising that here also my friend

Liszt has wooed for me with his wondrous fire. However that may

be, I feel too silly today to thank your esteemed friend

otherwise than through your medium, through your mouth, and

therefore I pray you with all my power to express my gratitude to

her as fervently, as joyfully, as you are able. Will you grant me

this favour?

Before I knew anything about your intention, several years ago,

when I was writing the overture, I wondered whether I should ever

hear it played by you. I should never have mentioned it to you,

for in such matters one must not be too forward, but now that I

hear you are employed in making this piece your own, after your

own fashion, I must tell you that I feel as if a wonderful dream

were realized. Is it possible? Why not? All is possible to you.

About the "Abendstern," dear friend, do exactly as you like. I

have spoken to Meser about it, and he will write to you at once

to place himself at your disposal; but if you prefer another way

of publication, do exactly as you like. In any case I feel highly

flattered by your proposal.

Today I read the account of my opera in the Deutsche Allgemeine

Zeitung of which you speak; by its tenor Herr von Biedenfeld has

once more obliged me very, very much; express to him my best

thanks, dearest friend! I must also beg to convey my great and

deeply felt gratitude to the artists who have deserved well of me

by their successful zeal. To how many and how deeply have I

reason to be grateful! I am looking forward to May, when I shall

be with you in any case; I will then speak from my full heart as

loudly as my breast will let me. Till May, then!

God bless you, dearest, best, of friends! Best remembrances to

Zigesar and Genast. I throw myself at the feet of the Princess.

For ever your most grateful

RICHARD WAGNER

DRESDEN, March lst, 1849

17.

(TO HERR O. L. B. WOLFF)

DEAREST FRIEND,

It was impossible for me to write to you from Rorschach (where I

arrived only yesterday) and to return your passport. Half an hour

after the arrival of the steamer the express coach started for

Zurich; and I felt bound to take advantage of it, as I had made

up my mind to cut this journey as short as possible by avoiding

unnecessary delay. Unfortunately I got on but slowly. From Coburg

I could not start for Lichtenfels till early on Saturday, but

fortunately I got through everywhere without notice, at Lindau

only, where I arrived at midnight, they asked for my passport at

the gate. The next morning I received it back without difficulty,

but unfortunately it had on it a vise for Switzerland, adorned

with which I am compelled to return it to Dr. Widmann. I hope

that his political experience will understand this addition to

his passport.

Luckily then I am in Switzerland. To your counsel and your active

aid, dear friends, I owe my safety. The four days' journey in a

frightful heat had, however, brought my blood to such a state of

excitement, that I found it impossible to go on without risking a

stroke of apoplexy. Moreover, I hope to employ my stay at Zurich

in obtaining a passport for France. One of my early friends has

been residing here for a long time; today I expect him back from

a pleasure trip, and I hope he will do what is necessary to save

me the long detour by Geneva.

To my wife I write at length, and my request to you to

communicate this news to my friends is therefore for the present

limited to our Liszt. Greet my preserver and sovereign liege many

thousand times, and assure him of my firm resolution to do all

that is in my power to please him. The journey has freshened and

roused my artistic courage, and I have quite made up my mind as

to what I have to accomplish in Paris. I do not think much of

fate, but I feel that my late adventures have thrown me into a

path where I must do the most important and significant things

which my nature can produce. Even four weeks ago I had no idea of

that which now I recognize to be my highest task; my deep-rooted

friendship for Liszt supplies me with strength from within and

without to perform that task; it is to be our common work. More

of this soon!

Liszt will shortly receive a parcel of scores, etc., from my

wife; let him open it. The score of "Lohengrin" I want him to try

at some leisure; it is my last and ripest work. As yet I have not

shown it to any artist, and therefore have not been able to learn

from any one what impression it produces. How curious I am to

hear Liszt about it! As soon as he has finished looking through

it, I want him to forward it at once to Paris, along with the

other scores and books of words. Perhaps some acquaintance going

to Paris will take them. The copy of the score of the "Flying

Dutchman" is meant for the Weimar theatre; this and the book of

words let Liszt therefore take from the parcel and keep back.

That wonderful man must also look after my poor wife. I am

particularly anxious to get her out of Saxony, and especially out

of that d----d Dresden. Therefore I have hit upon the idea of

finding for her and her family a modest but cheerful refuge

somewhere in the Weimar territory, perhaps on one of the grand-

ducal estates, where, with the remainder of what is saved of our

goods and chattels, she might prepare a new home for herself, and

perhaps for me also--in the future. May my friend succeed in

this!

Thanks, cordial thanks, to you for the great kindness you have

shown to me! My memorials of it are so numerous that I cannot put

my hand in my pocket without being reminded of the thoughtfulness

and sympathy of friend Wolff. May my future be your reward!

Cordial greetings to Dr. Widmann, as whose double I have acted

for four days; I return him to himself in his integrity, which I

hope will not a little conduce to his perfect well-being. Best

thanks to him!

And thanks, thanks also, to your dear wife and mother! The

blessings of one saved are with them. Farewell, dear friend!

You will soon hear more from your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, March 20th, 1849

18.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

To you [In this and all the subsequent letters the familiar "Du"

("Thou") instead of the formal "Sie" ("You") is adopted.-TR.] I

must turn if my heart is once more to open itself, and I am in

need of such heart-comfortings; that I cannot deny. Like a

spoiled child of my homeland, I exclaim, "Were I only home again

in a little house by the wood and might leave the devil to look

after his great world, which at the best I should not even care

to conquer, because its possession would be even more loathsome

than is its mere aspect!"

Your friendship--if you could understand what it is to me! My

only longing is to live with my wife always near you. Not Paris

nor London--you alone would be able to hammer out what good there

may be in me, for you fire me to the best efforts.

From Zurich you had news of me through Wolff. Switzerland did me

good, and there I found an old friend of my youth, to whom I

could talk much about you. It was Alexander Mueller, whom you too

know, a worthy and amiable man and artist. At Zurich also I read

your article on "Tannhauser" in the Journal des Debats. What have

you done in it? You wished to describe my opera to the people,

and instead of that you have yourself produced a true work of

art. Just as you conducted the opera, so have you written about

it: new, all new, and from your inner self. When I put the

article down, my first thoughts were these: "This wonderful man

can do or undertake nothing without producing his own self from

his inner fullness he can never be merely reproductive; no other

action than the purely productive is possible to him; all in him

tends to absolute, pure production, and yet he has never yet

concentrated his whole power of will on the production of a great

work. Is he, with all his individuality, too little of an egoist?

Is he too full of love, and does he resemble Jesus on the Cross,

Who helps every one but Himself? "

Ah, dear friend, my thoughts of you and my love of you are still

too enthusiastic; I can only exclaim and rejoice when I think of

you. Soon I hope to grow stronger, so that my selfish enthusiasm

may allow me to give utterance to my anxiety for you. May Heaven

grant me the power to do full justice to the love I have for you;

as yet I live too much on your love for me, and mine vents itself

in useless exclamations. I hope soon to gather the necessary

strength from the intercourse with those who love you as I do;

and truly you have friends!

I arrived in Paris soon after the publication of your article. We

know better than any one that this was an accident, of which you

had not in the least thought when you wrote and dispatched the

article. But this accident has at once given a distinct colour to

my position in Paris, and--our friend M. considers that colour as

black as possible. Dear Liszt, you ought to clear your mind as to

this man. But why do I talk? Should not you have found out long

ago that natures like that of M. are strictly opposed to yours

and mine? Should not you have found out long ago that the only

tie possible between you and M. was effected by magnanimity on

your side and by prudence on his? Where the two threads of this

woof met, there deception was possible for a time, but I believe

that you gave way to that magnanimous deception with amiable

intent. M. is thoroughly little, and unfortunately I do not meet

a man who has the slightest doubt about it.

Honestly speaking, I am unable to engage in a drama of intrigue a

la Verre d'Eau; if this were the only way open to me, I should

pack my bundle tomorrow and settle down in a German village; work

I will as much as I can, but to sell my ware in this market is

impossible to me. Artistic affairs here are in so vile a

condition, so rotten, so fit for decay, that only a bold

scytheman is required who understands the right cut. Dearest

friend, apart from all political speculation, I am compelled to

say openly that in the soil of the anti-Revolution no art can

grow, neither perhaps could it for the present in the soil of the

Revolution, unless care were taken--in time. To speak briefly,

tomorrow I shall begin a searching article on the theatre of the

future for some important, political journal. I promise you to

leave politics on one side as much as possible, and therefore

shall not compromise you or any one else; but as far as art and

the theatre are concerned you must, with a good grace, allow me

to be as red as possible, for a very determined colour is the

only one of use to us. This, I think, is my most prudent course

to adopt, and he who advises it for prudential reasons as the

most effective one is none other than your representative

Belloni. He tells me that here I want money as much as M. or

really more than M., or else I must make myself feared. Well,

money I have not, but a tremendous desire to practice a little

artistic terrorism. Give me your blessing, or, better still, give

me your assistance. Come here and lead the great hunt; we will

shoot, and the hares shall fall right and left.

I do not expect to reach the goal here so very soon but must

prepare myself. A libretto of Scribe or Dumas I cannot set to

music. If I ever do reach the right goal in this Parisian hunt, I

shall not compass it in the common way; I must in that case

create something new, and that I can achieve only by doing it all

myself. I am on the look-out for a young French poet sufficiently

congenial to give himself up to my idea. My subject I shall

arrange myself, and he must then write his French verses as

spontaneously as possible; to anything else I could not agree.

During these slow preparations I shall have to occupy my leisure

with London; I am ready to go there as soon as possible to do all

in my power for the performance of my works. As to this I expect

your friendly command.

I thank you from all my heart for Belloni; he is an able, honest,

and very active man; every day he calls for me to show me the

proper way to Parisian glory.

This is the cheerful part of my news; otherwise this horrible

Paris presses on me with a hundredweight. Often I bleat like a

calf for its stable and for the udder of its life-giving mother.

How lonely I am amongst these people! My poor wife! I have had no

news as yet, and I feel deathly soft and flabby at every

remembrance. Let me soon have good news of my wife! With all my

courage, I am often the most miserable coward. In spite of your

generous offers, I frequently consider with a deadly terror the

shrinking of my cash after my doubly prolonged journey to Paris.

I feel again as I did when I came here ten years ago, and when

thievish longings would often get hold of me on watching the dawn

of the hot days that were to shine on my empty stomach. Ah, how

this vulgarest of cares degrades man!

But one piece of news will rouse everything in me again,

especially if the little Weimar has remained faithful to me. One

single piece of good news, and I float once more on the top of

the ocean waves.

My dear, glorious friend, take me such as this abominableParis

has excited me today. I do not thank you; I call you blessed.

Greet the dear Princess, greet the small knot of my friends, and

tell them that you hope I shall do well. Soon you will hear more

of me. Be happy and remember me.

Yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

PARIS, June 5th, 1849

(Have you received the scores, and shall I see some of them here

by-and-bye?)

I have been with your mother, and she has given me uncommon

pleasure; she is a healthy woman! I shall call on her again. She

sends you best greetings.

19.

DEAREST FRIEND,

It is nearly four weeks since my wife left me, and I have not yet

had the least news of her. My grief and depression are great. I

must gain another home and hearth; otherwise all is over with me.

My heart is greater than my sense. With Belloni I have been in

close consultation, and we have formed the following opinion and

the resolution derived therefrom:--

In Paris I can do no good at present; my business is to write an

opera for Paris; for anything else I am unfit. This object cannot

be attained by storm; in the most favourable case I shall achieve

the poem in half a year, and the performance in a year and a

half. In Paris without a home, or--which is the same--peace of

heart, I can do no work; I must find a new place where I am at

home and can make up my mind to remain at home. For such a place

I have selected Zurich. I have written to my wife to come there

with her youngest sister, with the remnants of our household

goods, so as once more to be united to me. I have a friend there,

Alexander Mueller, who will assist me in furnishing as cheap a

home as is to be had. As soon as I can, I shall go there from

this place. When I have my wife again, I shall forthwith and

gladly set to work. The sketch of a subject for Paris I shall

send from there to Belloni, who will arrange about a French

version by Gustave Vaez. In October he may have finished his

work, and then I shall for a short time leave my wife for Paris,

and shall try every possible means to obtain a commission for the

setting of the said subject. I may perhaps on the same occasion

perform some of my music, and after that shall return to Zurich

to set about the composition. Meanwhile I shall employ my time in

setting to music my latest German drama, "The Death of

Siegfried." Within half a year I shall send you the opera

completed.

I must commence some genuine work, or else perish; but in order

to work I want quiet and a home. With my wife and in pleasant

Zurich I shall find both. I have one thing in view, and one thing

I shall always do with joy and pleasure--work, i.e., write

operas. For anything else I am unfit; play a part or occupy a

position I cannot, and I should deceive those whom I promised to

undertake any other task.

You friends must get me some small yearly allowance, just

sufficient to secure for me and my wife a quiet existence in

Zurich, as for the present I am not allowed to be near you in

Germany. I talked to you in Weimar of a salary of three hundred

thalers which I should wish to ask of the Grand Duchess for my

operas, alterations of the same, and the like. If perhaps the

Duke of Coburg and possibly even the Princess of Prussia were to

add something, I would willingly surrender my whole artistic

activity to these three protectors as a kind of equivalent, and

they would have the satisfaction of having kept me free and ready

for my art. I cannot ask for myself nor find the proper form for

the necessary agreement, but you can, and you and your

intercession will succeed. Possible revenues from the opera I

shall write for Paris I might then entirely devote to the payment

of the debts I left in Dresden.

Dear Liszt, have I spoken plainly enough?

With the confidence of one entirely helpless, I further ask, Make

it possible to let me have some money soon, so that I may leave

here, go to Zurich, and exist there till I receive the desired

salary. You are the best judge as to what I want for this.

Whether my wife when, in accordance with my ardent prayer, she

thinks of starting for Zurich, will be able to raise the

necessary funds, I unfortunately cannot tell. Would you kindly

ask her soon whether she wants anything? Write to her care of

Eduard Avenarius, Marienstrasse, Leipzig.

Goodness, how I always try not to weep! My poor wife!

The best I can bring forth, I will bring forth,--all, all! But to

battle about in this great world is impossible for me. Let me

once more be at home somewhere!

I was unable to write more today; do not be angry on that

account. But I know your kindness, and trust in it implicitly.

Take a thousand greetings from your

RICHARD WAGNER

(The scores my wife could bring to me at Zurich, could she not?)

(I had hoped to get some money from Berlin through Tichatschek;

unfortunately nothing has arrived, and I cannot in any way

relieve you, although I do not know where you are to get the

money.)

20.

DEAR FRIEND,

Excuse me for applying to you again so soon. At last I received a

letter from my wife, and many pangs of conscience were again

roused by it. More than all, it lies heavy on my heart today that

I have asked you to intercede with several royal personages for a

salary for me. I had forgotten--to say nothing of my immediate

past--that my sufficiently public participation in the Dresden

rising has placed me towards those royal personages in a position

which must make them think of me as one opposed to them on

principle, and this perhaps will make it appear strange that now,

when the collapse of that rising has reduced me to poverty, I

turn for help to them of all others. My position is all the more

painful because I can take no steps to free myself from the

suspicion of such sentiments without incurring the worse

suspicion of meanness and cowardice. You personally I may assure

that the feeling manifested by my undisguised sympathy with the

Dresden rising was very far from the ridiculously fanatical

notion that every prince is an object of active hatred. If I

concurred in this strange fanaticism, I should naturally have had

scruples in approaching the Grand Duchess at Weimar with perfect

openness. Before you, I trust, I need not defend myself; you know

the bitter source of my discontent, which sprang from the

condition of my beloved art, which I nourished with passion, and

which finally I transferred to every other field, the connection

of which with the ground of my deep dissatisfaction I had to

acknowledge. From this feeling came the violent longing which

finds its expression in the words, "There must be a change; thus

it cannot remain." That now, taught by the experience of my

participation in that rising, I could never again mix myself up

with a political catastrophe, I need not say; every reasonable

person must know it. What rejoices me, and what I may safely

affirm, is that in all my aims I have once more become entirely

an artist. But this I cannot possibly tell the princes at the

moment when I am about to claim their assistance. What would they

think of me! A general and public declaration also would bring me

nothing but disgrace. It would have to appear as an apology, and

an apology in the only correct sense time and my life alone can

tender, not a public declaration, which in the present

threatening circumstances and in my helplessness must needs

appear cowardly and low.

I am sure you will agree with my view of the matter, and I

surmise that already you have found yourself in a very awkward

position towards the Grand Duchess on my account. My wife, who

still thinks it necessary to live on amongst the dregs of Dresden

vulgarity, tells me a thousand unpleasant things which in the

eyes of miserable creatures make me appear much more compromised

by the revolution than I really am. This feeling towards me is

probably spread far and wide, and therefore may have affected the

Weimar court. I can well imagine that you think it at present

inadvisable to raise your voice for me at a court which, with a

natural prejudice, at first sight recognizes in me only the

political revolutionary, and forgets the artistic revolutionary

whom at bottom it has learnt to love.

How far you will think it good to comply with my application of

yesterday in such circumstances you will best decide for

yourself. Is it possible that our princes nowadays should be

magnanimous enough to exercise a beautiful, old privilege,

unmoved by the currents of the time and without weighing

conditions? Think this over; perhaps you have more confidence

than I.

My wife suffers, and is embittered; for her I hope everything

from time. I asked you yesterday to inquire of her as to the

pecuniary aid she may need; I ask you today not to do so-not now.

If you will do me a kindness, send me a little money, so that I

can get away,--anywhere, perhaps after all to Zurich, to my old

friend Mueller. I should like to be at rest, so as to write the

scenario for Paris; I don't feel up to much just now. What should

I do in London? I am good for nothing, except perhaps writing

operas, and that I cannot do in London.

Best greetings to any one who will accept them from me; there

will not be many. Farewell, dear, much-troubled friend. Could I

but make you returns!

Your most faithful

RICHARD WAGNER

REUIL, June 19th, 1849

21.

DEAR FRIEND,

With the contents of your letter No. 2 I agree more than with No.

1. For the present it would not be very diplomatic to knock at

battered doors. Later on, when you stand revealed as a made

fellow, even as you are a created one, protectors will easily be

found; and if I can serve you then as a connecting and convenient

instrument, I shall be quite at your disposal with my whole heart

and with a certain slight savoir-faire. But a period of

transition you cannot avoid, and Paris is for everything and

before everything a necessity to you. Try to make it possible

that your "Rienzi" (with a few modifications intended for the

Paris public) is performed in the course of next winter. Pay a

little court to Roger and Madame Viardot. Roger is an amiably

intelligent man, who will probably fall in love with the part. I

think, however, that in any case you will have to spare him a

little more than Tichatschek, and will have to ease his task by

some abbreviations. Also do not neglect Janin, who, I feel sure,

will give you a helping hand, and whose influence in the press

can secure the early performance of the opera.

In a word, very dear and very great friend, make yourself

possible in possible conditions, and success will assuredly not

fail you. Vaez and A. Royer will be of great assistance to you

both for the translation and rearrangement of "Rienzi" and for

the design of your new work. Associate and concur with them

strictly for the realization of that plan from which you must not

swerve:--

1. To give "Rienzi" during the winter of 1850 at the Paris Opera,

whence it will take its flight to all the theatres of Germany,

and perhaps of Italy. For Europe wants an opera which for our new

revolutionary epoch will be what "La Muette de Portici" was for

the July revolution, and "Rienzi" is conceived and written for

those conditions. If you succeed in introducing into it a slight

element of relief, were it only by means of stage machinery or of

the ballet, success is certain.

2. To write a new work for the winter of '51 in collaboration

with Vaez and A. Royer, who know all the mysteries of success. In

the interval you cannot do better than take a good position in

the musical press. Forgive me for this suggestion, and manage so

that you are not of necessity placed in a hostile position

towards things and people likely to bar your road to success and

fame. A truce to political commonplaces, socialistic stuff, and

personal hatreds! On the other hand, good courage, strong

patience, and flaming fire, which latter it will not be difficult

for you to provide, with the volcanoes you have in your brain!

Your idea of retiring to Zurich for some time in order to work

more at ease seems good, and I have charged Belloni to remit to

you three hundred francs for traveling expenses. I hope that

Madame Wagner will be able to join you, and before the autumn I

shall let you have a small sum which will keep you afloat.

Kindly let me know whether I shall send your works to Madame

Wagner, and at what address.

The admirable score of "Lohengrin" has interested me profoundly;

nevertheless I fear at the performance the superideal colour

which you have maintained throughout. Perhaps you will think me

an awful Philistine, dear friend, but I cannot help it, and my

sincere friendship for you may authorize me to tell you. . . .

[The letter breaks off here in the original edition.-TR.]

22.

DEAR FRIEND,

Thanks to your intercession, I have been able to fly to the

friendly place from which I write to you today. I should trouble

you unnecessarily were I to tell you all that latterly has passed

through my heart; perhaps you will guess it. Belloni has taken

care of me with the greatest kindness and consideration; there

are, however, things in which no friend in the world can be of

assistance. One thing more by way of explanation: during my

journey through Switzerland and on my arrival in Paris, I met

with some Saxon refugees in a position which induced me to assist

them in your name. I shall not be tempted again.

I hope to find some rest and collectedness for the completion of

my intended Paris work in the intimate intercourse with a dear

friend who is also a friend of yours--Alexander Mueller. About

"Rienzi" and the plans which you have commended to us regarding

that opera, Belloni will give you details in so far as the purely

practical part of the matter is concerned. He thinks it

impossible, especially at first, to place it at the Grand Opera.

I, as an artist and man, have not the heart for the

reconstruction of that to my taste superannuated work, which, in

consequence of its immoderate dimensions, I have had to remodel

more than once. I have no longer the heart for it, and desire

from all my soul soon to do something new instead. Besides, the

erection of an operatic theatre in Paris is imminent where only

foreign works are to be produced; that would be the place for

Rienzi, especially if some one else would occupy himself with it.

I want you to decide about this as soon as you have heard our

reasons. I have settled everything with Gustave Vaez as regards

the external part of our common enterprise. The work, which I

shall now take in hand at once, will, I hope, soon open to him

and to you my inner view of the matter. Heaven grant that in this

also we may understand each other or at least come to an

understanding. Only from the one deep conviction which is the

essence of my mental being can I draw inspiration and courage for

my art, for only through this conviction can I love it; if this

conviction were to separate me from my friends, I should bid

farewell to art--and probably turn clodhopper.

By all accounts I am in fine repute with you! The other day, I

hear, I was accused, together with another person, of having set

fire to the old Dresden opera house. All right. My dear wife

lives in the midst of this slough of civic excellence and

magnanimity. One thing grieves me deeply; it wounds me to the

very bone: I mean the reproach frequently made to me that I have

been ungrateful to the King of Saxony. I am wholly made of

sentiment, and could never understand, in the face of such a

reproach, why I felt no pangs of conscience at this supposed

ingratitude. I have at last asked myself whether the King of

Saxony has committed a punishable wrong by conferring upon me

undeserved favours, in which case I should certainly have owed

him gratitude for his infringement of justice. Fortunately my

consciousness acquits him of any such guilt. The payment of 1,500

thalers for my conducting, at his intendant's command, a certain

number of bad operas every year, was indeed excessive; but this

was to me no reason for gratitude, but rather for dissatisfaction

with my appointment. That he paid me nothing for the best I could

do does not oblige me to gratitude; that when he had an

opportunity of helping me thoroughly he could not or dared not

help me, but calmly discussed my dismissal with his intendant,

quieted me as to the dependence of my position on any act of

grace. Finally, I am conscious that, even if there had been cause

for any particular gratitude towards the King of Saxony, I have

not knowingly done anything ungrateful towards him; proof of this

I should be able to furnish. Pardon, dear friend, this unpleasant

deviation; unfortunately I am not yet again in that stage of

creating which shuts out anything but the present and the future

from my cognizance. My spirit still writhes too violently under

the impression of a past which, alas! continues wholly to occupy

my present. I am still bent on justification, and that I wish to

address to no one but you.

As soon as I have anything ready I shall send it to you. For the

present I must urgently ask you to forward me here at once the

scores and other literary tools which my wife has sent to you. I

want to get into some kind of swing again so that the bell may

ring. Be good enough to give the parcel to a carrier to be

forwarded here by express conveyance (care of Alexander Muller,

Zurich).

Muller greets you most cordially. He will write to you soon to

inform you of the success of Herr Eck, the instrument-maker,

whose company is doing very well.

Dear Liszt, do not cease to be my friend; have patience with me,

and take me as I am. A thousand compliments to the Princess, and

thank her in my name for the kind memory she has preserved of me;

she may find it difficult to remain my friend.

Be healthy and happy, and let me soon hear some of your works,

even as I promise you on my part. Farewell, and take my cordial

thanks for your constancy and friendship.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, July 9th, 1849

23.

MY DEAR LISZT,

Are you in a good temper? Probably not, as you are just opening a

letter from your plaguing spirit. And yet it is all the world to

me that you should be in a good temper just today, at this

moment! Fancy yourself at the most beautiful moment of your life,

and thence look upon me cheerfully and benevolently, for I have

to proffer an ardent prayer. I receive today a letter from my

wife, unfortunately much delayed in the post. It touches me more

than anything in the world; she wants to come to me, and stay

with me, and suffer with me once more all the ills of life. Of a

return to Germany, as you know well yourself, I must not for the

present think; therefore our reunion must take place abroad. I

had already told her that the hoped-for assistance from Weimar

would come to nothing; this she will easily understand and bear.

But in order to carry out her idea to come to me, she and I lack

no less than all. To get away from Dresden in the most difficult

circumstances she wants money; quite lately she told me she had

to pay sixty-two thalers without knowing where to get it. She

will now have to pack and send to me the few things we have

saved; she must leave something for the immediate wants of her

parents, whom formerly I kept entirely. She then has to travel to

Zurich with her sister, and I must at least be able to offer her

the bare necessaries of life for the beginning. At this moment I

can offer her nothing in the world. I live at present only on the

remainder of the money which I received from you through Belloni

before my departure from Paris. But, dear friend, I take care not

to be a burden to you alone, and this care is partly the reason

why I have not yet thoroughly set to work, although the anxiety

about my wife is chiefly to blame. I have again tried hard to get

paying work and assistance, so that I might ease your burden, and

in the worst case need only ask you to assist me again for my

journey to Paris in the autumn. But now in this moment of the

most painful joy at the imminent return of my wife--now I know of

no one but you to whom to apply with the firm hope of seeing my

wishes speedily accomplished. You therefore I implore by all that

is dear to you to raise and collect as much as you possibly can,

and to send it, not to me, but to my wife, so that she may have

enough to get away and to join me with the assurance of being

able to live with me free from care for some time at least.

Dearest friend, you care for my welfare, my soul, my art. Once

more restore me to my art! I do not cling to a home, but I cling

to this poor, good, faithful woman, to whom as yet I have caused

almost nothing but grief, who is of a careful, serious

disposition, without enthusiasm, and who feels herself chained

for ever to such a reckless devil as myself. Restore her to me;

by doing so you will give me all you can wish for me, and,

believe me, for that I shall be grateful to you, yea grateful!

You will see how quickly I shall turn out things. My preparations

for Paris, the pamphlet, and even two sketches for subjects will

be ready and on their way next month. Where I cannot agree with

you I shall win you over to me; that I promise, so that we may

always go hand in hand and never separate. I will obey you, but

give me my poor wife; arrange it so that she may come cheerfully,

with some confidence, soon and quickly. Alas! this, in the

language of our dear nineteenth century, means, Send her as much

money as you can possibly get. Yes, such is my nature; I can beg,

I could steal, to cheer up my wife, were it only for a little

while. Dear, good Liszt, see what you can do! Help me, help me,

dear Liszt. Farewell, and--help me!

Your grateful

RICHARD WAGNER.

Write straight to my wife: Minna Wagner, Friedrich-strasse No.

20, Dresden.

24.

DEAR FRIEND,

In answer to your letter, I have remitted one hundred thalers to

your wife at Dresden. This sum has been handed to me by an

admirer of "Tannhauser", whom you do not know, and who has

specially asked me not to name him to you.

With Y. B., who paid me a visit yesterday, I talked over your

position at length. I hope his family will take an active

interest in your affairs.

All the scores (excepting the overture to "Faust") I sent to

Zurich last week. The separation from your "Lohengrin" was

difficult to me. The more I enter into its conception and

masterly execution, the higher rises my enthusiasm for this

extraordinary work. Forgive my wretched pusillanimity if I still

have some doubt as to the wholly satisfactory result of the

performance.

Permit me one question: Do you not think it advisable to add to

"Tannhauser" a dedication (post scriptum) to the Lord of

Wartburg, H.R.H. Carl Alexander, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-

Weymar-Eisenach?

If you agree to this, have a very simple plate to that effect

engraved, and send me in advance, together with your next letter,

a few lines to the Hereditary Grand Duke, which I shall hand to

him at once. For the present you must expect no special donation

in return, but the sympathy of the prince for your masterpiece

fully justifies this attention.

Friendly greetings to Alexander Muller, to whom I am still very

grateful for his friendly reception at Zurich. If you should see

J. E., assure him of my sincere interest in his further welfare.

He is an honest, able, excellent man.

Hold me in kind remembrance, even as I am cordially devoted to

you.

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, July 29th, 1849

P.S.--Be careful in your articles in the newspapers to omit all

political allusions to Germany, and leave royal princes alone. In

case there should be an opportunity of paying Weymar a modest

compliment en passant, give free vent to your reminiscences with

the necessary kid gloves.

25.

DEAR LISZT,

I herewith send you my last finished work; it is a new version of

the original article which I sent to Paris last week to have it

translated for the feuilleton of the National. Whether you will

be pleased with it I do not know, but I feel certain that your

nature is at one with me. I hope you will find in it nothing of

the political commonplaces, socialistic balderdash, or personal

animosities, against which you warned me; but that, in the

deepest depth of things, I see what I see, is entirely owing to

the circumstance that my own artistic nature and the sufferings

it has to go through have opened my eyes in such a manner that

death alone can close them again. I look forward either to an

entirely useless existence, or to an activity which responds to

my inmost being, even if I have to exercise it afar from all

external splendour. In the former case I should have to think of

abbreviating that existence.

Please address and send the manuscript, together with the

enclosed letter, to the publisher Otto Wigand in Leipzig. Perhaps

I shall succeed in drawing from my inferior literary faculty some

small support for my existence. Since my last letter, which I

posted at the same time with my stormy petition to you, I have

had no news from my wife, and am slightly tortured accordingly.

From a letter written by Baron Schober to Eck at Zurich, I see

with great pleasure that your prospects are cheerful, and that

you are resolved to settle in Weimar. I presume that the

excellent Princess is also happy and well. Heaven be thanked!

Whether you ought to show her my manuscript I am not quite

certain; in it I am so much of a Greek that I have not been able

quite to convert myself to Christianity. But what nonsense I

talk! As if you were not the right people! Pardon me.

Farewell, dear, unique friend! Remember me in kindness.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, August 4th, 1849

Have you been good enough to see about the forwarding to me of my

scores and writings? I am anxious at not having seen anything of

them.

26.

DEAREST FRIEND,

A thousand thanks for your letter, and for kindly taking care of

my wife. The unknown donor is wrong in wishing to be hidden from

me. Thank him in my name.

The day before yesterday I sent you a long article; probably you

have read it. I am glad that I can agree to your wish to dedicate

"Tannhauser" to the Grand Duke without the slightest abnegation

of my principles, for I hope you will see that I care for

something else than the stupid political questions of the day.

It would be best if you could have the dedication page and the

special copy done through Meser, in which case you might also, if

necessary, promise to bear the trifling expense, for of that

copyright not a single note is mine. I hope you like the verses.

Will you put the letter to the Grand Duke in an addressed

envelope?

Oh, my friends, if you would only give me the wages of a middling

mechanic, you would have pleasure in my undisturbed work, which

should all be yours.

Thanks for sending the scores. "Lohengrin" will be especially

useful to me, for I hope to pawn the score here for some hundreds

of florins, so as to have money for myself and my wife for the

next few months.

Your doubts as to a satisfactory effect of the performance of the

opera have frequently occurred to me. I think, however, that if

the performance is quite according to my colour, the work--

including even the end--will be all right. One must dare.

Muller and Eck were delighted by your greetings, and return them

with enthusiasm.

Dear, good Liszt, I also thank you most cordially for all the

care you take of me. Consider that I can give you nothing better

in return than the best I can accomplish. Give me perfect peace,

and you shall be satisfied. I hope my wife will be here soon;

then you shall soon have good news of me.

Farewell, and continue to be my friend.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, August 7th, 1849

27.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

After a silence of several months, I cannot address you without

first of all thanking you once more with all my heart for the

friendly assistance which enabled me to have my poor wife back

again. By this assistance my wife made it possible to preserve

and bring with her some favourite trifles of our former household

and, before all, my grand piano. We are settled here as well as

possible; and after a long interruption, full of pain and unrest,

I am once more able to think of the execution of my great

artistic plans for the future.

After this final reunion with my much-tried wife, nothing could

have given me greater pleasure than to learn about the produce of

your artistic activity. The pieces written by you for the

centenary of Goethe's birth I have now seen in the pianoforte

score, and have occupied myself with them attentively. With all

my heart I bid you welcome, and am glad--especially also in

sympathy with your friend--that you behave so valiantly in this

field of honour, selected by you with glorious consistency. What

I felt most vividly, after my acquaintance with these

compositions, was the desire to know that you were writing an

opera or finishing one already begun. The aphoristic nature of

such tasks as those set you by this Goethe celebration must

involuntarily be transferred to the artistic production, which

therefore cannot attain to perfect warmth. Creative power in

music appears to me like a bell, which the larger it is is the

less able to give forth its full tone, unless an adequate power

has set it in motion. This power is internal, and where it does

not exist internally it does not exist at all. The purely

internal, however, cannot operate unless it is stimulated by

something external, related to it and yet different. Creative

power in music surely requires this stimulus no less than does

any other great artistic power; a great incitement alone can make

it effective. As I have every reason to deem your power great, I

desire for it the corresponding great incitement; for nothing

here can be arbitrarily substituted or added: genuine strength

can only create from necessity. Wherever in the series of your

pieces Goethe himself incites your strength, the bell resounds

with its natural full tone, and the clapper beats in it as the

heart does in the body. If you had been able to ring the whole

"Faust"-bell (I know this was impossible), if the detached pieces

had had reference to a great whole, then that great whole would

have thrown on the single pieces a reflex which is exactly the

certain something that may be gained from the great whole, but

not from the single piece. In single, aphoristic things we never

attain repose; only in a great whole is great power self-

contained, strong, and therefore, in spite of all excitement,

reposeful. Unrest in what we do is a proof that our activity is

not perfectly self-contained, that not our whole power, but only

a detached particle of that power, is in action. This unrest I

have found in your compositions, even as you must have found it

too often in mine without better cause. With this unrest I was,

however, better pleased than if comfortable self-contentment had

been their prominent feature. I compare it to the claw by which I

recognize the lion; but now I call out to you, Show us the

complete lion: in other words, write or finish soon an opera.

Dear friend, look upon me with an earnest but kind glance! All

the ills that have happened to me were the natural and necessary

consequences of the discord of my own being. The power which is

mine is quite unyielding and indivisible. By its nature it takes

violent revenge when I try to turn or divide it by external

force. To be wholly what I can be, and therefore, no doubt,

should be, is only possible for me if I renounce all those

external things which I could gain by dint of the aforesaid

external force. That force would always make me fritter away my

genuine power, would always conjure up the same evils. In all I

do and think I am only artist, nothing but artist. If I am to

throw myself into our modern publicity, I cannot conquer it as an

artist, and God preserve me from dealing with it as a politician.

Poor and without means for bare life, without goods or heritage,

as I am, I should be compelled to think only of acquisition; but

I have learnt nothing but my art, and that I cannot possibly use

for the purpose of acquiring nowadays; I cannot seek publicity,

and my artistic salvation could be brought about one day only by

publicity seeking me. The publicity for which alone I can work is

a small nucleus of individuals who constitute my whole publicity

at present. To these individuals, therefore, I must turn, and put

the question to them whether they love me and my art-work

sufficiently to make it possible for me, as far as in them lies,

to be myself, and to develop my activity without disturbance.

These individuals are not many, and they live far from each

other, but the character of their sympathy is an energetic one.

Dear friend, the question with me is bare life. You have opened

Paris to me, and I most certainly do not refuse it; but what I

have to choose and to design for that place cannot be chosen and

designed in a moment; I must there be some one else and yet

necessarily remain the same. All my numerous sketches are adapted

only to treatment by myself, and in the German language. Subjects

which I should have been prepared to execute for Paris (such as

"Jesus of Nazareth") turn out to be impossible for manifold

reasons when I come to consider closely the practical bearings of

the thing, and I must therefore have time and leisure to wait for

inspiration, which I can expect only from some remote region of

my nature. On the other hand, the poem of my "Siegfried" lies

before me. After not having composed a note for two years, my

whole artistic man is impelled towards writing the music for it.

What I could possibly hope for from a Paris success would not

even be able to keep me alive; for, without being thoroughly

dishonest, I should have to hand it over to my creditors.

The question, then, is, How and whence shall I get enough to

live? Is my finished work "Lohengrin" worth nothing? Is the opera

which I am longing to complete worth nothing? It is true that to

the present generation and to publicity as it is these must

appear as a useless luxury. But how about the few who love these

works? Should not they be allowed to offer to the poor suffering

creator--not a remuneration, but the bare possibility of

continuing to create?

To the tradesmen I cannot apply, nor to the existing nobility--

not to human princes, but to princely men. To work my best, my

inmost salvation, I am not in a position to rely on merit, but on

grace. If we few in this villainous trading age are not gracious

towards each other, how can we live in the name and for the

honour of art?

Dear friend, you, I believe, are the only one on whom I can

implicitly rely. Do not be frightened! I have tried to relieve

you of the burden of this exclusive reliance; I have turned

elsewhere, but in vain. From H. B., about whom you wrote to me, I

have heard nothing, and am glad from my heart that I have not.

Dear Liszt, let us leave the TRADESMEN alone once for all. They

are human and even love art, but only as far as BUSINESS will

allow.

Tell me; advise me! Hitherto my wife and I have kept ourselves

alive by the help of a friend here. By the end of this month of

October our last florins will be gone, and a wide, beautiful

world lies before me, in which I have nothing to eat, nothing to

warm myself with. Think of what you can do for me, dear, princely

man! Let some one buy my "Lohengrin," skin and bones; let some

one commission my "Siegfried." I will do it cheaply! Leaving our

old plan of a confederation of princes out of the question, can

you not find some other individuals who would join together to

help me, if YOU were to ask them in the proper manner? Shall I

put in the newspaper "I have nothing to live on; let him who

loves me give me something"? I cannot do it because of my wife;

she would die of shame. Oh the trouble it is to find a place in

the world for a man like me! If nothing else will answer, you

might perhaps give a concert "for an artist in distress."

Consider everything, dear Liszt, and before all manage to send me

soon some--some money. I want firewood, and a warm overcoat,

because my wife has not brought my old one on account of its

shabbiness. Consider!

From Belloni I soon expect an invitation to Paris, so as to get

my "Tannhauser" overture performed at the Conservatoire, to begin

with. Well, dear friend, give one of your much-occupied days to

the serious and sympathetic consideration of what you might do

for me. Your loving nature, free from all prejudice and only

occupied with the artist in me, will suggest to you a great work

of love which will be my salvation. Believe me, I speak sincerely

and openly; believe me that in you lies my only hope.

Farewell. Receive, together with mine, the most ardent wishes of

my good wife. Remember me, as one cordially devoted to her, to

Princess Wittgenstein, and thank her in my name if she should

think of me now and then.

Farewell, you good man, and let me soon hear from you.

Wholly yours,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, October 14th, 1849 (Am Zeltwege, in den hinteren

Escherhausern, 182.)

28.

DEAR FRIEND,

For more than a month I have been detained here by the serious

illness of the young Princess M. W. My return to Weymar is in

consequence forcibly postponed for at least another month, and

before returning there it is impossible for me to think of

serving you with any efficiency. You propose to me to find you a

purchaser for "Lohengrin" and "Siegfried." This will certainly

not be an easy matter, for these operas, being essentially--I

might say exclusively--German, can at most be represented in five

or six German towns. You know, moreover, that since the Dresden

affair OFFICIAL Germany is not favourable to your name. Dresden,

Berlin, and Vienna are well-nigh impossible fields for your works

for some time to come. If, as is not unlikely, I go to Berlin for

a few days this winter, I shall try to interest the King in your

genius and your future; perhaps I shall succeed in gaining his

sympathy for you and in managing through that means your return

by way of Berlin, which would certainly be your best chance. But

I need not tell you how delicate such a step is, and how

difficult to lead to a good end. As to the "confederation of

princes" which you mention again in your letter, I must

unfortunately repeat to you that I believe in its realization

about as much as in mythology.

Nevertheless I shall not omit to sound the disposition of H.H.

the Duke of Coburg during the visit I shall probably have the

honour of paying him at the beginning of January. By his superior

intelligence and personal love of music, access to him will be

made easier. But as to the other thirty-eight sovereigns of

Germany (excepting Weymar, Gotha, and Berlin), I confess that I

do not know how I shall manage to instill into them so subtle an

idea as would be the positive encouragement and the active

protection of an artist of your stamp.

As to the dedication of "Tannhauser," the Hereditary Grand Duke,

while graciously receiving your intention, has sent me word that

it would be more convenient to defer the publication for a few

months, so that I have not been in a hurry to make the necessary

arrangements for the engraving of the dedication plate.

Try, my dear friend, to get on as best you can till Christmas. My

purse is completely dry at this moment; and you are aware, no

doubt, that the fortune of the Princess has been for a year

without an administrator, and may be completely confiscated any

day. Towards the end of the year I reckon upon money coming in,

and shall then certainly not fail to let you have some, as far as

my very limited means will go; you know what heavy charges are

weighing upon me. Before thinking of myself I must provide for

the comfortable existence of my mother and my dear children in

Paris, and I can also not avoid paying Belloni a modest salary

for the services he renders me, although he has always shown

himself most nobly disinterested on my behalf. My concert career,

as you know, has been closed for more than two years past, and I

cannot resume it imprudently without serious damage to my present

position and still more to my future.

However, on my way through Hamburg I have yielded to numerous

solicitations to conduct in April a grand "Musical Festival," the

greater part of the receipts of which will be devoted to the

"Pension Fund of Musicians," which I founded about seven years

ago.

Your "Tannhauser" overture will of course figure in the

programme, and perhaps also, if we have sufficient time and

means, the finale of the first or second act,--unless you have

some other pieces to propose. Kindly write on this subject to

your niece, who is engaged for the whole winter at Hamburg, and

ask her to come to our assistance on this occasion. For it is my

firm intention (not AVOWED or DIVULGED, you understand, for there

would be much inconvenience and no advantage in confiding it to

friends or the public) to set aside part of the receipts for you.

Could not you, on your part, arrange some concerts at Zurich, the

proceeds of which would enable you to get through the winter

tolerably? Why should you not undertake this? Your personal

dignity, it seems to me, would not in the least suffer by it.

Yet another thing, another string to your bow. Should you think

it inconvenient to publish a book of vocal compositions,--lieder

or ballads, melodies or lyrical effusions, anything? For a work

of this class signed with your name I can easily find a publisher

and insist upon a decent honorarium, and there is surely nothing

derogatory in continuing in a path which Mozart, Beethoven,

Schubert, and Rossini have not disdained. I quite understand what

you say of my compositions in the "Goethe Album," and only regret

you did not hear my "Tasso" overture, which, I flatter myself,

would not have displeased you. In consequence of the good opinion

which you kindly express of my talent as a composer, I am going

to ask you a favour if the idea meets with your approval. While

recently glancing through the volume of Lord Byron which has

scarcely ever quitted me on my travels, I came again upon the

mystery "Heaven and Earth," and on reading it once more felt

persuaded that one might turn it to good account by preserving

the difference of character between the two women Anah and

Aholibamah and by keeping of course the Deluge as a purely

instrumental piece for the denouement. If in your free moments

you could think of cutting out of this an oratorio of moderate

length, as in Byron, I should be truly obliged to you.

Read over the Mystery, and tell me whether you like my plan. In

the course of the summer my "Sardanapalus" (in Italian) will be

completely finished, and I shall be delighted to undertake

another work at once.

If you reply before the end of November, address Buckeburg, for I

shall not return to Weymar, for the rest of the winter, till the

beginning of December.

Remember me very kindly to Madame Wagner, and in all

circumstances rely upon my devoted friendship and admiration.

F. LISZT

BOCKEBURG, October 28th, 1849

29.

MY DEAR FRIEND LISZT,

God knows, the more I look into my future, the more I feel what I

possess in you. Such as I am and such as you are, I come to

understand better and better what a rare degree of friendship and

kindness you must have towards me to show me the most active

sympathy of all my friends, in spite of many sides of my nature

which cannot possibly be agreeable to you. You resemble in this

the true poet who, with perfect impartiality, takes every

phenomenon of life as it is according to its essence. As regards

your anxiety about me, I can assure you that if you had sent me

some assistance in answer to my last request, I should not have

been more touched than I was in feeling with you your sorrow at

having to confess that for the time being you could not send me

anything. I helped myself as well as I could by applying to my

friends here. If I had not a wife, and a wife who has already

gone with me through such hard times, I should be much less

anxious about the future; but for her sake I frequently sink into

deep dejection. But that dejection does not help me on; and,

thanks to my healthy nature, I always nerve myself to renewed

courage. Having lately expressed my whole view of art in a work

entitled "The Art-work of the Future," I am now free from all

theoretic hankerings, and have got so far as to care about

nothing but doing art-work. I should have liked best to complete

my "Siegfried," but this wish I could realize only in

exceptionally favourable circumstances, namely if I could look

forward to a year free from material care. This is not the case,

and the care for my future makes it my duty altogether to think

more seriously of my appointed tasks than has hitherto been

possible amidst the most conflicting impressions. Listen, dear

friend: the reason why for a long time I could not warm to the

idea of writing an opera for Paris was a certain artistic dislike

of the French language which is peculiar to me. You will not

understand this, being at home in all Europe, while I came into

the world in a specifically Teutonic manner. But this dislike I

have conquered in favour of an important artistic undertaking.

The next question was the poem and a subject, and here I must

confess that it would be absolutely impossible for me simply to

write music to another man's poems, not because I consider this

beneath me, but because I know, and know by experience, that my

music would be bad and meaningless. What operatic subjects I had

in my head would not have done for Paris, and this was the cause

of my hesitation in the whole affair which you had initiated so

well. Since then I have clearly discovered what task I have in

reality to perform in Paris, so as to remain true to myself and

yet keep Paris always in my mind's eye. As to this, dear friend,

we shall perhaps understand each other perfectly, and you will

agree with me when I determine not to become a Frenchman (in

which I should never succeed, and which the French do not want

from a German), but to remain as I am and in my own character to

speak to the French comprehensibly. Well, in this sense the

subject for a poem has quite recently occurred to me, which I

shall immediately work out and communicate to Gustave Vaez; it is

highly original and suitable to all conditions. More I will tell

you as soon as I have finished the scenario. Belloni has asked me

for the scores of my overtures to "Tannhauser" and "Rienzi," the

first for a concert at the Conservatoire; I believe it is to be

performed next January, and at that time I shall go to Paris

myself to conduct the overture, to settle everything with Gustave

Vaez, and to co-operate with him in obtaining a commission for an

opera. One thing more: I cannot allow my "Lohengrin" to lie by

and decay. Latterly I have accustomed myself to the notion of

giving it to the world at first in a foreign language, and I now

take up your own former idea of having it translated into

English, so as to make its production in London possible. I am

not afraid that this opera would not be understood by the

English, and for a slight alteration I should be quite prepared.

As yet, however, I do not know a single person in London. With

the publisher Beal I made acquaintance par distance when he

printed the overture to "Rienzi," but apart from this I have no

connection with London. Could you manage, dear friend, to write

to London and to introduce my undertaking, and could you also let

me know to whom to apply further? From Paris I should then go to

London, in order to settle the matter if possible.

You perceive that I am only intent on carrying out the scheme

originally suggested by you. Do not be angry with me for taking

it in hand so late. At first it was your plan exclusively, and I

had to make it mine; my awkwardness in this you must kindly

attribute to my extraordinary position and mental trouble.

But now it is important, dear Liszt, to provide me with means for

this definite object. That you alone cannot support me I realized

long ago; and knowing as I do your position, it is altogether

with a heavy heart that I ask you for further sacrifices. I have

therefore applied to a friend at Dresden (himself poor), and have

asked him to see if he could get me some money from my other

friends, so as to help me, in conjunction with you, over my

immediate and greatest difficulties. His news so far does not

lead me to expect any great success from his efforts, and in any

case it will not amount to much. You were kind enough to promise

me some assistance from your own means towards the end of the

year. Do not be angry if I assure you that I shall be compelled

to count upon your kind fulfillment of this promise.

I trust in no one else, and do not indulge in any further

illusions. Of a concert in Zurich I have thought myself. The

local concert society have asked me to study with their

orchestra, which is feeble, a symphony by Beethoven and one of my

compositions, in return for which they would arrange a benefit

concert lor me. The necessary increase of the strings, which I

had to demand as a point of honour, has delayed the matter up

till now, and it will be probably the beginning of January before

the subscription concert takes place which is to be, so to speak,

the captatio benevolentioe for my benefit concert. It is

therefore not unlikely that I shall not be able to wait for the

favourable moment, as I expect to be summoned to Paris by Belloni

towards the beginning of next year. Any assistance from that

quarter is therefore very problematic. Your thought of me in

wishing to set aside part of the receipts of an intended concert

at Hamburg has touched me deeply. You are a good man; and every

day, alas! I feel more sure that I have no friend like you. In

any case my niece shall interest herself in the concert; that

small errand I willingly undertake.

All I want is to provide my poor wife during my absence with the

money necessary for her subsistence, which will not amount to

much, also to enable me to pay for my journeys and my stay in

Paris and London. Belloni must get me a small, cheap room, and I

promise to be as careful as possible in every way. I trust you

and the above-mentioned friends will be able to provide me with

the necessary means. Let us hope that success will reward your

beautiful and rare sympathy.

Farewell, dear and valued friend! Remember me and my wife

cordially to Princess Wittgenstein, and be assured at all times

of my enthusiastic recognition of your rare and beautiful nature.

Always your deeply obliged friend,

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, December 5th, 1849 The subject from Byron I shall

certainly consider. As yet I do not know it, nor have had time to

make myself acquainted with it, for which you must pardon me. I

should be too glad to be of any service to you, and am thankful

to you for showing me the way to do it. Let me only finish my

opera sketch for Paris first.

My address is "Am Zeltweg, in den hinteren Escherhausern," No.

182.

30.

DEAR FRIEND,

I have just returned to Weymar, and hasten to send you a bill on

Rothschild for five hundred francs. According to what you tell

me, I hope it will be of service to you in Paris, where, I am

convinced, you will find the best field for your activity and

your genius.

I quite agree with your decision "to remain thoroughly faithful

to yourself and yet always to have Paris before your eyes in the

conception and execution of your designs." I anticipate soon the

most excellent and satisfactory results. You are quite right in

not wishing to become a Frenchman; apart from the fact that you

would scarcely succeed, your task is a different and even a

contrary one, viz., to Germanize the French in your sense of the

word, or rather to inspire them and fill them with enthusiasm for

more general, more comprehensive, more elevated, dramatic art-

work.

I should be delighted to learn what operatic subject you have

selected, and my earnest desire is that you will use all your

time in hastening the representation. In actual circumstances it

is almost impossible for you to think of a speedy return to

Germany where, moreover, you would find nothing but disagreeable

things, envy, and enmity. Paris and perhaps London are absolutely

necessary for your present and future career. Whatever the

annoyances and sufferings may be which you will have to go

through during the period of transition in which you are

unhappily placed, take courage and have full confidence in the

star of your genius. The day after your first performance in

Paris you will be "as one new-born and content like a Greek god."

Regarding London, it will be somewhat difficult to place your

"Lohengrin" there. It depends very much upon the chance of a good

opportunity, which I hope will turn up. I shortly expect M. Ernst

on his return from London, and he will give me some details as to

the actual situation and the personnel of the London theatres.

Italian opera not being suitable to you in any form, you will

have to attach yourself to one of the ephemeral enterprises of

the English stage, ensuring, of course, every possible precaution

and guarantee. I shall one of these days write direct to Mr.

Chorley, an excellent friend of mine, who will give me the

necessary information and help you during your stay in London.

Before the spring I shall perhaps be able to give you some

favourable news. You on your part must strike every iron while it

is hot, and before all "stick to our Paris plans." For the fete

of the Grand Duchess I shall conduct "Iphigenia in Aulis," which

Herr von Zigesar has got for me from Dresden, and this in spite

of the opposition, from want of intelligence or evil intention,

which I shall have to encounter. Herr von Luttichau has declined

all responsibility for the loan of your score, and I have boldly

undertaken to be answerable to you for it.

At the end of the week we shall repeat "Tannhauser," which, by

some miracle of taste, the Weymar public and many people from the

surrounding towns have demanded ever since the beginning of the

theatrical season, and which has been postponed only on account

of my absence.

Let me hear from you soon, dear friend, and continue to dispose

of me as of your sincerely devoted friend,

F. LISZT

WEYMAR, January 14th, 1850

P.S.--Kindly give my best remembrances and compliments to Madame

Wagner.

31.

MY DEAR LISZT,

You will know by this time how I have fared in Paris. The

performance of my overture came to nothing, and all your trouble

about it has been in vain. Poor man!

In my life some decisive events have happened; the last shackles

have fallen that tied me to a world in which I must have perished

soon, not only mentally, but physically. Through the eternal

compulsion imposed upon me by my immediate surroundings, I have

lost my health, and my nerves are shattered. In the immediate

future I must live only for my recovery; my existence is provided

for; you shall hear from me from time to time.

Dear friend, I have just been looking through the score of my

"Lohengrin." I very seldom read my own works. An immense desire

has sprung up in me to have this work performed. I address this

wish to your heart:--

Perform my "Lohengrin"! You are the only one to whom I could

address this prayer; to none but you I should entrust the

creation of this opera; to you I give it with perfect and joyous

confidence. Perform it where you like, even if only in Weimar; I

feel certain you will procure every possible and necessary means,

and they will refuse you nothing. Perform "Lohengrin," and let

its existence be your work. There is a correct score of the opera

at Dresden. Herr von Luttichau has bought it of me for the price

of the copying (thirty-six thalers). As he is not going to

perform it--against which I should protest, considering the

musical, direction in that city--it is possible that he will let

you have the copy on repayment of the thirty--six thalers, or

else he will in any case have it copied out for you. This letter

may be your authority for receiving it,

If you comply with my wish, I shall send you soon a complete

libretto, with exact indications of my view as to the mise-en-

scene, etc.

Do what you can and what you like. You shall soon hear from me

again.

Belloni tells me that you have promised him to get me an

additional five hundred francs for the score of "Iphigenia." If

you succeed in this, remit the money for me to Belloni; I shall

in my thoughts dispose of it.

Farewell, dear friend and brother. Remember me to my few friends.

If the Grand Duchess and the Hereditary Grand Duke will accept a

greeting, greet them most cordially from me.

Farewell, and think well of

Your faithful and grateful

RICHARD WAGNER

PARIS, April 21st, 1850

32.

DEAREST LISZT,

I herewith send you the promised directions for the performance

of "Lohengrin." Pardon me if they come too late. I heard only

recently with what amiable and speedy readiness you have complied

with my wish for the performance of this opera. When we meet

again, I shall have many things to tell you. Of my immediate past

I only say that my intended journey to Greece has come to

nothing; there were too many impediments, which I found it

impossible to overcome. Better than anything else I should have

liked to get out of the world altogether. Of this more later on.

As I understand that you are going to perform "Lohengrin" as

early as August 28th, I must not delay my instructions any

longer, leaving other matters for a later communication.

First of all, I have in the enclosed treated of scenery and

decorations. My drawings made for that purpose will give you

great delight; I count them amongst the most successful creations

of my genius. Where my technique forsook me, you must be

satisfied with the good intention, which will be clear to you

from the literary explanation attached to it. The trees

especially presented me with insuperable difficulties, and if

every painter has to perspire over perspective as I have done,

his art is by no means an easy calling. As to the rest, I have in

my notes always referred to the full score, in which I have

indicated--much more fully and clearly than in the libretto--the

scenic action in conjunction with the music. The stage-manager

will have to go exactly by the score, or at least an arrangement

of it.

As to the orchestra, I have also put down some remarks for you.

But now I have first of all a great wish to address to you:

Give the opera as it is; cut nothing!

One single cut I will indicate to you myself, and I even insist

upon the omission of the passage, viz., the second part of

Lohengrin's tale in the final scene of the third act. After the

words of Lohengrin--"Sein Ritter ich bin Lohengrin ge"--[nannt

fifty-six bars must be omitted] "Wo ihr mit Gott mich landen"

["saht" therefore,--"nannt" instead of "saht"].

I have frequently sung it to myself, and have come to the

conclusion that this second part of the tale must produce a

depressing effect. The passage is therefore to be omitted in the

libretto as well.

As to the rest, I must request you urgently, Let me for once do

as I like. I have been intent upon establishing so unfailing, so

plastic, a connection between the music and the poem and action,

that I feel quite certain as to the result. Rely upon me, and do

not attribute it to my being in love with my own work. If you

should feel compelled to make cuts on account of excessive

difficulty, I should ask you to consider whether it would not be

better to leave the performance alone on account of insufficiency

of means. I assume, however, that all possible means will be

readily placed at your disposal, and also that you will succeed

in conquering every difficulty if you are fully determined to do

so. If you make up your mind that it must be, then I am sure that

it will be, or else that you would rather give up the whole

thing. As to this, I think, we agree.

Concerning the chief thing, the cast of vocalists, I rely upon

you with perfect confidence. You will not undertake impossible

things. Our friend Gotze, to whom I am in any case much indebted

for his Tannhauser, will find more difficulties in Lohengrin,

because he lacks in external appearance and voice that

resplendent quality which, where nature has vouchsafed it, must

make the part easy. Let him supply that resplendence as far as

possible by means of art. To look at him ought to make one's eyes

smart. A newly revised libretto intended for the printer I send

at the same time with this. It will arrive by the ordinary mail.

As to this libretto, I have the following wish to express: Sell

it, or if you can get nothing for it, give it to a publisher who

will undertake to bring it out beautifully, at least as well as

the libretto of "Tannhauser"; the Weimar theatre then gets as

many copies from the publisher as it wants for sale in the house,

allowing a certain commission. This is exactly what we did with

"Tannhauser." As I should like you to dispose of the pianoforte

score, made by Uhlig in Dresden, to a music-publisher, the best

way would be to offer the libretto to the same man whom you have

in your eye for the pianoforte arrangement. That libretto, if

sold at a moderate price, is, however, by no means a bad

business. Of "Tannhauser" we sold over two thousand copies. One

thing more: tell me, dear Liszt, how could we make it possible

that I could attend the first performance in Weimar incognito?

This is a desperate question, especially as at this moment it is

no longer, as it recently was, a matter of indifference to me

whether I am to dwell in a royal Saxon prison or not. Listen: I

hold the Grand Duchess in high regard; would not this lady, to

whom I attribute real nobility, at your suggestion be inclined

for the stroke of genius of duping the police of united Germany,

and of getting me a safe conduct under an assumed name from

Switzerland to Weimar and back again to Zurich? I promise

faithfully to preserve my incognito in the most stoical manner,

to lie perdu in Weimar for a little time, and to go straight

back, guaranteeing all the time the strictest secrecy from abroad

also. Or would this be more easily achievable through the Duke of

Coburg? Of him I hear many things that delight me. Anyhow look

into this; you would give a poor devil like me real joy, and

perhaps a new stimulus and much-needed encouragement.

If it is possible, or even if it is impossible, I ask further,

Would you like to pay me a short visit in Zurich soon? You are

devilish quick at such things. If I could see you again now, I

should go half mad through joy, therefore wholly mad, as people

have surely taken me for half mad a long time since. I would sing

"Lohengrin" to you from A to Z; that would be a real pleasure!

Enough for today. I shall soon write again. Whether I have got

any money from Weimar for "Iphigenia" I cannot tell yet; there

has latterly been much confusion around me. I am about to crush

some most absurd rumours which have been spread abroad concerning

me by returning to Zurich. Address to me there "Enge, Sterngasse,

Hirzel's Haus, Zurich."

Farewell, old, dear, only friend! I know you love me. Believe

that I respond from my fullest heart.

Ever thine,

RICHARD WAGNER

THUN, July 2nd, 1850

33.

DEAR LISZT,

Would you be kind enough to answer the following simple question

briefly by "Yes" or "No"? Did the management of the Weimar

theatre intend to pay me five hundred francs for my version of

"Iphigenia," as Belloni told me after his return to Weimar?

Further, have these five hundred francs been sent anywhere for

me, and to whom and where should I in that case have to apply? or

if they have not been sent, may I still count on them? Lastly, if

the latter should be the case, will you ask Herr von Zigesar to

send three hundred francs of the sum to Belloni in Paris, in

settlement of a tailor's bill falling due July 15th, and remit

the balance of two hundred francs to me at Zurich as soon as

possible?

My question has become more complicated than I thought, as

complicated, indeed, as is the demand on Herr von Zigesar to pay

me five hundred francs for a mere arrangement. That you have

managed to insist upon this demand I must in any case look upon

as one of your miracles.

Dearest friend, you have, I hope, received my long letter from

Thun. Shall I soon hear from you, or could you really manage to

pay me a flying visit?

Best greetings from your most faithful

RICHARD WAGNER

ZURICH, July l0th, 1850

(Bei Frau Hirzel, Sterngasse, Enge.)

34.

DEAREST FRIEND,

Believe me, you have not for a moment ceased to be very near to

my heart. The serious, enthusiastic admiration I have for your

genius would not be satisfied with sleepy habits and barren

sentiments. All that I can possibly do, either in the interest of

your reputation and glory or in that of your person, you may feel

perfectly certain will in no circumstances remain undone. Only a

friend like you is not always quite easy and convenient to serve,

for those who understand you must wish, before all, to serve you

in an intelligent and dignified manner. I hope that so far I have

not been wanting in these two essential conditions, and I do not

mean to depart from them for the future. You may therefore have

full confidence in me, and listen to me, and believe me as one

who is frankly and without restriction devoted to you. But let us

speak definitely of your affairs, which, for some time at least,

I have made seriously my own.

1. I found it impossible to get the five hundred francs for

"Iphigenia" from the management. Nevertheless, you shall not be

disappointed, for at the same time with this letter I forward to

Belloni in Paris three hundred francs from my private purse,

which he will hold at your disposal, and pay at your order either

to your tailor or to any other person you may indicate. Apart

from this, I have good hope that Herr von Zigesar, from whom I

enclose a few lines, will be able to send you in a few days one

hundred thalers, independently of the honorarium for "Lohengrin,"

which will be about thirty louis d'or.

2. Your "Lohengrin" will be given under exceptional conditions,

which are most favourable to its success. The management for this

occasion spends about 2,000 thalers, a thing that has not been

done in Weymar within the memory of man. The press will not be

forgotten, and suitable and seriously conceived articles will

appear successively in several papers. All the personnel will be

put on its mettle. The number of violins will be slightly

increased (from sixteen to eighteen), and a bass clarinet has

been purchased. Nothing essential will be wanting in the musical

material or design. I undertake all the rehearsals with

pianoforte, chorus, strings, and orchestra. Genast will follow

your indications for the mise-en-scene with zeal and energy. It

is understood that we shall not cut a note, not an iota, of your

work, and that we shall give it in its absolute beauty, as far as

is in our power. The special date of August 28th, on which

"Lohengrin" will be performed, cannot be but favourable to it. To

speak truth, I should not be allowed to put so extraordinary a.

work on the stage in the ordinary course of the theatrical

season. Herr von Zigesar has fully realized that "Lohengrin" must

be an event. For that reason they have curtailed the theatrical

holidays by one-half, and have asked my friend Dingelstedt to

write a prologue ad hoc, which he will bring us himself towards

the middle of August, the first performance being fixed for

August 28th, the anniversary of Goethe's birth, and three days

after the inauguration of the Herder monument, which will take

place on the 25th. In connection with that Herder monument we

shall have a great concourse of people here; and besides that,

for the 28th the delegates of the Goethe foundation are convoked

to settle the definite programme of that foundation at Weymar.

After two consecutive performances of "Lohengrin" the theatre

will close again for another month, and "Lohengrin" will not be

resumed till some time in the course of the winter.

3. With regard to the sale of the score, the matter is not quite

so simple, and I need not enumerate and explain to you the

commercial difficulties. Nevertheless, if you charge me with this

matter, I shall be to bring it to a good end; but a little time

will be necessary. If, as I have no doubt, the success of

"Lohengrin" is once firmly established at Weymar, you will

perhaps find means to influence the B.'s so that they may have it

done at Leipsic. In that case Tichatschek would be required for

the principal part, and your most devoted capellmeister would, if

you should think it necessary, take care of the rest on certain

conditions.

If the work succeeds at Leipzig, a publisher will easily be

found; but I must not conceal from you that the success of

"Lohengrin" seems to me somewhat doubtful, unless the necessary

preliminary precautions with regard to study, rehearsals, and the

press are taken. In leaving it to its fate--although, no doubt,

it deserves a propitious fate--I have serious apprehensions from

the ill-will which attaches to you personally and from the envy

and stupidity which still combat your genius. Consider therefore

carefully what plan you had better adopt in this matter. In the

meantime I thank you cordially for the indications and hints

which you give me about the score. I shall obey them with respect

and friendship. Kindly write two words to Herr Uhlig in Dresden

so as to prevent him from making difficulties about sending me

the pianoforte score, which will be very useful to me.

I come to a point which pains me much, but which it is my duty

not to conceal from you. Your return to Germany and visit to

Weymar for the performance of "Lohengrin" is an absolute

impossibility. When we meet again, I can give you verbally the

details, which it would be too long and useless to write. Once

more, it is necessary that you should be served with intelligence

and dignity, and you would not be served in that manner by

hazarding steps which must infallibly lead to an unfavourable

result. What I think of most, and what, with God's help, may

bring about "a turn in your situation," is the success of

"Lohengrin"; and if that is once well established, I shall

propose to their Highnesses to authorize me to write to you or to

let Herr von Zigesar write to you commissioning you to finish

your "Siegfried" as soon as possible, and sending you for that

purpose a suitable honorarium in advance, so that you may be able

to work for some six months at the completion of that opera free

from material care.

Speak to no one of this plan, which I hope to carry out in due

time.

Till then keep your head and your health in good condition, and

count entirely upon your sincerely devoted and affectionate

friend,

F. LISZT

Herr von Zigesar will write to you direct about the sale of the

libretto of "Lohengrin." The best thing would be if Brockhaus

would undertake the edition, and Z. has written to him on the

subject. You, on your part, might write to him to the same

effect, which would be a good beginning of the plan which I shall

submit to your ultimate decision. Yet another and quite different

question: Should you be inclined to undertake in connection with

"Alceste," "Orphee," "Armide," and "Iphigenia en Tauride," by

Gluck, a similar task to that which you have already performed

for "Iphigenie en Aulide," and what sum would you expect by way

of honorarium? Write to me on this subject when you have time;

there is no hurry about it, but perhaps I might be able to

suggest the idea of such a commission to the proper person.

35.

MY DEAR LISZT,

I must say, You are a friend. Let me say no more to you, for

although I always recognized in friendship between men the

noblest and highest human relation, it was you who embodied this

idea in its fullest reality by letting me no longer imagine, but

feel and grasp, what a friend is.

I do not thank you, for you alone have the power to thank

yourself by your joy in being what you are. It is noble to have a

friend, but still nobler to be a friend.

Having found you, I can put up with my banishment from Germany,

and I must look upon it almost as fortunate, for I could not have

possibly been of such use to myself in Germany as you can be. But

then I wanted you of all others. I cannot write your praise, but

when we meet I will tell it you. Kindly and considerately as you

treat me, you may feel sure that I as fully understand and

appreciate the manner of your care of me. I know that you must

act as you act, and not otherwise; and for the manner of your

taking care of me I am especially thankful. One thing gives me

anxiety: you forget yourself over me, and I cannot replace what

you lose of yourself in this. Consider this well.

Your letter has in many respects made a great impression on me. I

have convictions which perhaps you will never share, but which

you will not think it necessary to combat when I tell you that

they in no manner interfere with my artistic activity. I have

felt the pulse of our modern art, and know that it must die, but

this does not make me melancholy, but rather joyful, because I

know that not art, but only our art, standing as it does outside

of real existence, must perish, while the true, imperishable,

ever-new art has still to be born. The monumental character of

our art will disappear; the clinging and sticking to the past,

the selfish care for continuity and possible immortality, we

shall cast off; the Past will be Past, the Future will be Future,

to us, and we shall live and create only in the Today, in the

full Present. Remember that I used to call you happy in your

particular art, because you were an immediate artist, actually

present, and appealing to the senses at every moment. That you

could do so only by means of an instrument was not your fault,

but that of the inevitable conditions of our time, which reduces

the individual man wholly to himself, and in which association,

enabling the single artist to expend his power in the common and

immediately present work of art, is an impossible thing. It was

not my purpose to flatter you. I only expressed half consciously

my knowledge that the representative alone is the true artist.

Our creations as poets and composers are in reality volition, not

power; representation only is power--art. [Footnote: In the

German original there is here a play upon the word "konnen" and

its derivative, "kunst," which cannot be translated.] Believe me,

I should be ten times happier if I were a dramatic representative

instead of a dramatic poet and composer. With this conviction

which I have gained, I am naturally not desirous to create works

for which I should have to resign a life in the present in order

to give them some flattering, fictitious immortality. What cannot

be made true today will remain untrue in the future. The vain

desire of creating beyond the present for the future I abandon,

but if I am to create for the present, that present must appear

to me in a less disgusting form than it actually does. I renounce

fame, and more especially the ridiculous spectre of posthumous

fame, because I love my fellow-men too much to condemn them, for

the sake of my vanity, to the poverty in which alone the

posthumous fame of dead people finds its nourishment.

As things are, I am incited to artistic creativeness, not by

ambition, but by the desire to hold communion with my friends and

the wish to give them joy; where I know this desire and this wish

to be satisfied I am happy and perfectly content. If you in

little Weimar give my "Lohengrin" with zeal and love, joy and

success, and were it only for the two performances of which you

write, I shall be happy in the thought that my purpose has been

perfectly accomplished, that my anxiety about this work is wholly

at an end, and that now I may begin another effort at offering

something new in a similar manner. Judge then, can you blame my

conviction which rids me of all egoism, of all the small passions

of ambition? Surely not. Ah, that I might be able to communicate

to all of you some of the blissful strength of my convictions!

Hear now what effect your letter has had upon me.

Last May I sent the poem of my "Siegfried" to a book-seller to be

published, such as it is. In a short preface I explained that the

completion and the performance of my work were beyond hope, and

that I therefore communicated my intention to my friends. In

fact, I shall not compose my "Siegfried" on the mere chance for

the reasons I have just told you. Now, you offer to me the

artistic association which might bring "Siegfried" to light. I

demand representatives of heroes such as our stage has not yet

seen; where are they to come from? Not from the air, but from the

earth, for I believe you are in a good way to make them grow from

the earth by dint of your inspiring care. Although our theatrical

muddle is hopelessly confused, the best soil for all art is still

to be found in our foolish actors and singers; their nature, if

they have kept their hearts at all, is incorruptible; by means of

enthusiasm you can make anything of them. Well then, as soon as

you have produced Lohengrin to your own satisfaction I shall also

produce my "Siegfried," but only for you and for Weimar. Two days

ago I should not have believed that I should come to this

resolution; I owe it to you.

My dear Liszt, from what I have told you you will see that,

according to my view of the thing, your amiable anxiety for the

further promulgation of my "Lohengrin" has my sympathy almost

alone on account of its material advantages--for I must live--but

not with a view to my fame. I might have the desire to

communicate myself to a larger circle, but is he likely to be

listened to who intrudes? I cannot and will not intrude. You

surely have done enough to attract the attention of people

towards me; shall I too buttonhole them and ask them for a

hearing? Dear friend, these people are flabby and cowardly; they

have no heart. Leave them alone! If I am to succeed, it must be

through people who care about the matter. Where I must offer

myself I lose all my power. How can I care about a "Leipsic

representation"? It would have to be a good representation, and

how is that to be achieved unless some one like you undertook the

thing? Do not forget that Weimar also would not exist for me if

you did not happen to exist in Weimar. Good Lord! All depends

upon one man in our days; the rest must be dragged along anyhow;

nothing will go of itself. Even money considerations could not

determine me to arrange performances which would of necessity be

bad. Lord knows, although I have no money, I do not trouble about

it excessively, for I have a notion that somehow I shall not

starve. Just when I have nothing at all something always turns

up, as, for instance, your last news, and then I feel suddenly

calm and free of care. You see, dear friend, as long as you

remain true to me I do not despair. As to your excellent proposal

with regard to the treatment of Gluck's operas, which has given

me great pleasure, I shall soon write more definitely.

Although I have many more things to tell you, I think it better

to conclude on this page. You say so many things to me that I

become quite confused when I have to think of a detailed answer.

I know that I am safe with you as a child in its mother's bosom.

What more is required beyond gratitude and love? Farewell, and

let me press you to my heart.

Your friend, happy through you,

RICHARD WAGNER

Herr von Zigesar will have a letter very soon; for the present I

send him my best thanks for his valuable letter and his touching

sympathy with my work. One more thing: a certain conductor, Abt,

from this place will be at Weimar on August 28th to hear

"Lohengrin." Kindly reserve a seat for him.

My best remembrances to Genast and my brave singers. I rejoice

when I think of these good people. A whole family, Ritter by

name, will come from Dresden to Switzerland next year, to settle

near me; they also will be at Weimar. I am writing to Uhlig.

36.

DEAR FRIEND,

I have been asked to forward to you the enclosed bill for one

hundred thalers. Do not thank me, and do not thank Herr von

Zigesar either, who has signed the bill. You will perhaps

remember that about a year ago I sent you the same amount; this

time it comes again from the same source, which, for official

reasons, desires to remain hidden.

We float in the full ether of your "Lohengrin." I flatter myself

that we shall succeed in giving it according to your intentions.

We rehearse every day for two or three hours, and the solo parts

as well as the strings are in tolerable order. Tomorrow and

afterwards I shall separately rehearse the wind, which will be

complete, in accordance with the demands of your score. We have

ordered a bass clarinet, which will be excellently played by Herr

Wahlbrul. Our violoncellos will be strengthened by the arrival

from Paris of Cossmann, who will join our orchestra on August

15th. This is an excellent acquisition, which will, I hope, be

followed by some others of the same sort, etc., etc. In short,

all that it is humanly possible to do in Weimar in the year of

grace 1850, you may be sure, will be done for your "Lohengrin,"

which, in spite of much stupid talk, some false anxiety, and some

too real impediments, will, you may take my promise, be very

decently performed on the 28th inst., after which I have invited

myself to supper at Zigesar's, who is fire and flame for

Lohengrin. When he sends you your honorarium of from twenty-five

to thirty louis d'or, towards the end of the month, kindly write

to him a fairly long and friendly letter, for he fully shares my

sympathy and admiration for your genius, and is the only person

who can assist me in giving external significance to those

sentiments. At his last stay in Berlin he spoke of Tannhauser to

the King and the Prince of Prussia, so as to let them know in

Berlin how the matter stands. Two or three days later please

write also a few lines to Genast, who has behaved extremely well

in all the transactions preceding "Lohengrin," and who will

zealously execute your indications as to the mise-en-scene.

If you will do me a service, dear friend, send me, if possible by

return of post, some metronomical indications for the

introduction and several other important pieces, the duet between

Lohengrin and Elsa in the third act amongst others. I believe I

am not mistaken as to your wishes and intentions, but should

still prefer to have conviction in figures as to this matter.

There will be no cut, no curtailment, in your score, and I shall

do my best to have no lack of < fp. ffp. >, and especially of . .

.--, which is the most difficult thing for the string

instruments.

Farewell, dear friend! I think your work is sublime, and am your

sincerely devoted

F. LISZT

37.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

Many thanks for your letter received yesterday; also convey my

cordial thanks to the donor. Dear friend, we all know who it is.

Why this official secrecy? I must confess that formerly I thought

it more desirable to have an honorarium for my version of

"Iphigenia in Aulis" than a present, but on second consideration

I find that such an honorarium would have been little more than a

present. Who knows better than myself that in our dear world of

the Mine and Thine, of work and payment, I am a pure luxury? He

who gives anything to me receives something quite superfluous and

unnecessary in return. What do you think, who have taken such

infinite pains to dispose of my works? Much as I think of my

"Lohengrin," which you are bringing to light, I think as much and

almost more of you and your terrible exertions. I know what these

exertions are. When I saw you conduct a rehearsal of

"Tannhauser," I knew at once what you were to me. What curious

creatures we are! We can be happy only by the complete

annihilation of our whole being; to be happy means with us to

lose consciousness of ourselves. Stupid as it may sound, I call

to you, Reserve yourself--as much as you can.

The arrival of a letter from you is always a feast to me, and all

my friends are invited to it. If possible, let me have a few

lines now and then as to the success of the rehearsals. I control

myself violently, and let no one see it, but to you I must

confess my sorrow is great not to hear my work under your

direction. But I have to bear so many things, and shall bear this

also. I think of myself as if I were dead. Whenever I have news

of you, I am filled with new desire to commence some large

artistic work; for literary work I have no longer any great

inclination. Upon the whole, I preach to deaf ears; only he whom

artistic experience has taught to find the right thing can

understand what I mean; so it is better that every one should

arrive by the aid of experience and do for himself what he can

do. But I still feel enthusiasm for the work of art itself; the

music of my Siegfried vibrates through all my nerves; it all

depends upon a favourable mood, and that you, dear friend, will

procure for me.

To Zigesar I shall write according to your wish. I have every

reason to feel friendly towards him, and do so in very deed. To

Genast I shall write tomorrow.

Another young friend of mine goes specially from Zurich to Weimar

for the two performances of my opera; I shall give him a few

lines of introduction to you. For the present I only ask you to

get him a good seat for the two performances; please do not

forget it. For a Herr Abt, from here, I asked the same favour

last time.

You forgot in your last letter to reply as to the book of words.

I wrote to you that I should like to see a proof; it would be too

late now, and therefore useless, to repeat that wish; therefore I

ask you to see that the proof is read as carefully as possible.

Perhaps Professor Wolff, whom I greet cordially a thousand times,

would be kind enough to correct a proof. This reminds me that I

have corrected a mistake in the manuscript of the libretto, but

not in the score. In the last words of Lohengrin's leave-taking

of Elsa it should be, instead of--

"mein zurnt der Gral wenn ich noch bleib," "mir zurnt," etc.,

etc.

You ask me also for a few metronomical indications of the tempo.

I consider this quite unnecessary, because I rely in all things

on your artistic sympathy so thoroughly as to know that you need

only be in a good humour with my work to find out the right thing

everywhere; for the right thing consists in this only: that the

effect corresponds with the intention. But, as you wish it, I

send you the following, in confirmation, no doubt, of your own

views:-

Instrumental Introduction.

[score excerpt]

(The triplets molto moderato.)

Act I., Scene 2, Elsa's Song (page 35).

[score excerpt]

Later on--e.g., in the finale--this theme of course grows

quicker.

[score excerpt]

(At the arrival of Lohengrin (A major) perhaps a little piu

moderato.) The slow movement in E flat 3-4 (ensemble) in the

finale of the first act you will, I presume, not take too slow,

but with solemn emotion. The last bar of the orchestral ritornel

must be played a good deal ritardando, so as to make the tempo of

this postlude even more majestic where the trumpets enter, by

which means also the violins will be enabled to bring out the

lively staccato figures strongly and clearly.