O dearest, dearest Friend!
Yes, yes! The King of Bavaria!! As if there were any omission of mine to be repaired there! Don't you think that if anybody could do something in that quarter, it would be myself; and do you fancy I've not done my uttermost? Please say no more about it!
Yet you surely must have seen, dear friend, that all that I have started now has merely been to save the honour of my undertaking and my own position toward it. Do you believe that I really entertain the hope of anything coming to pass? Learn to know Germany and the German public! There everything — all is lost! Believe me!
What we brought about last year was a miracle, and will remain so, as long as anyone remembers it. But beyond that we can go no longer: that we must recognise.
Performances this year have already become impossible, for inner and outer reasons; no amount of money would now accomplish anything; for the inner damage is the worse. The idea of a resumption could only be entertained if my programme of a Patronatverein etc. (but not on the mere basis of the former sweepstake-clubs) were strictly carried out and realised. The new would have to wear another look than the old; power and consciousness would have to be there.
Meanwhile I have to care for covering the deficit: I therefore think of giving concerts in England for a couple of months, solely for this purpose. If I come back whole, I hope that nobody will any longer ask me to think of anything but — recovering — and forgetting — myself!
Thus far have we got!
So, best friend, put His Majesty of Bavaria out of your head, and remain good to
Your
always friendlily devoted
Rich. Wagner.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 74