Highly honored Friend!
I still owe you my best thanks for the friendly letter which you wrote me from Prague! May you succeed in your very friendly endeavors to make me favorably known to the Viennese! Herr Pokorny has not given me any news; if the main obstacle to the production of my Rienzi in Vienna really lies in the censorship there, I would be unendingly grateful to you if you would exert your influence on Count Sedlnitzky in my favor. If a renewed request may be permitted, which might strengthen you in your friendly attitude toward me, then I shall not neglect to sue for your continued protection—if possible until the goal is attained.
Herr Löffler has written me that he would still like to examine the score of my Flying Dutchman; so I am now sending him this opera, instructing him to deliver it to you, my generous friend, as soon as he has sufficiently read it; please do with the score what you please.
Excuse me for bothering you with these lines, but I shall treasure the hope that they may revive a little your friendly recollection of me. God knows I need friends, and in you, with your continuous good intentions, I see a powerful one, hence my boldness. In the highest and most grateful devotion, I remain
Your
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 61