My excellent Friend!
The strong excitements and emotional agitation of the past year and the consequences of rheumatic sufferings, to which I am exposed in the winter, for some time put me in a state of utmost exhaustion of the nerves, making me unable to work and imposing absolute rest as a duty upon me. In that state I received your last letter. You may judge its indescribably refreshing effect upon me when I simply tell you that in spite of my indisposition I couldn't hold out in Zürich any longer but hastily set out forthwith for Paris a week ago, even without waiting for word from Belloni. At the moment when you wrote to me you must have felt healthy and well, in order to convey to a friend such a refreshing and amiably encouraging inspiration. Judge once more its influence on me, the poor feeble devil whom you gave such a quick lift forward! A thousand thanks!
Certainly the journey inflicted a new exhaustion on me: Paris itself is not exactly the place for rest, and on top of this it was very hard to find a lodging as peaceable as possible, and so I feel worn out after all the running around, etc.; but I hope gradually to recover, now that everything is well settled: the first fruit of my hopes is this letter to you. I expected to find Belloni back here already, on account of a letter of December in which he makes known his intended return to Paris by the 15th of January. As I have now found out, at this time he went to Weimar—luckily, however, I can put up with his temporary absence more easily now, because before tackling our business I have to finish a little work which I hadn't been able to complete before. The somewhat detailed plan of the opera plot which G. Vaez is to work out for me is in my possession, but first I have to get it translated into French; by the time Belloni has returned I believe the work will be ready. The subject of the poem is Wieland the Smith. Remember me cordially to our dear friend Wolff and get from him the German hero's tale of the same name—worked over as an epic by Simrock. By reading this you certainly won't get the right notion of my dramatization of that subject, but all the same you will learn the general character of the topic. Wieland, the free artist, magic blacksmith with cut foot tendons, invents and forges wings for himself on which he flies away from his misery. The exact nature of my intentions I shall meanwhile outline as follows: There is nothing I can promise and nothing that stands within my power but to write texts and compose music. Since I know that this doesn't suffice for a success in Paris, I would drop my aspirations for such, unless someone should be there who would achieve for me what I can't do myself. Thanks to your thoughtful care I found that someone through you in Belloni. We two will form a team and steer together toward a success from which I shall gladly allot to him any share he wishes. This, quite simply, is how the matter stands, and I believe you will say "Yes" to it.
I never would stay in Paris any longer than is absolutely necessary for my purposes; so I made my residence in Zürich. The delights of my stay there and some excellent friends I made induced me to do this. I left my wife there with her sister, dog, and parrot in our little household. As soon as everything has advanced so far that I can compose the opera sketch, I shall do it in the fresh Alpine air.
. . .
Now I have to report to you about a beautiful occurrence which has recently delighted me: In Dresden, at the time of the performance of my operas, there lived a young Englishwoman, who is now married to a merchant in Bordeaux. I hardly knew her at that time. Recently I was notified by a third person in a delicate fashion that Frau Laussot in Bordeaux is setting aside for me a not inconsiderable sum of money, which is to be delivered to me in five months and serves the purpose of securing me against any contingencies, against any hazards, provided I am content with a modest way of life.
You know, dear Liszt, I have a few friends only; you also know, on the other hand, that each of those few friends is devoted and energetic. Recognize this lady as your sister and as your own kind.
From a friendly Dresden family I have also received so much money that I can take care of my house and provide my wife with necessities until the time when I may expect sizable sums from Bordeaux.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 84