Oh, Kietz!
Wednesday the 27th, at ten o'clock in the morning, I arrive in Paris where I intend (or hope) to sleep for two nights. So I should like a very good bed. Would you be so kind as to get a small room for me for that time in the Hôtel des Italiens (where I stayed two years ago)? You may spend up to 6 francs a night. If they have no more vacancies there, get me something else and leave the message with the doorman of that hotel: I'll ask for it.
So we'll see each other for a few days, and I shall use them most diligently to enlighten you about the "democratic principles" which force me to the bad "consequences" so rightly annoying to you. In the meantime, it will be enough to tell you that the captivating principles did not prevent me from conducting our 7th concert before Queen Victoria and complying with her request for a conversation with me after the Tannhäuser Overture—a conversation which was so long and friendly that it aroused great envy. Of course, I did not fail to tell her at once about your portraits, whereupon she explained to me that—for the sake of economy—she herself had learned to paint and that she takes care of her portrait needs herself—which I was very sorry to hear.
Give Lindemann my best regards and tell him that I hope to spend a couple of very cheerful evenings in your company. Come over and visit me on Wednesday soon after my arrival.
Adieu, Oh, Kietz!
Your
R. W.
London, June 21, 1855
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 155