Gentlemen,
Please believe that it is with great reluctance that I urgently appeal to you to abstain from the ovation planned for me. The enjoyment of such an unusual honor would far exceed the measure of all that I may permit my heart to feel, however hungry it might be for recognition. I made my brief visit to Vienna with no other purpose than to witness the performance of my opera Lohengrin, which I had not yet heard. I have not only gained the inspiring satisfaction of having attended a profoundly beautiful presentation of this work, but in a really overwhelming way I have also become aware of the most thoroughgoing cultivation of my art which had aroused the deep and splendid sympathy of the public. It was on that evening that I enjoyed what an artist may expect to enjoy no more than once in his life, and what becomes all the more significant and exalting when he in his humility does not dare to confess it to himself. I beg you now to spare me the temptation of indulging too intensely this feeling which, like a divine apparition, should delight us only in a sacred, eternally short hour. It is indescribably beautiful to keep inviolate the delicate veil that hides this feeling from one's own consciousness. This time, let me depart from Vienna quietly and deeply entranced. While I express my deeply felt gratitude to you all who have raised the artist so high by your love, I also press the hands of all of you who were certainly not far from me during that unforgettable evening.
Should I return to spend a longer time within the hospitable walls of Vienna for the performance of some artistic tasks, I shall also be glad to take part in your own artistic achievements, by sharing which it would be my grateful privilege to be one of you. So I may hope that my wish expressed in these lines, far from injuring in any way your valuable friendship for me, will only establish it most cordially. Only in this sense could you understand me completely. In greatest esteem and gratitude, with all my heart
Your most devoted
R. W.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 239