My worthy friend and patron,
Please answer with a simple yes or no, and let me know whether it is in your power - (would to God that it depended merely upon your good will -) to increase by a further fifty francs the sum which, as you know, you have already lent me, this would then make the sum in question a round figure, or rather a square one. I need scarcely add how fully aware I am that this request of mine, as far as things stand at present regarding my debt, borders almost on impertinence; - but - necessity teaches us not only how to pray but also to show a certain degree of impertinence which you, perhaps more than anyone else, will know how to excuse. I should explain that, in order to pay this month’s rent etc., I visited the pawnbroker’s yesterday, and although I took with me everything we could possibly manage without, I was still unable to raise all the money I needed; since what we are talking about is no more than fifty francs net, I am once again (and this will be the last time) appealing to you for help. If you are able to enclose with your affirmative answer the actual nervus rerum, you will readily be able to imagine how welcome that would be to me.
Yours,
Richard W.
It was impossible for me yesterday to find the words to put this request to you in person.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 27