[...] Since you have kindly agreed to accept any contributions I might write for the Abendzeitung & since, in the present unmusical season, my only means of making ends meet is through belletristic endeavours whose interest remains valid for all seasons, I am sending you herewith a kind of literary novelette, or rather two interconnected short stories, which, if I am not mistaken, may perhaps be of some interest to readers of your newspaper, too. Moreover, you will discover from the second of these short stories the sort of fate which generally befalls poor musicians here in Paris; and if I may flatter myself with the prospect of a somewhat better fate than the one reserved for the hero of my novelette, it is because there are periods when I am obliged occasionally to look eastwards in search of a protecting hand. These periods most often occur during the summer months especially, when a vast lull overtakes the flood of sound that is produced by the Paris Ocean. I have discovered that it only makes things worse during these sultry periods to try to ignore the effects of such scorching calm on my hearth & home. I should have preferred it if I could have avoided mentioning that most contemptible of all questions - the question of money - in a relationship in which I am already so deeply indebted to you, my most honoured Sir; indeed, I had flattered myself that, whatever happened, I should be able to avoid all reference to it; - but a cruel trick that has been played on my present expectations unfortunately obliges me to cast my gaze eastwards once more, & - as fate would have it - it is upon you that my gaze has fallen! On the whole, my request is of the kind you presumably meet with every day; but it is none the less with a certain distaste that I trespass so roughly & clumsily upon our tender relations; yet I have no choice in the matter, if I am to entreat you to be so kind as to forward to me a moderate advance on the articles which I am enclosing herewith & on others still to be delivered. [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 36