Beloved,
The heart speaks and ordains: now more than ever it is a question of keeping our heads! -
When I learned from our friend of your latest tidings, I was overcome by such leaden heaviness that I was obliged to lie down for a brief morning sleep. I have now awoken much fortified by it, and feel my mind to be clear and lucid; and as this tells me my heart is right, I have no further doubts about writing to you today and sending you the necessary answer.
Your last letter to me, my precious and beautiful friend! had already refreshed me to the very depths of my soul. For thus do we love each other, and this is what love is! Everything else is politics, and of that God knows nothing. Loved by you, I can write only poetry and music: all other forms of contemplative thinking have to be forced out of me! One thing is certain: - we are alone! The miracle has happened: the fully developed artistic man is now understood only by a royal youth whose visionary enthusiasm has blossomed into life! - It is now a question of settling old scores with the world! - And that is what I am now doing. -
My Ludwig! my august friend! What your heart now tells you with such great certainty my own feelings long since told me was true, a truth that my reason was also obliged to concede. I admit that you are right, perfectly right: and so I shall not contradict you. Nor do I require time to think things over and repent, but steel myself to accept the fearful responsibility of not opposing your resolution. I say to you: Yes! there is a nobler fate than that of being King of Bavaria at present. If you wish to abdicate, there is a higher calling that could be yours than as King of Bavaria. But only if you yourself wish it so can I counsel you to carry through this resolution. That is why it is now my duty to show you clearly and distinctly the significance which your abdication would have to have if you wished to prepare the way for this higher existence. And so: there must be no contradicting your resolution, but only the most careful consideration of how to carry it through. It must not appear to express flight or retreat: it must express what the world needs to know. For in this way you can perform a more salutary act by resigning your office than would be possible if you continued in power. You must therefore proceed here with great presence of mind and self-assurance: if a delay is necessary, you must offer one last sacrifice, and offer it, moreover, to me. Look at me, and see the immense burden of responsibility that I must bear through agreeing to your resolution. My dear friend, I must begin by making this perfectly clear to you. -
Even though it shall never ultimately rule our innermost lives, what the world thinks of us is not something to be taken lightly: all our efforts must be aimed at coming to an understanding with the world; unneutralized public opinion can turn us into complete strangers upon this earth of ours, and make all further activity so difficult for us that it finally becomes totally impossible. - Public opinion will say: “Our promising young king, to whom we showed so much love, has been spirited away from us by this man Wagner! The man has ensnared him with his magic tricks so that he now rejects his own people, his country and his royal duties!” This will have to be borne, and - it will not be easy. But what affects me more than this accusation (which derives ultimately from ignorance of my true nature) is the complaint made by the real people, who have conceived a great, if as yet somewhat vague, trust in you, in contrast to other young popular princes - precisely because you were so different from the usual heirs to the throne, and because, half-consciously, they recognized in you an uncommon capacity for a quite exceptional kind of royalty. It is precisely your most independent action - my summons to Munich, and your loyal friendship for me - which has alienated you so much from the powers that now terrorize the town but which encourage the people - for all their vague presentiment of my own significance - to pin their particular hopes upon you and your character: when you apparently repudiated me, they were - I know - utterly appalled, not because of any affection for me but because they believed themselves deceived as to your own resoluteness. What this section of the people - which I shall call the youth of the Bavarian nation - must see going to waste if you abdicate, - this, most beloved of friends, must indeed weigh heavy on my heart. You have of course taken this into account? — But what weighs heaviest of all is - your own lot, and your own more distant future! - Oh heavens, my Ludwig! You are so young, and still so inexperienced in this world! With the exception of a handful of castles, almost all you know of your country is Munich: you think that this is Bavaria, and imagine the inhabitants of your Court in Munich to be your people! Forgive me my perhaps indelicate temerity, which may seem to you almost like a reproach. Ascribe it, however, to my deep concern and to the feelings of fearful responsibility which are tearing me apart. Will the world always appear to you as you imagine it at present? Of course not! As you mature into manhood, you will find the world a wider place and become conscious of your claims on it: never — of this much I am certain! - will the tension slacken in you that strives for an ideal, but your feelings as a man will also make you aware of your capacity for royal power: only then may you regret the power which now weighs upon you like some restrictive burden: perhaps you will then realize how you should have used this power now in pursuit of powerful ends; the longing to make up for past omissions will spur you on, and - you will then feel powerless to act! Kingship - believe me! - is a religion! A King must believe in himself, or else he is no King. But what if it were only now that you were to lack this faith, although it were none the less deeply rooted within you? What if you were only to become fully aware of it when you had already abandoned your right to that faith? If - you were one day to be overcome by remorse? - Tell me, my beloved! If I were ever to perceive a shadow lying over you, what misery would I then feel, knowing that I had not prevented your present resolution, indeed - that I myself had at bottom caused you to take it?
You must admit, my dearest friend, that I have good reason for countering your resolution with most fearful trepidation! And so you must also concede me the right at least of advising extreme caution, and - if it must be so - as an indispensable precondition of my consent (assuming that there can be any question of this) allow me to vindicate the supreme significance of this step.
In what could this significance now consist? - You want to consecrate your life to mine? Well then, allow me to inform you what my wishes and views are in respect of our working together in the future, now that I am clear in my own mind how I myself stand with regard to these points. First and foremost I must confess that I have finally lost all faith in my return to Munich. Of course I might still have to countenance my return and a tolerable existence there because of your supreme authority as King: but since this place has become so utterly repugnant to me, and since I have made a close study of all its worst characteristics and realized that, of all German cities, it stands in a class apart (in the saddest sense of the word), the only purpose which my return could have served would have been to facilitate the commerce with you that is so dear to me. But my commerce with you, more especially in Munich, would have been possible only with the most wearying of interruptions - this much is as plain as day, and it does not surprise me that you, too, now feel the impossibility of this for yourself. Accordingly, necessity had forged for me a pair of Wieland’s wings, and the following plan had suggested itself to me. The “Mastersingers” became my saviour in time of need. They point to “Nuremberg”, that is where they belong, and that is where they shall first be presented to the world. What a turn of fate! Nuremberg, the old, true seat of German art, German uniqueness and splendour, the powerful old free city, well-preserved like a precious jewel, reborn through the labours of its serenely happy, solid, enlightened and liberal populace under the patronage of the Bavarian throne. It is there, my beloved, that I wanted to invite you next year; there the townspeople would have welcomed you jubilantly, their numbers reinforced by friends of my art from the whole of Germany, deeming themselves profoundly honoured and fortunate indeed to welcome us within their walls: nothing was against us there; enthusiasm and love would have borne us along, for it was a question, at the same time, of restoring and elevating the dear, old town of Nuremberg. Our success cannot be judged too highly: there - and there alone, the eyes of all Germany would suddenly have been opened to the significance that lies behind our “model performances”, performances that would no longer be given as part and parcel of the scandalous repertory productions of our Residenz Theatre, but offered, pure and free of all dross, as a gift to the nation. There we could have asked the town what it would do to have our Conservatoire in its midst, and there it would have had to be established, to the greater glory of the whole of Germany, or all my creative efforts will have been in vain. I was certain that my beloved King would far prefer to be among the friendly people of Franconia than among the priest-ridden, dull-witted rabble of Munich: there, in nearby Bayreuth, he would have finally found his favourite residence, and - in time - he would no doubt have drawn the whole of his government to this heart of Germany, abandoning Munich to those to whom it already belongs on the strength of its name. -
Thus, dearest of men, did the idea germinate and grow within me, thus did it raise my failing spirits: the Mastersingers gave me new heart; at last, at last - I was once again able to work on this strangely favourite work of mine with feelings of pleasure and love.
At the same time this work was intended to mark your release. Yes! the Mastersingers - “in Nuremberg” - were meant to lure the King of Bavaria away from his “Monkish” Residence to the fresh Franconian air where he could again breathe freely — , to that same “Franconia” where my “Walther” knows he is at home, where he is “master in his own house” - and Hans “Sachs” - the Saxon - was intended to crown Walther in Nuremberg. - That was my quietly well-meaning plan. It would have ensured that Bavaria kept its King, a King on whom alone all the noblest elements among the people continue to place their hopes. But now you are losing your patience: my Walther wants to be off and away, so filled is he with despair. Should I say to myself, like Sachs: “Beware! it may not be!”? - I dare not do so, but instead I shall tell you my plan, cordially and as a friend. If you still feel the courage to carry it through as King - , oh! what great happiness it might yet bring! All that it would cost you is - to be patient until next spring. My life has been so unsettled for such a long time, but if I were to suffer no further kind of interruption or change of circumstances, I would certainly be finished by the end of this coming winter. I would then go to Nuremberg, where advance preparations could already have been made by then. And in the autumn I could then perhaps visit you in Hohenschwangau in order “to strengthen once again my wondrous power.” -
I am almost tempted to stop at this point, and end for today by asking, with the most loving entreaty, whether you can master your patience until next summer. - But I have no wish to conceal from you today that, quite apart from your relations with me, I attribute to your resolution a serious motive which, were you to emphasize it with the fullest consciousness and clarity of purpose, would certainly dissuade me forthwith from any desire to wish to see your decision in any way altered. I shall explain what I mean briefly and without reserve. The German Confederation has proved itself a pitiful affair: it cannot be a salutary feeling simply to be numbered among the princes of this Confederation as the equal of men who acknowledge only their dynastic interests, but not the great concerns of the German peoples; for years to come Prussian despotism will exploit Germany for its own ends: if you were openly to admit that the dignity of the King of Germany’s oldest state does not permit you to act in this way, you would be offering a powerful and most creditable excuse for your action. Nor can it be given to an inspired and nobly feeling heart to know that, as King of Bavaria, it was being used as the mindless tool of popish intriguers: but, almost without exception, this has been the oft acknowledged fate of the Bavarian royal house for the last three centuries. Munich is famous throughout the world as a breeding-ground for these shameless intrigues: outstanding individuals (among them Rumford, our country’s benefactor) have repeatedly been undermined and removed from office, in spite of their uncommon merits, thanks to the power of those formidable priests who stabbed Thiersch in the back when he submitted a plan to reform the schools, and who now heap shame upon me and my friends because they know that we are incapable of serving their ends. I now understand why King Max II was so long-suffering, and so difficult and diffident; only by dint of the most obstinate efforts and cautious circumspection, only by dint of appeasement and skill, was it possible for him to keep the power of these people in any kind of check. But Munich belongs to them, they harass and lead the mob, and everyone is afraid of them - everyone: no one dares say who they are, no names are ever mentioned; there is simply a timid shrugging of shoulders. Pfistermeister knows them; his minions serve them. No one can maintain himself in the face of them. I understand everything, and - a free, noble nature like that of my beloved friend - why, it has a different task in life than simply to squander its energies in this one direction, however sensible and anxious its concern. But these people control the whole of Bavaria’s state machinery: no one is appointed who is not beholden unto them. Only great and fundamental changes to the whole history of Germany can provide a remedy here: the individual squanders his energies in a useless struggle with an inaccessible yet omnipresent and sinister power. If you declare openly that you refuse to be called King if you cannot be so in reality, you will indicate a second reason for your resolution which will redound to the welfare of your country and to the fame of you yourself.
The third reason, my beloved, is one which you will not then need to name: the world will discover it for itself! While, politically, Germany may perhaps be settling down for a long period of hibernation under Prussian guardianship, we shall no doubt be calmly and quietly preparing the noble hearth at which the German sun shall one day be rekindled. Such is the great significance which your resolution and choice of purpose could have for the world. But, in order to avoid seeming petty, over-hasty or simply ill-humoured, I entreat you to show the clearest possible presence of mind and circumspection. There is a great deal that must be considered, arranged in advance and marked out in preparation, before you surprise your entourage by telling them of your decision. My only purpose in writing today was to induce you to do this now! You know me fully by now. I wish you could remain patient for a whole year: if you cannot, I shall of course understand; but if I am to be allowed to remain your loyal and constant companion, you must stand there in supreme splendour both during and after your abdication: if you wished to sacrifice yourself for my sake alone, it is I myself whom you would be sacrificing; for I should have to fade from your sight completely, were I ever to fear that you had been given grounds for regretting your decision! -
Now, dearest of men! Enough for today! I am utterly exhausted, and could not write another page! - How strangely glorious you are, my soul’s guardian angel! Yes, I love you! - Do not doubt in me! Let me have an early reply to my letter! Sincere good wishes to your dear Friedrich: if only he could spend a single day with us now! -
Truly and eternally yours,
Richard Wagner
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 352