Wagner's Letters

Richard Wagner to Ludwig II of Bavaria

Undated · Munich

Overview

In a jubilant note written on the eve of The Mastersingers premiere, Wagner rejoices that Ludwig II has understood the melancholy cry of fettered poetry beneath the work's popular humour, and proposes that, hand in hand like Walther and Sachs, they continue to tell their century what they have to say.

Letter

All hail to one who is loyal and fondly gracious!

I knew it: he understands me!! Impossible for him not to have seen through the strange outer shell of popular humour and felt, in all its clarity, profound and wistful melancholy, that lamentation and cry for help of fettered poesy reborn on earth in human form, the irresistible force of its magic power as it vanquishes all that is vulgar! — So it was! My beloved’s glorious words proclaim it so! And so: God speed! Hand in hand like Walther and Sachs, let us go on telling our century all that we have to say to it!

Eternally and uniquely yours,
Richard Wagner

20 June: a.m. (Amidst the torment of countless visitors!)

Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 367

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