My dear friend,
Your silence surprises me: but I hope you will be able to dispel this feeling. -
But for today - in passing - a request!
From the family letters from times long past that were sent to me as a Christmas present, I see that there is a chronological error in my biography. I hope that the first sheet has not yet been struck off definitively, in which case I would ask you to correct the chronological details on the following pages (in addition to a number of remaining type-setting errors which you will easily spot if you would be so kind as to read through the sheet once again).
pag. 5. (1820)
- 6. (1821)
- 8. (1822)
- 9. (1822)
- 12. (1822-1823.)
Do not be angry with me for this! —
As the one who was left behind, I had intended not to contact you until such time as you - the one who had gone away - had shown some sign of life. But since the chronology of events has decreed otherwise, I shall report - quite superfluously - that everyone at Tribschen has taken to his or her bed. Coughs, colds, catarrh - or however it is spelt - have left us all prostrate. I have now taken up the Norns again. The King has again shown signs of life - in his usual wild fashion; - it is possible that I shall perform Rhinegold and Valkyrie in Munich this year: but that everything will be done as I want it is not likely. So much for that.
My Academic appointment has arrived from Berlin: I have told Jacob to admit only those who enquire after the “foreign member in ordinary R.W.”. This is my latest title.
But not another word from me, since you are beginning to worry me.
Yours,
R.W.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 390