My dear Anton,
I have kept meaning to inform you of my change of plan with regard to my visit to you. It is kind of you, but shaming for me, that you have now anticipated me in this. Various new sets of circumstances have arisen, and persuaded us to postpone our peace mission until next spring. Since I am beginning to become less mobile, I should prefer to combine this trip with the various things or, rather, with all the things that relate to my decision to order my affairs once and for all. In order to do so, I must obtain one last insight into certain possibilities necessary to achieving my artistic goals, concerning which my experience leaves me very doubtfully disposed. My ultimate removal to Germany is also bound to depend upon the success of my efforts in this ideal sense.
Whether I finally settle in the place that can also provide me with a suitable and entirely neutral site for my artistic purposes, or whether, by entirely forgoing these higher objectives, I seek only a domestic hearth for my family (in which case I should definitely choose Dresden) - all this is still to be decided. And in order to see it all in a friendly light, we have just set aside the first fine weeks of next spring for our excursion. -
This by way of a brief indication, and at the same time an inducement to your dear wife to put the leg of mutton in the oven even without us. Your house, after all, is crowded enough already for you to have no difficulty consuming all your provisions. Your brother’s fate once more reminds me of the atrocities of the French who, for their part, are complaining that the Germans have been forcing upon them a war between races - but no nation ever thinks of this kind of brutality at the outbreak of war. One needs to study the attitude of “Europe” in order to understand the kind of world in which we live. I admit that, if I did not see Moltke and the German army before me, I would see absolutely nothing to inspire me with any hope. For ex., I need only think of a performance of one of my works in Dresden (with Herr Rietz in charge) for me to lose all heart. And - how deeply and intimately all this is bound up together! It is precisely this that has dawned on me, and which makes me so sad, whenever I contemplate the world. -
And yet - I need only look at a friend like you (pleonastically speaking, since you are the only one of your kind!) - and that is enough to cheer me up again, and - much is forgotten! (To forget - ! the ultimate happiness!) But then memory is also a source of joy: and that is something we shall take good care to revive. Only a few more months before we see each other again, my dear old Anton! A thousand good wishes from us to you all.
Yours,
R.W.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 397