Exalted and glorious friend and lord that has been won back for renewed veneration,
Perhaps in these few fleeting lines, that are all I can wrest from my present weariness, I may yet succeed in rediscovering that frame of mind which I lost completely in your hurried departure. When I stood on the steps and took leave of my lord and friend who has always made me uniquely happy, I fell prey to a violent fever which constrained me to entrust myself to the tender cares of a number of friends. I still feel a sense of great weariness that overwhelmed me that very same moment when first I was forced to become clearly conscious that my most dearly beloved of friends had departed. Not until yesterday could I concern myself with certain improvements (in a technical sense) to our performances, and give way to the insistent demands of the whole of my company who were resolved to repair to the railway station and receive their Emperor there, whose visit had been so loudly proclaimed, for they were disposed to regard it as an insult if I were not to be seen at their head. In a few friendly words, the Emperor told me that he had come to the inauguration of my stage festival because he saw it as a matter of “national” importance. Of course he meant well, but his words struck me as somewhat ironical: what has the “nation” to do with my work and its realization? I then repaired to my theatre in order to try out the head of my dragon, which had finally arrived from London. Whatever else may have happened has not yet reached my notice. Only one thing about which I had eagerly enquired did I succeed in discovering, namely that Your Majesty would certainly be able to attend the third performance without suffering any kind of annoyance. Even the ruling princes among our Patrons have been brought here ultimately only out of curiosity: but their curiosity will be completely satisfied by the first two cycles, and for the third (and even almost for the second) you will certainly find no further claims will be made from that quarter. And so, in my present completely stupefied state and mood, I have but a single hope, which is that I may see you again here, my godlike friend and co-creator, to witness our work! Everything shall then be better and more beautiful! -
Am I allowed to hope???
A thousand sincere good wishes from your poor and, at present, so sorely tormented and exanimate friend, who may sign himself
Eternally yours to command:
Richard Wagner
All that you wish for shall soon be laid at your feet!
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 441