Dear Friend,
With the best will in the world, I was unable yesterday to send off the parcel with the two scores and one hundred copies of the Guide to the performance of Tannhäuser, because I had no money for the postage: thus do the shabby directors leave me in the lurch.
Fortunately, I have just received the fifty thalers from the Würzburg theatre-director, and so for the moment I am afloat again. You will have already seen what cunning means I have hit upon to compel the managers to pay — of the acceptance-permits (Zwangspässe) which I have given to them. You will probably have received two for inspection, from Würzburg and from Düsseldorf. I shall stick to this for the future, and heartily regret not to have invented this plan at the time when I first became acquainted with the Leipziger. Probably the permits did not come to you unprepared, and you no doubt had warm rolls to hand to appease the voracity of the theatres.
If only my head were in a better state! I have done for myself again with that cursed pamphlet, which I rushed through in order to get everything finished in hot haste. A sharp knife often cuts into the nerves of my brain; besides which I am weak and feverish in all my limbs. But if my head recovers, then I feel better at once. On it — on this laboratory of the imagination — everything depends.
The matter with Berlin will be arranged, for I go back to the tantième. Hülsen means quite honourably, and is thoroughly well disposed towards Tannhäuser. Under these circumstances I must withdraw my vote of want of confidence in him. By the tantième I shall, with luck, gain more than a thousand thalers. But more about this later on!
I cannot decently have any more copies of "On the Performance," etc., struck off: I should indeed be sorry for some persons of whom I had to make mention in it in terms of censure. But if you care to make an extract from it, and publish this with a notice of the subject, this would possibly do much good. You could quote a great deal: only certain matters of detail (the scene-painting, etc.), and those scolding comments, need come out. But you will understand what to do.
If Tannhäuser should, after all, be given in Dresden, hand over to Fischer three or four copies of the pamphlet, so that he may give them in my name to v. Lüttichau, whom I beg to direct "specially the conductor and the stage-manager" to pay careful attention to the communication. I would ask Fischer kindly to undertake this. If I only knew of a way altogether to put a stop to the Dresden performance!
In the case of future orders I will always let you know whether, and how many, copies of the Address you ought to send away with the score. For this very purpose I send you half the edition. The theatres up to the present I am supplying from here.
Now something of great importance!
Let X. know exactly the places which now have the score. I have stipulated with all the managers that the books of words are to be had of X. Now, if he does not bestir himself, they won't care a fig about asking for them. So he must write quickly to Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfort, Breslau, Prague, Düsseldorf, and Würzburg, and ask for orders. He must also commission a business friend there to keep a sharp look-out, so that no books of words are pirated. For Berlin, if (which you will learn) they give there the complete ending with the Pilgrims' chorus, there must be special copies of the text printed off, with a newly arranged last page, according to Härtels' edition. This page could be likewise stereotyped for any other theatres which may follow the example. How sorry I am that all this should be in the hands of such a glue-boiler!!
I must conclude. The packet is too heavy and expensive for the post, so I am sending it by goods-mail. For you and Fischer (Lüttichau) I therefore only enclose five examples with this letter.
I shall send the Guide from here to Prague, Breslau, Düsseldorf, and Würzburg. The other theatres are already provided for, so I think there is plenty of time for the transmission of the greater bulk.
Farewell! Forgive me the many commissions; but if you do not take a double share off my hands, there will be an end of me. Imagine it, this letter almost kills me!
Send news soon, and remain good to me!
Your
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 76