Dear Friend!
Enclosed you will find what I received today as an answer on the part of Meser. I am rejoiced, to some extent, that this affair which looked so bad to me has now taken on at least this aspect.
What the basis for Meser's behaviour was, you can see from the passage underlined in red (not by me — but presumably by Meser himself). However it may be, I can quite well understand, for that time, the claims of my creditors, because I asked them themselves to turn over some additional capital in order to conduct the business more successfully. Now, when the publishing has managed to yield something, so that it can establish its better administration out of its own resources, and therefore additional contributions on your part will no longer be required, perhaps the affair might be considered in another and a more simple way. For my part, I am therefore disposed to accede to Meser's proposal, i.e., to leave to him, as hitherto, the managing of the business and therefore to enter into a new contract with him: at the end of each business year, he would have to pay to you, Kriete, and Hiebendahl, or to those empowered by you all, the profits that accrue to me, in view of which you all, or those empowered by you, would naturally have quite the same right as I to examine Meser's reckoning of accounts; in fact, I would ask you all to take care of this in my name.
I believe that thus simply is achieved the goal which we had in mind at the time of the previous assignment made by me, and now perhaps still more easily since you yourselves have no further troubles with the conducting of the business, which henceforward I promise to watch over myself, from afar, as well as possible.
It may now be only a matter of finding the form of this agreement which seems most satisfactory to you all, and I strongly beg you to arrange this entirely to the satisfaction of yourselves. Perhaps it would simply continue according to the assignment already existing, in conformity to which you could come upon an arrangement agreeable to each of you.
In this regard I still remark that Hiebendahl, who presumably had lost his patience and had been deceived by false reports concerning my financial well-being, addressed to me, a short time ago, a bill of exchange of the amount of my indebtedness to him, which naturally I had to refuse, since I have disposed of all the receipts of any sort which still are at all forthcoming, so that a friend, to whom I have assigned them, pays me in return a certain small allowance, which just barely suffices to cover my living and to secure for me the desired peace of mind for work.
If a good dividend should arise from my business next Easter, I might then perhaps ask you all to remember Hiebendahl in particular at that time? For my part, I promise in return also to make over to him at the same time any extra fees coming to me by chance, whereof I shall give you all notice in such a way that you can know to what extent he may already be satisfied.
In Dresden and in Germany in general I have no other existing creditors, with the one exception of the cloth-merchant Henniger, whom I hope still to satisfy myself.
Be so good, then, as to share what is needful with friend Kriete and Herr Hiebendahl; then let me know what your resolution is, so that I can reply to Meser, and, in everything, be sure of my willingness to do everything that can seem of service towards the recovery of your loans to me.
Moreover, it will heartily please me also to receive news of you and your family some day. Only be assured that I shall never lose my most lively recollection of the friendliness, sincerity, and sacrificing character of your bearing towards me in Dresden: little of this sort has happened to me in life, and the few chance incidents are the only ones which let me forget the loneliness in which I am ever struggling through this dreary and, to me, heterogeneous restless world activity. — Unfortunately, my health has now been continually much affected: besides the thorns of my existence, the "rose" has also made its appearance anew, i.e., the Gesichtsrose [erysipelas of the face], which, through relapses, has now troubled me for about three months. At most, I regret being hindered in my work — the only thing which supports me: I still hoped to finish the Valkyrie this year, but I shall not have it ready before Easter.
So it goes — sadly and hesitantly! But give my best regards to Kriete and his dear wife: only do not let him take it amiss that I'm not writing him in particular, which would lead only to a purposeless accumulation of correspondence.
Adieu! Commence the new year more happily and more hopefully than your
Old friend
Rich. Wagner
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 9