In any other situation than just that in which I am placed it might well seem more than odd for a man entirely unknown to you personally to approach you quite without forewarning upon a matter of no little importance. Less with a view to interesting you in me and more with the object of acquainting you with me in some degree, I introduce myself as one of the Wagners of Leipzig, a family with which I have reason to believe you have some acquaintance. I am a composer and a year ago gave up the career of director of music, which I had pursued for six years, finishing at Riga, in order to promote my very earnest desire to distinguish myself if possible as a composer in Paris. As I am entirely without means, I was soon forced to see that I had a huge undertaking before me, for although it is true that fame can only be won in Paris nowadays it is also indisputable that nowhere else are there greater obstacles to be met. These difficulties can only be overcome with time, and that is the crucial point for one who has not resources on which he can rely. I have now been a year in Paris. I soon recognised that I had endless difficulties to encounter and would certainly have left the place within the first few months had I not found a great friend and protector in Herr Meyerbeer, through whom I believed that I should attain my goal sooner than would otherwise be possible. Indeed, all my hopes of speedy success were based on my belief in Meyerbeer's steady support. Unluckily he has been obliged to spend almost the whole of this period, with very few intervals, abroad, a fact which has had a most crippling effect on my undertakings, since nothing but personal influence is any good in Paris in cases of this sort. Added to this, the Théâtre de la Renaissance, at which I had got an opera accepted by Meyerbeer's help, went bankrupt. During his last short stay in Paris, Herr Meyerbeer again helped my affairs forward, so that I now have a perfectly secure mutual agreement with the administration of the Grand Opera which this time I hope will, eventually, lead me to my goal. Lacking all support, it is only by a miracle that I have been able to hold on so long. I have now come to the end of my resources; even if I decided to relinquish all my hopes I could not now leave Paris. Only some special help can save me now.
In any other state of life I would be ashamed, as a married man, to have to beg for assistance—for assistance I must call it since I cannot at present conscientiously promise the speedy repayment of a debt. Still, I think I may consider my present situation as extraordinary, and it is in this conviction that I can ask, without a blush, for the help without which I and the goal of my life must now be lost. I can boast of several good and true friends, but most of them are not much better off than myself and none is in a position to give me effectual help. I hope you will attribute my applying thus to one who is at present an entire stranger to the exigencies of my situation. I am given to understand that you are in a better position than many others to advance a sum of money with only a doubtful eventuality for security. Many fine things told me of you lead me to believe you great-hearted enough to do so. I therefore unblushingly apply to you in particular to help a poor artist in the most important and decisive of his enterprises with the sum of fifteen hundred francs. I know well that this is no small sum even for a well-to-do man, but it is the least that I need to be able to pursue my way with any courage. Then I must pray be allowed to regard it only as a loan, the repayment of which would be the prior and most pressing call upon the first-fruits of my undertaking. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 48