[...] I tell you that in ten years I have grown accustomed to exile and that my amnesty is now less important to me than the guarantee of an existence free from care, comfortable and secure for the rest of my life. Do not be surprised. A return to Germany is of only relative value to me; the one positive gain would be to be able to see you and be with you more often. The prospective productions of my operas under my direction could not possibly compensate me for the exertion, trouble and annoyance. I have never got real pleasure out of the performance of any opera of mine and can expect even less in the future. My ideal demands are higher and my sensibility has become markedly more acute in the last ten years of total separation from present-day artistic public activity. [...]
You may believe me implicitly when I tell you that my one and only reason for living at this moment and for continuing to live, is the irresistible impulse to complete a number of works of art still quickening within me. I know with absolute certitude that this act of creation, of fulfilment, is the only thing that satisfies me and attaches me (often incomprehensibly) to life. I can, on the other hand, very well forgo all prospect of seeing my works produced. I know, therefore, that an amnesty before the completion of Tristan would only embarrass me. No prospect, not even that of producing Lohengrin, could persuade me to leave my present abode until my work is finished. Guess the rest then!
[...] What I require, on the contrary, is to be endowed with an honourable and ample pension, to the end that I may be able to create my works of art undisturbed and quite independent of external success.—
Totally without means or resources of any kind, I am forced to rely (legaliter) on the income derived from my operas. Anyone with real knowledge of the quality of my works, with feeling and esteem for their peculiar and distinctive nature, must see that, I being what I am and our theatre what it is, I ought never to be obliged to make merchandise of my works. [...] In justice I ought to be relieved of all necessity for counting definitely on these takings and placed in a position in which I can regard them as an accidental [...] surplus [...] In this way and through the relation thus achieved with our very dirty theatrical art industry, I should be protected by my contemporaries in a way worthy of me, of my efforts and distinctive talents, and suitably equipped with means for further creations. Nothing but an ample and settled pension can secure this to me and the only source of such a pension must be a concerted action on the part of those German princes in whom I have inspired interest.
For this purpose I have in view the Grand Dukes of Weimar and Baden in the first place; one of these would have to take the lead and the Duke of Coburg, the Prince of Prussia, and perhaps also the King of Hanover and the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt should be associated.
I should have to insist on some such combination for the particular reason that if it is to serve its purpose and my, admittedly, somewhat fastidious and not altogether ordinary needs, the pension must amount to two or three thousand thalers at least. I do not blush to name such a sum. I know by experience, being what I am and my work being on the scale I have set, that I cannot well do with less, while on the other hand I am well aware that artists such as Mendelssohn (despite the fact that he was a man of private means) have been accorded equally large honorary salaries—even by a single patron.
I ask you, then, definitely and finally—whether you will take the initiative in this matter? At the same time I must draw attention to the fact that after mature consideration, I must abide by the character of my demand. I could not accept even a specific appointment at Weimar, however much freedom it left me, and even if it were equal to yours, for the reason that the salary would not be sufficient for my purpose and since it could not radically help my situation, could only be a dangerous palliative. Once more—I want a thorough settlement of my pecuniary affairs, enough to provide amply for and determine my future artistic activities. I am nearly forty-six and am therefore speaking of a future of probably ten years at most. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 385