[...] For the last six months your husband has repeatedly encouraged me in the belief that he was by no means unwilling to assist me by further advances (of course against the theatre profits on my new opera), so that, despite my otherwise extremely difficult circumstances, I might at any rate be able to devote myself to the completion of my work undistracted and unhindered by anxieties; he was, however, obliged to ask me to wait for a suitable moment when he would be able to advance the money to me without embarrassing himself. [...] To fill my cup of troubles to overflowing, a hurt finger has rendered me quite incapable of writing for a considerable time. In the circumstances it was doubly important to me to employ my now recovered Muse most diligently, and I made every provision to enable me to work from now on uninterruptedly upon my new opera, which I have planned to finish by Easter next year at latest. At the very basis of all these necessary provisions, however, lay the supposition that Herr Schott was at last in a position to put at my disposal the sum of three thousand gulden, long since named by him, as an advance against the first profits from the theatrical production of The Mastersingers. [...]
I have [...] left no method untried to get on without his help. Everyone, however, would realise—and rightly—how impracticable this must be if the head of the greatest music business in Europe, if Franz Schott himself, who is bound to take the closest interest in the success of my works, has not the will to help me—for any statement that Herr Schott has not the means to do so would be received with incredulous smiles. It cannot be that the prospect of standing out of a part of his current receipts would prevent Herr Schott from assigning a few thousand gulden to an author in whose work he is interested. [...]
You may judge how seriously I regard my responsibilities to Herr Schott when I tell you that some while ago the suggestion was made that I should publish songs of my own composition, and I had the chance of making a very respectable sum by placing such a volume in the hands of a publisher. This sum, which was easily within my grasp, would have been extraordinarily helpful to me now. But it never crossed my mind to ask Herr Schott for permission to hand over this volume to another publisher for ready-money. On the contrary, I was ready to place every bit of my work in existence at his disposal to encourage him to believe that, even though I cause him some difficulties at present, he will assuredly not lack his reward.
How badly off I am now! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 538