You are mistaken, my dear Herr Schott, you are greatly mistaken as to the manner in which a man of my type is to be handled! Much may be extorted under pressure of hunger but not the higher kinds of work. Or do you believe that I shall be serene and full of bright ideas for my work by day when anxiety keeps me awake all night? The Mastersingers would have been all but complete by now if you had taken due care for me since I settled here for the purpose of finishing that work. You had done enough—that I never cease to acknowledge!—in enabling me to undertake a work of the kind—but you were under obligation thereafter to go farther and [...]—keep me in the mood to carry it through. Even had it cost you sacrifices, they were appropriate here, if anywhere, whereas parsimony or meticulousness were ruinous. Since the end of August—nearly two months ago now—you have simply left me in the situation of a drowning man. Ultimately you tell me you are ready to help a little, and yet you can find it in your heart to leave me to languish another whole long fortnight!—
Well, you, too, complain of lack of peace and quiet; perhaps I should give you the benefit of the doubt as to whether you contribute to your own peace by making mine an impossibility, but I can scarcely think it.
Well and good! You know what you are doing according to your own standard; I bear, and continue to bear, my obligation in mind, though I could wish, nevertheless, that I were able to pay my debt to you in ready-money instead of in manuscript—a thing which you, too, would prefer, perhaps? Whatever can be done shall be done, and if any good can come of torments, some good will, no doubt, fall even to my lot for—I am tormented!—
I felt that in the interest of the eternal laws of justice I ought not to spare you this effusion of a sleepless night. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 542