[...] This resigned mood of mine is inevitable in view of my clear perception of the nature of things. My young King is always trying to revive my courage. His will is enthusiastically set. He is saving money in all departments, abandoning building plans made by his father, etc., in order to have plenty to give effect to my artistic purposes. Assailed by his kindly importunacy, all I have to ask myself is where to get my artistic material? And here I am in doubt whether it is better to make everything dependent on those rare and exceptional talents who can only be induced to visit us at long intervals, or to aim at organising a more permanent and more amenable basis for my operas. This wonderful King, standing at my side with his extraordinarily resolute and inspired will for the ideal, like a "genius" incarnate, quite unfits me for forming a sober estimate of the possibilities.
The King has a great liking for you, and asks nothing better than to have you here permanently. As he is—at present—arranging for model performances of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin (in addition to Tristan), and these can hardly be brought within a three months' compass, I feel that the only way to serve his zeal is for us to reconsider the possibility of your cancelling your Dresden contract (so unfortunate for me) and settling permanently at Munich. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 589