[...] That you, too, can find it in your heart to take no further account of me and of my situation and to speak to me of the matter merely in the way my other friends do, is a great grief to me. No one can devise means of help; even my applications to our patrons are to be dispatched "with caution," because times are so bad, and yet a repetition of the performances is to be announced as soon as possible! It is incredible! You actually ask me about the Festival medal, which I naturally countermanded at once when I was told of the constantly mounting deficit. What people expect of me!—Well, I can tell you now quite definitely that I shall spend the whole of the coming summer in restoring my health, if possible. On account of my increasing abdominal troubles, I think I shall go in for a prolonged water-cure in Marienbad and elsewhere. Should I find my health re-established, we will see what are the prospects for the year after next. If the deficit has not been covered in the meantime—and that without further efforts on my own part—I am considering handing over the whole theatre to some manager or other, perhaps to the Munich Court Theatre, and I personally shall never trouble myself about it again.
This, my dear friend, is where my powers give out. What I have accomplished so far was in the nature of a question to the German public, "Do you want this?" Now I take it that people do not want it and that ends it for me.
Please let this explanation of the situation suffice henceforward and, if you think good, enlighten my other friends about me just as summarily—since they seem incapable of understanding me.
I am attempting to cheer myself through one of my absolutely sleepless nights by stating my mind accurately and definitely to a true and sympathetic friend, such as I have always known you to be.
Remain my friend! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 696