O you wicked Minna!
How can you declare that I never mention your letters? Please look mine through, and you'll find that almost every time I thank you for the letter last received. So it shall be this time also, and I will give you the good advice besides to clear out of the house next time you have upholsterers in it, that you may not hear the knocking. — To abide by your news to commence with, I am glad you've had some rain at last; when I return, there'll probably be rain and cold enough, just as I continually enjoy them here. At Sainton's yesterday we had the fire lit to dine by, and I had gone out in my wadded coat. Doubtless I shall have the same thing again on the Seelisberg; I know its ways. That foreboding, however, shan't hold me back.
Yesterday I had my pass visé by the Swiss and French consuls for the journey home (which cost another half a sovereign!). These gentry live behind the Bank and at London-Bridge: to get there, I drove; back to my lodgings I walked, which took me exactly two hours at a fairly sharp pace. That teaches one what Time is made for! And charming rain all the time. It's magnificent!
But there: a week from to-day I depart at 8 P.M. I have the last concert the evening before, and shall therefore approach my night-journey as tired as a dog. The more need of my having a good night's sleep in Paris, which I hope to do from Wednesday to Thursday; to that end I shall get a first-rate bed engaged for me by Kietz. From Thursday to Friday I shall already have less chance of sleep, as I must leave for the station very early in the morning; then the night from Friday to Saturday I shall pass on the Basle mail-coach again, arrive very shaky at Baden at 5 in the morning, wash and rinse my mouth there, to reach my spouse a bit presentably at Zurich 6 o'clock. I think it will be enough for you to do, to get to the station by 6, when we shall have the whole day before us for a gossip. If you wanted to meet me at Baden, you would have to go there the evening before, sleep there till 4, and so on — which perhaps would be too much for you. So receive me on the spot where you left me four months before; that has the best sense, has it not? — Certainly I don't require an evening-party; it would be different if Boom etc. were just to look in. —
So I am back in Zurich already, you see, whence no devil shall lure me so soon again! Consequently I'll tell you at once, as to Lobmann, that the good man has dropped down on me most inconveniently; in my conviction he is quite a mediocre musician, and also violinist. I cannot keep compromising myself by friendly recommendation of mediocre people; it is a hard thing to ask of me, who am otherwise so strict in my demands, and have so entirely withdrawn from all that sort of company. And to Spohr, of all men, with whom I stand in all but no connection! And what could Liszt do for him? The whole thing is so vague and void of prospect, that I'm only too sorry if Lobmann came away from Riga on this account. It really is very painful to me, and I cannot decide so at random to give him a recommendation from here; we will go into the thing again at Zurich. What a misfortune that every one insists on taking me for something altogether different from what I am! — Well, my time is running to its end here, and the Devil may care for the rest of it! Yet it amuses me to look on at my (so highly disputed) successes here. There exists here, you know, a New Philharmonic Society (which got Lindpaintner over from Stuttgart last year, and had my Tannhäuser overture conducted by him), and it would gladly have me for conductor next year. Its present conductor (Dr. Wylde, an execrable musician, but good fellow) puts it to me that I should have a much larger and less starchy audience there, besides all conceivable means, and in particular, as many rehearsals as I chose. Of course I've given him an answer in the negative. Yet he will not be denied the repeating of my Tannhäuser overture at their last concert (beginning of July) — when Berlioz conducts and gives things of his own; he wants me to instruct either him or Berlioz in the tempi most minutely, that I may be sure of its going according to my wish. Perhaps I may consent: for, once I'm out of London, they can do what they like behind my back; moreover, it would really be another good revenge. —
Fischer also wrote me a few days since, asking if I couldn't give him a little information about my position here, which he might communicate to the editor of the Sächsische Constitutionelle Zeitung in order to refute false rumours. I since have done so, and told him in particular about my interview with the Queen: that will make a deal of stir in Saxony. You mustn't let the heap of detractions and lies in the journals disturb you: in the first place, it is only scamps who write there, to pick up money; no respectable person ever writes to a newspaper until some lie becomes too shameless and needs disproof. Praeger has now seen to that for several German papers: a New York music-sheet, in which he also writes, has already begun a regular campaign against the critics here, and shewn up their mendacity; since Davison has been so stupid as to take furious notice of it in his journal, this American paper has suddenly become widely read in London, and a long war has accordingly commenced, the end whereof is not in sight yet. To myself that end is immaterial, for nobody will lure me here again, and some day no doubt I shall find an occasion for letting these people know why. For the present, however, I stick to it: — it would have been better if I had declined the invitation hither, as even in the most favourable event I have — nothing to seek here. I have other things to do, than conducting symphonies and concert-arias for asses. Full stop to that!
— So farewell, dear old Minna! Probably you will get 2 more letters from here; then one from Paris, and finally in supreme person
Thy magnificent husband R. W.
The evening before last Praeger gave me some pills to assist me; but I couldn't lay hand on the confounded little box, and have been unable to take any of them yet. I've found it again to-day, though; so it shall do the job!
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 1 (H. Grevel & Co., 1909), No. 101