Dearest Minna,
This letter was to have been written yesterday, and — as I calculated — to arrive at Weimar on your birthday. I received your last letter from Soden early the day before yesterday just as young Prince Lichtenstein was already waiting for me in his carriage at the door; I had only time to read it quickly through, and then — as previously arranged — to accompany the prince across country to Count Nako's, where my visit had been announced. They wouldn't let me leave that evening, especially as it was too late to catch a train. After sleeping the night there, I drove straight to Ander's at Mödling, where I had given Winterberger rendezvous; I had a regular torment coaching my tenor in his new part, got back to Vienna very tired that evening, and thus at any rate had missed the proper day for the congratulatory letter. So I mean to make shift with a telegram to-morrow morning, and at least prepare you for this letter's following it. — Front rank for that, to explain the confusion. —
Your letter itself, which I have now read through again, has tranquillised me in rather a singular fashion. I perceive that I am really the impatient one, and have been more eager for that settlement which was to assist you to rest, than appears to you to be of need. Well, I too am more against excessive hurry than before, and if you don't find this nomading uncomfortable, but on the contrary it yields you distraction and suits your taste for the moment — as seems in fact to be the case with your journey to Weimar — then I may be truly satisfied at present, since it greatly facilitates a sound decision for the future, as I should really like to leave it tranquilly to Fate for once to deal me out good chances; and who knows if something fortunate in this respect may not turn up unhoped for? Nevertheless, to arrive at certainty for good and all on what I intimated to you, I have already written to the Grand Duke of Baden. Myself I am very pleased with my letter; without importuning, it is very distinct, and in particular explains to the Grand Duke why I cannot settle in his country — for the present at least — if he is unable to ensure me a pension as basis of my subsistence. Thereon he will soon determine whether he can make that charge on his revenue; for I believe I have no need to doubt his will to. Consequently — we'll wait in patience for his answer. And so I'm almost glad you turned your footsteps somewhere else at present. True, I don't quite understand what you expect in Weimar, of all places; but you're right, that's your affair, not mine. At any rate I'm happy to think the Wartburg must have pleased you; the whole neighbourhood of Eisenach much attracted myself again the other day. — I presume you'll have looked Frau Röckel up at once; so I shall send my Weimar telegram to her address to-morrow. Give my kindest regards to the poor care-worn woman; she knows it was impossible for me to pay her another call at the finish. I have spoken to Laube here about her daughter Lulu: he says he recently had information from someone who had seen her in a role, and that information turned out sufficiently unflattering to make him dispense with Lulu, especially as another young girl had been engaged already. I told a little fib in rejoinder, and though I haven't seen the girl act, I pretended she had declaimed me a poem — which she really rendered at an earlier festival of Liszt's — and thereby given me a favourable opinion of her talent: I thought I might allow myself this fib, as Liszt had assured me she recited that poem quite exceptionally finely and feelingly. That seemed to shake Laube a little. I hope to be able to return to the charge another day, and heartily wish to be of some use to the girl and family. —
Please don't forget to pay a call on Regierungsrath Franz Müller (who visited us at Zurich, you know, with his wife). He's fabulously attached to me, and both of them will certainly do all they can to make your Weimar stay agreeable. Give my very kind regards to these little people too, and thank him again in my name for the delicate, if distressing consideration he shewed me in holding rigorously aloof at last, no doubt because he saw I needed rest. Greet Musikdirektor Lassen also for me; he is a very excellent, refined, and cultivated man. —
Your expecting to make your money last till mid-October much affects me: all the same, please count on a remittance from me even sooner. —
As for me, you may also set your mind at rest about the hair-combing: really I attend to that myself at present, since the barbers here aren't friseurs also, as in Paris, where one can't get shaved without having one's head dressed for the same money. I am delighted to see you are in humour enough to adorn your letters to me with such admonitions. For the rest, I am really much troubled by my stay in Vienna turning out far more expensive at present than I had presumed; and what is chiefly to blame for this, is the highly inconvenient circumstance that my singers are scattered all over the country, causing me a wicked outlay on conveyances etc. Neither have I any regular meals, and for the moment at least I'm saving nothing but the cost of lodgings: if I could accept invitations to the country, it would be another matter. Still, I hope for some relief with the approach of autumn, especially when everybody is in town again. — My host, Dr. Standthartner, has gone to join his family at Salzburg; I'm quite alone in his abode now. Tausig and Cornelius haven't come back to Vienna yet, so I'm happily protected for the present from the injurious influence of too youthful company on my views of life and general morals; tho' I hope to expose my weak mind as little as possible to such contamination even later. —
Ander is gradually improving; he expects to make his reappearance the middle of this month; meanwhile I have begun coaching him, and thereby gained a little peace of mind myself. He is very devoted to me, and I haven't the smallest ground to doubt his zeal; added to which, he's a really fine fellow. Certainly, he was so improvident as to transfer the half of his salary for a number of years to save a brother in military service from being cashiered on account of an embezzlement of 20,000 gulden; he has also been having a sister educated as a singer at great expense, and given shelter to his father, — which has saddled him with a fairly heavy establishment; and the worst of it is, that during 5 whole quarters, having lost his voice through a sham cure, he had to forfeit one half of his salary because he couldn't sing, whilst the other half was ceded to his brother's creditors. All this, as I perceive from your communications, has given him the appearance of a reprobate in people's eyes! I am glad to take such a crying example, to disclose to you once more the sorriness of popular judgments on men, and hope it will make you more chary in future of echoing the like vulgarities.
The Dustmann goes on diligently studying her part, and already is almost quite at home in it; so that she is most brilliantly refuting per fact the kind verdict that my new opera can't be learnt. I'm spending almost the whole of my time now between Mödling (Ander) and Hitzingen (Dustmann). The other preparations have also been made as far as possible, and the middle of this month I hope to be able to begin the regular and serious practice. Therefore I deem the production quite possible the commencement of November. —
At the magnificent, extremely tasteful and wonderfully situated country-seat of the Counts Nako (to whom I had been commended before by the Metternich) I entertained myself agreeably; these people were among the first in the higher aristocracy to declare themselves enthusiastically for Lohengrin. I have taken a great fancy to a young, highly-cultured Prince Lichtenstein. At Metternich's also I have met a very respectable company in my favour. They all believe and hope in me, and I think I may tell myself I'm preparing my new work under very good auspices. — Now let us see if my good Baden Grand Duke can make his mind up also, and don't let our courage sink!
May the above console you in some measure, and also give you hope! And so heartily accept my congratulations upon your birthday. I am enclosing a pair of photographs into which I've been betrayed here, that you may plainly remember your good Husband who, after many storms, still holds his head erect, you see!
Farewell, and be most fervently embraced by
Thy R.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 213