Much esteemed Friend!
I regret that you did not acquaint me with the delay in the distribution of my circular to the patrons, in which case I could then have informed you how the appeal it contained could have been most effectively disseminated, without being accompanied by the report of the Executive Committee.
I beg of you to retrieve this delay as quickly as possible by sending out the appeal in the form of a letter to my patrons.
As I look at the matter, this step is the only one which it remains for me to take in order to proclaim the true state of affairs; in my earlier letter, of which only the last clause seems to have made any impression upon you, I informed you that all my previous efforts had remained without any results.
In this letter I also assured you of my willingness to take any step suggested by you or other friends in securing the necessary assistance; to proceed, however, to announce a repetition of the Festival after such serious delay was a step which I did not feel myself justified in taking.
In considering the latter hypothesis I did not overlook the fact that, if no help came from the outside towards covering the deficit, the remaining debts would become so urgent that the settlement of them would have to be considered from the ordinary standpoint of civic law.
I had nothing more or less in mind concerning the prospective bankruptcy process than the payment of these debts by the sale of the property.
In doing this, it did not occur to me to keep the carpenters and paperers of Bayreuth out of their money, and if I used the word “bankrupt” in this connection, it was only to characterise unreservedly my position, as I do not hesitate to declare myself and my artistic undertaking as completely bankrupt.
On the contrary, I should like to see my residence in Bayreuth, as well as my private income,—in regard to which you are able to give the most accurate information,—appropriated to the liquidation of the debts, and I beg of you not to entertain the slightest doubt on this point.
I thought I had intimated this to you when I announced my intention, under extreme circumstances, of relinquishing my artistic career and devoting myself only to the interests of my family, who must be regarded as heavy sufferers.
With the most respectful greetings.
Your ever grateful
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 97