Imagine that for a week and a half I have not been able to move from my chair.  This illness was just what was required to finish me up.  I had just resumed my work a little, after a gastric and nervous indisposition, when I was obliged to give in again.  However, I am getting better, and hope to be able to walk and work again next week.

Farewell, and be pressed to my heart a thousand times.

Your

R. W.

278.

Dearest Richard,

Hartel has sent me a divine Christmas present.  All the children in the world cannot be so delighted with their trees and the golden apples and splendid gifts suspended thereon as I, in my own person, am with your unique “Tristan.”  Away with all the cares and tribulations of every-day existence!  Here one can weep and glow again.  What blissful charm, what undivined wealth of beauty in this fiery love-potion!  What must you have felt while you created and formed this wondrous work?  What can I tell you about it beyond saying that I feel with you in my heart of hearts!

However, in my capacity of practical friend, I must speak to you of commonplace things.  Your negative answer to D., much as it grieved me in many respects, came at the right moment.  I proposed, as you know, “Rienzi” for performance eighteen months ago, and your small opinion of my small influence on our affairs is, unfortunately, too correct.  Without troubling you with the details of local matters, I only tell you that I quite approve of your conduct, reserving to myself, however, the right of asking for your “Rienzi” if a favourable moment for the performance of this opera, long desired by me, should arrive.  In the first instance, the “Prophet” and Auber’s “Bal Masque” are to be given, and I, for my part, have declared that I shall not enter the orchestra for some time to come.  By next spring I hope your personal affairs will have taken a more favourable turn, to which I may, perhaps, be able to contribute something.  When “Tristan” is completed, and you have sent the dedication copy to the Grand Duchess of Baden, you must write to me at length as to what remains to be done.

With K. R., who delighted me with a visit of several days, I discussed a good many things which he will shortly communicate to you.  I flatter myself that he has taken a good impression away with him, and that some old friendly associations will be even more firmly established in years to come.  His musical gift appears very considerable to me, and I have advised him to concentrate himself on an operatic subject, which he had better arrange for himself.  You should encourage him in this; by your advice and influence he will no doubt achieve something excellent, and a musico-dramatic work will help him to proper recognition in the quickest and best way.

I wanted to send you the “Dante” symphony for the new year, but the corrections have taken me longer than I expected, and the publication will not take place before January.  I shall send you a respectable parcel, for the Gran Mass will also be included in it.  I wish I could bring you these things personally, stay with you, accompany you in “Tristan.”  Let us hope that the new year will put an end to our separation, and chain us to each other in the body, as we are already in spirit and heart.