Your

F. L.

Return Hagen’s letter to me.

198.

Zurich, September 13th, 1855.

Your last but one letter, dear Franz, was the best answer to my last, the two having crossed on the way.  As to our final meeting I use all the arts of an experienced voluptuary in order to get the most out of it.  As it has been delayed so long, I should almost like to finish the whole “Valkyrie” previously.  The completion of this work, the most tragic which I have ever conceived, will cost me much, and I must think of recovering what I have put into it by the most cheering impressions, and those you only can supply.  The thought of being able to go with you through this work also is my only hope of reward.  I am quite unable to deal with it on the piano to my own satisfaction.  You must introduce it to me.  For that reason I am thinking of delaying our meeting till I can go through the whole with you.  Thus my highest need has made an egoist of me.  The first two acts I hope to have finished and copied out at the end of October, the whole by Christmas.  You said in your last letter it would suit you equally well to come either in November or at Christmas.  This induced me to curb my impatience to see you again till then, so as to make it possible, by the most incessant industry, to place the whole, completed and fairly copied, before you, including the last act, which is so important to me.  Must I then ask you to delay your visit till Christmas?  It sounds absurd enough, but you will understand my pedantry.  If you agree, and if no further delay will become necessary on that account, I shall send you the first two acts for inspection at the end of October, and you can bring them back with you.

What shall I say to you of this New York offer?  I was told in London that they intended to invite me.  It is a blessing that they do not offer me very much money.  The hope of being able to earn a large sum, say ten thousand dollars, in a short time, would, in the great helplessness of my pecuniary position, compel me, as a matter of course, to undertake this American expedition, although even in that case it would perhaps be absurd to sacrifice my best vital powers to so miserable a purpose, and, as it were, in an indirect manner.  But as a man like me has no chance of a really lucrative speculation, I am glad that I am not exposed to any serious temptation, and therefore ask you to thank the gentlemen of New York very kindly, in my name, for the unmerited attention they have shown me, and to tell them that, “for the present,” I am unable to accept their invitation.  I puzzle my head about the cause of the journey which the Princess and the Child have taken to Paris; is it for amusement and nothing else?  Greet them both most cordially for me when they return; could they not come with you to a poor devil in Switzerland just as well as go to Paris?  If you would let