I shall perish, and shall be quite incapable of further work, unless I find a habitation such as I require, viz., a small house to myself and a garden, both removed from all noise, and especially from the damnable pianoforte noise, which I am doomed not to escape wherever I turn, not even here, and which has made me so nervous that even the very thought of it prevents me from thinking of work.  Four years I tried in vain to realise this wish, which I can accomplish only by buying a piece of ground and building a house on it.  Over this possibility I brooded like a madman, when it occurred to me not long ago to offer my “Nibelungen” to the Hartels, and to get the necessary money from them.  They have expressed to me their willingness of doing something out of the way in order to gain possession of my work, and I have in consequence made the following demand:  They are to purchase the two pieces which have already been finished, and are to expect “Siegfried” in the course of next year, and “Siegfried’s Death” at the end of 1858, paying in each instance the honorarium on the delivery of the manuscript.  They also bind themselves to publish the whole in 1859, the year of the performance.  I have been led to this by sheer despair; the Hartels are to supply me with means for the purchase of a piece of ground according to my fancy.  If we agree, which must be decided soon, I shall have to send them, in the first instance, my two scores, so as to place them in possession of the material for their future publication.  But they will only keep them long enough to take a copy, and then return the originals to you.  In any case, if I want the money, I must enable them to take actual possession.  They must of course lend me the scores, in case they have not yet been copied, during your visit to me; that is understood.  As you do not yet know the last act of the “Valkyrie,” I send you the score before taking further steps, so that you, and no one else, may be the first to whom I communicate it.  If you have time, read the act quickly, and then keep the whole in readiness for sending it to the Hartels as soon as I ask you.  About this whole matter, however, we must come to a better understanding when we meet.

During my cure here I have become terribly indifferent towards my work.  Lord knows, if I am not much encouraged to finish it, I shall leave it alone.  Why should a poor devil like me worry and plague himself with these terrible burdens if my contemporaries will not even grant me a place for doing my work?  I have told the Hartels as much; if they will not help me to a house, detached and situated on an eminence, such as I want it, I shall leave the whole rubbish alone.