Dear friend,
I passed the whole of March in such trouble and distress that I could not write to you. Since April 4 I have been back here. Lohengrin was to be given on the 8th, but Beck's hoarseness compelled us to postpone the performance until next Saturday. In any case, the opera will be given twice more during this season.
By today's post I send you my Lohengrin article, which in the first instance will appear in German in the Illustrirte Zeitung. Be kind enough to read the proof quickly and return it direct to Weber, Leipzig. It will probably be published in the next number. About the French edition I shall arrange matters soon afterwards; it will be the same size and type as my pamphlet on the Goethe foundation, of which I also send you a copy today. Brockhaus will be the publisher.
Have you received the hundred thalers? Your last letter has made me very sad, but I do not relinquish all hope of leading the somewhat difficult diplomatic transaction concerning your Siegfried to a successful issue. Perhaps I shall succeed in settling the matter by the middle of May. Tell me in round figures what sum you require, and, quite entre nous, for I must ask you specially to let nobody know, write me a full letter which I can show to Z. You must excuse me for troubling you with such things, and I am grieved, deeply grieved, that the matter cannot be brought more simply to a good result; but, in my opinion, it will be necessary for you to explain by letter your position as well as the plan of the work and the artistic hopes which may justly be founded upon it. I need not tell you that I do not want this for myself. You know me, and are aware that you can have implicit confidence in me.
Muller's letter I sent yesterday, after thinking from day to day that I should return. He will doubtless soon write to you, and you will find him a trustworthy, prudent friend who genuinely esteems you.
Can you tell me, under the seal of the most absolute secrecy, whether the famous article on the Jews in music, Das Judenthum in der Musik, in Brendel's paper is by you? The Princess has remained in Eilsen, still confined to her bed; and I do not expect her until the end of this month. You may imagine how deeply her long illness has grieved me. Write soon, and do not forget to correct the proofs of the Illustrirte Zeitung at once.
Franz Liszt
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #3835, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1, No. 58