Most Revered Master! I feel very much obliged to my Herr General-Director at present, for he has granted me permission to have nothing to do with him for a whole quarter-year! Now shall I be ungrateful and use this first freedom he has allowed me to criticise his behaviour to you? I should have to condemn him so severely that I am willing for the present to spare him my little panegyric out of gratitude. His method of procedure, which I first really came to know about through your letter, bears witness to an uncouthness in the man which seems almost laughable to me. Whom ought one to pity, these Junkers who are set like foxes to herd the geese and make themselves laughing-stocks at every step, or the artists who suffer under their errors of taste? Since you offer me the opportunity of conversing with you soon face to face, we may, I hope, while away an hour on this head. On the whole, though, I think you are fortunate, my dearest Master, if this insult is the first which you have been offered in the course of your great career as an artist; but I am bitterly sorry to have been in a sense a witness of the same without being able to prevent it, partly because it was too late, partly because our subordinate standing as regards the Theatre Intendant leaves us in a bad position to ward off indignities. However, you have given Herr von Liittichau a thorough lesson, which, fortunately, you were just the person to do, and I for my part hope to God I may yet be able to do you some Dresden service commensurable with this piece of Dresden rudeness.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 123