The Grand Duke will have already delivered you my greeting, which he asked me very prettily to entrust to him. I hardly thought it becoming to charge others with my greetings like that. He is a thoroughly likeable prince and the training received from you becomes him very well. What I liked best about him was that he boasted of this influence of yours. For the rest, we had quite a tolerable little gossip together, during which I was very much amused by Beaulieu's interjections. The latter played the Spanish gracioso very well, revealing the hollowness of artistic pathos every moment. I could almost flatter myself that H. R. H. was jealous of the Grand Duke of Baden and to ease his mind I felt it a duty to tell him in some detail of my Tristan project, originally based on Strasburg but later transplanted to Karlsruhe through Devrient's intervention. H. R. H. particularly wished to know whether, in the event of my being enabled to return to Germany, I should go to Weimar or prefer some other engagement, whereupon I explained to him that the only advantage I expected from my amnesty was to be able to visit Germany periodically and that for that purpose I had chosen your house, just because it was your house, as my base.
You have given me a great joy in little Tausig. When he walked in one morning with your letter I shook you warmly by the hand! He is a terrible lad. At one moment I am amazed by his highly developed intellect, at another by his wild ways. He is certain to become something extraordinary if he becomes anything at all. When I see him smoking frightfully strong cigars and drinking endless draughts of tea, I am as scared as the hen who sees the ducklings she has mistakenly hatched taking to the water. What will become of him I cannot imagine, but he gets no schnapps or rum from me. I should unhesitatingly have taken him to live in my house if we did not mutually annoy each other by piano-playing, so I have found him a little nook quite close at hand where he can just sleep and work and do the rest of the day's business with me. He does little credit, however, to my table, which is quite passably well provided, despite my grass-widowhood.
He loathes going for walks and yet declares, when I propose to leave him at home, that he would like to come; then after the first half-hour he contends he has been walking a good four hours and at the slightest protest on my part contradicts me mercilessly. He must have behaved quite differently to you, but there seems to be something about me that strongly lures young people on to naughtiness; I discovered that in due time with Karl Ritter. And so my childless marriage has suddenly been blessed with a wealth of calamity, and I swallow the quintessence of paternal cares and worries in rapid doses. That has done me a lot of good, over and again; it has been a superb diversion for me and, as I say, I am very grateful to you. You knew what I wanted. Of course the lad pleases me very much in other ways and although he behaves like a scamp of a boy, he talks like an old man and a very penetrating one too. Whatever subject I introduce he can follow with undoubted clarity of mind and great receptivity. At the same time it touches and moves me when the lad shows a depth and tenderness of feeling, a wide sympathy which wins me irresistibly. In any case he is immensely gifted musically and his frenzied piano-playing awes me.
I am expecting the Bülows shortly and look forward very much to having them. I have a specially warm place in my heart now for Hans. Cosima is more drawn to Herwegh. I probably repel her in some way, but we are excellent friends all the same! My poor wife is to finish her cure, which will have lasted three months, and return home in a fortnight. The anxiety about her was terrible.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 357