A thousand fervent heartfelt greetings for the birthday ! I can offer you no gifts but of the heart now ; my fancy still refuses me its old-accustomed services ; 'tis musing on repose and paths that lead thereto. In spirit I shall be among you, tho', and taste full lovely visions of the familyfeast ! A thousand good wishes with the greetings ! R. W. Penzing, Dec. 21, 63. [This the last unconstrained exchange of letters is prompted on the selfsame day (vid. inf. p. 363), and the prime cause of the ensuing twelvemonth 's silence must be sought in some third factor, perhaps some unrecorded appeal to the husband for renewed assistance in the serious financial straits aboveforeshadowed. Next March it is Frau Wille who is asked whether the Wesendoncks can accommodate the composer with " a work-room either in the principal building, or in the little neighbouring house I occupied before," to enable him to complete his Meistersinger — the entire first act whereof had just been sent to Schott — by that summer's end. Who conveyed the refusal, we do not know precisely ; but within a fortnight we find Wagner escaping from Vienna creditors and taking, literally, taking shelter at Mariafeld, where he reaps the Willes' hospitality for a doled-out month (see Letters to Otto etc.). Then comes that miraculous transformation-scene, rescue by Ludwig II. of Bavaria at the beginning of May ; followed by the master's establishment in Munich and the removal thither of the faithfulest of his disciples, Cornelius, Hans von Billow, and the tatter's wife. — This in explanation of the next letter, which itself is a reply to Frau Wesendonck's of fan. 13, 1865.— Tr.]
Richard Wagner
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, translated by Ellis, No. 145