In your [The second person singular is employed in this letter] pleasant villeggiatura, where you will find no lack of the Beautiful and Good, let yourself also be welcomed by a friend of the New-Weymar
School, who is truly yours. It is true I have nothing new to tell you. You already know that the Grand Duke received your poem on the morning of his birthday, and said the kindest things about it to me later on. Most of our colleagues of the Neu-Weimar-Verein are away and scattered in various countries;—Singer in Pesth; Soupper [Eugen v. Soupper, concert singer, a countryman of Liszt's, was in Weimar in 1855-56.] in Paris, where he is trying the solitude of a crowd (according to Chateaubriand's expression, "the crowd, that vast desert—not dessert—of men"); Stor [Music director in Weimar; died 1889.] at the bathing-place Heringsdorf, probably drawn there by a secret affinity between his herring form and the name of the place; Winterberger in Holland, to inspect the Haarlem and other organs, which he will certainly do in a masterly way; and Preller goes today to Kiel. On the Altenburg no change worth mentioning has taken place: visits of strangers to me fail not summer or winter, and, still less, works which have become my life's task. I might almost sing, like Hoffmann von Fallersleben,
"Hier sitz ich fest, ein Fels im Meer, Woran die Wellen toben; 's geht drunter, dran and druber her—Ich bleibe fortan oben"—
["Here firm I sit, a rock sea-girt, On which the waves are dashing, But I remain above, unhurt, Nor heed the waters' lashing.">[
if only there were more waves and less marsh!—
My travelling plans are still somewhat vacillating, because I cannot yet decide whether I shall go to Hungary or not. In any case I shall go and see R. Wagner, in the middle of September at latest, at Zurich, where Stahr at present is with his wife (Fanny Lewald). Stahr will shortly publish a new volume of Paris Letters (about the Exhibition), and is translating Suetonius for the Classical Library coming out at Stuttgart. He told me that there is a passage in Suetonius which one can quite apply to the baptism of the Prince Imperial in Paris! After this precedent, why might not everything in the Horoe belg, and the Weymar Year- Book be proved as referring to something?
Remember me most warmly to your dear Amphitrion, whom I unfortunately did not manage to see again before her departure, and, if the Mildes are in the same house as you, give them my best greetings, woven into a toast.
Fare thee well, dearest friend, and do not remain too long away.
Thine in heartfelt friendship,
F. Liszt Weymar, July 14th, 1856