I am very weary and tired, but spring will give us new strength.
Write soon to your affectionate and truly devoted
F. LISZT.
GOTHA, APRIL 4TH, 1854.
P.S.—This afternoon I return to Weymar. R. Pohl and his wife are there, and I have asked him to give you an account of the impending performances of "Tannhauser" and "Lohengrin."
150.
MY DEAR FRANZ,
Heaven knows how anxiously I waited this time for your letter! I reply at once in order to explain the "business" part.
I knew nothing about Messrs. Bote and Bock, but have now come to the conclusion that they must be the purchasers of my operas whom my Berlin agent had in his eye when necessity compelled me last winter to apply to him. I declare that at present I should not sell my operas to Bote and Bock or anybody else, for reasons which I need scarcely tell you. I find it difficult to understand how Herr von Hulsen can be naive enough to think that I should consent to the performance of "Tannhauser" at Berlin by the Konigsberg troupe. I shall write to Konigsberg about it this very day, and I ask you also to write to Hulsen at once and to announce my VETO to him. You may do this in MY NAME, and mention at the same time that I have ONCE FOR ALL placed everything concerning my operas at Berlin in YOUR HANDS, being firmly resolved to treat with Berlin only through you and according to your opinion, but never again personally. You may further say that if Herr von Hulsen intended to give an opera by me, and was waiting till he had no longer to treat with me, but with a third person (Bote and Bock, as he thought), because he had fallen out with me personally, he would now have a splendid opportunity of settling everything without coming in personal contact with me, because he would have to deal with you alone; that, as my plenipotentiary, you were compelled to protest against the performance by the Konigsberg troupe, but that in the same capacity you were prepared to arrange the matter with him in some other way. I think this would be a good opportunity of bringing the Berlin affair to a satisfactory conclusion. There is much need for it, I can assure you. Heaven only knows how I am to pull through; and although I do not wish to torture you any more, I may tell you that in my present position you can do me a great and very valuable service by your intercession in another quarter. Listen! They have performed "Tannhauser" at Augsburg, badly enough, it is true, but it has paved the way for Munich. Dingelstedt has written me an amiable and encouraging letter, and I have sent him the opera which is to be given there in the summer. As regards honorarium, I have entreated him to procure me the best possible terms, as these operas are my only capital, and I must mainly rely upon the great court theatres. I have, however, made no definite demand, having full confidence in him. You know Dingelstedt intimately, and you would oblige me by asking him to get me something substantial, royalties in preference. Before all, I should wish to have some money BEFORE THE END OF THIS MONTH, either as an advance on these royalties or, if that is impossible, as the final purchase money, in which case I think I might ask a hundred louis d'or. (Dresden always used to pay me sixty louis d'or; but as "Tannhauser" has everywhere proved a great draw, I think I might expect the lump sum of a hundred louis d'or from so great a court theatre as Munich.) He is probably on his travels now, but if you address to the care of W. Schmidt, inspector of the Court Theatre, the letter will, I think, be forwarded to him. Do not be angry with me.
It is only a friend like you whom one can ask to be of active help to others while he himself is in such a painful position as you, poor man, seem to be. Although I have a general idea of your situation, I am very desirous to know precisely how your affairs and those of your dear ones really stand. I feel aggrieved because you touch upon them always in a very cursory manner. From all I can make out, I must fear that the Princess has been cut off from her estate permanently and completely, and I must own that such losses are well adapted to upset one's equanimity. I also understand that you look into the future with a heavy heart, as the fate of a most lovable, youthful being is equally involved. If you had to inform me that you three dear ones were now quite poor and solitary, even then I could not be very sorry- -so stupid am I—especially if I saw that you had kept up your courage. My dearest, dearest, unique Franz, give me the heart, the spirit, the mind of a woman in which I could wholly sink myself, which could quite comprehend me. How little should I then ask of this world. How indifferent would be to me this empty glitter, which, in my despair, I have latterly again been tempted to gather round me as a diversion of my fancy. If I could live with you in beautiful retirement, or, which would be the same thing, if we could live here wholly for each other instead of frittering our beings away with so many insipid and indifferent people, how happy I should be. And "off and on" we should be sure to undertake something to give vent to our energies in the outer world.