Volume II Part 35 (1/2)

284

VENICE, February 22nd, 1859

I have just received your letter; as I a R and W, who th until to you reat benefit you have conferred upon me by your letter I am often in a state of convulsive excitely But that state has now disappeared entirely; you took it away today

I shall sayfra my sins

One word htly, let me ask you, for Heaven's sake, not to send me any money now I could not bear it Send me your ”Ideals,” and, when it is ready, your ”Dante;” those I aly

The boys have just coht-up K thanks you a thousand times for your re

My blessings on you!

Your

R W

285

VENICE, February 23rd, 1859

DEAR FRANZ,

To my hurried lines of yesterday I add a s to tell you

Lately I felt the urgent desire of sending you a word of coht that you were in need of such For I had heard, to reat your annoyance must be, and B's account confirrieved by ingratitude, faithlessness, and even treachery

Suddenly, however, I felt quite stupid, and all I intended to say to you appeared tobetter than to copy out for you a few frags, for those can be understood only in their larger context, and I aood intentions, which count for little in art, but for a great deal in friendshi+p

Iwhich you sent to me I believe it has been beneficial to me; I am aware that I have too little control over myself, and rely upon the patience of others to an undue extent An occasional lesson, therefore, does h I remain firmly convinced that you have misunderstood ht), I feel, nevertheless, that I ure That was proved to me by the effect I had upon you, for we know little of our appearance until we see ourselves in a looking-glass, and in your irritation I recognized ht surely to have cal for that unruffled calnize to be the finest quality inpoint offor a state of quiescence I am aware that that quiescence must, at last, come from the inner man, and our position towards the outer worldfrom there contributes to the contentment of our aining a clear and definite view of my fate My ards externalevery step to place my future relations with Germany on the necessary definite basis I heard fro would on no account swerve from his decision to reserve the aation and judgment of the law-courts I was advised to submit to that condition, but afterall the chances, I am firmly resolved never to fulfil that condition

In order to do all that was possible, I lately wrote to the Minister of Justice, asking hi once ested to ht to tell you and the Grand Duke for your satisfaction that, by desire of the Saxon Government, I was to be banished from here I was advised to submit unconditionally, but to send athat I ent reasons of health For the moment this has answered, and I am allowed to stay If I refuse to be examined or perhaps to be locked up a few months in Saxony, I base that refusal towards the Governerate a little in order to show good and sufficient cause for my refusal In other respects I subnize s without reserve--and only ask HM to rerace on account of ly advised o that strain In that manner I think I have taken the only step which e as to rant ive up all hope from that quarter for ever But even in that case I am resolved to make one more last trial I shall apply direct to the Grand Duke of Baden, placing the case before hi him for his permission to approach the Emperor of Austria, the Prince of Prussia, the Grand Duke of Wei, and perhaps one other friendly Prince with the prayer to grant e of residence in their respective states, either by agreest the anything of the nature of a co of Saxony, I shall base this request solely upon the same circumstance, viz, the very serious state of my health and o the risk of a crinize the justice of that investigation, and do not expect the King to alter his decree in my favour I shall further ask the Princes in question to suspend the treaty of extradition in my favour after due consultation with the Saxon Govern to secure my personal efforts for the advancement of German art It will depend upon the consent of the Grand Duke of Baden whether I take further steps in that direction I do not venture to say that I expect a successful issue, but one thing I shall gain in any case, and that the most necessary of all, viz, certainty as tothat certainty, becauseyou what further steps I have in view in order to gain certainty in another direction also, I must answer your question as to Carlsruhe,

Devrient wrote to me that in case ”Tristan” were finished by that ti the birthday of the Grand Duke, would be the best day for the performance; and he added that the Grand Duke counted with certainty upon my personal attendance As to this last point, which of course I had made the chief condition from the first, I have recently received further information The Grand Duke intends to invite me for the ti is to be known beforehand, and my presence is to be simply an accomplished fact, for which the Grand Duke takes the personal responsibility This seen inspiresany intention of a journey to Carlsruhe altogether You will therefore obligeraphs to be inserted in the newspapers, contradicting that ruood deal, and stating that nothing was settled, and that my personal attendance at Carlsruhe was quite out of the question, as, as yet, there was not the slightest chance ofyour own recent steps inacted too delicately towardsme know the motives of the refusal you have met with Even now you do not state those motives plainly, for the reason apparently that you fear to wound me unnecessarily by their communication On the other hand, I ask you to consider that it would be better if I saw quite clearly in this matter

This would finally and for ever freedesire tes are in this uncertain state, and an unpleasant feature of our ether

All my transactions with the Hartels as to the edition of the scores, etc, of the ”Nibelungen” to be prepared at once, have again been abandoned recently The only thing they illing to grant was the i (provided always that a perforuaranteed), without pay only on their part to share the profits of the edition with ree to this latter proposal I need not explain The profits to be derived froo on, and will probably become lucrative only after my death In any case, those profits would accrue to me at a time of life to provide for which at present would be folly, considering how urgently I require immediate assistance and freedom from care Heirs I have none