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Four years I tried in vain to realise this wish, which I can accomplish only by buying a piece of ground and building a house on it. Over this possibility I brooded like a madman, when it occurred to me not long ago to offer my "Nibelungen" to the Hartels, and to get the necessary money from them.
I have asked the Hartels to send you proof sheets of the first act of "Tristan." Perhaps you have received them by this time. The Hartels treat me with much forbearance. At first when I thought that the score would be finished this autumn, I prodded them on terribly. Since then I have left them miserably in the lurch. Before the end of December I cannot think of sending them the second act.
The Hartels will finally agree to this, and I have spoken to them in that sense. Of course in similar affairs I have to take the mild position of a mediator, which now and then is a little troublesome. However, so it must be; and side issues must not be allowed to impede or endanger the principal question.
Hanover has become a perfect repository of my scores. Many thanks also for your hints regarding the Hartel affair. Candidly speaking, the settlement of it is so important to me, that I immediately followed your advice, and wrote to the Hartels in such a manner that they will probably accept my offer, provided that they have been properly informed of the object by you.
Another time it would be a practical thing to send in the four-hand arrangement together with the score, and to come to terms with the publisher about it. The attitude of the Hartels towards us is naturally always a little reserved. I, for my part, cannot complain of them, and they have always treated me in a decent and gentlemanly manner.
For the same reason I urgently requested the Hartels, if they printed the score, to send me a proof. You are in frequent communication with the Hartels, and the edition of this overture is really your doing. Be not angry therefore if I ask you to set the matter completely right when convenient. For heaven's sake, forgive me for troubling you with this trifle.
When shall I have the joy of reading "Tristan?" The Hartels informed me that the pianoforte score was in print. Have you quite settled as to where the first performance is to take place? According to all accounts the Carlsruhe people reckon upon it for certain. May God grant that "Tristan" will put an end to your exile. This is my hope.
But the Hartels, who are to advance solid coin, have looked into the matter more closely, and are, no doubt, quite right in believing the performance of the work impossible, as the author did not even see his way to its completion without their help.
These long explanations with the Hartels- -my first contact with that world which would have to make the realisation of my enterprise possible were quite enough to bring me to my senses, and to make me recognize the chimeric nature of this undertaking.
At present I am afloat on the lake of Lucerne, from the shore of which I shall fetch my wife, who is going through a cure of curds and whey. After that I return to Zurich, which I DARE do only in the hope that your attack on the Hartels has succeeded. No one can help me here; I exhausted everything to secure my existence from last winter till now.
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