Your High Honor,
As part of the last birthday present, I have to send the two watercolours that have only just been delivered by the painter Heigel and furthermore, on the highest order, to communicate the following:
1. Thank you very much from His Majesty the King for your beautiful and very long letter. –
2. The repayments to the Royal Cabinet funds to cover a loan received earlier may also remain suspended for the year 1875. –
3. His Royal Majesty is inclined to have the bust mentioned in your last letter made and to make it a gift to you. I would therefore like to ask you to let me know your wishes in greater detail. –
4. Regrettably, His Majesty cannot comply with the request to amend Article III.[i] of the contract concluded between the board of directors of the Richard Wagner Theatre and the Royal Court secretariats because the Royal Cabinet treasury for buildings is required to make large payments on an ongoing basis and absolutely cannot do without the necessary reimbursement of their advances through the proceeds of patronage notes. –
I should expressly add that you should not read any ill will into this, but instead understand that His Royal Majesty is simply forced by the circumstances to refuse the approval and would therefore be unpleasantly affected if this matter were to be brought up again. –
With the most excellent respect
Your High Honor
most devoted,
Düfflipp.
Munich on October 23rd
1874
[i] Article III of this contract, concluded on 20th February 1874 and approved by the king six days later, by which the Bayreuth company had secured an advance of 100,000 thalers to be paid by the royal court secretariat, had the following wording: “III. From the time of the Most High approval of this contract, all income from patronage certificates will go to the account of the cabinet treasury of His Majesty King Ludwig II until the advance made has been paid off in full.” (Röckl II, p. 134.) On 27th September 1875, the King then decreed: “I allow that paragraph III of the contract concluded and approved by Me in February of last year between My Court Secretariat and the Board of Directors of the Richard Wagner Theatre in Bayreuth be amended and implemented according to the following version achieved, as: ‘In order to reimburse the above-mentioned advance payments, the income from sold patronage certificates is determined and from the price of each patronage certificate, which is set at 520 fl., starting from number 426 of these notes, a share of 315 fl. of the Royal the cabinet treasury, but the remainder of 210 florins each remains with the board of directors to cover other expenses’.” (Röckl II, p. 138.)
Translation by Jo Cousins.