Progress of Art - and that all the honor
and gratitude which your munificence deserves will spring from
it - as is the earnest desire of him who has the honor to be,
Monseigneur, Your Highness's most devoted and humble servant,
F. Liszt
Weymar, August 18th, 1858
205. To Frau Rosa von Milde
[Court opera-singer in Weimar, nee Agthe; the first Elsa in
Lohengrin; a refined and poetical artist]
Weymar, August 25th, 1858
My honored and dear Friend,
If the outward circumstances which you mention in your kind
letter are not exactly of the kind that I could wish for you, yet
I am egotist enough to be much pleased at its friendly contents
towards myself. Accept my warmest thanks for them - and let me
tell you how anxious I am that you should like me very much, and
how desirous I am to deserve this - as far as it can be deserved;
for the best part of a harmonious intimacy must ever remain a
free gift.
The "wanton, ragged garments of the Muse," which you abandon with
strict generosity, make a show and please almost everywhere. Her
sensual charm is not unknown to me; yet I think I may say that it
was given me to lay hold of a higher and a pure ideal, and to vow
to it my whole endeavors for many years past.
