My poor dear Wife!
Your sufferings touch me more deeply than I can express! A single thought, ever repeated, goes from me daily: Is poor Minna crying or is she jolly? Your letter tells me that you are crying!!!
I can't comfort you by words, for you as well as I have to be helped. We two are one, even though, according to my nature, I too often follow my impulses, and think of you only when something goes wrong. I can answer your tears; it would take a mighty doctor to cure us!
Regard with courage and confidence the noble and excellent man who brings you these lines; God tells me he is my true friend. He will help you and me with his best advice, perhaps something more. Pour out your whole heart to him, shed freely your tears: reveal everything to him without restraint, concerning our position and your misgivings: a friend should know about this. I trust all our life to him and to his advice, and you too must confide in him your sorrows, my faults: he is prepared through me to learn everything from you. We will both follow his advice. I pledge my loyalty to you and my fullest trust in your decisions. May God lighten your heart and restore hope to you, my poor harassed wife!
Your
Richard W.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 64