O Kietz,
You see, at last I'm thinking of you too! I've had much to endure recently. Now there is some peace and quiet. I left Zürich in August: we've given up our household there. My wife's terrible disease, a very advanced heart ailment, against which we applied a three-month water cure, very sensibly directed, has caused her and those about her much distress. Now she has gone to Germany to look for diversion and quiet. At the beginning of November she will settle in Dresden. I'm living in Venice for the present, in the greatest seclusion so that I too can recover and collect myself—I'm already succeeding. I had my grand piano sent here and am working again. I'm living very nicely on the Grand Canal and am altogether charmed by the place. Having no plans, I'll wait to see how things will shape up. There you have everything I can tell you about myself without going into impossible details.
You could do me a big favor if you would get me some snuff. Can you afford to lay out the money for 3 pounds (1½ kilograms)? I can't send money to France in a letter, and no one will give me a draft for 12 to 14 francs. If you find it possible, please buy me 2 pounds of the regular and 1 pound of the special kind à la civette. Send them via Marseille, par mer. Since one can bring in only very little for personal use, I'll ask you please to send it in two packages. One to me: Canal Grande, Palazzo Giustiniani, Campiello Squillini, No. 3228; the other one to Herr Karl Ritter, Sottoportico di S. Zaccaria, No. 4691.
And now, behave yourself. I'll soon come to Paris again. Let me hear from you before then and remain faithful to your
R. W.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 194