Dear Minna!
You have probably recently received 20 louis d'or from Coburg; by the 15th of October I'm going to send you the balance of 140 thalers.
You must understand that I am glad that income from various parts enables me to send you your share undiminished. I have just had another experience of the bad position into which I am often pushed by maliciously invented newspaper reports. It is not only that the crazy exaggeration of my fortunate circumstances results in the most nonsensical claims, as you will see again from the enclosed letter from the good Frau Kriete, but there is a general desire here to lay everything hostile at my door. An official refutation of these silly rumors has been published in the papers here: I send it to you, so that you may be as well informed about my position as Frau Kriete, to whom I beg you to send it. I have made up my mind not to change my modest position in any way, in order to preserve the sympathy and enthusiasm of my young King for my higher goals in art.
For the present I shall stay here, since the performance of the Dutchman has had to be delayed.
Take care of your health, for thus alone can you assure my happiness; it is what fate has left you to do for me. Believe me and consider that my lot is toil and difficulty until the end of my life, since it is no longer for my own well-being that I must work, but for the higher purpose for which I have been put in the world.
Warmest greetings from your
Richard
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 273