Dear Minna!
I am sending you today the missing 140 thalers as an addition to your quarterly payment. I am sorry that people have been persistently confusing you: not a word of what young Fritz Brockhaus told you did he get from me; if I had said anything of the sort, it would have been a lie, and I don't know why I should tell a lie. I shall no longer try to refute the rumors about myself—because I shouldn't know where to begin. Nor will I exhaust myself with denying gossip: there has been a recent and rather favorable change in my status: I have received the actual commission from the King to finish and to produce the Nibelungen, for which purpose I am enabled to dispense with other pursuit of income for three years. It especially occurred to me that I'll be able to send you your quarterly allowance promptly from my income here.
I shall now really enjoy the salary of 4,000 florins for three years to come. After deducting your 1,000 thalers from that amount you won't find it extravagant.
My troubles, which you don't seem to understand, will be great, for dealing with our opera singers and theater folk is to me like delivering myself to intolerable torments. This is really so.
Lately, by confusing me with a singer by the name of Richard here, the rumor of my fatal illness got into the papers. I received inquiries by telegraph from many parts, etc. Supposing you might be scared too, I have telegraphed you and hope you did not resent it.
But for the present I really feel a little exhausted, which is probably due to the very unwholesome climate here. Forgive me for limiting myself to the most necessary things only, and be reassured that my care for your well-being will forever remain to me a dear and sacred duty.
For the rest, I don't demand anything further from the world except peace and patience so that I may finish my work, since I have now found the good genius who is making this possible.
Farewell and fondest greetings from your
Richard
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 275