Minna, Minna, what is it? This is my sixth letter, & I am still waiting in vain for a second one from you; do you consider my letters & what they contain to be unworthy of a reply, - or are you still hesitating to impart the right answer? My God, if I were not plagued by even greater worries on your account, I should be jealous, & think that Otterstedt was preventing you from replying. - No, you are now betrothed to me, & infidelity is out of the question, decency demands that I should place total trust in you. - But why do you not write? - I demand that you write once a day, & starting from the day you read this demand, I shall regard every day that passes without a letter from you as an act of infidelity on your part. - Oh my Minna, is this how you try my patience? Is our separation not punishment enough for whatever failing you think me guilty of; do you have to insult me into the bargain?
There are so many points which I cannot discuss properly with you here, since I still do not know what your present standpoint is; let only these words be branded once more on your heart: do not abandon me, & do not degrade me to the point of ignoring all my unhappiness, my entreaties, my remonstrances, my offers. You would lower me in my own self-esteem if you were to dismiss as a mere trifle my most sacred feelings towards you & my most manly resolves, & if you were to abide by this unilateral resolve which you have taken. No, that cannot be! - These are & remain my first & last words, my dear & destined bride, - you will hear only different ones in future, or else none at all. Love and kisses from
Your
Richard.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 17