[...] Minna has finally begun a thorough & regular course of treatment in which I was recently able to be of possible assistance to her. We were recommended to try Dr Ulrich, who specializes in spa treatment & whose diagnosis of Minna’s illness is undoubtedly correct: at all events, he said it was high time that she applied herself exclusively to getting better, & in particular he has imposed a very strict diet on her. She took the waters relatively infrequently, & then only in the sulphurated baths: instead she drank a lot, Eger-Franzen-Brunnen. Of course, her illness is of such a kind that there can be no question of a rapid recovery, but in many respects Minna already feels a sense of relief. A major event in her life was her getting to know our mother: I admit that I genuinely admire Minna for her great tact, & above all for her self-control, in all her dealings with mother. To be frank, I must confess right away that Minna, for all her extraordinary sense of justice & fairness, was profoundly embittered & incensed at our mother’s infinite lack of principle & utterly wayward capriciousness, but that, out of her love for me, she learned to moderate her behaviour towards her to such an extent that when mother left us, she admitted that she could not understand how anyone could ever quarrel with Minna or fail to like her. If you, my dear Cecilie, & I are both able to get on with mother, that is only to be expected, since we are after all one flesh & blood; we willingly make allowances for her many failings, since we still remember her from the days when she was actively concerned only for the well-being of her children. You must admit that none of these considerations applies to Minna, since all she has to grasp hold of is the bare truth, & the truth, as far as our mother is concerned, is certainly not attractive: you cannot deny that, within our family, she creates nothing but trouble because of her remarkable penchant for misrepresenting & distorting everything, & for indulging in endless gossip; the result is that all our other brothers & sisters avoid her like the plague: well, if that enables them to avoid the resultant problems, it may ultimately be the only solution; but what most annoyed Minna was our mother’s really offensive avarice & egoism which we were exposed to ad nauseam in various trivial ways, but especially in her treatment of the servants [...]; - it is sad & distressing that I am obliged to use such strong language, but our good mama is utter hell for everyone around her - & Minna now fully understands what you, my dear Cecilie, must have suffered during the long period you lived together. - It is fortunate that our mother is content to lead her isolated &, it must be said, thoroughly comfortable life. I always enjoy seeing her once in a while: she has many charming qualities, even if I feel that her endless chatter, with all its fine phrases & instructive examples, is for the most part totally mindless, since she has grown completely dulled towards action. I may add that the state of her health is most reassuring, - the spa treatment has done her a world of good; - during the brief period when she was with us in Dresden, she regularly accompanied us on our walks, running around like a young roedeer. - Enough of our mother; I have said many harsh things, - but what is the point in deluding ourselves? -
[...] As for Cecilie’s taunts about our having children, there is still nothing to report: we are forced to make do with dogs, since there is still absolutely no prospect of human progeny; we’ve just got another one, only 6 weeks old, a funny little animal called Beps or Striezel (because he looks like one of the dogs from the Striezelmarkt). He’s better than old Robber was; but it’s a bad sign that we always have to make do with such stupid creatures. I’d much rather have a little Max - but that can only happen once in the world. [...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 48