My dear Herr von Wesendonck!
I hasten to express to you my warmest thanks for the kind relinquishment of Wagner's original score of the Rheingold. — Rest assured that, for my part, I never should have advanced such a claim; the idea of procuring me the precious score of the glorious work issued from Wagner himself.
I know, you gave friendly asylum to the artist erewhile in his struggles with want and indicible sorrows; for that I express to you, honoured Sir, my sincerest thanks, since it is in part to your lively sympathy, that we owe the immortal works created by Wagner in Switzerland. It was a veritable need, to me, to express this to you.
Repeating my thanks, I am with all esteem
Your much indebted
Ludwig.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to Wesendonck et al., trans. and indexed by William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 39