Dearest Friend,
I am going to the hydropathic establishment. I am just back from Albisbrunn, where I have had a consultation with the doctor, and have fixed my removal for Monday, the 15th.
I cannot suffer things by halves: mere dieting has done me no good. But were I, in my present state, to set to work at Young Siegfried, by next spring I should probably be incurable. Now I have a strong desire to do the thing thoroughly; for the thought of becoming perfectly well is quite a new one for me, and plans and propositions of the highest importance are connected with it. Thus can I still be of some real use. Besides, were I to roam about in my languid state of health I should be acting against all my convictions and principles. But the idea of setting to work at Siegfried in perfect health has about it a something which I may call joyful solemnity. So it is fixed: I go through the whole water-cure.
Now I have a fresh request to make. There are still about twelve sheets of Oper und Drama to correct. I wrote to-day to Weber asking him to send them to you, together with the manuscript. You must see to them for me. I have already given orders to Härtels — who, by the way, have not yet answered me — that you will undertake the correction of my Mittheilung, etc. Don't be angry with me for disposing thus of your time: when I am well again I will in turn correct your articles for Brendel.
From now address me as follows:
"Albisbrunn bei Hausen, im Kanton Zürich."
One thing more! My wife maintains that some of my scores, and in particular of Tannhäuser, were lying about in the rooms of our former house-neighbour, Madame P. So get them. The lady lives where we last lived in Dresden, on the same floor.
Farewell! Let me soon hear from you, and remain good to me.
Your
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 31