Dear Old Fellow,
Do not be angry with me if I do not write to you to-day, but only announce an order to you.
Let the Coburg Court Theatre direction have the Tannhäuser, etc., as soon as possible.
In a few days I finish Das Rheingold, my first score since ever so long. My zest for work at last became so great that I put off all letter-writing until I had completed it. So expect shortly — and Heine also — a proper letter (also a money-order). For the present you must pay out! Forgive me! You understand!
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. 125