[...] I am really angry with myself for having burdened you—over-indulgent friend that you are—with the Härtel affair as well. Forgive me! It's over now and—God willing—you shall never be involved in such Jew-business again. It is true that for the moment I am in a desperate situation—but that must not trouble you! As to Härtel's, I await the occasion of being able to applaud their nobility. Besides, they do not understand the matter, they have no power of discrimination [...]. There is nothing to be done with them and indeed I would rather not have anything to do with such people. [...]
I am spinning myself round like a silkworm, but I am also spinning something out of myself. I have written no music for five years. I am in Nibelheim now; Mime made his plaint to-day. Unfortunately I was seized with another violent feverish cold last month, which kept me from work ten days, otherwise I should have finished my first draft this year. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 251