[...] I am in a very ill humour. A month ago I was burning to begin composing The Valkyrie and wanted to write forthwith to Sitten refusing, but kindly consideration prevented my doing so. I set out, planted myself on Karl on Lake Geneva, spent two days of atrocious boredom at Sitten till I was surfeited with the whole pack and then, not wishing to make an exhibition of myself, departed all of a sudden without leave-taking. I looked up Karl and Hornstein. From Geneva at last I visited the former at his villa and there met Hornstein. I found the foolish [...] a great joke. I took an interest in his sonatas and in his rendering of them. I advised him to make a fair copy of six for publication, to which I would lend my willing aid. It is very dull at Karl's for any length of time and, besides, I would rather that his wife did not remind me so much of "Drasen." Still, I don't altogether dislike her, but I wonder how long Karl will carry on with her. That between ourselves!—After spending a fortnight on the Seelisberg on the Lake of Lucerne, where my wife was taking a cure, back I come feeling very annoyed about three wretched weeks spent away from my work. It is all over for me—I have nothing to hope for from without, by way of change of scene, etc., and if I haven't my own work to fall back upon I am done for. But out of sheer vexation I dare not trust myself to begin again as yet.—
I would have sent you a part of The Rhinegold by now if it were not for a scoundrel of a copyist here who keeps me waiting for copy. [...]
It is a good thing that you are so enthusiastic about Fräulein Johanna Wagner.—You save me the trouble. [...]
Why have you not included in the March from Tannhäuser (as a trio—like Liszt) the Entry of the Minstrels (G major) and the Pageboys (E flat major)? I thought you would grasp the complex of melodies as a whole picture. Otherwise there is no meaning in such an arrangement. The actual opera must be given up altogether.—Boom told me it ought to play well—but I did not see it.—[...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 266