[...] You probably know enough already about the Karlsruhe enterprise. Devrient has thought well to excuse the consequences of his utterly inadequate and negligent handling of the idea of a first performance of Tristan at his theatre, by declaring the work impossible to produce. I am not answering that, either. What am I to say? I know my fate and my position—and am silent. It is a more serious matter to measure the effect on my livelihood of thus cutting off my new work from the roll of the living. [...]
My wife has just arrived. She is somewhat better, and I hope things will go tolerably well with me. She did not complain, but mentioned that you had been in Dresden without visiting her; I did my best to comfort her on the point. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 447