Herewith I send you Don Felix, who has kept me faithful company till now. He's bringing you the Schiller, much of which (as you may easily imagine) has deeply affected me. Your note of to-day was very satirical, to be sure, but still it rejoiced me, as testifying to your high spirits. I feel in quite passable health these few days; the landlord at Brunnen declared he had never seen me looking so well, as now. A pleasantly confident mood has inspired me with projects, about which I perhaps shall soon give you to decide whether they're monstrous or perfectly natural. We shall see. — Don Felix pronounces the third act of the Tristan still finer than the second. I entreat you to give him a good dressing for that. Am I to tolerate that sort of thing?
I have heard nothing new from the "world," and am still in the thick of the "wood." There flit all kinds of Nibelungs and sleeping Valkyries. I have promised Don Felix some Wotan this morning, as a last farewell; he shall report to you how it turns out.
To your cow you must soon add a lamb, and if possible, a pretty goat as well. That absolutely must be. — Yesterday I feared Vreneli was sickening for the nervous fever, and wanted to take energetic steps against it; but she's better to-day. I think I shan't catch it myself, although it is now epidemic here. — Greet your Elves-hill and all that live thereon, and remember me!
Your R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), No. 94