Dear Minna,
I should have written you again before this, since receipt of your last letter, if severe indisposition hadn't this time prevented me. On the whole I have regained great confidence in my health since last year; I feel better in many ways than before, and in particular my Kissinger-water cure, combined with the riding, seems to have been of great benefit to my liver. Only, I still am very sensitive and easily put out; most of my illnesses come from that cause. About 4 days ago, then, exactly at my lunch I received a letter of Tichatscheck's informing me of fresh piggishnesses of my Dresden publisher-set touching the full score of Rienzi; the vexation caused me by these dirty tricks came into conflict with my digestion, and so sensitive am I, that I forthwith detected a fatal alteration in my state of health, which also made me susceptible to a chill I caught that evening. Instead of a simple cold, there developed a fever; and, together with the catarrh, this has been plaguing me ever since without cease, making me quite weak on the slightest exertion. Well, that's passing off now; but it really is my nature, and without this great susceptibility I could never be so vividly sentient and creative an artist. Consequently we shall both, dearest Minna, have to pay quite a number of kind and affectionate considerations to one another.
In any case you need them in far fuller measure than I, and it therefore rejoices me to feel so easy on the whole about my own health, that I may count on ample strength to execute the task my heart and mind dictate to me. In any case you're more in need of sparing and indulgence than myself, since you are at once more suffering and your health is more acutely threatened; wherefore I wish for nothing more from you, than that you should pay just so much heed to my susceptibility as is needed to allow me to remain at all times master of myself. In this sense, then, I make one claim on you before all else: You must unconditionally commit yourself to my care and treatment; for it is my duty to bestow that mental and corporeal care on you, poor Wife, with faithfulest affection. And that amounts to this: you must let a great change take place in your previous uncommonly active household management, which now exhausts you so. It would be inexcusable of me, to plant you once more in a manner of living to which, with the best will, you can no longer prove equal. I require no nursing, merely peace around me; but you require more. Ere deciding on Paris, I therefore took mature thought for the means of keeping up a pleasant home here. Concerning the transaction of which I speak, as I have pledged my word of honour on it, I can tell you no more than roughly its subject. You assure me you are not inquisitive, it's true; nevertheless I may remind you that in the matter of publishing the Nibelungen Härtels would never consent to fix an honorarium, but merely offered to divide the future profit with me. Well, I have now found somebody (his name he strictly wishes told to no one) who, in return for assignment of that prospective profit up to the height of the sum advanced, has paid me a small fee in advance for the completed pieces; so that as soon as the Tristan is out I can let the Nibelungen be commenced, whilst I have enough money for the present to cover the great expenses of removal and refurnishing, and also to live for some time longer without encroaching on my receipts to be anticipated from Tristan. Consequently, as according to my latest arrangements the Paris production of Tannhäuser will take place this very winter, I'm looking forward with the greatest calm to handsome and continuous returns, and therefore can also offer you what is indispensable for our renewed life in common. So: —
Once and for all, you are to have nothing more to do with household drudgery. You will be the mistress of the house, you will keep the purse, and everything will and shall go according to your wish; but yourself, you shall exert yourself no more: all you shall do, is to command. Therefore I demand of you, as an irremissible duty which I impose upon you, that you engage for yourself a companion: by which I mean an agreeable young lady to your own liking who is to fill the place of a younger relative (unfortunately denied us). It isn't absolutely necessary that she should speak French; for she is only to be here for yourself, for no one else. It would really be woful if you couldn't find such a girl, as I can't possibly engage you a young lady, who mightn't please you in the end. Surely it only needs your advertising your requirements in this sense repeatedly and plainly, nay, strikingly, in the Tageblatt, or indeed in various newspapers. I don't ask if she can perform any other domestic work, but simply and solely that you shall have a nice sort of daughter about you with whom you can chat, who will read aloud to you, and above all, tend you. I shirk no cost for it, and authorise you in case of need to offer the same terms as an English family would. Our future years cannot cost us more than this last one, believe me; and yet I have come out all right, and shall do, better and better. So — obey me, and don't contradict! It must be! —
I certainly should never have thought of Therese for Paris, as she can't speak French: which really is indispensable for a cook. However, she's a clever girl, and perhaps will soon learn her way about here; if she'll accept, I'm quite agreeable. Write to her quickly, or else I must procure a cook through the Hérold. For my own person I perhaps may succeed in securing a servant who has taken my fancy immensely; and a man of my choice would be a great comfort to me, especially on journeys (which might happen pretty often later on, into Germany.) A person like that is a real need to me; besides which he could make himself very useful in the house, dusting, sweeping and furniture-cleaning (which the cook never does here, but solely the housemaid or garçon), waiting at table, running errands, and so forth. If I can only secure him! He would please you very much as well; he's a native of Berne, speaks German and French. If I don't get him, I shall wait awhile; for I shall only take a man-servant, as said, if he pleases me much and has my full confidence. But taken all together, this won't cost me so much as the attendance and tips of the past year. With my mode of life a valet is the best economy.
— For the rest, I think of leaving our equipment, all the furniture, exactly as at Zurich, and only adding what is absolutely necessary; consequently I hope our outlay on our setting up won't amount to much more than the expenses of transport. — I haven't hired a logis yet, but don't doubt I shall find one to suit; I have meant to wait for Mad. Hérold first. — By the way, don't fret about your French: what you learn without troubling, is all very well; but no one will force you to it. Moreover, I expect to go on living as simply as ever, and shall mostly spend my evenings alone with you indoors, unless Kietz or that sort of friend should drop in on us. You must and shall have rest: rest and coddling! All else is subsidiary.
I shall be unable to add much more to-day, as I still have a good deal of fever, which is increased by exertion; so only a few more remarks. If Frau X told you she found me gone from Lucerne on the 5th of September, she lied: also, it is impossible for anybody to have told her that I left as early as the 3rd. I left the evening of the 6th, as a sum of money I had been expecting luckily arrived that very afternoon. So rectify that, and place no doubt — if you please! — in my statements. — I further hear that Wilh. Heim and the Grand Duke of Baden himself had a hunt for me at Zurich, whilst the Grand Duke spoke very enthusiastically about me to Heim (who serenaded him). I have no answer from Devrient yet; naturally he will have to wait for the Grand Duke's return to go definitively into everything, especially my demands in respect of the band's reinforcement. — I'm much needed here at present for the translation of Tannhäuser and the adaptation of the full score, which I have engaged to supply by the end of October. I must combine all this with Karlsruhe as best I can, and in any case I see plenty of work in front of me. —
Frau Pauline has stuffed you up a bit with that theatre-director from Florence. It was a young Swiss tradesman, who lives in Florence, is an enthusiast of mine, and entertains the remote possibility of giving the Florentines a work of mine to hear some day; I recommended him to hear Rienzi at Dresden, and wrote to that effect to Tichatscheck. That's how you mix things up — you chatterboxes! —
And now farewell, good Mutz. I'm glad Alwine has been to see you again, and found you for once without the Schiffner; may she have had a composing effect on you! I shall write you soon again, and send you true love to-day,
Thy Rich.
The distress you are feeling in your body comes from nervous excitement; I know it myself! Only be at ease, about our future also; believe me, I know what I'm doing if I am preparing for our reunion! So just follow me, too, and rely on my good intention; with me you'll soon feel easier.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 192