Tell me, good Mutz, what ever prompts you to such curious letters as this last of yours again to-day? Whilst I am nothing save concern for you and delight at soon having you with me again, you charge me with all kinds of preposterous things! Luckily I see it can repose on nothing but misunderstandings, which I may soon and easily clear up for you by mouth. Thus, that good, perpetually excited and exaggerating A. may have recently put something in your head again — with the best intention, of course, but not at any rate with due regard to your excitability. Nor have I truly anything against the P., and I am firmly convinced she means well by you; but she certainly has not understood how to keep useless excitement aloof from you: I simply go by the last letter you imparted to me, for instance, in which she entreated you to entreat myself to entreat the King, in turn, and so on. You, foolish woman, say that doesn't excite you: but what, then, is keeping you in that eternal unrest which Pusinelli has so sorely complained of again to me? — And was not that unsettlement, for instance, altogether futile? — But let that be, and see no ill in my doubt of your present surroundings in Dresden — though with that itself I already am saying too much — and badly as you may think of men, and in particular of your husband's want of character, yet a little masculine society will do you good, and mine, please believe me, for certain. —
Tichatscheck's announcing to me Lüttichau's payment of the fee was imperative, because I should otherwise have seen myself obliged to send you more money from here. How can you misinterpret that? —
Now to the point. Frau Heim has written me at last, confirming Therese's inability to leave her place before the 11th inst. Consequently it abides by your wish, and you'll order Therese to meet you. I give it you to ponder once again, however, whether you wouldn't do better to follow my wish and travel by Cologne: whether Therese comes to Frankfort or Cologne, makes no great difference; but an express goes from Cologne to Paris, with every compartment first class, consequently Therese could sit with you and take care of our animals. The fastness of this train is much to be recommended. For that matter, if I prefer your reaching here at 9, instead of 11 o'clock, dear Minna, I am by no means studying my convenience (it isn't nice of you to make me such an imputation!) but rather your own, or in general our mutual interest not to spoil our first re-welcome by a too protracted sleepless night, which necessarily draws after it a day of some malaise. On the whole I'm sleeping well now, and one night sacrificed is a bagatelle to me; but after such a tiring journey it seemed to me a point to be considered for yourself, and your having seen nothing but a consulting of my own convenience in this forethoughtful sparing of you — which even the blindest might recognise — simply shews me how needful it is that you are coming to me soon. Moreover, in my wanting not to meet you at the frontier, but to receive you here instead, you also seem to detect nothing but my own convenience. This time I stick to it, however, that I shouldn't care to pass the earliest day of our reunion in a railway-carriage, in company with every chance fellow-traveller; for every reason that concerns our Wiedersehen I prefer escorting you direct from the station to your own abode, where you at once will find rest and home-comfort, and both of us no interruption. —
Give way to my wish, or adhere to your will, i.e. travel via Cologne or by Strassburg (please not via Metz: that's a vile train!), in either case you now can call Therese to your side and I shall know you're well looked after. I shall meet you at the station here, and take my steps to have your luggage cleared as quick as possible. At any rate I shall get one more letter from you, in addition to which I beg you to telegraph to me en route, either from Cologne or from Strassburg, the exact time of your arrival. —
Beyond that I have nothing of urgence to tell you; I wrote you about a few other things the day before yesterday. —
Dear old Fischer's death has deeply grieved me; but I will not tell you how I'm shattered by these constant sad and doleful tidings: nothing whatever encouraging appears to happen now. The more reason for your trusting me, that in our mutual trust we both may find the strength to bear life's griefs and burdens steadfastly together. For the rest, I implore you, at this our re-meeting itself please avoid all exciting emotions, even that of joy: let us strive to preserve calm and composure; let us gladly accept the good that is unravelling for us from our tangled life, but simply rejoice in this reunion as though it were a Wiedersehen after a long journey by one or other of us. By letter we have uninterruptedly told each other everything, and consequently never ceased living together; therefore we shall have absolutely nothing more of weight or moment to say by mouth, but merely many less important details to fill in, which get neglected in a letter, but find their proper place by word of mouth when one is much together. Consequently we shall have much to tell each other, much to narrate, but nothing of very particular moment, the latter having been promptly disposed of all along between us; so we shall have much to talk of, much to chatter, but may hold all agitating things at arm's length with good conscience and without dissimulation. So arrive here in thoroughly good heart, serene and confident: you'll find plenty still to see to, but nothing fatiguing will await you. All gloom has now dispersed behind our backs: then let us look towards a bright and cloudless gloaming.
I will attend to the Homage to Fischer, and hope to set about it tomorrow.
Farewell, be good and calm!
Thy Richard-man (alas, no woman).
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 198