Dear Minna,
My time's most excessively occupied, as you may well imagine; for a few days to come I shan't belong to myself. Merely thus much: everything is shaping well, good will is past all doubt now. January Tristan — I believe, for certain! —
Only a petition: — J. J. Weber of Leipzig would like to put my portrait, copperplate, in his edition of the Nibelungen. I am writing him either to get the oil-painting — undoubtedly the best likeness of me — sent to Leipzig by yourself (for a short time), or to give orders to an engraver in Dresden. In either case I wished to let you know that the picture will be requested of you for a little while in one way or the other. — By the time you receive it back I hope to have also got so far as to be able to order a nice frame for it; just as I only need to muster up courage again, to put a thorough stop to our hard-upness in general. —
Have hopes of a speedy remittance! Greet everyone. Keep strong, and rejoice me with good reports on your health! With all his heart
Thy
Once more: Richard.
Weihburggasse, Kaiserin Elisabeth.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 262