My dear friend Heckel,
my work-pot's Deckel!
Herewith I send the papers back,
And hope we all may have no lack!
On the Main
O 'twas fine
in the Wagnerverein!
Music-corps 'hind and before'n,
all blowing the Bayreuther horn!
In Cologne it is equally great,
where splendid affairs we await:
the Wagnervereinian choir
to a lecture by me doth aspire.
Till Thursday I mean to stop here,
then go on to the easterly sphere.
All your sins of omission
shall obtain their remission,
If you fill the pence-bowl;
for the good of your soul!
R. W.
as Monk Tetzel.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 36