Dear Friend,
I'm sorry for Seidel's sake that you are not Stadtrath [town-councillor] as he swore you were.
Have you no other handsome, slim, tall lady?
We go first to Vienna, and then — perhaps — on to Pesth. We start on the 20th, and in Vienna shall stop at Standthartner's, in the Town-infirmary. I'm afraid you could only get a room there as town-patient. Rehearsals and concert are free to you — of course. In return, however, you must call out da capo for one number. I'll tell you which.
Knapp is snap!
Best greetings to and fro!
Your
Richard Wagner.
Stadtrath.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 57