I received your letter yesterday afternoon; it found me again as unfortunate as ever. I will tell you more some time later. I have got erysipelas of the face, am disfigured and neglected. Columbus can hardly be produced before Boxing Day, so, if you approve, it will be in the first half of January. Write at once to Schmale about the copying, etc. I wish you had not given Columbus first to my uncle [Adolf Wagner], the old pedant. And don't invite criticism so pedantically and formally. Say to them, "Come, read and enjoy my Columbus." My uncle's opinion must in any case be very favourable.
Oh, I should have written long ago to my sister [Rosalie] and amazed and delighted her with your Columbus, but I simply must have a letter from you first, for my present pecuniary difficulties are so urgent that, if I do not get a "Yes" from you, I must look elsewhere without delay. Tuesday is the fatal day which I have named as the latest to my creditors. Only think, I owe Schmitt (Rupel), poor fellow, about 30 thalers from Rudolstadt days, and then wine bills, tailors' bills, the accursed rabble of Jews, besides other cash debts, the consequences of my bad habits of life; they all press upon me together, so that I must implore you to hasten to fulfil your ready offer to send me the sum at once.
I am so dejected that I have never told you that my Liebesverbot has long been finished. I am cutting quills again. God grant I am soon in a mood to start work with a clear brain.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 13