Heartiest thanks, dear Theodore, and these less for the matter itself than for your quick and gentle way of settling such things and passing on. But what the devil are you about with these eternal illnesses of yours? My opinion is that you use your powers too little. Illnesses keep off me pretty well, though often enough there is the smell of the sick-room in my inside.
You ought to have seen me during the fortnight that Minna was away from me. Great God, how the girl, without actually intending it, has enslaved me! She has come back for my sake although a brilliant engagement was offered her in Berlin. My brother-in-law Wolfram was in Berlin at the same time as she, stayed in the same inn with her, and was her hourly companion and protector; and he, who had been violently prejudiced against her, was so converted by her love for me and her irreproachable bearing that he writes to me: remain true to her; if any woman deserves it, she does!
She made a sensation in Berlin. She has refused more than four offers of marriage made her at short notice. Come soon and see us. You will meet a better opera company here than you are likely to see for many a day. They really are a joy. I am unbelievably industrious now and have actually only three more big numbers of the opera to work on.
Laube has written two new books, one a novel, Die Schauspielerin. I am extremely fond of Laube; he has a brain and a heart, and he is a delightful fellow.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 28