I am just rising tentatively from the sick-bed in which I have just spent another three weeks. Karl Ritter has told you of my condition; my thorny existence has now blossomed in roses. I am suffering from repeated attacks of erysipelas of the face. At best I shall not be able to go out of doors again this year, and I shall have to spend the whole winter in constant fear of relapses, for the slightest excitement together with the least chill is certain at any moment to lay me on my back again for two or three weeks.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 293