My malady really has advanced terribly. Last winter it sometimes vanished altogether and I was free of it for weeks at a time, but now I am in dread of a fresh outbreak every hour and feel the wretchedest of men. This must be altogether changed somehow, and I am doing everything that gives me any promise of it. Dr. Coindet assures me that the strictest dieting and rest are the principal aids.
To sing Fips' praises I should need another whole sheet of notepaper - the little so touchingly well-behaved, friendly beast is obedient and reliable! As the train left Zurich he, sitting on the little table, suddenly began to howl and kept looking in the direction in which you had vanished; he took no notice of me whatever I chose to say to him. He settled down when I got into the diligence and behaved so sensibly and obediently and made himself so unnoticeable throughout the journey that I cannot possibly praise him enough.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 301