Mornex, near Geneva, 23rd June, 1856. Just imagine - I have had three returns of erysipelas during May and early June! It has been quite impossible to think of work under such conditions, and even now I must not propose anything of the kind before the end of my cure in the middle of August. I need not tell you how this distresses me! However, in the late summer I will make up for it by attacking Siegfried with renewed vigour, so that you shall get some manuscript from me again.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 304