Mornex, near Geneva, 12th July, 1856. I have fled here at last, you see, to seek for health. I could not but laugh when the excellent kapellmeisterin anxiously and compassionately gave warning of the arrival of the Moscheles family in Zurich! Well, I am safe from such evils! No outsider can have the ghost of an idea of the sacrifices of people like us in intercourse with heterogeneous folk entirely strange to us, nor of the sorrows and torments induced thereby. Once more the tortures of this society have now become positively the most grievous of all to me; I plot how to isolate myself, force myself to be alone and scheme how to achieve this. When at the end of May I was actually upon the point of fleeing, Tichatschek suddenly came to see me; the good fellow with his excellent childish heart and lovably limited little brain was a real pleasure to me and his enthusiastic attachment really did me good. His voice, in particular, still delighted me much and I felt that I might make use of it yet. I wanted to drive him out to Brunnen but our project was delayed by bad weather and when at last we ventured I incurred on the journey my twelfth attack of erysipelas. I felt this would happen, and consequently was in a perpetual torment of anxiety throughout Tichatschek's twelve-day visit. This abominable disease has brought me very low; during May alone, I had three attacks and even now not an hour passes without my being in fear of a fresh outbreak. So I am not fit for anything and it is now obvious that I must take thorough means towards recovery. It is necessary for this that I should follow a meticulously strict regime as regards diet and habits of life in general, as the slightest disorder of the stomach or bowels reacts immediately upon my disease.
There is a piano, too, if not of the best kind, in my salon; I shall, I hope, soon pluck up courage again to begin Siegfried. First of all, however, your scores shall be thoroughly inspected. What a packet you have sent me! Of course I have been yearning to get some of your new works for a long time, and yet now these riches almost embarrass me and it will take time to appraise them properly. Ah, but to do that I should have to hear them, to have you play them to me; it is all very well to read things of the kind, but the real salt, the distinctive essence which resolves all doubt, can only be enjoyed through actual hearing. But the Mazeppa is frightfully beautiful! I was quite out of breath only reading it through for the first time. I am sorry for the poor steed too; nature and the world are, after all, terrible. I would really rather write poetry now than compose; such perseverance on one thing takes an enormous amount of obstinacy. I have two more marvellous subjects which I must carry out some day - Tristan and Isolde (you know that!) and then Victory - the holiest, most perfect deliverance; but I cannot tell you about that. I should give it a different significance from Victor Hugo's, and your music has suggested it to me only, not the conclusion. I care nothing at all for greatness, fame and national power.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 306