O you dear precious friend! It has done my heart good to see your handwriting again. No dearer or more beautiful gift could be made to me than these blessed lines of yours. You cannot guess what sufferings I have been through again, how sad my whole outlook is despite the laughing spring; and I will not torment your dear sympathetic heart by letting you look into this comfortless state of things! It is enough for me to tell you that my wife's state of health has finally become most distressing. She has been with Dr. Erismann at Brestenberg for the last month. So just for the present I am at least in outward peace, even though troubles of various sorts have not left me. But what I have had to endure this winter in this respect alone could only be understood by those who know what these heart sorrows are like.
A few months ago I applied to the Court at Dresden for permission to return for a period to Germany. I have had no answer, but I am told that next year the amnesty question is to be settled as far as Saxony is concerned. So I must be patient. Well, I have resumed the long-interrupted composition of Tristan at the second act. Oh, if only I could immerse myself undisturbed in this work which lies so near my heart till its completion, if I could be spared the vulgar and horrible plagues of my existence, at least till then!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 354