Dear Friend!
I wonder why I haven't heard anything from you in regard to J. J. Weber's objections, and so nothing at all recently. My letter to Weber, since then, crossed the enclosed one from him to me. As you may see from this document, he pretends never to have been informed by you as to the complete editions of my writings and poems, and to learn now by chance only that this edition should contain the Ring of the Nibelung too. If he is right, I would certainly have to protest that you didn't straighten out this matter on taking over the publishing concern. As you reported to me at that time that Weber would make no objections, owing to your talk with him on that point, I had to believe that he had renounced his copyright. Since then I pleaded earnestly in my last letter to him to forgo his claims for the future, telling him emphatically that the exploitation of that contract, to the effect that he arbitrarily would decide about new editions without consulting me, and thus prevent future editions desired by me, would be disgraceful and infamous. In case he should now behave in such a dishonest way, I request you to approach my old friend, the lawyer Pehschke (my Leipzig "Patron"), and ask him in my name to take the matter in his hands, warn J. J. Weber (after examination of the contract) of its infamy, in a friendly manner, and urge him not to take advantage of it. If this does not help, Herr Pehschke ought to look for possible legal protection against the execution of this contract, and accordingly demand from me power of attorney for judicial proceedings against J. J. Weber. On this occasion Herr Weber's nice behavior toward me in regard to "Judaism in Music" may become the topic of conversation. This with my best and faithful regards to my old friend, whose Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel (or was it a different girl?) I still remember. The printing now doesn't seem to get on well. Does J. J. Weber obstruct everybody? Nice fellows, these publishers!
May God protect you from becoming like them. This as a greeting from your
R. Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 316