Dear Friend,
The delay is most unpleasant to me, also that you did not see at once about my letter to Härtels: it contains a business memorandum which had nothing to do with the sending of the pianoforte score. Despatch the letter at once, and explain to Härtels the delay in the forwarding of the same.
I can have nothing to do with L.; however unwillingly I part with everything out of this opera, still I would rather send off the whole score to put an end to formalities. Keep it by you till the pianoforte score is finished, and then await further instructions from me. Send the finished first act of the pianoforte score at once to Härtels, so that they can begin to print; tell them at the same time when they are likely to receive the second act, and so on. Write to Härtels that I should be pleased if they commenced printing at once.
Who is Riccius? I wish that any one knowing up to now so little about me — as, for instance, not even to have seen the score of Tannhäuser — would write nothing about me; under the most favourable circumstances he will write in a confused and uncertain manner.
Do try and persuade the man to wait until my new book appears: it will, I think, soon be out.
To-day is the great Zurich festival: I am going to the banquet, and have to make haste.
Adieu! Greetings to your family.
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner's Letters to His Dresden Friends, Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, and Ferdinand Heine, trans. J. S. Shedlock (Scribner & Welford, 1890), No. 25