[...] I have completely finished the poem of my Young Siegfried. I am very pleased with it, and anyhow it is what I was bound to do at the moment and the best that I have done up till now. I am really happy about it!
With my vehement method of working I am always somewhat done up at the finish, and I must now take a short time to recover. I cannot make up my mind just at present to make a copy for you. [...]
One thing more! In my last letters I have entirely forgotten to mention the Härtel affair. Upon a sudden whim I approached Breitkopf and Härtel about Lohengrin. [...] I was bold enough to ask them to print the score! First they accepted my offer of the pianoforte arrangement. I insisted again on the full score too. [...] For a long time I heard nothing. To-day Härtel's write me that they [...] are prepared to print the full score too. How has that come about? Now that they have given in to me it seems to me almost fabulous—the full score of an opera which has been given only in Weimar!!—
What do you think? Can I really expect such a thing of these people? There is a nobility about it which, I feel, puts me to shame! I am almost inclined not to take advantage of Härtel's readiness on Lohengrin's behalf, on condition that they print the full score of Young Siegfried instead. This child of mine, that I first begot and have yet to bear—lies naturally nearer my heart than Lohengrin, for it should be stronger and healthier than the latter. If Härtel's issue the score of Lohengrin now, the profits on it will be so slight that any desire of theirs to print the score of Young Siegfried will perish utterly. [...] What do you think then? [...] Shall I reserve Härtel's offer for Siegfried and give up Lohengrin? I can hardly believe that both together would be possible. Advise me!—[...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 205