Dear Friend Heckel,
As (what I should not have expected) you have textually imparted to Herr Knapp my last letter concerning him, and thus placed him in the predicament of applying to himself certain confidential, almost jocular expressions, — I now beg you to make him textually acquainted with this communication of to-day as well.
I entirely absolve Herr Knapp from any suspicion of seeking personal profit from a certain regulation of the Mannheim Court-theatre: I prize his person and his talent; and I declare that, if I felt myself authorised to assist an artist at the expense of my Patrons, I should not have a moment's hesitation in according Herr Knapp the amplest allowance. Only, I here encounter a decision of the Mannheim Theatre-committee which absolutely staggers me. To impose on an artist, who profits nothing by this occasion, a tribute such as can only be claimed from a personal gain — and this in view of an undertaking such as mine, where everything is brought to pass by free-willed sacrifice — betrays an aim and sentiment which make me long to see them publicly chastised.
My Patrons shall not pay this precious Committee their tribute, and so I renounce, and solely upon this ground, the co-operation of our highly-honoured friend Herr Knapp in my Festspiele.
With heartiest greeting I remain
Your
Richard Wagner.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 58