Do not look for a copyist for me. Madame Wesendonck has presented me with a golden pen, of indestructible writing power, which has made me again a pedant in calligraphy. These scores will be my most perfect masterpiece in exquisite handwriting! One cannot evade one's destiny. There was a time when Meyerbeer used to admire nothing in my scores so much as the neat script, and this admiration has fastened upon me like a curse! I must write neat scores so long as I live on earth! You are to have The Rhinegold, but you shall not set eyes on it till it is in the worthy form I contemplate, and I shall make no progress with that till after many leisure hours in the long winter evenings, for I cannot delay over it now. I must set to upon the composition of The Valkyrie, which I am gloriously full of.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 263