Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of April 3, 1872

Overview

Everyone in the household is unwell, and the children’s hoarseness deepens the sense of strain around R.’s health and work. She writes to Riga about Die Bärenfamilie while worrying over Bayreuth, the unfriendly climate, the uncertain future, and hostile political currents, including the new Emperor. In the evening she shares her anxieties with R., and the day ends in a mood of grief and foreboding.

Content

Wednesday, April 3:

Everyone indisposed, the children hoarse and stuffed up; the climate here does not suit R., and then his thoughts: always “disgust, sorrow, worry, and with it the fear of not keeping up with my work.” I write to Riga regarding Die Bärenfamilie.

Italy, perhaps one day our place of refuge, but very alien to R. And we can also expect nothing in the future, since the next German Emperor, egged on by his mother and his wife, is proving unfriendly, though he was once enraptured by R.’s art! It is all melancholy! We hear from Munich that Rheingold and Walküre are being performed there as a matter of course.

Also, the children are unwell: bringing them up causes me worry and sorrow; I pray that I may discover the right way here. In the evening I confided my worries to R. (In the Italian Rivista, the first public mention of Prof. Nietzsche’s book.)