Friday, May 31:
R. had his first good night! Great gladness on this account. Up till now his mind was always filled during the night with the 9th. I work with the children and answer letters (M. Maier, etc.). Claire Charnacé writes about my mother, whose condition is still bad.
R. drives into town to deal with various things; the mayor is happy about the success of the festival and is utterly devoted to R.
I walk to the Schweizerei with the children and our friends. Returning home, I am perturbed by a notice in the A.A.Z. Herr Weissheimer’s opera (Theodor Körner) has been performed. The reviewer says one can tell from the sound of it that the composer belongs to the “music of the future” and has joined the Bayreuth camp with bag and baggage, and that no doubt had opened the doors of the Munich opera house to him.
Indignant over this despicable distortion of the facts, I conceal this latest piece of malice from R., for Herr W., furious with R. for not wanting to recommend his Körner to the King of B., severed his connections with R. in the most offensive way, and it was this breach which won him the support of Herr von Perfall. Now that this attempt has come to grief, they try to extricate themselves in this way!
In the evening we read Gottfried Keller’s legends; initially I find them quite pleasing, but then the manner of relating ecstatic experiences in tones of bonhomie becomes very repugnant to me. “Goethe told legends in a different way,” says R.