Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of June 16, 1872

Overview

After a night crowded with frightening dream images, the morning clears enough for her to be in the garden with the children and write to Malwida while R. returns to work. The Svendsens visit, adding a pleasant note, and the general appears again in the evening, though this time only briefly before leaving. In the afternoon she reads Hermann und Dorothea and feels that the hexameter weakens Goethe’s naturalness. R. agrees, using the moment to reflect on how awkward and searching much supposedly classical German art really is.

Content

Sunday, June 16:

Wild night filled with nightmarish images! But the morning is fine. I in the garden with the children, write to Malwida M., while R. gets down again to his work. God give him blessings and peace!

Later, walk with the Svendsens, who are thoroughly nice people. Late in the evening the “general,” but, thank God, to take his leave.

In the afternoon I read Hermann und Dorothea and felt that the hexameter form does much to impair the impression of a splendid naivete in Goethe’s characters. R. agreed with me and said, “One sees by that to what extent everything with us was a seeking and groping; the people who don’t understand call it classical, since it uses a Greek form which does not suit it at all and which gives everything an air of affectation.”