Monday, August 19:
Letter from Herr v. Gersdorff, reporting very bad things of the Academic Society in Berlin; at the same time a collection of costume sketches for the King from a gentleman in Nürnberg, which are so frightful that they are really funny.
While I am working in the garden with the children I am called in: Frl. Lehmann has arrived. R. gets her to sing something from Lohengrin. Her voice is good and she is musical, but the faults in delivery are incredible.
She and her mother, whom R. has known for more than 40 years, stay for lunch, though we are shocked by the conversation during it: the German Emperor’s behavior with Mme Lucca, who addresses him familiarly on the stage and allows him to fasten her costume. All this makes us sad. Such things do no honor either to the crown or to art.
The women leave at five; R. very, very tired. Late in the evening Herr Niemann. A curious conversation with this actor, everything an object lesson, but not a very heartening one. The crudeness of these creatures is truly frightening, yet there is a solid core in N. But we shall never find another Schnorr!
I read R. a few pages of Samarow’s novel. I go to bed in great sorrow, for R. is very worn out; I fear he will not be able to bear all the exertions.