Friday, August 8:
Prof. Nietzsche’s pamphlet attacking Strauss has arrived; reading it eagerly. The King inquires whether it is true that the performances have been postponed until ’75! Besides that, many stupid things: a man in Vienna who, as an admirer, deplores the idea of making corrections in the Eroica; a Netherlands Society sends an invitation to a performance of a work by a certain Herr Bennett, a German endeavor which all German artists must support. “As if all one has to do is to say, ‘I intend to make German music’!” R. laughs, adding that victories only help to spread mediocrity. The head master gives me good reports on the children. At the new house, no swift progress, but the tomb is finished! In the evening read Nietzsche’s Strauss; R. remarks that, on top of everything else, the glorification of philistinism is copied from the English.
Saturday, August 9:
R. did not have a good night, and he still does not get to his work; he replies to the King and has a lot of corrections to make in the proofs of the 9th volume. In the morning and afternoon I arrange Malwida’s new apartment, which tires me a little. A Dr. Bree from Vienna reports to R. all sorts of curious things, such as that the newspapers will not accept the advertisements of the Academic Wagner Society, that no announcement of our roof-raising ceremony was made anywhere, etc. At the new house, where much vexation always awaits us.