Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of September 16, 1873

Overview

Feustel reports that the Crown Prince used the King’s jealousy as an excuse to avoid seeing more of Bayreuth, while the couple decide they must deal with the Hohenzollerns more realistically. The weather remains poor and R. struggles both with Die Walküre corrections and the unfinished house, reinforcing their sense that local craft skill is lacking. Their thoughts return to the need for a vocational school with workshops, since artisans are scarce compared with places in Swabia. In the evening, reading Grimm on cremation only confirms their disappointment with the essay’s argument and its overuse of quotations.

Content

Tuesday, September 16:

Friend Feustel tells us that the Crown Prince made the King’s jealousy his excuse for not viewing more things here. Frankness is the order of the day; we agree that at least something has been won by not having to look upon the Crown Princess as if she were God; we must make up our minds to look on the Hohenzollerns as the guardians of the German Reich, and all the rest, impetus and art, the Reich must discover for itself.

Very bad weather; the sun smiled only for the Prince! R. in difficulties with the corrections to Die Walküre, nobody is helping him; with the house, which is making absolutely no progress, nothing but difficulties; the need for a vocational school with workshops is becoming increasingly clear to us, there is no school to be found here, while in Swabia even the tiniest village has them.

In the evening we read Grimm’s essay on cremation and are dismayed by the dreadful piling up of quotations, which make a complete mockery of the argumentation; these confirmations could very well be printed as an appendix.