Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 2, 1874

Overview

R. remains physically drained, so the household shifts around his weakness while the writer seeks calm among the plants in the conservatory. Beneath the domestic routine lies the heavier burden of political and financial uncertainty, and the evening reading of Luther offers only a stern, austere kind of solace.

Content

Friday, January 2:

The night passed tolerably, but in the morning R. is very weak and in need of the utmost care. I take over the supervision of the house and settle myself in the conservatory both morning and afternoon. The plants have a very calming effect on me, but at home I find R. still weak and depressed. The uncertainty in which the King has left him absolutely oppresses him.

In the evening we at last take up our Luther again; R. entirely approves of his strictness toward the members of the Reformed Church, if the mystery about which one really should not speak had to be formulated, then in this way.