Thursday, January 8:
Hans’s birthday - house affairs, in the afternoon Heckel, joined in the evening by Feustel; we learn only now what Councilor D. told Feustel back in December - that the King was incensed with R. because he had not set Herr Dahn’s hymn to the King to music; Herr Dahn had sent R.’s letter to him to the King, and the latter was very incensed by it and had in consequence refused the guarantee!!!
It is confirmed that the subscription has brought in nothing. R. is requested by our friends not to make any public statement, but first to try to wipe out the debts by means of concerts (!!); the report of the management committee would then follow, and after that R. could make his statement. Heckel should approach Herr Wesendonck, taking up his proposal again (signatures and payments, until everything is signed), then approach the Grand Duke of Baden, asking him to form a consortium of princes, which should then issue an appeal to the Reich.
Friday, January 9:
R. writes to the King about the F. Dahn affair. Incidentally, Dahn has taken it badly that R. cannot find the leisure to read his volume of poems now, though R. has told him it is bound in his library, so that he can read it when opportunity arises.
To the King he writes that, if his royal benefactor requires music from him, he hopes he will allow R. to write his own verses for it; also that he did not pay any particular attention to Herr Dahn’s poem, since he gets scores of such requests, and anyway he could have found no melody suitable for such an archaic verse meter. At the same time he told the King of his decision to abandon the performances. This all took place after our good friend Heckel had left.
The lawyer sends my payments, but nothing is said about my capital! In the evening great embarrassment with regard to the house; the question of how to deal with these people is very important - if one just follows one’s heart, as we do, one experiences terrible misunderstandings, and yet one cannot act against one’s own nature. Everything ridiculously unpleasant we now call Felix Dahn. When one considers that the granting of a guarantee hangs from a thread such as this, what an insight one gets into the ridiculousness of this world! The one good thing about it is that with every vexation, every trial, R. and I become even more deeply aware of what we mean to each other. Visit from the dean with Captain v. Volmar - R. unfortunately becomes heated, since the gentleman talks to him about the performances of Die Walküre in Munich.