Diary Entry of February 6, 1874
With her eyes still too weak for work, the evening reading becomes his responsibility, and even their reflections on Roman heroism carry a bitter political edge. The mention that preparations for `Rienzi` are underway in Venice keeps the broader artistic world in view, but the atmosphere remains constrained by illness and fatigue.
Thursday, February 6:
My eye prevents my reading or writing. R. takes over the reading in the evening. As we are admiring individual acts of heroism among the last of the Romans, R. says, “They go down like men, the French like apes.”
They are preparing to do Rienzi in Venice.