Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of October 19, 1875

Overview

The day is filled with visitors and conversation, from Dean Dittmar’s long call to Feustel’s work with R., with a pleasant walk with R. in between. Later, Herr Lalas says goodbye, Greek and the Iliad come up, and the reading ends on a personal note as she remembers her own engagement to Hans eighteen years earlier.

Content

Tuesday, October 19:

Visit from our good dean Dittmar, with whom I have a long conversation; in the afternoon friend Feustel, to go through his report with R. Fine day, a walk with R.; Fidi is always playing railroads: “If not a genius, you’ll at least be a ’gineer.” [A sentence based on untranslatable word play omitted.]

In the evening Herr Lalas comes to say good-bye, and that brings us to the Greek idiom and the Iliad; R. reads us the first canto. Eighteen years ago today I became engaged to Hans!