Saturday, September 18:
Tired from looking after Siegfried through the night. Letter from a Herr Schäfer, who has drafted a very stupid statement for Richter. Unfortunately one’s friends are rarely of much help.
I write to Claire and Rothschild. R. still busy with Bernhard von Weimar.
In the evening visit from Professor Nietzsche, who tells me of the most licentious things in the newspapers. Among much else it is asserted that the performance of Das Rheingold is connected with a plot whose strings can be sought in the Tuileries. W. is said to have made an alliance with the Catholic party; the proof: Frau von Muchanoff, whose daughter is a radical supporter of the Catholics, and so on. All this rubbish is screamed across the world in order to prevent people’s recognizing the incompetence of the theater management with regard to Das Rheingold.