Saturday, November 13:
The finishing touches to the study. R. did some work on the second essay on conducting. He wants to write to the King again, to describe to him all we have been through, then describe all he is to him, what he owes to him, how without him he would never have been able to get down to his work, and finally to ask him to have nothing performed for the time being, to ignore the theater completely for a while. I ask R. not to send it yet.
In the afternoon visit from Professor Nietzsche, who tells me it is quite incredible what lies are circulating in the world, both written and spoken, about R. (how, for instance, he stands before a mirror in an effort to equate himself with Goethe and Schiller—then about his luxury, his harem, his intimacy with the King of Bavaria, whom he incites to all his follies, etc.). We wonder what picture of him will go down in posterity.
In the evening R. reads me his essay. In the morning Lulu had a letter from her father, who is now living in the Villa d’Este.