Thursday, February 14:
R. tells me that three mornings ago he saw a spider in his dressing room and, with thoughts of "dire warning," shooed it away; this morning he found it drowned in the bath! We laugh and recall that spiders have been his messengers fairly often.
A man in Rostock sends us an article about Die Walküre in Schwerin, written with much good will and some correctness, though with gross blunders in it - for example, though the "Magic Fire" was so beautifully artistic here, they would prefer to see actual flames before their eyes!
Bad political news: the British are reported to have forced the Dardanelles, which suggests an alliance with Austria! If that happens, France will not remain idle, and then we shall have a general war on our hands! Speaking about it, R. says, "Hardly has Prof. Haase been paid off when my royalties go up in smoke, for it will be the end of Austria." I observed that Herr von Hülsen would then become master in Vienna as well.
Letter from Herr Rudolphi, the theater manager in Brunswick. R. replies, advising him against producing the Tannhäuser. In the evening I take Lusch to a ball, hand her over to a friend there, and return home at 8:30 to find R. playing Parsifal with Herr Seidl. They start again for me, singing and playing the first act up to Gurnemanz's great narration. In distant places the ambiguous, noisy success of his works; here in tranquillity the unfolding and blossoming of this divine flower. May Heaven grant us this tranquillity a little longer! I pray and pray, calling on God for help. How well I know that all my sufferings are deserved, I know it and bear it in silence with a heavy heart. Prayer and work! In my absence the children begged, through Fidi, to be allowed to listen to Parsifal, saying it is so beautiful!