Saturday, September 21:
R. had a good night and goes to his work; I listen with Malwida to a reading of part of Herr Lipiner’s “Renatus” and am amazed at its aberrations. At lunch R. says he has crossed out everything he did yesterday. When we meet in the afternoon he tells me: “It must be in F time.” Then, when I tell him my impressions of today’s reading, he says, “One should regard it as the vision of a starving man,” thereby correctly indicating the standpoint to be adopted here, so that I at once resolve to listen to the continuation of the reading in a different spirit.
In the evening we take up an essay by Prof. Dühring about the universities, very correct in its views but not very well written and not suitable for our Blätter; R. wants it to be printed separately, and he would then draw attention to it himself in the Blätter. He laughs: “On the one hand so many books, on the other so many professors, whereas universities only made sense when books were rare!” The attached telegram gives him pleasure. [Headed “Leipzig, September 21,” it reads: “Holy Ghost descends on Unger, first act just completed, tremendous applause, five curtain calls, everyone amazed — Seidl.” The reference is to a performance of Siegfried.] When no telegram comes about the second act, R. pretends he has received bad news and goes “weeping” to Malwida’s door to lament, thus bringing the evening to an end in great merriment. R. and I still find time to express our surprise and pleasure at the popularity of this gigantic work: in Munich Götterdämmerung is reported to have aroused frenetic applause.