Monday, May 19:
R. had a good night, “not unhitched.” We talk gaily about our trials last night; as he recently said, “I should like to know who has anything to offer us.” Then he talks of men who marry early, saying they are lost souls. Frau Schroder-Devrient despised him utterly on that account and accused him of being tied to his wife’s apron strings. Fine weather, he goes for a walk with Eva and Boni, a new route to the Students’ Wood, where they stop for a rest, and a butterfly settles on R.’s scarf and stays there a long time.
In the evening we finish Carlyle’s story of the abbey, which moves us greatly, particularly the exhumation scene. Before that I had the task of informing R. of Semper’s death. Solemn mood, silence, then to Fidi, we are at supper - yes, Fidi, we shall have to hold out a long time, you and I. Aspects of Semper’s character: “What relates to antiquity in the qualities of such a person looks like distortion in our modern world.” R. recalled the supper given by Semper in honor of Tannhäuser; Herr v. Birk was invited, also Meyerbeer, who did not come; a very violent argument between R. and S. Semper: “I am not the only one who thinks like this, there is Birk, too -” They look at him, find him snoring, whereupon much laughter! The end of the day is rendered particularly significant for me by Novalis’s remark about the body, quoted by Carlyle. The poet expresses what the loving heart performs.