Sunday, June 29:
R. slept well and at 7 o’clock this morning begins his cure, two glasses of Rakoczy water. (In the Bürgerreuth yesterday he told me his dream: he had to conduct a Beethoven symphony; when he was ready to begin, the first bassoonist was talking to the first oboist; he tried to remonstrate, and the bassoonist gave him a blow on the ear which caused him to fall backward - into the position in which he was lying in his bed!)
The pictures of the golden wedding anniversary sadden us - the old, bent Empress, who does not look benevolent, in a low-necked dress with an enormous train, beside her the Emperor in a tight uniform, around them the Court preachers and the Court officials. “It is nice to see the world in which we live,” says R. In contrast, our theater in its simple grandeur!
A very close day; R. must not excite himself, and so the afternoon sees us already at the whist table, and in the evening, too, with Herr Rubinstein. A very severe thunderstorm clears the air.