Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of July 28, 1879

Overview

He remains productive while she prepares for her father’s visit and tries to make sense of the sadness in letters from an ailing acquaintance. The day includes a small success in securing employment for someone old in the troupe, but also a stretch of despair that finally gives way to shared laughter in the evening.

Content

Monday, July 28:

R. slept well, and I am again in control of myself! He works, I prepare the apartment for my father. Letters from poor Herr Tappert, wasting away in Berlin - how to help him? It is utterly sad, looking at the outside world!

R. has the satisfaction of securing an engagement for Herr Zumpe, the oldest member of the Nibelungen Kanzlei, in Frankfurt a/M. R. works, but spoils his whole morning by reading the libretto of Die Königin von Saba and looking at the music.

I pay some calls, and when I come home I find friend W. and Herr Schloemp, the publisher from Leipzig, and R. in a kind of despair, which makes us laugh, however, when we are again united and face the hardship together! In the evening whist and - chat.