Wednesday, October 22:
R. slept well; much to-ing and fro-ing with Herr von Weber about the open letter, which is to be published in the B. Blätter as well as in separate copies. The Conservative party appears to be supporting the antivivisection movement; also, R. read to us yesterday an advertisement for the new periodical Die deutsche Wacht, containing an attack against Israel; R. thinks it well done. First lesson today for Fidi; the elements of geometry, and planing with a cabinet maker.
R. and I feel as if we are dreaming, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship Years and Travels now being translated into reality here - God grant that the noble spirit of our young teacher and friend will now gradually begin to feel at home with us and abandon all this modern rubbish! He is touchingly zealous in his approach to his task. “There is a real devil in you,” R. tells him with a laugh, encouraging him to be merry.
In the evening the third act of Coriolanus; after the scene between C. and Volumnia we have to break off to exchange exclamations of admiration and to point out various details; and with cries of “Shame!” for Volumnia’s disjointed ravings and utter lack of control, we acknowledge that one can never know these works too well; the poet’s urge to reveal this character in all its shadings up to the point when even the highest breaks beneath the weight of wretchedness.