Sunday, March 21:
R. had a bad night; he read the Neapolitan stories from 11 to 2 and then dreamed about Minna: "This time she was enough to upset me." But he dictates to me all the same, and I also have a half-hour sitting for the painter. He gradually begins to feel restored, and gaily tells me about the condottiere who threatened to make the Pope read 100 masses for one cent.
When somebody inquired about the King of Saxony's translation of Dante, R. says, "He called on the scholars of Kladderadatsch for help," and, when Herr V. S. tells us about Prof. Witte the Wunderkind, R. breaks in, "Hence the name Wittekind."
I receive several visitors, and in the evening we read the first scenes from King John and the first act of King Lear.