Saturday, April 24:
R. had a good night; we laugh over my letter after he has been for a walk and amused himself with lizards. He stops them from flitting away by whistling, and they then look at him with glittering eyes.
Visit from the Duke of Meiningen and his wife. Shortly before that a nice letter from the Cabinet secretary, saying that the King is following R.’s suggestion of changing the theater director. Much consideration, no one to suggest for this position! Thoughts of going back to the Vienna pamphlet and desiring no director at all. Somewhat to my surprise, R. discusses the matter with the Duke and asks him whether, together with the dukedom of Franconia, he would not take over the directorship.
After the visit, to town with R. and Lusch, visit the museum. The portrait of Paul III utterly shocks R.: “Beasts of prey!” he exclaims. Pleasure in the old masters; a Ghirlandajo attracts him, the saint to the left of the onlooker reminds him of Gleizès, “a head like the beginnings of a peach.” Above all a Lucas from Holland, Adoration of the Magi, and a nativity by Dürer. In the former picture the king on the left with the wonderful hood enchants him: “As Nature clothes its creatures, so does the painter clothe his here.” “And how beautifully it is painted!”
We feel quite carried away as we leave the little room in which we have been so refreshed by German spirit, German humor, diligence, and art. We go into Caflisch’s, where R. has a conversation with a young female street urchin, who pleases him with her liveliness and her understanding: “We ought to take her right away and train her as a parlormaid.” He laments the way in which this very gifted people has always been maltreated by conquerors, “because they were good and their country so beautiful!”
Evening on the terrace; the children with us, Siegfried imitating the cries of the street vendors; wonderful moments: “With all these children’s voices one feels as if one were surrounded by birds and grasshoppers!” The noonday hour was splendid, the evening is divine!
I take some notes for my letter to Herr v. Bürkel.