Sunday, September 12:
He got up once during the night and is somewhat agitated; he also speaks of a soreness in his ear, he fears it might be a small abscess.
Talked a lot at breakfast about Egmont; he finds it curious the way the scenes suddenly break off; for example, the scene between the regent and Machiavell, they could have gone on talking together for a long time; also the way in which Orange comes to Egmont, Egmont to Alba, and they start talking right away without any introductory greeting: “Schiller was much more at home with the dramatic form.” He laughs over the manner in which Egmont was received in Weimar and says: “They must have asked themselves whether the relationship was a platonic one. But seriously,” he adds, “there is no way of telling whether it was not just a need in Egmont for an intimate love relationship. It is not openly expressed as with Faust and Gretchen, where all the power of sensuality is depicted.”
He rules lines and is in good spirits. Toward evening, following the thunderstorm, we all set out on a walk which gives us much pleasure. R. is delighted with the countryside, its richness, its beautiful lines.
In the evening Schopenhauer’s chapter “A Man’s Place in the Estimation of Others,” read aloud by R. When we are talking about the attachment of certain Jews to R., he says, “Yes, they are like flies, the more one drives them away, the more they come.”