Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of February 22, 1870

Overview

The absence of Vienna reviews for Die Meistersinger leaves Wagner and Cosima suspicious of illness or malice. Wagner jokingly casts himself as a composing machine among Cosima’s many burdens, acknowledging how much she tends both him and the children. Robinson Crusoe leads Cosima to brood on the suffering of great men, while Aristophanes supplies the evening’s reading.

Content

Tuesday, February 22:

We are surprised to have received no reviews from Vienna of Die Meistersinger (due to illness or malice?). In the morning R. says to me: “You poor creature, having to look after so many things! First come I, the composing machine — there you have to take care that it is properly oiled and doesn’t squeak — and then the dozen children, who all have to be trained.”

Lulu reads me Robinson Crusoe, and this excellent book reminds me once more of the fate of great men: Daniel Defoe in the pillory — how dreadful!

In the evening The Wasps by Aristophanes.