Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of October 10, 1880

Overview

R. was pleased by the Flower Maidens greeting for the tenth, while a rainy visit to a photographer’s shop led both of us to tears before an image of the Virgin that prompted thoughts of suffering, ecstasy, and sanctity. I later visited the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo with the younger children while worrying over the older ones, a burden made bearable by R.’s sympathy, and our evening reading of Der Geisterseher ended early from fatigue.

Content

Sunday, October 10:

I hand over my salute to the 10th, and R. is pleased with the missal-like Flower Maidens. I go by myself to the Belle Arti, in spite of the rain, and afterward, beneath the arcades, with R. to a photographer's shop, where I show him a head of the Virgin Mary; it moves us both to tears. I say “Isolde.” He says no, this shows much of the rapture of suffering, which Isolde was spared.

Recently he said that ecstasies of this kind were based on sensuality, that is to say, sensuality was one grade, saintliness another, of a sort which gratified sensuality could never provide.

I visit SS. Giovanni e Paolo with the younger children; the older ones are causing me concern, which I am able to bear only with the help of R.'s deep sympathy.

In the evening he reads Der Geisterseher, but he finds it tiring and we give it up.