Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of November 17, 1880

Overview

We traveled back to Bayreuth in lively spirits, joking through an unpleasant rail journey and receiving warm welcomes on arrival. Once at Wahnfried, the homecoming felt strangely unreal, and by evening R. grew irritable with visitors and talk of redecorating before finally settling down.

Content

Wednesday, November 17:

Cheerful rising with much talk from R. in Saxon dialect. "If you do not go to Die Meistersinger," he says, "you will not get typhus." Friend Levi at the station to see us off. Cheerful spirits in the saloon carriage, though somewhat impaired by the bad rail journey. Otherwise much joking about the dreary scenery.

First greetings from our beflagged theater; Moritz and Fuchs wave to us. In Bayreuth we are met by our doughty friends Feustel, Gross, and the mayor's wife, the mayor being ill. Marke at Wahnfried. Everything in good order, a curious feeling: Have we been away? Are we back? Neither seems real.

In the evening the Wolzogens. R. run down, because of either the heat or the unsympathetic elements, very irritable, and when there is talk about decorating the walls of the salon, perhaps with Gobelins, he almost loses his temper. But he calms down before going to bed.