Thursday, March 17:
R. had a good night; he woke up with the intention of singing to the children a students’ drinking song, which he sings to me while still in bed.
Around midday he comes up to my room, thinking that I would also have read the Bayreuther Blätter; the fact that I have not yet received a copy is a disappointment which finds expression in a kind of vexation. He praises the “Open Letter” so highly that I feel quite ashamed. We go for a walk as far as the little wood, larks fluttering in the air! R. is amused by a hare, and on our homeward journey the little town looks cheerful in the sunshine.
In the evening some whist and Don Giovanni; of the mask trio R. says, “That is what I always strove to emulate in my youth.” He laments all the mixing up of beautiful music and mere strumming, and finally sings to us the final scene, the Stone Guest, to the admiring astonishment of us all. He then shows us how it is the poet who is responsible for bringing forth such music!