Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of March 27, 1881

Overview

With two children ill and domestic tensions running high over difficulties reaching Hans, Wagner gradually regains his humor over coffee, articulating his favorite maxim about trusting authority in domains beyond his own expertise while relying on his own instincts where he has mastery. The afternoon brings a windswept walk and wistful thoughts about Italy, with the couple weighing whether to abandon Wahnfried entirely rather than see it fall into impersonal hands. The evening continues with Schopenhauer's Will in Nature, preceded by Wagner improvising at the piano, something he says he always finds genuinely pleasurable.

Content

Sunday, March 27:

R. slept well, but we have two children, Boni and Loldi, down with throat infections. Reduced lunch table. R. is annoyed by Feustel’s accounts to me of the impossibility of getting hold of Hans.

But he gradually recovers his spirits, and over coffee he cites an idea which has now become his favorite: “I can make mistakes only in things I understand; in things I do not understand I proceed according to the authorities, and so I shall make no mistakes in my strategy.”

Recently he said that he would trust himself to know when to deliver the final blow in a battle, and I can well believe it.

Walk to the Birk after Jouk's costume designs have been accepted. A strong wind is blowing, proving very troublesome, constant thoughts of Italy.

Whether to give up here entirely - but in that case R. would want to burn everything down, for he would find it too painful to see alien, common furnishings here, as in Tribschen.

In the evening continued with The Will in Nature after R. related several things from Gobineau and read aloud the song of a pariah from Jacolliot.

Before today’s reading R. improvised beautifully, and he says he always enjoys doing it.