Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of May 15, 1881

Overview

Richard passes a restorative Sunday reading Gobineau and enjoying a long, leisurely afternoon in the garden with Count Gobineau, delighting in the greenery and swapping animal anecdotes. The evening turns literary as he reads aloud from his autobiography the passages on Bakunin, pleased that Cosima shares his satisfaction with what he wrote about that figure.

Content

Sunday, May 15:

In the morning R. thinks of the Ring and is pleased with it, including Das Rheingold. He looks run down, and I fear the quinine he is taking does not agree with him. He reads Gobineau, and, in the afternoon, spends a long time with me in the garden. He takes pleasure in the fresh greenery and the animals, and, when Count Gobineau comes to join us, a great many stories are related, including anecdotes about falcons.

We sit in the garden until nearly 7 o’clock. In the evening R. reads from his biography the passages relating to Bakunin. He shares my pleasure at having written what he has about this personality.