Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of August 17, 1881

Overview

Richard spends most of the day bedridden after another disturbed night, the relentless foul weather prompting the sardonic declaration that he would not bother rebuilding the Bayreuth theater if a storm carried it away. Between rest and a brief, tiring attempt at whist, he reads Stein's essay on Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre and remarks that Parisian electrical experiments are steadily turning humanity into idiots. A lighter note surfaces when he playfully likens Lohengrin to a mandrake pulled from a bottle, with the Grail serving as the vessel.

Content

Wednesday, August 17:

The night was not as bad as the previous one for R., but it was still disturbed, and he spends most of the day in bed. The weather is very bad, and R. exclaims, "Oh, if the wind were to carry off the damned theater, I should certainly not build it again." "What else is there on this earth except to love each other?"

When I talk to him about the electrical experiments in Paris, he says, "Yes, we are well on the way to becoming cretins." He reads Stein's article about Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. In the evening he attempts to play whist, but it soon tires him.

Today he gaily compares Lohengrin with the mandrake being pulled out of the bottle, the Grail being the bottle.