Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of October 18, 1881

Overview

Richard carried forward his vision of early humanity as gentle and skillful, then shifted at lunch to Schiller, Humboldt, and the almost playful vanity of literary self-comparison. The day itself was small in scale, defined less by events than by these recurring conversations and by the domestic novelty of billiards. In the evening he ended contentedly with the simple pleasure of a successful shot at the red ball.

Content

Tuesday, October 18:

He continues with his theme in the morning, to the extent that he again thinks of human beings at the time they invented language, and he pictures to himself their gentleness, goodness, kindness, and skill. When we come together again at lunch, he plays the little melody to which the tightrope walkers in Eisleben performed their acrobatics, and which he later reconstructed. He speaks of the correspondence between Schiller and Humboldt, and the almost playful impression it conveys when they are investigating whether Schiller resembled the Greeks or not; he also deplores all the musing about verse forms.

In the evening he plays billiards and is pleased at the way he hit the red ball.