Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of November 4, 1881

Overview

Though the unfamiliar beds made for a poor night, the sight of Naples blazing in morning light swept away discomfort and opened a day of reunion, driving, and departure by sea. Cosima moved through it under a cloud of melancholy, reading ominous meaning into a broken watch, while Richard threw himself into maps, observation, and sardonic remarks about the suffering he saw around him. The shipboard crossing began in moonlight and inconvenience, ending at dawn with Richard likening Cosima among the sleeping children to Hecuba with her dead.

Content

Friday, November 4:

Not a very good night for R. because of the unfamiliar beds, but soon forgotten. Naples in blazing light stretched out before us! I am oppressed by feelings of melancholy, for which I reproach myself, and when R.'s watch falls to the ground and stops, it seems to me like a punishment for my apprehension.

Prof. Schron comes to greet us, and then we drive, R., I, and Fidi, the others having gone ahead, to the Villa d'Angri. Reunion with our good gardeners, then we drove as far as the Villa Postiglione around 3 o'clock. At 5, drive via Pizzofalcone - unbelievable for us poor Northerners - to the ship.

Added on the following page but referred back to here: 'R. much taken by fine maps of Italy, he talks about the earlier style of cartography and compares the methods of description to Kant's Theory of the Heavens. And while we were on our happy drive to Pizzofalcone, R. gazed at all the people and said,