Tuesday, November 22:
Shakespeare still! Yesterday, after we had finished the battle scene, R. exclaimed, “It is beyond belief,” and at the conclusion of the evening he says to me, “I feel it is only I and Schiller who understand this play.” He remarks how great they all are at the moment of death.
This morning he ends his letter to the King and tells me that he has dealt particularly with the subject of the Jews, told him that they have preserved a feeling for genuineness which the Germans have entirely lost, and that is why many of them cling to him. Then he says that, as a German, he feels at home here, since he finds living traces of great ancestors; he remarks to me that this is one of the reasons for a drive to the Villa Belmonte, which we much enjoy, and the walk does R. a lot of good.
We then receive Count Tasca, who invites us and the children to breakfast tomorrow. In the evening the 3rd and 4th acts of Henry VI. R. is tired, but with the feeling that the air here agrees with him.