Thursday, April 28:
Letter from the conductor Levi. (“I respect him,” says R., “because he really calls himself Levi as in the Bible, and not Löwe, Lewy, etc.”) He says he has been invited to conduct Die Walküre, and he asks for R.’s opinion. R. replies calmly and honestly.
Lusch still in bed. I concerned about I know not what, but happy. I asked R. whether he no longer wrote things down, no diary? “No, that has stopped, now I enjoy my happiness. I swear to you I am amazed at myself when I see that none of my old confidence has left me, my imagination is perhaps even improved, with the constant urge to create. Whom have I to thank for this?” “The King of Bavaria,” I interpose jokingly. “Aha, that is your answer to my recent letter. Believe me, I should have wearily dropped his favor if I had not found you.”
Yesterday, when he was surprised not to have received a letter from Hanover, I said our friend von Bronsart was probably shocked by our relationship. After some reflection he said, “That people cannot see that we knew exactly what we were doing, since after all I am no trickster and you also had sufficient knowledge of the world; that we braved everything and took it on ourselves in order to belong to each other, that should surely fill them with respect.” “When I have brought the children up nicely and you have finished the Nibelungen, then perhaps we shall be respected.”
At lunch (yesterday) he answered my question concerning the relationship of Plato’s soul to Schopenhauer’s will; I understood what he said, only I cannot write it down. Very nice and original letter from our new friend Hans Herrig. A devotee of Schopenhauer (obviously) and of Wagner, as is only proper. In the evening read Ivanhoe with great admiration.