Sunday, May 14:
R. had a good night, and he reads to me his letter to the King, in which he has mentioned Biagino [Gravina] at length. Over coffee a dispute about Italian and Flemish painters arises between the Count and Jouk. R. understood and added to what the Count said in favor of the latter, particularly Rembrandt—that he was the most significant of all by virtue of his intelligence and humor. We stroll in the garden, R. and the Count touching on a great variety of countries; in the evening he reads something from Faust (the “Classical Walpurgis Night,” I think), then he talks a lot about Ottar Jarl, which he finds interesting. But R. is in somewhat low spirits, though whether it is the French language or life in general which wearies him I do not know!