Thursday, June 8:
Our conversations nowadays are absorbed by poor Lusch. R. now looks upon her as if she were “buried alive,” and my heart is heavy on that account.
After lunch R. and I drive to the mayor’s, where we hear all kinds of things: first, Herr Vogl’s final decision; second, a malicious report of smallpox in Bayreuth, which has led to numerous inquiries! [A few words based on untranslatable word play omitted.]
In the evening R. reads to us from Faust, Part Two, the soliloquy and the scene between Faust and Mephisto; he was led to it by the quotation “Stench and activity,” and our joy in this unique work is beyond expressing. (He writes to Plett[ung] & Schwab.)