Friday, September 8:
R. had a restless night; he dreamed of Wahnfried, which had been completely altered; everywhere arrangements for a reception, and he being asked who he was, whereupon he loudly and angrily gave his name, and at the same time heard me laugh in a neighboring room, then he woke up. — In the morning he continues to write to the King. Earlier I drove to Laineck with the children. At 5 o’clock we have a discussion with friend Feustel and the lawyer Dr. Meyer about the Batz relationship. R. writes to Herr Voltz and concludes, “I should be ashamed to be in a certain person’s place.” Feustel attests to the fact that, though R. had not retained the papers, his memory is thoroughly sound and can be confidently relied on.
In the evening the conversation turns to Shylock, and R. reads the scenes in which he appears, after expressing his admiration for a representation of this racial character such as will never be achieved again. In the face of his ever-increasing admiration for Shakespeare his earlier predilection for Calderon is tending to diminish; in much of him R. discerns artificiality, a Jesuit outlook, and he takes very good care to read no more of it.