Sunday, February 21:
R. talks of a letter from Dr. Lang. Through his position in the ministry he has been able, by going through the bureaucratic hierarchy, to secure from Count Bismarck a command that Wagner’s articles be published in the N.A. Zeitung. The article on the Devrient book will start things going. This is very pleasant news, for R. never before knew where he could place his things.
In the morning I write a letter to Mme Mendès, in R.’s name, setting out his reasons for not going to see Rienzi in Paris. R. is satisfied with my letter.
A gray day, everything wrapped in mist. R. does not go into town; we walk together in the garden.
In the evening [Shakespeare’s] Julius Caesar. R. reads it out loud to me wonderfully; it moves me so much that I go to bed quite ill.