Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of September 13, 1870

Overview

Still unwell, Cosima nevertheless teaches the children while Nietzsche reports illness from Erlangen and financial uncertainty presses through her letter to Rothschild. Wagner works too hard on Beethoven and suffers visual disturbances. Meysenbug's regret over the possible bombardment of Paris irritates him, and he and Cosima dismiss such humanitarian talk as foolish chatter before necessity.

Content

Tuesday, September 13:

Still indisposed, but able to give the children their lessons. Prof. Nietzsche writes to R., he is back in Erlangen and is ill. I wrote to Rothschild for my money—God knows whether I shall still receive anything. R. works on his Beethoven—too much, in fact, for he gets floating specks before his eyes. Letter from M. Meysenbug, who regrets the bombardment of Paris, which annoys R. We agree that what happens there must happen, and that it is great foolishness to jabber about these things.