Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of October 6, 1870

Overview

The portrait continues to dominate the household, with Wagner reading even his dream of laburnum as a sign of its arrival. Letters, a payment for the Nibelungen poem, and an evening walk give the day practical and domestic texture. The picture revives Wagner's work on Siegfried, while Favre's account of Bismarck confirms for him a sentimental weakness he attributes to the French.

Content

Thursday, October 6:

Always the picture! It is marvelously beautiful; R. yesterday dreamed of laburnum and says it signified the arrival of the picture. I write to Lenbach and to Marie M.

Family lunch; as we are finishing, the payment for the Nibelungen poem arrives from J. J. Weber in Leipzig (20 louis d’or). R. laughs a lot about it. Delightful evening walk with R., then, over Job’s juice, as R. all of a sudden calls tea, resumption of Campaign in France.

Stimulated by the arrival of the picture, R. has again taken up the instrumentation of Siegfried.

Jules Favre’s account of his meeting with Bismarck, unpleasantly sentimental. R. says it is a true reflection of his feelings, the French can no longer behave otherwise: indifferent to the sufferings of others and unable to bear their own in a worthy manner.