Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of December 1, 1870

Overview

Indisposition, worry, overcast weather, and Wagner's ill health make the day heavy. Cosima corrects Schure's Walkuere translation while the war's religious agitation in France pleases Wagner for clarifying the conflict. Late in the evening his playing of the Meistersinger Act III prelude moves Cosima to tears, while Fidi's first cut lock of hair is felt as a small loss of innocence.

Content

Thursday, December 1:

Indisposition and worry. — The church is openly inciting war in France, which pleases R., since it makes the issue increasingly clear. — Family lunch. R. unwell, the weather overcast. I correct Schuré’s translation of Die Walküre. In the evening conversation with R. — Late in the evening R. plays the Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger, it moves me to tears in the adjoining room. (Today cut off the first lock of Fidi’s hair, since it was falling in his eyes. R. regrets it—“as if he had lost his first innocence.”)