Monday, January 23:
The Bavarian Chambers have accepted the agreements, after all! Our magnificent troops have put the French to flight at all three points, but that does not worry these good people; it is still "to the death."
I am very unwell, my eyes are becoming very weak and are painful, and even the great pleasure of yesterday was too much for me; I am having to pay for it today. R. is also not completely well, but he works all the same. He tells me he will embark soon on The Destiny of Opera and begin the second act of Götterdämmerung later, promises me, however, to compose the two acts without interruption.
Wrote to Councilor Duflipp about costumes. Joy over our victories, which appear to be very great; vanished now is the fine European Court which was such a great humiliation for Germany. That is Bismarck's immortal achievement: Napoleon III, more cunning than any diplomat, was dependent on diplomacy; Bismarck realized that behind his wiliness there lay nothing.
Gibbon in the evening. The name of Lady Milford causes an argument; I maintain she is called Johanna, R. Emilie. This leads us to read various scenes from the play. "I could read the whole thing again on the spot, from beginning to end, since the author does so arouse one's interest, just as every true word I hear about Beethoven, that he had been somewhere or other, seen this or that, grips me extraordinarily."
"Yes, Schiller was a real playwright, he knew what he was doing. Kabale und Liebe will never die, for what roles it has: old Miller, Lady Milford, Luise, Ferdinand, Wurm, and so on."