Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of March 26, 1871

Overview

Nietzsche writes from Lugano, and Cosima's mother observes the children's good manners while noticing their illness-pale faces. The quartets are less successful than usual, and a rumor from Munich about an arrangement for the Nibelungen at Bayreuth unsettles the household because it contrasts so sharply with official silence. Rothschild's corrected address to Frau Wagner adds a small practical sign amid larger uncertainty.

Content

Sunday, March 26:

Letter from Prof. Nietzsche in Lugano. Family lunch; my mother finds the children very well mannered and well behaved, but they seem to her very pale, for which the cough that afflicted them all is to blame.

In the afternoon quartets, but the players are not in such good form as usual. Richter receives a letter from Munich. There people are talking of an arrangement between Tribschen, the King, and the Emperor to present the Nibelungen in Bayreuth. We compare this piece of news with the silence toward us and ask ourselves what it means; is there some mischief brewing? Fearful.

Rothschild sends the bill of exchange to “Frau Wagner.”