Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of April 20, 1871

Overview

Leaving Bayreuth, Cosima is struck by a ballad-singer and especially by a disabled man whose suffering arouses both pity and the desire for atonement. Richard gives him money, and Cosima gives him a small dignified duty at the station door. Leipzig receives them with ceremonial honors, royal rooms, and a pleasant evening among the Brockhaus family.

Content

Thursday, April 20:

Left at 1 o’clock. At the railroad station an old ballad-singer, selling his poems, among others about Richard; this should really be the job of our Peter Cornelius.

Another man, a cripple, terrible to look at, touches us deeply. How sprightly he makes one feel! How to atone for it? Infinite kindness, heartfelt sympathy. R. gives the man a little something, and, since the people rudely never shut the door, I beg the man to assume the duty of door-shutter, which the poor creature performs with the utmost conscientiousness.

At 10 o’clock in Leipzig, where Parson Clemens Brockhaus is at the station. Entry into the Hotel de Prusse: laurel wreaths, poems, transparencies, and so on; rooms in the royal apartment. Spent the evening very pleasantly with Hermann Brockhaus and Ottilie.