Sunday, April 4:
R. unwell, which makes it increasingly clear to me that the smallest alteration in our way of life and the slightest contact with the outside world is now unbearable to him, physically as well as morally.
The projected production of Das Rheingold in Munich also distresses him deeply; the means are not at hand, and now things will be forced, his great work cut to pieces. It is a great shame, and I am in deadly fear that dealing with it, even if only from here, will completely rob him of his will to continue his work. He looks bad and his whole nature is changed.
Again a day with the children; after lunch I am tired and lie down with Lewes’s Life of Goethe; late in the evening to town. Then took up Das Rheingold, but R. becomes impatient and ill-humored.
A Catholic paper praises the Jewish pamphlet and praises the young King who, like his ancestor who protected Orlando di Lasso, loves and honors R. Wagner, the composer of heroic song. Such is the world.