Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of April 6, 1869

Overview

Cosima remains unwell, unsettled by the impending arrival of the children and by Richard's depleted condition. She reads Lewes's Life of Goethe with irritation, walks, reads Charmides to Richard after his bath, and learns the children will arrive a day later than expected. Letters by her grandfather about Liszt's early successes move her amid the nervous waiting.

Content

Tuesday, April 6:

I am still unwell; the children’s arrival is upsetting me. R. writes letters, I embroider and read Lewes’s Goethe, a wretched book, but a noble subject.

In the afternoon a long walk; in the evening R. takes a bath. He is very, very run down. I read to him the conclusion of Charmides. The children will not come tomorrow, but on Thursday.

In the Propyläen I read letters by my grandfather about my father’s first successes, and feel much moved.