Category: Cosima Wagner Diaries

Hailstorms and cold; sad discovery that Rus has a bad injury, we fear for his life. R. spends part of the morning replying to yesterday’s letter.  Then getting the house in order takes up a lot of our time. There is little time for reading, scarcely even for our usual…

A good night, but today it is cold; busy arranging things, a lot of muddle. In the afternoon R. receives an unpleasant letter from Councilor Düfflipp[1], to whom he had written just to reassure himself about the mood in which the King had shown his favor. It is clear from…

Disturbed night. In the morning another conference, contracts signed, cordial leave-taking from all participants. Our first lunch, very happy and gay, all in good health. I pick up this book again after a break of 10 days. Heavy on my heart lie the mortal sickness of my distant friend and…

—move into the new house! It is not yet finished, far from it, but we shall conquer. Nice lunch at the Feustels’; at 4 o’clock consecration of the dining room with a conference among Herr Hoffmann, Brandt, Brückwald, the management committee, and the Brückner brothers, scene painters from Coburg. At…

All the exertions of moving, during which I receive a terrible blow with the news of Marie Muchanoff’s mortal illness and awful pain . . . Many treasures from the rich contents of mind and heart are now lost to this book for ever, since, numbed by the shock and…

I am again confined to my bed and am now a completely useless member of the family! — I ask R. to bring me Woodstock, and he is glad that I wish to read it, saying, “I was thinking only recently that history is only enjoyable in the hands of…