Various unpleasant news from home. However, R. is quite well, thank God. — Last night, he told the household friends of the strange dream he once had in Switzerland, in which he saw himself walking with Herwegh[1] along high mountain paths, where suddenly a tribute was brought by a male choir; he said to Herwegh that this is the custom in Switzerland, they did the same for Geßler[2] (swiftly, death comes for man).
The medal maker Scharff[3] brings R.’s medallion in bronze along with the design for the reverse. At 3 o’clock, the concert; R. conducts with the utmost attention, and the performance is magnificent; the enthusiasm is as great, if not greater, than the first time, but R. is somewhat fatigued. He goes to bed, and later, a few friends come to visit us.
[1] Georg Herwegh (1817 – 1875) revolutionary poet of the Vormärz (pre-March period), who became a Swiss citizen in 1843.
[2] Hermann Gessler, the bailiff during the Habsburg rule in Switzerland, is, according to legend, killed by William Tell with a crossbow. In Friedrich Schiller’s drama:
Merciful Brothers (forming a semicircle around the dead and singing in a deep tone):
Quickly comes death upon man,
No grace of time is granted to him,
It strikes him in the middle of his path,
It tears him away from full life,
Prepared or not, to go,
He must stand before his judge!
(as the last lines are repeated, the curtain falls)
[3] Anton Scharff (1845 – 1903) Austrian Medallist.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.