Set out early in the morning to hurry up the unpunctual people. — From noon on occupied with the tree, I tell R. that the motto for this Christmas is: “Nonsense, thou hast won!”[1]
R. works on a letter about the performance of Jessonda [2]. Our four musicians come in the evening, and, while I stand on the highest rung of the ladder, the “Nibelungen Chancellors” hand me the various shining objects; at the same time R. is talking about the primitive Christians in Gfrörer’s book, which he is reading with the greatest interest. Toward 11 o’clock we are finished.
[1] Image: “Nonsense, you win and I must perish!” Friedrich Schiller, The Maid of Orleans. A romantic tragedy, 1801.
[2] Letter about the performance of “Jessonda”: “About an opera performance in Leipzig. Letter to the editor of the ‘Musical Weekly’”, dated December 28, 1874, published by Fritzsch in 1875.