For several days now R. has been dreaming of pretty landscapes in which he is walking, this time with Rus, who had something ghostly about him, his eyes full of white dust; while awake I hear the cowbells of Tribschen, they ring literally in my ears and remind me of beautiful times! God, how is R. ever to return to the main thing, to creative work! …
Yesterday we read a well-intentioned report from Vienna, which states that one might well begrudge R. 4,000 gulden plus living expenses—thus, again, nothing but untruths; when one considers that R. always adds his own property to everything, this additional disgrace! Then it goes on to say that insulting caricatures have been made of him and of me — — “people are wicked!” What provocation I could have given people for such behavior against me remains a mystery to me. R. thinks they merely want to achieve that he should no longer come to Vienna! …
We read the account of a visit to Beethoven by old Wieck [1] and a letter from Czerny [2] about the first performance of the Ninth Symphony; deeply moving, like everything one learns about a genius; “nobly lamenting” is his language! — At supper R. says: “Only when everything breaks and crashes will Richard Wagner one day wear a tailcoat.” — He goes out with Fidi; as the bells are ringing, the little one says: “Now we are hearing what we saw before,” since they had walked past the tower earlier. In the evening we read The Merchant of Venice.
[1] Friedrich Wieck (1785–1873), German piano and singing teacher, a friend of R.W.; his daughter Clara (1819–1896) married Robert Schumann in 1840.
[2] Carl Czerny (1791–1857), Austrian music teacher, pianist, and composer.