With the aid of chloral, R. had a tolerable night, though he ‘swells up like a hippopotamus,’ as he himself says. However, he is unable to attend the rehearsal, which accordingly becomes, to use Richter’s expression, a ‘clumsy affair.’ In the evening I tell R of Feustel’s anxieties; he says: ‘the main thing is to bring the undertaking to fruition; afterwards, if there is a deficit, he may appeal to the Reichstag and also to the princes.’ He resolves to propose Bismarck as honorary patron, together with two of the deputies of the Reichstag who had shown themselves most willing to advocate his cause.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]