A good night in the sleeping-compartment, at two o’clock in Berlin[1]; first greeting from Mimi; the impossibility of comprehending the conduct of the Imperial Chancellor in our affair! …
A letter from a poor watchmaker’s wife from Eidenach,[2] in I know not what part of Bavaria, who writes to him most touchingly that the prophecy of the burning of our theatre [3] had reached even her village; she loves R., and had esteemed him the King’s best friend; therefore she entreats him, indeed, to take every possible measure that no such misfortune may occur! This moves R. deeply, and he begs me to thank the woman, which I accordingly do.
[1] Cosima and Richard probably arrived at Berlin’s “Anhalter Bahnhof”, which was the central station for connections from the south.
[2] Possibly misspelled.
[3] Cosima reported on an ultramontane prophecy as early as June 1, 1875: “Many afflictions, which the faithful Christian regards as a salutary rod of God’s chastisement, shall befall Bavaria. Perils of fire and water shall loom. Hailstorms shall lay waste the harvest across wide stretches of land, and roaring floods shall destroy many meadows and fields.
But a most dreadful misfortune shall occur in a city. There, a great pavilion shall be erected, into which countless onlookers shall stream from near and far. Music, song, and glittering, vain splendor shall there bewitch the senses. Yet one day, by unhappy chance, a fire shall break out — at a time when the hall is filled with thousands. With terrible swiftness the flames shall spread. Terror shall seize all. Where but a minute before sinful song and sound had echoed, there shall now rise, as in hell itself, the desperate cries of the damned. Hundreds shall be crushed and burned, so that the following day, the foot of him who walks across the smoldering rubble shall step with each pace upon half-charred corpses.
The cry of horror at this terrible calamity shall ring out across the whole world and awaken bitter tears in most lands, even beyond the seas.But on the spot where the ill-fated pavilion once stood, no more shall sinful pleasures of the world be pursued. Instead, in memory of the poor souls, a temple consecrated to Heaven shall be raised.”
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]