The night and the morning were consumed with Herr Fürstner. R. suffers great vexation, and once again it proves how utterly incapable he is in matters of business—every contract leads to deception. In the afternoon appears, quite unexpectedly, Netty Mrazek [1], the former servant; she had not yet seen Fidi! She relates how, at the music school, Messrs. Rheinberger, Perfall, and others tormented and persecuted her poor husband, because he was in our employ. Herr Rheinberger forbids, in the school, every note of Wagner! … In the evening, we read in Wolfram v. E. [2] Kundry’s curse upon Parsifal.
[1] Probably Anna Mrazek, wife of Franz Mrazek.
[2] Wolfram von Eschenbach.
“She was called Cundrie; her byname was Surziere [i.e., the magician or sorceress]…. A bridal cloth from Ghent, bluer even than lapis lazuli, that downpour on joy had donned. It was a well-cut cape, all in the French style. Beneath, next to her person, she wore fine furs. A peacock-feather hat from London, lined with cloth-of-gold—the hat was new, its ribbon not old—hung at her back…. A plait crossed the hat and dangled down from her, as far as the mule [she was riding]. It [the plait] was so long, and black, tough, none too lustrous, soft as a pig’s back hair. She was nosed like a dog. Two boar’s teeth stuck out from her mouth, a good span in length. Each eyebrow thrust, plaited, past her hair-band…. Cundrie had ears like a bear’s….Her countenance was hairy….” (translated by Cyril Edwards)
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.