In the morning, I attend the Holy Communion with Lusch for the first time! She is deeply shaken, without me having to say much to her.
A letter from Ritter, who is now working as a clerk in a shop! We quickly decide to take his son into our care and provide a small pension (400 marks annually) for his wife. What a shame, how entire families can fall so low! … Without any fault of their own.
R. wishes for me to join him in Munich, where he must listen to “Tristan und Isolde” due to the Vogls, and he would like me to accompany him: “If you’re not with me, I believe I’ll fall asleep during it.” He tells me how he had said to my father with the greatest calm that I was perfect!! He wrote a wonderful letter to Father yesterday. Today, I write to various good people who are offering the most touching testimonies of love and support for the project—students in Petersburg, school mistress in Holland, etc. With the coming of spring, a beautiful mood, and since our return, I have only left the house for Elisabeth’s company and for church (in the carriage). A peaceful joy in existence. – R. visits me often while I write, and among other things, he tells me that it was impossible for him to create, from the modern world, starting from the Renaissance, a subject in a poetic way; only in the form of comedy, as in “Die Meistersinger”, was he able to do so.
In the evening, we begin the biography of Bishop Ulrich; it is not very engagingly written. I receive a letter from Professor Overbeck, who tells me that Gfrörer has converted to Catholicism. R. says that before 1848, firstly, the Jesuits did not hold so much power, but it is understandable given the dreadful shallowness of the Protestant clergy. However, he cannot imagine how such a clear mind as Gfrörer’s could have gone through such a process.
[1] Alexander Ritter had a music shop in Würzburg.urg eine Musikalienhandlung.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.