Sunday, May 9:
A rainy day. Daniel’s birthday. R. recalls the way in which he was abandoned and says that in a certain sense this is what has made him so cold and utterly unable to make allowances for individual qualities.
Some callers. A Duchess Ravaschieri impresses me as a woman of sensibility.
In the evening R. reads Faust, Part One, overwhelmingly beautiful and moving. But we feel that the poem lends itself as little to being read aloud as to dramatic presentation; R. says he needs to assume an almost artificial tone, and the scene with Mephisto after the meeting with Gretchen comes close to offending me.
In the morning we talked at length about religion and art. R. describes how art works in metaphors and allegories as such, but at the same time conveys to the emotions the truth behind the dogmas. Aeschylus’s Oresteia, he says, is undoubtedly more profound than all the Eleusinian mysteries. He also speaks of the godlike qualities manifest in Christ and says it is understandable that the birth of such a being should be presented as a miracle, the Immaculate Conception repulsive as dogma, but wonderful as legend and in art (painting).
We were talking recently about the year 1857 in Switzerland, and he said, “I was truly like a good seed: if the earth in which I was planted was at least reasonably good, I would start to grow.” He talks of making money with Parsifal, giving concerts, in order to gain his independence.