From Cosima's diaries

"On Christmas Day, my 31st birthday, this notebook was to have started; I could not get it in Lucerne. And so the first day of the year will also contain the beginning of my reports to you, my children. You shall know every hour of my life, so that one day you will come to see me as I am; for, if I die young, others will be able to tell you very little about me, and if I ive long, I shall probably only wish to remain silent."

On January 1, 1869, a few weeks after leaving her husband Hans von Bülow to live with Richard Wagner, Cosima began a diary that she would continue until February 12, 1883, the day before Wagner died.

12 February 1883 (last entry of Cosima's diary):
R. goes to the piano, plays the mournful theme 'Rheingold, Rheingold' [...] And as he is lying in bed, he says, "I feel loving toward them, these subservient creatures of the deep, with all their yearning.

On 13 February 1883 Richard Wagner dies in Venice, Italy.
Paul von Joukowsky [stage designer for Parsifal] described Wagner's death in a letter written on February 22, 1883, to Malwida von Meysenburg [German writer]:

"It was as glorious as his life.
We were all waiting for him to appear at table, for he had sent word to us to begin lunch without him.
In the meantime he had sent for the doctor on account of his usual spasms ; then at about 2:30 he sent Betty to fetch Frau Wagner.
The doctor came at 3:00, which made us all feel easier ; but around 4 o'clock, since nobody had come out of his room, we became worried ; then suddenly Georg appeared and told us simply that it was all over.
He died at around 3 o'clock in the arms of his wife, without suffering, falling asleep with an expression on his face of such nobility and peace that the memory of it will never leave me.
She was alone with him the whole of the first day and night, but then the doctor managed to persuade her to go into another room.
Since then I have not seen her, and I shall never see her again ; nobody will, except for the children and Gross and his wife, since he is their legal guardian.
She will live in the upper rooms of the house, existing only for his memory and for the children ; everything else in life has ceased to exist for her.
So write only to the children, for she will never read a letter again.
Since her dearest wish, to die with him, was not fulfilled, she means at least to be dead to all others and to lead the only life fitting for her, that of a nun who will be a constant source of divine consolation to her children.
That is great, and in complete accord with all else in her life...."

Certainly Cosima's first intention was exactly as Joukowsky described it.
In her desire for death she refused all nourishment for many hours after Wagner died, then, yielding to the inevitable, cut off her hair and laid it in Wagner's coffin.
Hidden from sight in black robes, she accompanied her husband's body in the train back to Bayreuth.
At Wahnfried it was carried to the grave at the bottom of the garden by Muncker, Peustel, Gross, Wolzogen, Seidl, Joukowsky, Wilhelmj, Porges, Levi, Richter, Standhartner, and Niemann. Daniela, Isolde, Eva, and Siegfried walked beside the coffin ; Blondine, expecting her first child, was not present.
Only after their friends had left did Cosima emerge from the house to join her children as the coffin was lowered into the grave.

Cosima at Wagner's coffin in Bayreuth (engraving, ca 1900)

​Here follows a selection of (illustrated) excerpts from Cosima's diaries:

Read More