March 7 Sunday

Wrote Claudius all day.
Lunch at Ziebert. No one there. Coffee at Str & Schw. Schw tells his Isidore stories for the umpteenth time.
Walk over the hill to Sorengo. All Lugano coming home to supper, with bunches of wind-flowers in hand.
After supper walk with Karl & Laura to Lugano. Beer at Gembiani's. On the way home a drunk man shouting: " Mussolini."[RG] Brutto uomo senza cuore! Ecco! La difficulta della ciuta...Noi altri....1"

Editorial Notes

1 "Mussolini! Horrid man without a heart! The trouble of our civilization...We heretofore..." eds.

Hands Referenced

    • Annotation: ink correction
    • Character: regular
    • Ink: black

Places Mentioned

  • Lugano

    Lugano, Switzerland
    near the Italian border, where RG and LR spent part of 1937 eds.

  • Hotel Belle Rive-Ziebert

    Lugano, Switzerland
    Hotel in Lugano; Graves often calls "Ziebert" eds.

  • Sorengo

    Lugano, Switzerland

  • Gambrinus

    Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
    restaurant eds.

People Mentioned

  • Karl/Carl

    Goldschmidt, Karl
    Karl Goldschmidt, later Kenneth Gay: Graphic artist, friend and secretary of Robert Graves and Laura Riding since 1934. R. G. spells both as Carl and Karl.

  • Swartz

    Schwarz, Georg
    German Jew. Deyá neighbour. Antique dealer. Lived with Frau Emmy Strenge, his house keeper, in Can Caballo some hundred yards from Canellun. RG and LR translated his "Almost Forgotten Germany." WG

  • Laura

    Riding, Laura
    (1901-91) American poet. Laura Riding (née Reichenthal; then Laura Gottschalk).

  • Strenge

    Strenge, Frau Emmi
    Schwarz's house keeper and ? mistress. WG

  • Mussolini

    Mussolini, Benito
    (1883-1945) Fascist dictator ( "IL DUCE") of Italy from 1922-1943. eds.

Bibliography

    • Title: Claudius Film Version [The Fool of Rome] [a condensed novel based on I, Claudius]
    • Author: Graves, Robert