--The Brocken or
Blocksberg
is
the highest peak of the Harz mountains, which comprise about 1350 square
miles.
the highest peak of the Harz mountains, which comprise about 1350 square
miles.
Faust, a Tragedy by Goethe
]
[Footnote 26: The following is a literal translation of the song referred
to:--
Were I a little bird,
Had I two wings of mine,
I'd fly to my dear;
But that can never be,
So I stay here.
Though I am far from thee,
Sleeping I'm near to thee,
Talk with my dear;
When I awake again,
I am alone.
Scarce is there an hour in the night,
When sleep does not take its flight,
And I think of thee,
How many thousand times
Thou gav'st thy heart to me. ]
[Footnote 27: Donjon. The original is _Zwinger_, which Hayward says is
untranslatable. It probably means an old tower, such as is often found in
the free cities, where, in a dark passage-way, a lamp is sometimes placed,
and a devotional image near it. ]
[Footnote 28: It was a superstitious belief that the presence of buried
treasure was indicated by a blue flame. ]
[Footnote 29: Lion-dollars--a Bohemian coin, first minted three centuries
ago, by Count Schlick, from the mines of Joachim's-Thal. The one side
bears a lion, the other a full length image of St. John. ]
[Footnote 30: An imitation of Ophelia's song: _Hamlet_, act 14, scene 5. ]
[Footnote 31: The Rat-catcher was supposed to have the art of drawing rats
after him by his whistle, like a sort of Orpheus. ]
[Footnote 32: Walpurgis Night. May-night. Walpurgis is the female saint
who converted the Saxons to Christianity.
--The Brocken or Blocksberg is
the highest peak of the Harz mountains, which comprise about 1350 square
miles. --Schirke and Elend are two villages in the neighborhood. ]
[Footnote 33: Shelley's translation of this couplet is very fine:
("_O si sic omnia! _")
"The giant-snouted crags, ho! ho!
How they snort and how they blow! "]
[Footnote 34: The original is _Windsbraut_, (wind's-bride,) the word used
in Luther's Bible to translate Paul's _Euroclydon_. ]
[Footnote 35: One of the names of the devil in Germany. ]
[Footnote 36: One of the names of Beelzebub. ]
[Footnote 37: "The Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called Lilis before
he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. "
_Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy_.
A learned writer says that _Lullaby_ is derived from "Lilla, abi! " "Begone
Lilleth! " she having been supposed to lie in wait for children to kill
them. ]
[Footnote 38: This name, derived from two Greek words meaning _rump_ and
_fancy_, was meant for Nicolai of Berlin, a great hater of Goethe's
writings, and is explained by the fact that the man had for a long time a
violent affection of the nerves, and by the application he made of leeches
as a remedy, (alluded to by Mephistopheles. )]
[Footnote 39: Tegel (mistranslated _pond_ by Shelley) is a small place a
few miles from Berlin, whose inhabitants were, in 1799, hoaxed by a ghost
story, of which the scene was laid in the former place.
[Footnote 26: The following is a literal translation of the song referred
to:--
Were I a little bird,
Had I two wings of mine,
I'd fly to my dear;
But that can never be,
So I stay here.
Though I am far from thee,
Sleeping I'm near to thee,
Talk with my dear;
When I awake again,
I am alone.
Scarce is there an hour in the night,
When sleep does not take its flight,
And I think of thee,
How many thousand times
Thou gav'st thy heart to me. ]
[Footnote 27: Donjon. The original is _Zwinger_, which Hayward says is
untranslatable. It probably means an old tower, such as is often found in
the free cities, where, in a dark passage-way, a lamp is sometimes placed,
and a devotional image near it. ]
[Footnote 28: It was a superstitious belief that the presence of buried
treasure was indicated by a blue flame. ]
[Footnote 29: Lion-dollars--a Bohemian coin, first minted three centuries
ago, by Count Schlick, from the mines of Joachim's-Thal. The one side
bears a lion, the other a full length image of St. John. ]
[Footnote 30: An imitation of Ophelia's song: _Hamlet_, act 14, scene 5. ]
[Footnote 31: The Rat-catcher was supposed to have the art of drawing rats
after him by his whistle, like a sort of Orpheus. ]
[Footnote 32: Walpurgis Night. May-night. Walpurgis is the female saint
who converted the Saxons to Christianity.
--The Brocken or Blocksberg is
the highest peak of the Harz mountains, which comprise about 1350 square
miles. --Schirke and Elend are two villages in the neighborhood. ]
[Footnote 33: Shelley's translation of this couplet is very fine:
("_O si sic omnia! _")
"The giant-snouted crags, ho! ho!
How they snort and how they blow! "]
[Footnote 34: The original is _Windsbraut_, (wind's-bride,) the word used
in Luther's Bible to translate Paul's _Euroclydon_. ]
[Footnote 35: One of the names of the devil in Germany. ]
[Footnote 36: One of the names of Beelzebub. ]
[Footnote 37: "The Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called Lilis before
he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. "
_Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy_.
A learned writer says that _Lullaby_ is derived from "Lilla, abi! " "Begone
Lilleth! " she having been supposed to lie in wait for children to kill
them. ]
[Footnote 38: This name, derived from two Greek words meaning _rump_ and
_fancy_, was meant for Nicolai of Berlin, a great hater of Goethe's
writings, and is explained by the fact that the man had for a long time a
violent affection of the nerves, and by the application he made of leeches
as a remedy, (alluded to by Mephistopheles. )]
[Footnote 39: Tegel (mistranslated _pond_ by Shelley) is a small place a
few miles from Berlin, whose inhabitants were, in 1799, hoaxed by a ghost
story, of which the scene was laid in the former place.
