n, Lichnowski wrote his "Reminiscences," the publication of
which involved him in a duel in which he was badly wounded. The
"Reminiscences" are couched in Heine's own style, and their hero is
called Schnapphahnski.
JULIET. Juliet is to be understood as referring to Heine's mistress and
subsequent wife, Mathilde.
CANTO II
QUEEN MARIA CHRISTINA. She was the wife of Ferdinand VII and assumed the
regency after his death. Soon after the king's demise, she married a
member of her bodyguard, one Don Ferdinand Munoz, who was afterwards
given the title of Duke of Rianzares. She bore him several children.
PUTANA. Italian for strumpet.
CANTO IV
MASSMANN. A German philologist and one of Heine's favourite butts. He
was one of the most enthusiastic advocates of German gymnastics.
Athletics was one of the pet ideas of the German patriots; the
Government, however, held it in suspicion, inasmuch as the so-called
"Turner" (gymnasts) cherished political ambitions. In time, however, the
exercise of the muscles cured the revolutionary brain-fag, and the
Government was enabled to assume a sort of protectorship over
gymnastics. Though enthusiastically carried on to this very day in
Germany, the movement no longer has any political significance.
FRESH, PIOUS, GAY, AND FREE. FRISCH, FROMM, FROeHLICH, FREI--the four
F's--formed the motto of the German "Turner."
CANTO V
BATAVIA. Apparently a well-known female ape in Heine's day, trained in
theatrical feats of skill.
FREILIGRATH (see above). As a refuge from the crassness of his times,
Freiligrath usually chose exotic themes for his poems, frequently
African in nature, as, for instance, in his "Loewenritt." The allusion to
the mule (in German "camel," which bears the same opprobrious meaning as
"ass") gives us reason to believe that Heine's preface must not be taken
too seriously and that his opinion of the poet Freiligrath was by no
means a high one.
FRIEDRICH LUDWIG GEORG VON RAUMER (1781-1873). A well-known German
historian, author of the "History of the Hohenstaufens."
CANTO VIII
TUISKION. The god whom the Germans, according to Tacitus (vide
"Germania," cap. II) regard as the original father of their race.
LUDWIG FEUERBACH (1804-1872). An honest thinker, who recognised that
there was an unbridgable gulf between philosophy and theology. He left
the Hegelian school, which can be so well adapted to the need of
theologians, and considered as the only source
|