tly worried (and still worry) him.

CANTO XV

CAGOTS. The remnant of an ancient tribe, driven out of human society as
unclean--Cagot from _Canis gothicus_. The Cagots may still be found in
obscure parts of the French Pyrenees; they have their own language and
are distinguished by their yellow skins from the peoples of Western
Europe. In the Middle Ages they were persecuted as heretics and were
excluded from all contact with their neighbours. They were forced to
bear a tag upon their clothes so that they might be known as inferiors.
Even to-day, despite the fact that they possess the same rights as other
Frenchmen, they are considered as somewhat debased and unclean.

CANTO XVIII

THE WILD HUNT which Heine describes in this canto is an old German
legend which poets and painters have found to be a fertile source of
inspiration. The wild huntsman must ride through the world every night,
followed by all evil-doers, and wherever he appears, thither, according
to old folk-belief, does misfortune come. Tradition herds all the foes
of Christianity among this rout of evil-doers; for this reason does
Heine include Goethe--the "great pagan," as the Germans call him--in
that crew. There have been other foes of Christianity since, and some
very great figures amongst them, so that in time the Wild Huntsman's
Company may become quite presentable.

HENGSTENBERG (1802-1869). A fanatical theologian professor at Berlin who
made an attack upon Goethe's "Elective Affinities," which then had not
yet become a classic, and was thus still liable to the attacks of the
"learned."

FRANZ HORN. A contemporary of Heine's of no particular importance, a
poet of the Romantic School and a verbose literary historian. He wrote a
work in five volumes upon Shakespeare's plays. In this he interprets the
poet in a wholly romantic sense and winds up by presenting him as an
enthusiastic Christian.

CANTO XIX

ABUNDA--in the Celtic (Breton) folk-lore Dame Abonde and even Dame
Habonde. The Celtic element (as, for instance, the legend of King
Arthur's Round Table) played a great part in the romantic poetry of
Germany, and later in the music dramas of Wagner. Romanticism is
therefore represented in Heine's poem by the fairy Abunda, in
contradistinction to the Greek and Semitic inspiration--represented by
Diana and Herodias. Heine's conception of Herodias as being in love with
the Baptist and taking her revenge on him for his Josephian attitude
towa