rds her, has, no doubt, influenced later writers on the subject,
especially Flaubert and Oscar Wilde, save that these had not the courage
(nor perhaps the insight) to regard the hero in question as a
"block-head."

CANTO XX

SIX-AND-THIRTY KINGS. At once an allusion to Shakespeare's "A kingdom
for a horse!" ("Richard III") and a side-stroke glancing at the various
kings and princes of Germany--some thirty-six in Heine's time.

CANTO XXI

HELLISH HERBS. The foul and mouldy herbs and medicines in Uraka's hut
represent a collection of remedies for the cure and preservation of
decaying feudalism and Christian mediaevalism, which, however, no remedy
can restore to health. The smell in Uraka's hut is the smell of the
"rotting past," that, in spite of all nostrums and artificial revivals,
goes on decomposing. The stuffed birds which glare so fixedly and
forlorn, and have long bills like human noses, are members of Heine's
own race. These stuffed birds are the symbols of Judaism which according
to our Hellenistic poet, possesses, as religion, as little life as the
Christianity that is based upon it.

CANTO XXII

A SWABIAN BARD. The Swabian school of poetry, of which Uhland was the
leader, was the chief representative of German Chauvinism in Heine's
day. W. Menzel, the critic who denounced "Young Germany" to the
Government, belonged to this school. Boerne answered him in his "Menzel
der Franzosenfresser" ("The Gallophobe"), and Heine mocked at him in his
paper "The Denunciator." Gustav Pfizer (who had provoked Heine) and Karl
Meyer were members of the Swabian school, and prided themselves
particularly upon their morality and religiosity, for which reason they
set themselves in antagonism to the "heathen" Goethe. Goethe, on his
part, estimated this school as little as did Heine. In a letter to
Zelter dated October 5, 1831, Goethe writes thus of Pfizer: "...I read a
poem lately by Gustav Pfizer ... the poet appears to have real talent
and is evidently a very good man. But as I read I was oppressed by a
certain poverty of spirit in the piece and put the little book away at
once, for with the advance of the cholera it is well to shield oneself
against all debilitating influences. The work is dedicated to Uhland,
and one might well doubt if anything exciting, thorough, or humanly
compelling could be produced from those regions in which he is master. I
will therefore not rail at the work, but simply leave it alone. _It is