be tolerated in German) more than once
drew the arrows of Heine's wit. The last line: "Talent none, but
character," has become a familiar phrase in Germany.

CANTO XXV

PYRENEEAN LAFAYETTE. Lafayette fought for the Revolution in France as
well as in America.

"THAT WHICH SONG WOULD MAKE ETERNAL," &c. A quotation in a semi-satiric
vein from Schiller's "The Gods of Greece."

CANTO XXVI

DROVE THE SNAKES AND LIONS FAR. A burlesque quotation from
Freiligrath's poem "Der Loewenritt," from which also the reference later
on to the crocodile is taken.

CANTO XXVII

VARNHAGEN VON ENSE (1785-1858). After abandoning his career as a
diplomat, von Ense married the celebrated Rahel. He lived in Berlin,
where the salon of his wife became the meeting-ground for artists and
writers. In his youth he associated closely with the romantics--de la
Motte Fouque, Chamisso, and Clemens Brentano, the brother of Bettina von
Arnim. Though imitating the heavy and cautious style of the later Goethe
he was a good writer, and his biographies of celebrated men belong to
the best in German literature. He endeavoured, but without success, to
win over the all-powerful Austrian Minister Metternich to the cause of
"Young Germany."

OTHER TIMES AND OTHER BIRDS! These words refer to the new generation of
poets--Georg Herwegh, Friedrich Freiligrath, Dingelstedt, Hoffmann von
Fallersleben, and Anastasius Gruen--who came upon the scene about 1840,
cherished mechanic-democratic ideals and brought about the Revolution of
1848. Heine, by nature an aristocratic poet, who instinctively dreaded
the competition of "noble bears," saw all his loftiest principles
trodden into the mire by these Utopian hot-heads and the crew of
politicians that came storming after them. This doctrinaire and
numerical interpretation of the rights of man--for which rights in their
proper application the poet himself had fought so valiantly--caused him
great unhappiness. He now saw his fairest concepts (as is made clear in
his own introduction) distorted as in some crooked mirror, and so,
filled with anger, grief and disgust, he conceived and wrote his
lyrico-satiric masterpiece, "Atta Troll." The poem has been
misunderstood to this very day, for the mechanics and theorists have
practically won. _The day it is understood, their reign will be over_.

PRINTED AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS LONDON

NOTES OF THE TRANSCRIBER

Three instances of "Willy Pogany" were corrected to "Wil