Page xi.--By some slip or confusion of memory, the first and second
editions were made to say, in the note, that Louisa, one of the four
reigning sisters to whom Titan is dedicated, lived in the _Liberation_
War. This mistake probably arose from mixing up the French Revolution
with Körner's august apostrophes to Louisa as guardian genius of her
people in the later war for freedom.
Page 2, line 8. "Wolf's tooth."--The tooth of a wolf or boar, or some
other animal, was once used just as we use an ivory handle, or
(sometimes) the thumb-nail, to rub down smooth the paper from which
ink-marks had been erased.--Line 15. "Burning-glass" means here
properly a _concave-mirror_ (Brenn-_spiegel_ in German,--there being
another word, Brenn-_glas_, corresponding to our common burning and
magnifying glass).--Line 18. "Cutting _hollow_"; _concave grinding_
would seem a more scientific phrase, but the word _hollow_ seemed
necessary in carrying out the _moral_ allusion.
Page 5, line 27.--The reference is probably to _Wilcke_, who broached a
new theory about magnetism, that of two fluids. (See art. in Encyc.
Britan.)
Page 5, line 31. "When it struck 23 o'clock."--The Italian clocks,
though they indicate on the face up to 24, strike only to 12.
[Illustration]
The above is a comparative table of German and Italian ways of
reckoning time, adapted to the latter half of September. It is taken
from Goethe's Italian Tour. He says: "The inner circle denotes our 24
hours, from midnight to midnight, divided into twice 12, as we reckon,
and our clocks indicate. The middle circle shows how the Italian clocks
strike at the present season (namely, up to 12 twice in 24 hours), but
in such a way that it strikes 1 when it strikes 8 with us, and so
on.... Finally, the outer circle shows how the 24 hours are reckoned in
actual life. For example, I hear 7 o'clock striking in the night, and
know that midnight is at 5 o'clock; I therefore deduct the latter
number from the former and thus have 2 hours after midnight. If I hear
7 in the daytime, as I know that noon is at 5, I have 2 P. M. But if I
wish to express the hour according to the fashion of this country, I
must know that noon is 17 o'clock; I add the 2, and get 19 o'clock." It
must have been, it would seem, then, _in his mind_ that Albano would
have "counted up the tedious strokes."
Page 6, line 16. "Juno Ludovici."--The fine colossal head known as the
_Lodovisi_ Juno (so Murray spells it) in the Villa Lodovisi.
Page 9, line 24.--"Kremnitz" is a town in Moravia. The ducats coined
there were of the very finest gold.--Line 24. "More _lightly_ on her
left arm,"--_and therefore the old man was not actuated purely by the
pious motives which Albano gave him credit for, but by more mercenary
ones_,--is the connecting link to be supplied before the next clause.
Page 11, line 12.--"Micromegas,"--_little giant_.
Page 19, line 13.--Bouverot, here called the German Gentleman (in
German, the _Deutsche Herr_), was in reality a _Teutscher Ordensherr_,
or Teutonic Knight. The translator has throughout simply called him the
_Gentleman_, merely, however, by a sort of general, parliamentary
etiquette, and not, of course, as if the word defined his technical
standing. The reader will please bear this in mind.
Page 19, note.--He was also nicknamed _Peter de Mulieribus_. He was a
fine painter, Put a coarse-grained scapegrace. Was born at Haerlem in
1637. Went to Italy, and from Calvinist became Papist. Was famous for
his animals and landscapes. In Italy he fell in love with a woman, and,
as he already had a wife, he sent for her to come to him, and then
caused her to be murdered on the road. He was arrested and sentenced to
be hung, but, in the confusion consequent on the breaking out of some
war, escaped, and died in 1701.
Page 20.--The translator confesses himself in the dark (with a
scholarly German friend also) as to the process which may have been
pursued by Don Gaspard with that German debauchee. It may simply be
that Gaspard operated on the man by holding out worldly inducements to
make him play the saint, and then, by disappointing them, left him to
sink back again to his real character.
Page 21, line 7.--The Pasquino was a mutilated statue, so called from a
cobbler who had his shop near it, and was always quizzing and
caricaturing passers-by. After his death, the statue, which had come to
be nearly buried in the ground, was dug up, and people said, "Here is
old Pasquin come to life again!" When any one wanted to satirize a
public or private enemy, he would affix his lampoon secretly to the
Pasquin statue. The statue of Marforio, supposed to be that of a
river-god, which, about the end of the sixteenth century, was placed
near the Capitol, was made the vehicle of replying to the attacks of
Pasquin.
Page 22, line 10.--If any one would see how queerly Jean Paul used his
queer knowledge, what
"A sea-change
Into something rare and strange,"
the driest material "suffered" in passing over the ocean of his
fantasy,--let him read the article in Bayle's Dictionary on Gaspar
Scioppius. Scioppius, a German critic, philologist, and
controversialist, equally remarkable for acumen and acrimony, was born
in 1576; had a precocious youth; changed from a Protestant to a
Catholic, and wrote bitterly against his old friends, and even against
the King of England; then became equally bitter against the Jesuits;
and, after a life of constant quarrelling with living and dead scholars
(for he charged even Cicero with barbarous Latin), "he died," says a
biographer, "universally hated and hating," in 1649. One of his
opponents called him the "Grammarian Cur."--As Jean Paul makes _his_
Schoppe call himself _Titular Librarian_, &c., it may be worth
mentioning that the historical Scioppius had the following titles:
"Patrician of Rome, Knight of St. Peter, Counsellor to the Emperor,
Counsellor to the King of Spain, Counsellor to the Archduke, Count
Palatine, and Count de Clara Valle" (Clairvaux).
Page 25, line 21.--_Trembley_ led the way in the actual study from life
of the Polype tribe, particularly the _hydra_. "Sometimes two polypes
will seize on the same worm; and most amusing is it then to witness the
struggle that ensues, sometimes resulting in the swallowing of the
weaker polype by the stronger, which, however, is soon disgorged with
no other loss than his dinner." "If the body be halved in any
direction, each half grows into a perfect hydra." "When a polype is
introduced by the tail into another body, the two unite and form one
individual; and when a head is lopped off, it may safely be engrafted
on the body of any other which may chance to want one." "A polype, cut
transversely in three parts, requires four or five days in summer, and
longer in cold weather, for the middle piece to produce a head and
tail, and the tail part to get a body and head."--_English Cyclop_.
Page 26, line 23.--The pigeons spoken of are the common house-pigeons.
(In German, _Flug_-taube: pigeons that go in _flocks_,--which misled
the translator in the first edition to call them _wild_ pigeons.) I am
told that Jean Paul is here really picturing his own traits too. For
instance, it is said he would not look in at a shop-door in passing,
lest he should hold out promises which he was not going to perform.
Page 27, line 22.--"Snow-_ball_." (In German, _Kugel_: globe,--_ball_
being the word used where the snow-ball of the schoolboys is meant.)
Page 31, line 10.--Gold wedges,--"the _golden wedge_ of Ophir." In the
first edition the word _Stufen_ was rendered _steps_. But it has also a
technical meaning of _ore_ in masses or strata.
Page 35, line 32.--Otto Guerike, who was born at Magdeburg in
1602, and died in 1686, invented the air-pump and the barometer. The
Wetter-männchen was a little man on the top of the clock, for instance,
who came out in fair weather and went in in foul; or one in a bottle
with a skin cover, who rose and sunk according to the pressure of the
atmosphere. (See the _Bubbles of Nassau_.)
Page 38, line 13.--If Gaspard was simply a Knight of the Fleece, Jean
Paul would seem to have taken a liberty in decorating him. "The
decoration of the _Grand Master_ is a chain composed of alternate
flints and rays of steel, with the golden fleece fastened in the
middle. The _Knights_ wear a golden fleece on a red ribbon."--Line 17.
Dragons and basilisks are both _amphibia_ in the strict sense, only the
two dwelling-places of the former are _air_ and land, and of the latter
_water_ and land. The basilisk has a membranous bag on the back of his
head which can be filled with air at pleasure, and also a spinal fin
along his back, which adapt him to swimming.
Page 43, line 16.--The _flower_ on behind the stag is the hunter's name
for _tail_.
Page 44, line 11.---"Bed-tail" does not mean here, as an English
reader might imagine, the foot-board, but the cord hanging down like a
bell-rope before the nose of the sleeper, by which old or feeble
persons (in Germany) used to raise themselves out of bed. In the Eighth
Dog-Post-Day of _Hesperus_, Victor is represented as raising himself
slowly by the bed-tassel out of bed, which he usually left with a
spring. One would think it would need mechanical aid to hoist the
fevered frame from _under_ a German feather-bed.
Page 47, line 25.--The _piping_ of Schoppe was simply with his
_windpipe_; the _whistle_ one is said to _wet_ when he drinks.
Page 48, line 14.--"Dissolving" is not quite strong enough. The idea
is, that, as ships have their bolts drawn out by the _lodestone_ and
fall apart, so the senses fall apart as man sinks to slumber.
Page 52, line 24.--_After_-Stimme means, strictly, _mock_-voice.
Page 59, line 10.--"Cellini's History"; i. e. probably Goethe's
translation of Benvenuto's Autobiography.
Page 60, line 18.--"Dog-Post-Day" is the title of the chapters of
_Hesperus_, a former work of Jean Paul's, which he pretends to have
composed on an island in some Indian Ocean, the materials being brought
to him by a dog who swam over from the mainland with the basket
containing them in his teeth; and the days of the dog's arriving with
fresh material were called _Dog-Post-Days_.
Page 61, line 19.--The "_chiffre banal_" is the common cipher.
Page 62, line 15.--"Veimers,"--so Jean Paul spells it. "Vehmic (or
Fehmic) courts were secret tribunals, established in Germany in the
Middle Ages, terrible from the secrecy with which they carried on their
proceedings, as well as from their organization and the extent of their
authority. The members, who at one time are said to have amounted to
not less than one hundred thousand, were bound by a horrible oath to
secrecy, and to obey and carry out the laws of the order. These
tribunals are said to have originated with Charlemagne; but it was not
till the thirteenth century that they reached their greatest
prominence. The lawlessness and anarchy which prevailed at that time
gave them work to do, and they gathered strength in the performance of
it. They were professedly established to support virtue and honor; but
there is no doubt they were often perverted to the gratification of
private malice and tyranny. Westphalia was the great centre of their
jurisdiction, and was hence termed the Red Land." See Wigand's
_Fehmgerichte Westphalens_, 1827. A very good popular account of this
court may also be found in Markham's History of Germany, Chap. XXI.
(Supplement).--Line 17. "Pointeurs." See note to p. 221.
Page 63, line 12.--The author refers here to a process of slipping off
the outer coating of the quill by soaking it in boiling water.
Page 64, line 12. "Wooden legs."--_Spindle-shanks_ would better express
the author's slur.--Line 26. The _cul de Paris_ is what is technically
called the _bishop_ or _bustle_.
Page 76, line 26.--"Flying [i. e. transient] teachers" (_journeymen_).
Page 80, line 32. "Ah, what bliss," &c.--Compare a passage in Faust (p.
58 in Brooks's translation), beginning, "O for a wing," &c.
Page 82, line 17. "Fatal."--This German word is hard to translate here.
Perhaps _plaguy_ or _confounded_ would help give the idea.
Page 84, line 14.--"The _lost_ son" means of course the _Prodigal Son_.
Page 86, line 5. "Diabolically possessed,"--"des Teufels auf Bänder."
Literally, "the Devil on ribbons"; or, as we should say, _death on
ribbons_.
Page 87, line 2.--Jean Paul may well have recalled his own sore
experience on the subject of queues. See his biography, as referred to
in Carlyle's article on Richter.--In the next paragraph, "the
everlasting rogue" is, in German, the _persistent Mæcenas_,--alluding
to Albano's lavishing of his patronage on the blind girl.--In the next
paragraph, the translator is responsible for the play on the word
_monkey_; Jean Paul having simply _Capuchinades_.
Page 92, line 7.--A music-pen is an instrument for ruling five parallel
lines at once.
Page 93, line 28.--"Real territion" (or terrification) is explained in
a note to Vol. II. p. 1.
Page 95, line 1.--The special kind of _floor_ which Jean Paul's fancy
calls up is the _threshing-floor_.--Line 7. In regard to the "leather
aprons," it may be proper to mention that _miners_, to whom the
musicians had been compared on the previous page, wear them _behind_.
Page 98, line 30.--"The new commission"; i. e. the newly appointed
tutor, Falterle.
Page 100, line 15.--"Pump-chambers" is a figurative expression here for
_top-boots_.--Line 21. The word rendered "chub" may mean _tadpole_.
Page 101, line 23.--A "pike _au four_" (_four_ meaning _oven_) is
simply a _baked pike_.
Page 102, line 6.--"Shop-keeper" here does not mean the _man_ who keeps
shop, but an article that _keeps the shop_; i. e. remains on the shelf
as unsalable lumber. "Keep" is used in the same sense as when we say
one _keeps his bed_ or _keeps house_ when sick.--"Paste-eels" are
minute creatures found on scraping away the paste from under the
binding of an old book.
Page 103, line 13. "St. John."--See Mrs. Jameson's Poetry of Legendary
Art, Vol. I. p. 168. "St. John had a tame partridge, which he cherished
much; and he amused himself with feeding and tending it. A certain
huntsman, passing by with his bow and arrows, was astonished to see the
great Apostle, so venerable for his age and sanctity, engaged in such
an amusement. The Apostle asked him if he always kept his bow bent. He
answered, that would be the way to render it useless. 'If,' replied St.
John, 'you unbend your bow to prevent its being useless, so do I thus
unbend my mind for the same reason.'"
Page 107, line 18. "Wehmeier's."--Jean Paul uses here the old-fashioned
double genitive. _Wehmeier's seiner_ (Wehmeier's's) like our antiquated
_hissen_, which we still sometimes hear from the lips of old people.
Page 111, line 26.--"The history of countries"; i. e. of individual
countries,--the beginning, e. g., with that of one's own country as a
centre, and going backward.
Page 112, line 25.--_Kanstein_ was the founder of a Bible-establishment
for the printing and diffusion of the Scriptures.
Page 113, line 9.--_Foundery_, or perhaps a _gallery_ of casts.
Page 114, line 12.--His thoughts fell upon the Middle-mark. This
was one of the three Marches (hence the words Marquis and
Marchioness),--Alt-Mark, Neu-Mark, and Mittel-Mark,--in which last
Berlin was, and Frederick lived.
Page 114, line 16.--Christoph Scheiner, a German mathematician and
astronomer, eminent for being one of the first who discovered spots on
the sun (in 1611, a few months after Galileo), was born at Wald, near
Mundelheim, in Swabia, in 1575, and died in 1660.
Page 115, line 9. "Partner."--In the German, _Moitistinn_, a somewhat
hard word, apparently of Jean Paul's own coining, from the French
_moitié_.
Page 123, line 25.--Aldert van Everdingen, a celebrated Dutch painter
of wild and rugged landscapes, was born at Alkmaar in 1621, and
died in 1675. "Some of his fine _forests_ are extremely true and
picturesque."--John van Huysum, born at Amsterdam in 1682, "was the
most eminent painter of _flowers_ and fruits in the eighteenth century.
Every term of panegyric that language can furnish has been lavished,
and with justice, on his productions. He seems to have dived into the
mysteries of Nature, to represent the loveliest and most brilliant of
her creations with all the magic of her own pencil. His _flowers_,
however, are more beautiful and true to nature than his fruits."
Page 124, line 33. "Leaves of her heart."--Literally, however,
_heart-leaves_, a technical term in botany.
Page 134, line 17.--That is, by this course which he had now adopted,
he put himself beyond the reach of those severe censors.
Page 135, line 11.--"Murmuring" is hardly strong enough here to give
the force of the _many-meaning_ German word _brausend_. "Roaring" would
come nearer to it.