FOOTNOTES:
[655:1] A noble speech, and with the additional excellence of being in character. MS. R.
[658:1] There are few, who will not have taste enough to laugh at the two concluding lines of this soliloquy; and still fewer, I would fain hope, who would not have been more disposed to shudder, had I given a faithful translation. For the readers of German I have added the original:
Blind-wüthend schleudert selbst der Gott der Freude
Den Pechkranz in das brennende Gebäude.[658:A]
[658:A] The two lines are sufficiently fustian, but this seems no reason for interpreting 'the God of Joy' as any higher divinity than Comus or rather an allegoric personage. Festivity alluding to the festive music and uproar heard from the banquet-room. MS. R.