[35] We have taken the liberty to make two or three small alterations here, which we flatter ourselves the ingenious author's judgment will approve of and excuse, as they do not affect the sense.
[36] The founder and first legislator of the German nation, to whom after his deification the fourth day of our week was consecrated, now contracted from Wodon's day to Wednesday.
[37] The brave assertor of his country's liberty against the Roman invasions, who cut to pieces three legions commanded by Quintilius Varus in the reign of Augustus Cæsar.
[38] This alludes to the new order instituted by his Prussian Majesty, the badge of which is a gold medal with this inscription, For Merit.
[39] This alludes to the king's allowing liberty to the tall soldiers his father forced into his service.
[40] An unfortunate lover.
[41] This stanza is borrowed from an affecting and sanguinary description in a German ballad by Professor Von Spluttbach, called Skulth den Balch, or Sour Mthltz; in English, as far as a translation can convey an idea of the horror of the original, "The Bloody Banquet, or the Gulph of Ghosts!!!" a very terrible and meritorious production.
[42] Repetition is the soul of ballad writing.
[43] The reader will do my heroine the justice to remember that she set out with only three, consequently her wish that another had been added, arose from a motive purely affectionate and characteristic. This benevolent trait, ingeniously insinuated, excites the interest of the reader for her, and adds horror to the catastrophe.
[44] Our heroine is here lost in double astonishment; not only the length, but the whiteness of her grandmother's teeth excites her wonder and suspicion.