Page 30, Note 1.—The name "Huss" means "goose." When Huss was condemned to die at the stake he said:
"Nach mir wird kommen ein Schwan, Den sollen sie ungebraten lah'n."
[After me a swan will rise,
Whom they will not roast likewise.]
This doggerel with its grim humor on so tragic an occasion is commonly and naturally regarded as foretelling the coming of Martin Luther.
Page 55, Note 2.—Professor Wolf was the first to prove that the Iliad and the Odyssey consisted of a number of epic poems by different poets, which were collected under the name of Homer. For Goethe's feeling with regard to criticism see the translator's book Goethe, page 273.
Page 60, Note 3.—This distich is addressed to Karl Philip Moritz, author of an interesting novel in the form of an autobiography, Anton Reiser.
Page 61, Note 4.—This is addressed to F. H. Jacobi, who had written two philosophical novels, Woldemar and Allwill. The difference between him and Moritz is sufficiently characterized in this and the preceding distich.
