Page 63, Note 5.—This satirizes the sensuous novels of Timotheus Hermes.
Page 64, Note 6.—Directed against Platner, whose philosophy was a declamation of platitudes. The distich is true of almost all the debates that take place in literary clubs after the reading of a paper.
Page 71, Note 7.—Goethe wrote this in criticism of Reichardt's praise of the French Revolution.
Page 77, Note 8.—This and the following three distichs are directed against Nicolai, who was the owner of a large publishing-house, but at the same time a mediocre author, shallow and conceited.
Page 85, Note 9.—The Stolberg brothers had been liberal, but suddenly turned Roman Catholic.
Page 86, Note 10.—The pious Count Leopold Stolberg, exaggerating the value of Christian art while deprecating classic taste, said that he would give a whole collection of Greek urns for one Faience vase painted in the manner of Raphael.
Page 87, Note 11.—The censure is true in its general application; but the Xenion is aimed at a man (Johann Heinrich Jung, whose nom de plume was Heinrich Stilling) who did not deserve this castigation. See Goethe, page 16.
Page 88, Note 12.—A severe description of Johann Caspar Lavater. See Goethe, page 28.
Page 89, Note 13.—Also directed against Reichardt. (See Note 7.)
