NOTES. I. PAGE 1. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648. 4. Habsburger: the family of Habsburg derived its name from Habsburg (Habichtsburg, Hawk's Castle) in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland, and became powerful through Rudolf von Habsburg, who was elected Emperor of Germany in 1273; the last male of the Habsburg dynasty was Charles VI., who died in 1740; his daughter Maria Theresa, who reigned from 1740–1780, was married to Francis of Lorraine (German Emperor 1745-1765), from whom the present house of Austria (wrongly called Habsburg) is descended.-Bourbonen: the Bourbon dynasty, so called from the possession of the seignory of Bourbon in the province of Bourbonnais, now the department of Allier, ascended the French throne in 1589 (Henry IV. —1610, Louis XIII. -1643, Louis XIV. -1715, Louis XV. -1774, Louis XVI. —1793; Louis XVII. 1814-24, Charles X.-1830. Its present representative is the pretender, Henri Dieudonné, commonly called Comte de Chambord). —sich heraufringen, to struggle upwards, work one's way upwards. 6. Hufe, originally a hide of land (una hoba quod est XXX iugera terrae araturiae' in a medieval document), then a small freehold. 8. Barren, bars of metal, bullion. 9. verwüstet: in the Thirty Years' War the Marches of Brandenburg had been devastated by the armies both of Protestants and Imperialists. 12. Nußvieh, lit. 'beasts of use,' cattle.-Urnatur, a rare word, primitive nature.-Friedrich Wilhelm, the great Elector, reigned from 1640– 1688. "He found Brandenburg annihilated, and he left Brandenburg sound and flourishing; a great country, or already on the way towards greatness. Undoubtedly a most rapid, clear-eyed, active man. There was a stroke in him swift as lightning, well-aimed mostly, and of a respectable weight withal; which shattered asunder a whole world of impediments for him." Carlyle (III. 18). 13. Kurhut, the peculiar scarlet and ermine hat worn by an elector (Kurfürst) of the Holy Roman Empire. The first part of the word is die Kur= die Kurwürde, from the verb küren or kiesen, which is cognate with the E. choose and Fr. choisir. For an account of the electors see Carlyle (II. 4). 15. Stammland angestammtes Land, inheritance. = 19. Etwas höher fassen, to show a higher appreciation of something. We should commonly say aussassen in this sense. PAGE 2. 2. Frederick the Great states at the beginning of his work, Histoire de mon temps, as follows: "A la mort de Frédéric Guillaume, Roi de Prusse (1740), les revenus de l'État ne montaient qu'à sept millions quatre cent mille écus. La population dans toutes les provinces pouvait aller à trois millions d'âmes." In the edition of 1788 it is observed, "C'est un nombre rond que le Roi met ici; la véritable population n'alla en 1740 qu'à 2,240,000 personnes.” 5. Das Kaiserhaus is the imperial dynasty of Habsburg.—seither =seitdem, ever since. 6. Wesen is a comprehensive term denoting (1) existence, (2) being, (3) the characteristic qualities of something. 12 sq. Observe the subjunctive in the dependent clause in indirect speech. 14. unbefangen, unprejudiced. We say in einem Vorurtheil befangen sein, to be influenced by a prejudice. 17. in die Höhe schnellen is properly used of the rebounding of some elastic material. 18. We might also say als anderswo, or irgend wo anders. 24. der Slavengrund, Slavonic territory. The Marches had originally been inhabited by Slavonic tribes. "Brandenburg, either Burg of the Brenns' (if there ever was any Tribe of Brenns) or Burg of the Woods,' say others" (Carlyle, II. 1). Preußen' itself, or Prussia proper, was originally inhabited by the heathen Prussians, who were conquered and forcibly converted to Christianity by the Teutonic Order; see Carlyle, II. 6. 25. dies Neue, 'this novel feature.' PAGE 3. 3. sein mag, 'is perhaps,' or 'probably.' This is a common way of translating these adverbs; e.g. er mag ein ganz guter Junge sein, he is perhaps quite a good boy.-nicht ohne Schaden is an instance of the figure called litotes, i. e. two negatives enforcing an affirmative thought. Here, e.g., nicht ohne means as much as mit sehr vielem Sch. 4. Grenzland, 'border district' (comp. 1. 27). The ancient inheritance of the house of Hohenzollern, being the electorate of Brandenburg and the duchy of Prussia, bordered upon the Swedish and Polish possessions; the Rhenish possessions lay close to the French and Dutch. 7. Observe the alliterative character of the phrase Wohl und Wehe. Verwicklung, lit. 'complication,' is frequently used in the sense of political crisis. 10. Comp. the statement 1, 15. 13. Regiment is often used of 'rule, government.' 'Regiment' bears the same sense in Elizabethan English. 15. The second war which Louis XIV. carried on against the Netherlands lasted from 1672-1678, and ended in the treaty of Nimeguen. Friedrich Wilhelm fought there on Kaiser Leopold's side, after the year 1674, when the German Empire joined in the war against Louis. See Carlyle, III. 18. 20. 24. Stammcharakter: cp. I, 15; 4, 4. It would be more common to say wenig Gelehrte (omitting the preposition). 26. abdämpfen, lit. to let off steam; hence abgedämpft may be translated by 'cooled down.' 27. figen is often used in the sense of wohnen, though with a sense of perpetuity ansässig sein, 'to be settled.' 29. knorrig is originally used of trees, 'knotty,' gnarled.' The metaphorical use of this word may be easily understood. PAGE 4. I. The Berliners enjoy even now-a-days the reputation of sarcasm and witticism. 3. zäh, in Old German zâch, is probably akin to E. tough, Anglo-S. tôh, which stands for tah or tah. 6. Charles the Great, commonly called Charlemagne, reigned from 768-814. 8. Vergrößerer, a somewhat unusual noun (from vergrößern, 'to enlarge'), instead of which we commonly use Vermehrer. 12. The dynasty of the Wasa was founded by Gustavus Wasa, who liberated Sweden from the Danes (1521). His grandson was Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of the Thirty Years' War. When Christina, the only daughter and heiress of the great king, abdicated in 1654, her crown passed to Karl Gustav of Zweibrücken, of the house of Wittelsbach, 'a great and mighty man, lion of the North in his time' (Carlyle), the grandfather of Charles XII. (There is also a Roman Catholic branch of the house of Wittelsbach, viz. the Bavarian.) 19. gescheid, clever.' Worcester observes that clever is evidently derived from the verb to cleave, and that several of the words which describe the various mental powers are derived from words signifying to 'split, cleave'; we may compare gescheid from scheiden, to separate, sever. The spellings gescheit and gescheidt, as well as the form gescheut, are not correct. 22. der deutsche Krieg denotes the Thirty Years' War.-The four monarchs alluded to are the following: I. 2. Friedrich Wilhelm, the great Elector, 1640–1688. 3. Friedrich Wilhelm I., 1713-1740. 4. Friedrich II., der Große, 1740-1786. 25. Ergänzung, supplement or complement. PAGE 5. I. Friedrich Wilhelm I. had married Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (daughter to George I., subsequently King of England), on Nov. 28, 1706; Friedrich (born Jan. 24, 1712) was their fourth child; but two had died before him, and only one girl, Wilhelmina, afterwards Margravine of Baireuth, had survived. Comp. 1. 27. 2. Sonnenschein is used metaphorically to denote cheerfulness. 14. keine bedeutende Frau, a woman rather wanting in force of character. Carlyle seems to think better of her. |