HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

xlil
0^ntrotiutttotu
gen." It is impossible to go beyond
that.
What wit, again, in that saying which
every one has heard : " The Englishman
loves liberty like his lawful wife, the
Frenchman loves her like his mistress,
the German loves her like his old grandmother."
But the turn Heine gives to
this incomparable saying is not so well
known; and it is by that turn he shows
himself the born poet he is, — full of
delicacy and tenderness, of inexhaustible
resource, infinitely new and striking
: —
" And yet, after all, no one can ever
tell how things may turn out. The
grumpy Englishman, in an ill-temper
with his wife, is capable of some day
putting a rope round her neck, and
taking her to be sold at Smithfield. The
inconstant Frenchman may become unfaithful
to his adored mistress, and be
seen fluttering about the Palais Royal
after another. But the German will
never quite abandon his old grandmother ;
he will always keep for her a nook by
the chimney-corner, where she can tell
her fairy stories to the listening children."
Is it possible to touch more delicately
and happily both the weakness and the
strength of Germany; — pedantic, simple,
enslaved, free, ridiculous, admirable
Germany ?
And Heine's verse, — his Lieder ? Oh,
the comfort, after dealing with French