GERMAN CLASSICS EDITED WITH ENGLISH NOTES, ETC. BY C. A. BUCHHEIM, PHIL. DOC., F.C.P. Professor of the German Language and Literature in King's College, London To the University of New Zealand To the College of Preceptors, the Society of Arts, etc. VOLUME VII HEINE'S PROSA, being Selections from his Prose Works Second Edition, Revised Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1888 [All rights reserved] PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN the Preface to the first edition of this volume, published towards the end of 1884, I recorded in full the reasons which induced me to present to English readers of German a Selection of representative pieces from Heine's prose writings. The success with which my Selections have met, both in the School Room and among the general public, and the favourable verdict of some of the principal journals in this country, as well as in America and Germany, fully dispense me from expatiating again on the raison d'être of the present volume; and the more so as my estimate of Heine's great genius will be gathered from the following Biographical Introduction. I cannot refrain, however, from remarking with, I hope, legitimate satisfaction, that the principle which I followed in making the Selections and in annotating them has met with general approval. It is an acknowledged fact that the writings of no other German author require so much weeding and sifting as those of Heine1. George Eliot, who was one of his warmest admirers, declared, 'Before his volumes are put within the reach of immature minds, there is need of a friendly penknife to exercise a strict censorship.' I would add, however, that this friendly service will be welcome, not only to immature, but also to mature minds, since the more anyone admires Heine's works the more he must wish that they were free from all coarse and licentious passages. Fortunately, I may mention here that by the omission of a few phrases and expressions which make it impossible to place Heine's Harzreise, in its complete form, in the hands of young persons-whether in or out of school-I have succeeded in making of that most delightful sketch, published in the present Series, a suitable Text Book for Schools. M107970 |