water echoed ineffably sweet sounds and burned as with a magical reflection of the torches, and the gaily-pennoned pleasure-boats with their wondrous masquerades swam in light and music. A lovely lady, who stood by the rudder of one of the barks, cried to me in passing, "Is it not true, friend thou would'st have a definition of the Shakespearean comedy?" I know not whether I answered "Yes," but in that instant the beautiful woman dipped her hand in the water and sprinkled the ringing sparks in my face, so that there was a general laughter, and I awoke.
Who was that charming woman who in such wise made merry with me in my dream? On her ideally beautiful head was a horned cap[1] of variegated colours with bells, a white satin garment with fluttering ribbons enclosed her almost too slender limbs, and on her breast she bore
- ↑ In allusion to the hennin, or the two-horned cap, often worn by ladies during the Middle Ages, but which was characteristic of witches, and termed "the triumphal barret of the devil" (vide La Sorciére de G. Michelet, vol. i. chap. v.). By the thistle, Heine refers to what is thus expressed by Friedrich (Symbolik d. Natur), "It is an emblem of sarcastic, biting wit," and is associated with the mottoes Non nisi aculeos (nothing if not stinging) and Nemo me impune lacessit (Aesthetik der Pflanzenwelt, p. 241). It is also an emblem of Venus, of beauty, and in elfin lore signifies the presence of a fairy. Heine has here with exquisite ingenuity and grace employed the symbols of witchcraft, piquancy and beauty, as attributes of his imagined goddess.—Translator.
