"Da wo der Mondschein blitzet Um's hohe Felsgestein, Das Zauberfräulein sitzet Und schauet auf den Rhein. Es schauet herüber, hinüber, Es schauet hinab, hinauf, Die Schifflein ziehen vorüber, Lieb' Knabe, sieh nicht auf! Sie singt dir hold am Ohre, Sie blickt dich thöricht an, Sie ist die schöne Lore, Sie hat dir's angethan," &c.[9] [8] A. Strodtmann: H. Heine's _Leben und Werke_, 2nd edition, i. 696. [9] Where the moonlight glitters on the lofty cliff, there the magic-maiden sits, and gazes on the Rhine. She looks across the stream, looks up the stream and down; softly the boats glide past-look not on her, O youth! She sings so sweetly in your ear, she looks at you bewitchingly; she is the lovely Lore, and in her spells you're caught. Now take Heine's world-famed poem, first a students' song, then a popular song, melting and thrilling with the tender harmony of melody and words. The direct imitation is unmistakable. The theme is the same, the metre is the same, even some of the rhymes are the same: "blitzet--sitzet;" instead of "an--gethan, Kahn--gethan." But what a difference! Feeling has been added. First the personal starting-point, the inexplicable melancholy of the narrator and his inability to banish the old legend from his thoughts, then the instantaneous, clear, definite picture of the landscape: "Die Luft ist kühl, und es dunkelt, Und ruhig fliesst der Rhein, Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt Im Abendsonnenschein. Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet Dort oben wunderbar, Ihr gold'nes Geschmeide blitzet, Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar."[10] [10] The cool air darkens, and listen, How softly flows the Rhine! The mountain peaks still glisten Where the evening sunbeams shine. The fairest maid sits dreaming In radiant beauty there. Her gold and her jewels are gleaming, She combeth her golden hair. (E. LAZARUS.) And something more has been added--that element of dæmonic passion which the earlier manipulators of the theme were unable to communicate to it. Heine here represents an elemental luring power, akin to that delineated with simpler means and more powerful effect by Goethe in _Der Fischer_. But Goethe, in conformity with his nature, describes a tranquil, enchanting ensnarement; Heine, in conformity with his, an instantaneous, irresistible, maddening bewitchment. A still more profound insight into Heine's art, in the making, and into the manner in which his fancy deals with a theme, is perhaps to be gained by observing how he makes use of a subject which offers itself to him in prose.