[Footnote 45: The Austrian knights were in the habit of wearing a plum of peacocks' feathers in their helmets. After the overthrow of the Austrian dominion in Switzerland, it was made highly penal to wear the peacock's feather at any public assembly there.] [Footnote 46: The bench reserved for the nobility.] [Footnote 47: The Landamman was an officer chosen by the Swiss Gemeinde, or Diet, to preside over them. The Banneret was an officer intrusted with the keeping of the State Banner and such others as were taken in battle.] [Footnote 48: According to the custom by which, when the last male descendent of a noble family died, his sword, helmet, and shield, were buried with him.] [Footnote 49: This frequently occurred. But in the event of an imperial city being mortgaged for the purpose of raising money, it lost its freedom, and was considered as put out of the realm.] [Footnote 50: An allusion to the circumstance of the Imperial Crown not being hereditary, but conferred by election on one of the Counts of the Empire.] [Footnote 51: These are the cots, or shealings, erected by the herdsmen for shelter while pasturing their herds on the mountains during the summer. These are left deserted in winter, during which period Melchthal's journey was taken.] [Footnote 52: It was the custom at the meetings of the Landes Gemeinde, or Diet, to set swords upright in the ground as emblems of authority.] [Footnote 53: The Heribann was a muster of warriors similar to the _arrière ban_ of France.] [Footnote 54: A The Duke of Suabia, who soon afterward assassinated his uncle for withholding his patrimony from him.] [Footnote 55: A sort of national militia.] [Footnote 56: Rocks on shore of Lake Lucerne.] [Footnote 57: An allusion to the gallant self-devotion of Arnold Struthan of Winkelried, at the battle of Sempach [9th July, 1386], who broke the Austrian phalanx by rushing on their lances, grasping as many of them as he could reach, and concentrating them upon his breast. The confederates rushed forward through the gap thus opened by the sacrifice of their comrade, broke and cut down their enemy's ranks, and soon became the masters of the field. "Dear and faithful confederates, I will open you a passage. Protect my wife and children," were the words of Winkelried, as he rushed to death.] [Footnote 58: The URPHEDE was an oath of peculiar force. When a man, who was at feud with another, invaded his lands and was worsted, he often made terms with his enemy by swearing the _Urphede_, by which he bound himself to depart, and never to return with a hostile intention.] * * * * * THE HOMAGE OF THE ARTS A MASQUE Dedicated in all reverence to her Imperial Highness, the Crown Princess of Weimar, MARIA PAULOWNA, Grand-Duchess of Russia, and produced at the Court Theatre in Weimar, November 12, 1804. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. A FATHER. A MOTHER. A YOUTH. A MAIDEN. CHORUS OF COUNTRY PEOPLE. GENIUS. THE SEVEN ARTS.