Note 21 — From Rebhun’s ‘Susanna,’ Act III, Sc. 4: Having been menaced with death by the wanton judges, Susanna tells her father, mother, and sister of the infamous plot.62

Fassnacht. The usual modern form is Fastnacht, as if from Faste, and meaning ‘eve of the Lenten fast.’ So the Grimm Dictionary explains it. But in early texts we find vasnacht, fasnacht, fasenacht, fassnacht, which Kluge in his Etymological Dictionary derives from faseln in the sense of Unsinn treiben.