Note 334 — Chapter IV · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF THE POETRY OF ART

Vilmar, in his little Handbüchlein, p. 5, is full of righteous enthusiasm for an old cutthroat ballad, and full of righteous scorn for Heine’s cynical lines, “Spitzbübin war sie, er war ein Dieb;” the modern reader, for his sins, prefers Heine and chances the moral turpitude involved in his choice.