| in Germany music […] literature in France | A common prejudice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which TM frequently indulged as well. |
| she looped her arm around him | Elsbeth L.’s posture recalls the iconographical tradition of the pietà, i.e., of the Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of her son Jesus after the crucifixion, thereby strengthening the Christological dimensions of the narrative. |
| Hase’s Private Conservatory | |
| as weary […] with iron ladles | This turn of phrase is indeed “Baroque,” since TM copied it from Simplicissimus. |
| | In the German original, L. addresses Kretzschmar in the second person plural, an antiquated and courtly form of address. |
| | Mercy, compassion. Woods’s translation for the antiquated term Erbärmde, which TM again took from Simplicissimus. |
| | See Revelations 3:15–16. This passage is another example of L.’s recurring association with coldness. |
| | Contrition. Theologically speaking, the act of regretting a sin out of sincere penitence, as opposed to attritio, which describes regret motivated by a fear of punishment. According to Luther, only contritio leads to the forgiveness of sins, whereas in Catholic teaching both contritio and attritio can lead to salvation. The distinction will be further developed in chapters XXV and XLVI. |
| Holy Writ under the bench | An expression from the Chapbook. |
| | Though this phrase may sound Biblical, Der Schritt vom Wege is actually the title of a 1939 film by Gustav Gründgens (1899–1963). The reference seems incongruous with the rest of this chapter although it is perhaps worth noting that Gründgens, an erstwhile friend of the Manns who put his considerable talents as an actor and director at the service of the Nazis, appears in thinly disguised form as the protagonist of the novel Mephisto (1936) by TM’s son Klaus (1906–1949). |
| laboratory work of the Alchemist and sorcerer | Although L. begins by comparing music to theology, he then moves it into the vicinity of alchemy and the Black Arts (the German speaks explicitly of Schwarzkünstler). |
| Apostasy is an act of faith | See Schleppfuss’s lectures in chapter XIII. |
| | A verbatim quotation from Prof. Kumpf. See 104/142. |
| | Dominican monk and theologian (1193–1280) who also practiced alchemy and was therefore sometimes suspected of being a Black magician. |
| prima materia […] magisterium | Med. Latin: “primal matter” and “sorcerer’s stone,” both basic ingredients in many alchemical formulas. |
| | Latin: “Fly away, man!” A quotation from the Chapbook, where the words appear in blood on Faust’s hand immediately after he cuts it open to seal the devil’s pact. The phrase alludes to 1 Tim. 6:11. |
| | The German phrase Promission zu machen is antiquated and used in the Chapbook specifically to indicate promises made to the devil. |
| | The paragraph that follows offers a description of the prelude to Act III of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868). TM sent the passage to his musical advisor Theodor W. Adorno in order to determine whether the allusion was too obvious and expressed surprise when Adorno didn’t recognize it. |
| | Another phrase from the Chapbook. |
| | Kretzschmar here develops ideas he already advanced in his lectures on Beethoven in chapter VIII. |
| | The Cherubinic Wanderer (1657), Baroque compendium of mystical writings by Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler; 1624–1677). |