The motto from Goethe is from his poem "Meine Göttin" ("My Goddess"), written on September 15, 1780. T. O. Mabbott notes that Poe likely saw it in an article by George Bancroft, "Life and Genius of Goethe" from the North American Review of October 1824 (Mabbott, Poems, p. 118). Bancroft translates these lines as "Dearest in her father's eye / Jove's own darling / Phantasy." Poe had already quoted these lines in a footnote to his poem "Al Aaraaf" (Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems, 1829, p. 19). There, "Tochter" is correctly capitalized. Pollin and Hansen note this motto as an example of "Poe's faulty use of German" (Pollin and Hansen, The German Face of Edgar Allan Poe, Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1995, pp. 51-52). Poe uses the motto again on his handwritten title page for the proposed edition of "Phantasy Pieces" prepared in 1842 but never published.

The table of contents shown here is a reasonable imitation of that in the original, though the original does not proceed items with bullets or any other typographical mark. Variations in our font have also made it impractical to match the number and spacing of the dot leaders from the title of the tale to the page number. In the original, these leaders are carefully arranged so that the dots and spaces of alternating lines switch back and forth, making it easier to follow the line without accidentally slipping up or down.