The scholar of literature Lars Lönnroth writes that the "languorous and intense" melody was originally for an aria about a lover's struggle between the personified "Love" and "Reason". Love draws him to the beloved; Reason tells him he will regret it. He notes that Fredman, too, is pulled to and fro by the same two forces. The "obscene details" of the 1771 version were replaced in the printed 1790 text with a description of the surroundings and a lyricism that at on the surface, he writes, make the song more seemly; the mood is "less burlesque and more inward". The musical setting, too, was changed, removing the instrumental imitation of the action. Still, even without the "erotically arousing striptease", the song's structure was unchanged, and the goddess of love is still present, with "I to Freya's worship go" instead of the frank account of Cajsa Stina as "a diligent temple maid" in Freya's temple, so, Lönnroth writes, it is open to question whether the printed version was much more proper. The retouching, however, in Lönnroth's view converted "a semi-pornographic bedroom farce", including a collapsing bed, to high erotic art complete with Orphean nature-mysticism, making the song "a demonstration of poetry's ability to immortalise".
