Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850, page 9 by Various
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ithin my breast, Does ev'ry doubt controul, And charming Nancy stands confest The fav'rite of my soul."
Can any of your readers supply the name of the "young lady" who translated the story of Phoebus and Daphne?
C.P.
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EARLY ENGLISH AND EARLY GERMAN LITERATURE.--"NEWS" AND "NOISE."
I am anxious to put a question as to the communication that may have taken place between the English and German tongues previous to the sixteenth century. Possibly the materials for answering it may not exist; but it appears to me that it is of great importance, in an etymological point of view, that the extent of such communication, and the influence it has had upon our language, should be ascertained. In turning over the leaves of the _Shakspeare Society's Papers_, vol. i., some time ago, my attention was attracted by a "Song in praise of his Mistress," by John Heywood, the dramatist. I was immediately struck by the great resemblance it presented to another poem on the same subject by a German writer, whose real or assumed name, I do not know which, was "Muscanblüt," and which poem is to be found in _Der Clara Hätzlerin Liederbuch_, a collection made by a nun of Augsburg in 1471. The following are passages for comparison:--
"Fyrst was her skyn, Whith, smoth, and thyn, And every vayne So blewe sene playne; Her golden heare To see her weare, Her werying gere, Alas! I fere To tell all to you I shall undo you.
"Her eye so rollyng, Ech harte conterollyng; Her nose not long, Nor stode not wrong; Her finger typs So clene she clyps; Her rosy lyps, Her chekes gossyps,"
&c. &c.
_S.S. Papers_, vol. i. p. 72
"Ir mündlin rott Uss senender nott Mir helffen kan, Das mir kain man Mit nichten kan püssen.
O liechte kel, Wie vein, wie gel Ist dir dein har, Dein äuglin clar, Zartt fraw, lass mich an sehen. Und tu mir kund Uss rottem mund, &c.
Dein ärmlin weisz Mit gantzem fleisz Geschnitzet sein, Die hennde de