428 NOTES AND QUERIES. | Wor,27. 
They are printed in Steele’s Miscellany (12mo. 
1714), p. 63., and in the second edition of the 
same Miscellany (12mo. 1727), p.51., with Par- 
nell’s name, and, what is more, on both occasions 
among other poems by the same author. 
TO A YOUNG LADY 
On her Translation of the Story of Phebus and 
Daphne, from Ovid. 
In Phoebus, Wit (as Ovid said) 
Enchanting Beauty woo’d ; 
In Daphne Beauty coily fled, 
While vainly Wit pursu‘d. 
But when you trace what Ovid writ, 
A diff’rent turn we view ; 
Beauty no longer flies from Wit, 
Since both are join’d in you. 
Your lines the wond’rous change impart, 
From whence our laurels spring ; 
In numbers fram’d to please the heart, 
And merit what they sing. 
Methinks thy poet’s gentle shade 
Its wreath presents to thee; 
What Daphne owes you as a Maid, 
She pays you as a Tree. 
The charming poem by the same author, begin- 
ning — 
“« My days have been so wond’rous free,” 
has the additional fourth stanza, — 
«© An eager hope within my breast, 
Does ev’ry doubt controul, 
And charming Naney 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 Phebus 
and Daphne? Cae: 
EARLY ENGLISH AND EARLY GERMAN LITERATURE. 
—‘“ wews” AND “ NOISE.” 
Tam anxious to put a question as to the com- 
munication that may have taken place between the 
English and German tongues previous to the six- 
teenth century. Possibly the materials for an- 
swering 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 “ Mus- 
canbliit,” and which poem is to be found in Der 
Clara Hitzlerin 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 elyps ; 
Her rosy lyps, 
Her chekes gossy ps,” 
&e. &e. 
S. S. Papers, vol. i. p. 72 
“Ty miindlin rott 
Uss senender nott 
Mir helffen kan, 
Das mir kain man 
Mit nichten kan piissen. 
* * * 
O liechte kel, 
Wie vein, wie gel 
Ist dir dein har, 
Dein duglin clar, 
Zartt fraw, lass mich an sehen, 
Und tu mir kund 
Uss rottem mund, &e. 
Dein armlin weisz 
Mit gantzem fleisz 
Geschnitzet sein, 
Die hennde dein 
Gar hofelich gezieret, 
Dem leib ist ran, 
Gar wolgetan 
Sind dir dein prust,” 
&e. &e. 
Clara Hiitzlerin Liederbuch, p. 111. 
In all this there is certainly nothing to warrant 
the conclusion that the German poem was the 
original of Heywood’s song; but, considering that — 
the latter was produced so near to the same age 
as the former, that is, at the beginning of the six- — 
teenth century, and considering that the older 
German poetical literature had already passed its — 
culminating point, while owrs was upon the as- — 
cending scale, there is likeness enough, both in 
manner and measure, to excite the suspicion of 
direct or indirect communication. 
The etymology of the word “news,” on which — 
you have recently had some notes, is a case in il- — 
lustration of the importance of this point. I have 
never had the least doubt that this word is de- 
rived immediately from the German. It is, in~ 
fact, ‘dus Neue” in the genitive case; the German 
phrase “ Was giebt’s Neues?” giving the exact 
sense of our “ What is the news?” ‘This will ap-— 
