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 dein
Gar hofelich gezieret,
Dem leib ist ran,
Gar wolgetan
Sind dir dein prust,"
&c. &c.
Clara Hätzlerin 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 sixteenth century, and considering that the older German poetical literature had already passed its culminating point, while ours was upon the ascending 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 illustration of the importance of this point. I have never had the least doubt that this word is derived immediately from the German. It is, in fact, "das Neue" in the genitive case; the German phrase "Was giebt's Neues?" giving the exact sense of our "What is the news?" This will appear even stronger if we go back to the date of the first use of the word in England. Possibly about the same time, or not much earlier, we find in his same collection of Clara Hätzlerin, the word spelt "new" and rhyming to "triu."
"Empfach mich uff das New
In deines hertzen triu."
The genitive of this would be "newes," thus spelt and probably pronounced the same as in England. That the word is not derived from the English adjective "new"—that it is not of English manufacture at all—I feel well assured: in that case the "s" would be the sign of the plural: and we should have, as the Germans have, either extant or obsolete, also "the new." The English language, however, has never dealt in these abstractions, except in its higher poetry; though some recent translators from the German have disregarded the difference in this respect between the powers of the two languages. "News" is a noun singular, and as such must have been adopted bodily into the language; the form of the genitive case, commonly used in conversation, not being understood, but being taken for an integral part of the word, as formerly the Koran was called "The Alcoran."
"Noise," again, is evidently of the same derivation, though from a dialect from which the modern German pronunciation of the diphthong is derived. Richardson, in his English Dictionary, assumes it to be of the same derivation as "noxious" and "noisome;" but there is no process known to the English language by which it could be manufactured without making a plural noun of it. In short, the two words are identical; "news" retaining its primitive, and "noise" adopting a consequential meaning.
FOLK LORE
Charm for the Toothache.—A reverend friend, very conversant in the popular customs and superstitions of Ireland, and who has seen the charm mentioned in pp. 293, 349, and 397, given by a Roman Catholic priest in the north-west of Ireland, has kindly furnished me with the genuine version, and the form in which it was written, which are as follows:—
"As Peter sat on a marble stone,
The Lord came to him all alone;
'Peter, what makes thee sit there?'
'My Lord, I am troubled with the toothache.'
'Peter arise, and go home;
And you, and whosoever for my sake
Shall keep these words in memory,
Shall never be troubled with the toothache.'"
Charms.—The Evil Eye.—Going one day into a cottage in the village of Catterick, in Yorkshire, I observed hung up behind the door a ponderous necklace of "lucky stones," i.e. stones with a hole through them. On hinting an inquiry as to their use, I found the good lady of the house disposed to shuffle off any explanation; but by a little importunity I discovered that they had the credit of being able to preserve the house and its inhabitants from the baneful influence of the "evil eye." "Why, Nanny," said I, "you surely don't believe in witches now-a-days?" "No! I don't say 'at I do; but certainly i' former times there was wizzards an' buzzards, and them sort o' things." "Well," said I, laughing, "but you surely don't think there are any now?" "No! I don't say at ther' are; but I do believe in a yevil eye." After a little time I extracted from poor Nanny more particulars on the subject, as viz.:—how that there was a woman in the village whom she strongly suspected of being able to look with an evil eye; how, further, a neighbour's daughter, against whom the old lady in question had a grudge owing to some love affair, had suddenly fallen into a sort of pining sickness, of which the doctors could make nothing at all; and how the poor thing fell away without any accountable cause, and finally died, nobody knew why; but how it was her (Nanny's) strong belief that she had pined away in consequence of a glance from the evil eye. Finally, I got from her an account of how any one who chose could themselves obtain the power of the evil eye, and the receipt was, as nearly as I can recollect, as follows:—
"Ye gang out ov' a night—ivery night, while ye find nine toads—an' when ye've gitten t' nine toads, ye hang 'em up ov' a string, an' ye make a hole and buries t' toads i't hole—and as 't toads pines away, so 't person pines away 'at you've looked upon wiv a yevil eye, an' they pine and pine away while they die, without ony disease at all!"
I do not know if this is the orthodox creed respecting the mode of gaining the power of the evil eye, but it is at all events a genuine piece of Folk Lore.
The above will corroborate
