Notes and Queries, Number 27, May 4, 1850 | Page 4

to an heiress, who
married Mr. Cecil (the Earl of Exeter of Alfred Tennyson), and was
divorced from him. Lord Exeter sold or carried away the fine library,
family plate, and nearly everything curious or valuable that was not an
heirloom in the Vernon family. He laid waste the extensive gardens,
and sold the elaborate iron gates, which now adorn the avenue to Mere
Hall in the immediate neighbourhood. The divorcée married a Mr.
Phillips, and dying without surviving issue, the estates passed to a
distant branch of her family. About ten years ago I made a careful
search (by permission) at Hanbury Hall for the supposed Monmouth
MSS., but found none; and I ascertained by inquiry that there were
none at Enstone Hall, the seat of Mr. Phillips's second wife and widow.
The MSS. might have been carried to Burleigh, and a friend obtained
for me a promise from the Marquis of Exeter that search should be
made for them there, but I have reason to believe that the matter was
forgotten. Perhaps some of your correspondents may have the means of
ascertaining whether there are such MSS. in Lord Exeter's library. I
confess my doubt whether so cautious a man as Thomas Vernon would
have retained in his possession a mass of correspondence that might
have been fraught with danger to himself personally; and, had it been in
the Burleigh library, whether it could have escaped notice. This,
however, is to be noted. After Vernon's death there was a dispute
whether his MSS. were to pass to his heir-at-law or to his personal
representatives, and the court ordered the MSS. (Reports) to be printed.
This was done very incorrectly, and Lord Kenyon seems to have hinted
that private reasons have been assigned for that, but these could hardly
have related to the Monmouth MSS.
SCOTUS.
* * * * *
PARNELL.
The following verses by Parnell are not included in any edition of his
poems that I have seen. {428} 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 Parnell'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 Phoebus 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, beginning--
"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 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.
* * * * *
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