"Thou madest us fly before our foes,
And so were overtrod.
Our enemies rob'd and spoyl'd our goods
When we were sparst abroad."
The word here used in 1611 was evidently no American one; and yet it is singular that neither Bailey (1740), Johnson (1755), or Barclay (1800), have the word in their dictionaries; but Knowles (1835) and Blackie's Imperial (1850) both mentioned it; and have sparse, sparsed, sparsedly, and sparsing, all meaning "dispersed" or "scattered."
John Algor.
Eldon Street, Sheffield.
Genoveva of Brabant (Vol. vii., p. 212.).—There is a ballad on her legend in an obscure volume of verses published by Masters, 1846, fantastically entitled Echoes from Old Cornwall.
Coriolanus.
N.B. These Echoes do not appear to have resounded far or wide.