Queries.
SIR HENRY WOTTON'S VERSES, "THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE."
Owing to the almost perfect identity of these verses with some by a German poet, George Rudolph Weckerlin, a doubt has been expressed in a German work as to whether they are to be considered the production of Sir Henry Wotton, or a translation from the Geistliche und weltliche Gedichte of Weckerlin, a lyrical poet of considerable eminence and popularity in his day, and who died in London in 1651. Weckerlin was employed in important affairs connected with the Protestants in Germany during the Thirty Years' War, as secretary to an embassy in London from that country; and was also employed on several occasions by James I. and Charles I. An edition of Weckerlin's Poems was edited by him while he resided in London, and was printed at Amsterdam in 1641, and again in 1648. A previous collection had
appeared at Stutgart in 1618. Many of his poems, which he had left in MS. with his brother Ludwig in Germany, perished with him during the horrors of the war. "What has become," Weckerlin feelingly exclaims, "of my Myrta, that dear poem, composed of so many sonnets and stanzas?"
Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q.," who are conversant with the literature of England and Germany during the period alluded to, may be able to solve the question as to the real author of the verses mentioned.
John Macray.
Oxford.
Minor Queries.
Plants and Flowers.—Might I inquire of your correspondent Eirionnach why his long-promised Notes on the "ecclesiastical and rustic pet names" of plants and flowers have never been forthcoming? I have often lingered on the threshold of the "garden full of sunshine and of bees," where Eirionnach has laboured; would he kindly be my guide to the pleasant domain, and indicate (without trespassing on your columns I mean) the richest gatherings of the legendary lore and poetry of the vegetable kingdom? Are there any collections of similes drawn from plants and flowers? Dr. Aitkin has broken ground in his Essay on Poetical Similes. Any notes on this subject, addressed to the "care of the Editor," will greatly oblige