Queries.
ENGLISH POEMS BY CONSTANTINE HUYGHENS.
It is probable that some of your friendly correspondents in Holland may have it in their power to indicate where the English verses of Constantine Huyghens are to be found which he refers to in his Koren Bloemen, 2de Deel, p. 528. ed. 1672, where he was given Dutch translations with the following superscriptions: "Aen Joffw Utricia Ogle, uyt mijn Engelsh;" and "Aen Me-Vrouwe Stanhope, met mijn Heilige dagen, uyt mijn Engelsh."
Huyghens appears to have had a thorough knowledge of our language, and his very interesting volume contains translations of twenty of Dr. Donne's poems, very ably rendered, considering the difficulty of the task. He refers to this in his address to the reader, and says that an illustrious Martyr [Charles I.] many years since had declared that he could not have believed that any one could have successfully accomplished it. Huyghens confesses that the Latinisms with which our language abounds, had given him much to wrestle with; and that it was difficult to express in pure Dutch such words as ecstasy, atomy, influence, legacy, alloy, &c. The first stanza of the song, "Go and catch a falling Star," may perhaps be acceptable to some of your readers, who may not readily have access to the book:
"Gaet en vatt een Sterr in 't vallen,
Maeckt een' Wortel-mensch[1] met kind,
Seght waer men al den tijd die nu verby is vindt,
En wie des Duyvels voet geklooft heeft in twee ballen:
Leert my Meereminnen hooren,
Leert my hoe ick 't boose booren,