346
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. NOV. 2, 1912.
significant name of a " geotroposcope." It
may be worth while to record this scientific
term, to be included among the future
additions to the ' N.E.D.' H. K.
HEINE AND THE JAPANESE. From The Jewish Tribune (Portland, Oregon) I extract the following. Writing in 1854, Heine tells us that about twelve years previously (viz., in 1842, in his forty-second year) he was introduced to a Dr. Buerger, who had given a young Jap instruction in German. This gentleman saw Heine's poems (which he had translated into Japanese) through a first edition in Nagasaki. This was the first European book ever translated into Japanese, though Goethe relates that his ' Sorrows of Werth6r ' was painted on glass by the Chinese. A review of the ' Lieder ' was published in The Calcutta Review at the time. M. L. R. BRESLAR.
" WHEN, DEAREST, I BUT THINK OF THEE " : SONG BY SUCKLING OR BY FELL- THAM. The song beginning as above is attributed to Sir John Suckling, e.g., in ' The Poems, Plays and Other Remains of Sir John Suckling,' a new edition, edited by W. C. Hazlitt, 1874, i. 96 (1892 edition, p. 74), and in A. Hamilton Thompson's edition of Suckling's ' Works,' 1910, p. 67.
Allibone in his ' Dictionary of English Literature,' writing of Suckling, says that his song " When, dearest, I but think of thee," is among his best compositions. It is given in such other editions of Suckling as I have examined. Yet the song, with a few small differences, appears as No. xxxii. of ' Lusoria,' 1661, by Owen Felltham, published with the eighth edition of his ' Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political,' 1661.
At the head of the song is the following note :
" The ensuing Copy the late Printer hath been pleased to honour, by mistaking it among those of the most ingenious and too early lost, Sir John Suckling."
The ninth edition, 1670, has the same note, which appears also in the Table.
In the eleventh edition, 1696, the note appears at the head of the song, while in the Table we read :
" A Copy of a Song by mistake publish'd among those of Sir John Suckling."
The small differences are :
Suckling (1874). Felltham (1661). L. 8, borrowed , . . . .spreading.
L. 14, subsist consist.
L. 17, love's their.
L. 19, each such.
L. 20, promont,. . . .palace.
Besides these, there are differences in
spelling, the only important one of which
is in 1. 22, where the above Suckling version
has " O " for the preferable " Oh."
Mr. Thompson has a note in his edition of Suckling giving a quotation for " pro- mont," which is to be found in Nares's ' Dictionary.'
Felltham died in 1668, Suckling probably in 1642, according to the account of him in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' where the writer, Mr. Thomas Seccombe, speaks of Hazlitt's edition of his works (1874) as " the standard edition." He says nothing about any doubt as to the authorship of " When, dearest, I but think of thee," although he takes exception to the appear- ance among Suckling's poems of ' Canti- lena ' and " I am confirm 'd a woman can " (i. 102, 106, of the 1874 edition). The latter poem was inserted on the strength of a note by A. D. (? Alexander Dyce) in ' N. & Q.' (1 S. i. 72), where the evidence given is very weak indeed.
The song " When, dearest," &c., appears in
' ' The Last Bemains of S r John Suckling. Being a Full Collection Of all his Poems and Lett era which have been so long expected, and never till now Published . . . .London: Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church- yard, 1659."
Probably " the late Printer " referred to by Felltham means Humphrey Moseley, who gives a preface, signed H. M., headed ' The Stationer to the Reader.' In it he says :
" These elegant and florid Pieces of his Fancie were preserved in the custody of his truly honor- able and vertuous Sister, with whose free per- mission they were transcribed, and now published exactly according to the Originals."
He then protests against any doubt as to the authorship.
It appears that within two years Owen Felltham published his claim to be the author of " When, dearest," &c.
The following is an example of Felltham 's verse (' Lusoria,' xxxiv.) : Upon a rare Voice.
When I but hear her sing, I fare
Like one that raised, holds his ear To some bright star in the supremest Round ;
Through which, besides the light that's seen
There may be heard, from Heaven within, The rests of Anthems, that the Angels sound.
For the titles, dates, and prefatory matter of the early editions of Suckling see Hazlitt's 1874 edition, i. Ixix-lxxxiv.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
