Your correspondent, who subscribes himself JANUS DOUSA in the last number
of "NOTES AND QUERIES," ought to be able, and I dare say will be able, to
supply through your columns information of which I have been long in
search. In 1586 his great namesake printed at Lugd. Batav. a collection of
Greek and Latin poems upon dead and living persons of distinction. Geoffrey
Whitney, an Englishman, apparently residing at Leyden, and {23} who printed
two works there in his own language, has fifteen six-line stanzas preceding
Dousa's collection, and he subjoins to it a translation of a copy of
Dousa's verses on the Earl of Leicester. Of these I have a memorandum, and
they are not what I want; but what I am at a loss for is a copy of verses
by Dousa, in the same volume, upon Sir Philip Sidney. It is many years
since I saw the book, and I am not sure if there be not two copies of
verses to Sidney, in which he is addressed as _Princeps_; and if your
correspondent can furnish me with either, or both, I shall be much obliged
to him.
Will you allow me to put another question relating to an old Dutch
song-book that has lately fallen in my way; and though I can hardly expect
a man like JANUS DOUSA to know anything about such a trifle, it is on some
accounts a matter of importance to me, in connection with two early English
songs, and one or other of your many friends may not object to aid me. The
book is called _De zingende Lootsman of de Vrolyke Boer_, and it professes
to be the _tweede druk_: the imprint is _Te Amsteldam By S. en W. Koene,
Boekdrukkers, Boek en Papierverkoopers, op de Linde Gragt_. The information
I request is the date of the work, for I can find none; and whether any
_first part_ of it is known in England, and where?
You are probably aware that the Dutch adopted not a few of our early tunes,
and they translated also some of our early songs. These I am anxious to
trace.