Page:Grimm's Household Tales, vol.1.djvu/520

438 where a rose shut up in a room changes itself into a beautiful maiden. The Myrtle in the Pentamerone (1. 2) is allied.

From a book, which in Northern Germany is certainly rare, Ovum paschale, oder neugefärbte Oster Ayr (newly-dyed Easter-eggs) (Salzburg, 1700, quarto, pp. 23–26); and from a Meistersong in a MS. in the Berlin Library, German MSS., fol. 23, No. 51 (formerly in the possession of Arnim), with the title, Inn des Marners Hoff-thon die vernascht maid, and beginning, "Vor kurzen Jarenn sase ein perckrichter im Johanisthal." In Hans Sachs (2. 4,217b, Kempt: edit.) Die vernascht Köchin. Compare Hagen's Gesammtabenteuer. No. xxxvii. and notes vol. 2. See Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst, folio 65. We believe that we have also heard the story by word of mouth.

Stilling relates the story thus in his Life (2. 8, 9), as we also have often heard it, and it occurs in the Volkslied aus dem Kühländchen (Meinert, 1. 106). It is also related that the child gathered together the fragments of the earthen platter, and wanted to keep them for his father. An old Meister song (No. 83, in Arnim's MS.) has quite a different version of this fable, and gives a chronicle as its source. An aged King has given his kingdom to his son, but is to keep it as long as he lives. The son marries, and the young Queen complains of the old man's cough. The son makes the father lie under the stairs on the straw, where for many years he has to live no better than the dogs. The grandson grows big, and takes his grandfather meat and drink every day; but once the old man is cold and begs for a horse-cloth. The grandson goes into the stable, takes a good cloth, and angrily cuts it in two. The father asks why he is doing that. "I am taking one half to grandfather, the other I am going to lay by to cover you with some day." A different treatment of this is contained in Zwey schöne Neue Lieder (Nuremberg, Val. Neuber), in the Meusebach Library. It begins: