Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/108

 Minnesingers were love singers, singing their own love, or expressing the love of others. On reference to Adelung's Wörterbuch, we find the following explanation:

", plur, car, an antiquated word, which formerly signified love, and which was used for any kind of love. Der Heilige Geyst entzündet den Menschen zu Goles Minne und zu des Nächsten Liebe. (Buch der Natur., 1483.) Whatever the nature of the love, the word, as well as the verb minnen, to love, used frequently, as well by Ottfried as the Schwäbian poets, is used also for friendship. It is frequently used by the poets of the Middle Ages to express love towards the gentler sex; but it does not follow, as has been asserted by a modern author, that it is limited to this. As the word was often used to express lewd intercourse, by one in itself innocent, it is possible that it was gradually disused, and finally became obsolete. Our modern word Liebe (love) seems to be menaced with a similar fate. In Holland, however, it is still in use. The verb minnen, to love, and figuratively, to kiss, is, according to all appearances, the intensitive of mine, that which is mine own; mine is the abstract form. From this comes the French word mignon, a darling. In Lower Saxony children are still accustomed to call their nurses minne."

So far Adelung. The German passage he quotes from the Book of Nature, may be translated, "The Holy Ghost kindles the remembrance (or love) of God and love of our neighbour." Minne and Liebe are evidently synonymous. Further, hinnie in Lowland Scotch is almost synonymous with hinnie, my love. It is a term of affection when speaking of a mother, as a mother, as well as one beloved. The following lines will occur to many readers:

"My daddie he's a cankered carl, Will no tine o' his gear; My minnie is a scolding wife, Keeps a' the house a-steer."

For further information we would refer the querist to Adelung, under the word Meinnen.

J. K.

Perhaps I do not catch the drift of your correspondent's inquiries, but there does not appear to be any doubt as to the old use of the word Minne.

In Schilter's Glossarium Teutonicum he will find,— "Minna, caritas, amor, affectus dilectionis." "Minnon, amare."

and Schilter derives the French words, mignon, mignards, from this source.

"Der Minne Buch, das hohe Lied Salomonis." "Minna, thinan nahistun Dilige proximum tuum." While Minne is also another name for Venus. Referring to Wachter's Glossarium Germanicum, we find:

"Minnen, meminisse, from Minne, memoria," &c.

And then:

"Minnen, amare, from Minne, amor.

"Obsoleta sed Francis et Alaman: olim usitatissima. Gloss. Keron amor minna; caritas minna.

"Hodie utuntur Belge, quibus minne amor, minnen, be- minnen, amare. Inde Gallis vocabula blandientia mignon, mignard," &c.

The above extracts may show that the word was used both for terrestrial and celestial love, and a good German dictionary of modern date confirms this view. .

Samuel Brewer (2nd S. i. 75.)—In the description of the old church of St. Alphage, London Wall (taken down in 1774), given in Hatton's New View of London, p. 114., the following passage occurs:

"Near the communion-table, on a white marble stone, is this inscription: Samuel Brewer, of the Inner Temple, Gent., died March 10, 1684.

World adieu, Friends adieu, Life adieu.

But hoping for a better after this, only through the Merits and Mediation of our Blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ."

If could find this monumental stone in the present edifice, it may assist him to discover Mr. Brewer's armorial bearings. Hughson, vol. iii. p. 287.; Nightingale, p.223.; and Thomas's Wards, vol. ii. 134., in their several histories of London, state that Mr. Brewer was a member of the Inner Temple. The Commissioners for inquiring into the Charities of England, in their Twenty-ninth Report, p. 464., subject "Sion College," allude to p. 28 of a printed book containing an account of the College, and Mr. Brewer's gift to it. Has seen that book? .

Curious Anachronism (1st S. xii. 507.)—I beg to suggest to, whether the assumed anachronism he courteously, notes in Sir E. B. Lytton's Harold, does not arise from his own misapprehension of the passage? What ground has for the inference that Sir Edward alludes at all to the individual known as Peter Lombard? The words, to an ordinary reader, seem simply to refer to the learned quibbles of the two great races broadly defined as the Lombard and the Frank, in whose cloisters the writings of John Scotus Erigena, and other forerunners of the scholastic philosophy, had found subtilising students long even before Harold's birth.

With regard to the low state of the Saxon clergy, appears somewhat sceptical. The fact, however, is admitted and deplored by Saxon, as well as by Norman writers. And when it is remembered how long and how ruth-