2nd 8. No 113., Feb. 27. '58.} 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



165 



Elizabethan era " the name of one " Hathaway." 

 Was this the brother of Anne Hathaway, the 

 brother-in-law of the poet, and '* the only be- 

 getter of these ensuing sonnets ? " 



We know Shakspeare's brother Edmond was a 

 player; we generally take it for granted that 

 " the gentle Will " assisted his relatives. Would 

 it not add a pleasing thought to those already 

 constellating round Shakspeare could we find that 

 his help was also extended to his marriage con- 

 nections. 



The Sonnets were published in the great drama- 

 tist's lifetime, yet were unushered to the world 

 by his own hand or pen : may we not infer that 

 in some season of distress Hathaway had been 

 permitted to make what he could of them, so long 

 as he abstained from letting it be supposed that 

 they were published " by authority " of the bard ? 



I write at a distance from* books, where veri- 

 fication is impossible ; but if even the probability 

 of this could be established by the discovery of 

 the Christian names of Anne's brothers and that 

 of the playwright, so many inferences might be 

 deduced from the fact regarding Shakspeare's 

 domestic life, that it seems to me worthy of being 

 placed before the " learned senate " of the readers 

 of " N. & Q." Rectob. 



MOOBb's " SONGS FBOM 8CBIPTUBB." 



Perhaps some reader of " N. & Q." will be able 

 to account for the omission from any English (and 

 I presume foreign) edition of his works of some 

 half-dozen of Moore's songs, which were published 

 about fifteen or sixteen years ago in London, as a 

 collection of musical pieces, under the title of 

 Songs from Scripture. I know nothing of them 

 except from a brief notice which appeared, at the 

 time of their publication, in one of the Dublin 

 newspapers. The words of one song were given 

 as a specimen, which struck me at the time as 

 being extremely beautiful, and which fixed them- 

 selves so firmly In my memory that, though I 

 have never seen them since, I think I can give 

 a pretty accurate version of them. As the Messrs. 

 Longmans have announced an edition of Moore's 

 Sacred Songs, &c. with the music, it is to be 

 hoped that the following exquisite little lyric, 

 perhaps the happiest of his later efibrts, will not 

 now be forgotten. 



" Song of the Dove. 

 1. 

 " Sweet dove, that homeward winging 

 O'er endless waves thy lonely way, 

 Now hither bend'st thee, bringing 



The long sought olive spray : 

 It tells that Love still reigns above, 

 That God doth not his own forget, 

 That Mercy's beam upspringing 

 Shall light the lost world yet. 



" And see in heaven ascending, 



Yon radiant bow of peace unfurled, 

 Like Love's bright arms extending 



To clasp a weeping world. 

 Hail union bright of mist and light, 



True type of sinners' hopes and fears ; 

 When light celestial blending 



Draws glory out of tears." 



The unexpected third rhyme in the seventh 

 line of each stanza forms, I think, the metrical 

 charm of these verses. It is the key-note of the 

 song, and corrects the uncertainty of the meniory. 

 It has done so at least In my case, as, from en- 

 deavouring to recall the ideas, I missed in my 

 first draught some of the happiest turns of the 

 expression. D- E. M. C, 



Dublin. 



LORD LYTTELTON AND THE GHOST. 



Some years ago I met an old gentleman at 

 Ewell, In Surrey, near which is Pitt's Place, where 

 his Lordship died. He gave me the following 

 account, which he had from a gentleman who was 

 in the bouse at the time. This person was the 

 organist of a neighbouring town, whose company 

 was much courted on account of his musical talent, 

 and who was a frequent visitor to his Lordship. 

 The story ordinarily told is this : that he dreamed 

 the ghost of a lady whom be had seduced ap- 

 peared to him, and predicted his death at twelve 

 at night on the third day following. My inform- 

 ant's story difiers only thus far : that the supposed 

 apparition was that of the mother of the lady In 

 question, who had died of a broken heart in con- 

 sequence of her daughter's dishonour. Lord Lyt- 

 telton was at this time in a very bad state of health 

 In consequence of his excesses, and was subject to 

 what my informant called "suffocating fits," — 

 probably nervous hysteria. Be this as It may,_ it 

 appears on the day of his death, the foretold third 

 day, he had a party of friends at Pitt's Place ; 

 among whom was the organist, from whence my 

 informant had the account. He says that Lyttel- 

 ton was in a state of some agitation, and had told 

 the story of the dream to his friends. As the 

 night wore on, and midnight approached, his ner- 

 vousness increased painfully ; and some of his 

 visitors said, during his absence, " Lyttelton will 

 frighten himself into another fit with this foolish 

 ghost story ;" and they determined to put a clock, 

 which stood in the room, forward ; and when he 

 returned to them they said, — " Hurrah ! Lyttel- 

 ton, twelve o'clock is past, you've jockied the 

 ghost— now the best thing is to go quietly to bed, 

 and in the morning you will be all right." He 

 accordingly went up stairs ; and while some of his 

 guests were putting on their coats to depart, his 

 valet came down to fetch something : it was said 

 to get some mint-water, which he was in the b^bit 



