Notes and Queries | Page 4

lingered in the principality long after they fell into disuse in England.
GWYNN AB NUDD.
Glamorganshire, March 1. 1850.
_Death-bed Superstition._--When a curate in Exeter I met with the following superstition, which I do not remember to have seen noticed before. I had long visited a poor man, who was dying of a very painful disease, and was daily expecting his death. Upon calling one morning to see my poor friend, his wife informed me that she thought he would have died during the night, and consequently she and her friends unfastened every lock in the house. On my inquiring the reason, I was told that any bolt or lock fastened was supposed to cause uneasiness to, and hinder the departure of the soul, and consequently upon the approach of death all the boxes, doors, &c., in the house were unlocked. Can any of your readers tell me whether this is in any way a general superstition amongst the lower orders, or is it confined to the West of England?
R.H. {316}
[This remarkable superstition forms the subject of a communication of the _Athen?um_ (No. 990.) of 17th Oct. 1846: in a comment upon which it is there stated "that it originates from the belief which formerly prevailed that the soul flew out of the mouth of the dying in the likeness of a bird."]
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PASSAGE IN L'ALLEGRO--NOTES ON MILTON'S MINOR POEMS.
The suggestion of your correspondent B.H.K. (No. 18. p. 286.) has been anticipated by Mr. Warton, who, in his 1st edition of _Milton's Poems_, notices a similar interpretation of the passage, as the suggestion of an unknown correspondent. In the 2nd edition this correspondent is mentioned to have been Mr. Headley; and the editor discusses the point in a note of upwards of a page, illustrating it with parallel passages, and an analysis of the context. As the book is one of ready access, I need not trouble you with a quotation; but I may mention that Mr. Gilchrist has added, in a MS. note in my copy, that "Among the poems appended to those of Lord Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt, is one of considerable elegance in the same measure as those of Milton, nor is it unlike in its subject: the following lines may throw some light on the present inquiry (p. 200. ed. 1717):--
'On hills then shewe the ewe and lambe And every young one with his damme; Then lovers walke and tell their tale Both of their bliss and of their bale.'"
[The passage is at p. 57. of the 1st vol. of Dr. Nott's edition.]
I am glad of the present opportunity of mentioning, for the benefit of all whom it may concern, that my copy of the 1st edition of Warton's Milton is enriched with numerous notes and parallel passages by Mr. Gilchrist; and a copy of the 2nd edition has been similarly, but less copiously, illustrated by Mr. Dunston. I shall be glad if my mention of them should lead to their being made useful--or, if you wish it, I shall be happy to transcribe the notes for occasional insertion in your Journal.
May I be allowed to suggest that similar notifications to intending editors would have some tendency to do the same good results which may be expected from the announcements by intending editors suggested by your correspondent R.R. at p. 243? There must be hundreds of volumes enriched by the notes of scholars, such as those I have had occasion to mention, which are dispersed in private libraries, and might, by means of similar announcements, be made available to the cause of literature.
J.F.M.
[We are much indebted to our valued correspondent for the offer he has so kindly made us of the MS. Notes in question, which we shall gladly receive; and also for his extremely useful suggestion of the advantage of such notifications to intending editors, as he describes.]
_Milton's L'Allegro._--Your correspondent (No. 18. p. 286.) has been anticipated by Headley, who suggested, long ago, that the word tale here implied the numbering sheep. When Handel composed his beautiful air, "Let me wander not unseen," he plainly regarded this word in the more poetical sense. The song breathes the shepherd's tale of love (perhaps addressed to "the milkmaid singing blithe") far more than it conveys a dull computation of the number of "his fleecy care." Despite of that excellent commentator, Tom Warton, who adopted Headley's suggestion, it is to be hoped that readers will continue, though it may be in error, to understand the line as your correspondent used to do: an amatory _t��te-��-t��te_ is surely better suited to "the hawthorn in the dale," than either mental arithmetic, or the study of Cocker.
J.H.M.
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DOCTOR DANIEL DOVE OF DONCASTER AND HIS HORSE NOBS--GOLDEN AGE OF MAGAZINES.
It appears from the preface to the last edition