She hath a way,
Anne Hathaway,
To make grief bliss Anne hath a way.
But were it to my fancy given
To rate her charms, I'd call them Heaven;
For though a mortal made of clay,
Angels must love Anne Hathaway.
She hath a way so to control
To rupture the imprisoned soul,
And sweetest Heaven on earth display,
That to be Heaven Anne hath a way!
She hath a way,
Anne Hathaway,
To be Heaven's self Anne hath a way.
This little poem is by Charles Dibdin (1748-1814), the writer of about
1200 sea-songs, at one time great favorites with sailors. It appeared,
in 1792, in his long-forgotten novel, "Hannah Hewit, or the Female
Crusoe", and Sir Sidney Lee conjectures that it may have been composed
on the occasion of the Stratford jubilee of 1769, in the organization
of which Dibdin aided the great actor, David Garrick. In the "Poems
of Places", New York, 1877, edited by Henry W. Longfellow, this poem
is assigned to Shakespeare on the strength of a persistent popular
error.[14] In his "Life" Dibdin says: "My songs have been the solace
of sailors in their long voyages, in storms, in battle; and they have
been quoted in mutinies to the restoration of order and discipline".
It has been asserted that they brought more men into the navy than all
the press gangs could do.
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