SHAKSPEARE, in _Titus Andronicus_, says,
"Be unto us, as is a nurse's song
Of _Lullaby_ to bring her babe to sleep."
A learned commentator gives us what he facetiously calls a lullaby note on
this.
"The verb _to lull_, means to sing Gently, and it is connected with the
Greek [Greek: laleo], loquor, or [Greek: lala], the sound made by the
beach of the sea. The Roman nurses used the word _lalla_, to quiet their
children, and they feigned a deity called _Lullus_, whom they invoked on
that occasion; the lullaby, or tune itself was called by the same name."--
_Douce_.
_Lullaby_ is supposed a contraction for _Lull-a-baby_. The Welsh are
celebrated for their Lullaby songs, and a good Welsh nurse, with a
pleasing voice, has been sometimes found more soporific in the nursery,
than the midwife's anodyne. The contrary effects of Swift's song, "Here we
go up, up, up," and the smile-provoking melody of "Hey diddle, diddle,"
_cum multis aliis_, are too well known to be enumerated or disputed. "The
Good Nurse" give us a chapter on the advantage of employing music in
certain stages of protracted illness.
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