Art > Paintings > Watts
… and then, little by little, as they gathered dust,, and each successive string broke, giving up hope, each string a hawser … snapping off, the highest pitched string always first, snapping with sharp gun-like reports, or provocative nocturnal meows, like a nightmare in the soul of George Frederic Watts – UTV, 155.

Hugh's despondency is defined in terms of George Frederic Watts's Hope (1886), now in the Tate. Hugely popular in its time, the figure embodies the Despair out of which Hope arises; sitting on a globe, her eyes covered, clutching a "songless lyre" with but one string left.