Selections from the poetry and prose of Thomas Gray

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Department of English

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1944-1964

THE ATHEN/£UM PRESS SERIES

G. L. KITTREDGE AND C. T. WINCHESTER

GENERAL EDITORS

This series is intended to furnish a

library of the best English literature

from Chaucer to the present time in a

form adapted to the needs of both the

student and the general reader. The

works selected are carefully edited, with

biographical and critical introductions,
full explanatory notes, and other neces

sary apparatus.

FROM THE POETRY AND PROSE OF

THOMAS GRAY

EDITED

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS

A.M. (HARVARD), PH.D. (YALE)

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AT YALE COLLEGE

BOSTON, U.S.A.

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1894

COPYRIGHT, 1894
BY WILLIAM LYON PHELPS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

997544

TO THE CLASS OF

1896

YALE COLLEGE

WITH SINCERE AFFECTION

AND RESPECT

PREFACE.

IF there is any excuse needed for another edition of
Gray, it may be said that selections from both his poetry
and his prose are not commonly found in one volume.
Nor, in spite of claims to the contrary, have any of the
recent editions faithfully followed the authentic texts.
In this volume, no pains have been spared to give as
accurate a text as possible ; for the poems numbered in
the Contents I, II, III, V, VII, IX, XI, XIV, XV, XVI,
the text has been taken letter for letter from the Poems
of 1768, the standard London edition revised and edited
by Gray himself, and therefore the authority for every
thing it contains. The Long Story has been taken from
the sumptuous Six Poems folio of 1753, the only text of
that poem edited by its author. The Ode for Music has
been taken, with the same scrupulous accuracy, from the
original quarto of 1769. The Sonnet has been copied
from the MS. facsimile given by Mr. Gosse in the fourth
volume of Gray's Works (Macmillan, 1884), which differs
in a number of details from the printed copy in the very
same edition. The text of the other poems, which are
of much less importance, is based on a collation of
Mason, Gosse and Bradshaw, although Mason's Com
mentary to the Alliance, p. 10, is given verbatim as he
printed it in 1775. It may be safely said that the text of
the poems in this volume is closer to the original editions
than anything published since Gray's death. The poems

vi PREFACE.

that have been omitted altogether are those parts of. his
remains that now have little interest, and no permanent
value.

The Prose has been taken from Mr. Gosse's four-
volume edition of Gray, mentioned above. I greatly
regret that the Rev. D. C. Tovey's edition of Gray's
Letters, already announced by Macmillan, has not yet
appeared. Mr. Tovey is so accurate a scholar, and so
sensible an editor, that anything he undertakes is sure to
be done well.

Gray's own notes to those of his poems published in
1768, have been exactly reproduced (misprints, mistakes
and all) in this volume, and will be found, where he him
self had them printed, as foot-notes to the text ; but in
my notes exact line references have been given for all of
Gray's quotations, and the errors or misprints are cor
rected there.

In most cases indebtedness to previous editors is
mentioned wherever it occurs ; but for some common
place references and references to other passages of Gray
it has not been thought necessary in every instance to
give the names of editors who have also noted these
points. A considerable number of parallel passages will
be found in the notes ; this does not imply that the editor
is insinuating a lack of originality on Gray's part, nor on
the other hand is any attempt made at a pedantic display.
In the case of so eclectic a poet, the most striking parallel
passages are particularly interesting. Gray himself gives
a few parallel passages in his own foot-notes ; but the
similarities in these are usually not so noticeable as in
those he does not give. Gray's poems reflect his read
ing ; but to accuse him of plagiarism would be, as Mr.
Lowell said, like finding fault with a man for pillaging
the dictionary.

PREFACE. vii

The notes on the poems are meant to be sufficiently
full for all practical needs and purposes ; those on the
prose are very few, and simply explanatory. It did not
seem fitting to burden Gray's delightful letters with a
mass of annotation.

The poems are printed in the order in which they were
written ; this is not only interesting in itself, but throws
considerable light on Gray's remarkable change of taste
— his transition from Classicism to Romanticism. The
selections from the prose also indicate this fact, and a
separate section of the Introduction is devoted to a dis
cussion of what might be called Gray's poetic evolution.
Although to students of the development of literature,
this should be the most significant and interesting feature
of Gray's work, it is a thing that editors and critics have
strangely neglected. The view given in the Introduction
is founded on patient study and thought. Some parts of
it have been reprinted from my chapter on Gray in 27ie
Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, Ginn & Co.,

1893-

The general editors of the Athenaeum Press series
have given constant and valuable assistance. Professor
Kittredge has not only written an Appendix on Gray's
knowledge of Norse, a subject on which Mr. Gosse
has strangely blundered, but throughout the Notes,
especially those on the Norse poems (of which language
the present editor has no knowledge) has steadily fur
nished me with facts and suggestions. Professor Albert
S. Cook and Doctor Hanns Oertel of Yale, have kindly
given aid in verifying some references.

W. L. I1.

YALE COLLEGE, 22 February 1894.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

I. LIFE xiii

II. GRAY'S STERILITY xvii

III. CHIEF INFLUENCES THAT AFFECTED GRAY'S STYLE xx

IV. GRAY'S PROGRESS TOWARD ROMANTICISM xxii

V. GRAY'S PROSE xxix

VI. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxxiv

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxxv

APPENDIX — GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE OF NORSE xli

POEMS.

I. ODE ON THE SPRING i

II. ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE 3

III. HYMN TO ADVERSITY 6

IV. SONNET 8

V. ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT 9

VI. THE ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT 10

VII. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH- YARD.. i6«

VIII. A LONG STORY 21

IX. THE PROGRESS OF POESY 26

X. ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE 33

XI. THE BARD 35

XII. SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER 43

XIII. SONG.... 43

x CONTENTS.

PAGE

XIV. THE FATAL SISTERS 44

XV. THE DESCENT OF ODIN 47

XVI. THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN 51

XVII. THE DEATH OF HOEL 52

XVIII. CARADOC ; 53

XIX. CONAN 54

XX. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 54

XXI. ODE FOR Music 55

PROSE.

I. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL: —

COLLEGE LIFE 61

MELANCHOLY 62

SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER 63

MELANCHOLY 64

THE OFFICE OF POET LAUREATE 64

ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE 66

MELANCHOLY 67

GRAY'S MOTHER 67

CONSOLATION 68

SYMPATHY 68

THE SHADOW OF DEATH 69

THE ODE ON WALPOLE'S CAT 69

THE ELEGY 70

THE ELEGY 71

THE ELEGY 72

THE PROGRESS OF POESY 73

THE "Six POEMS" OF 1753 73

THE PINDARIC ODES 74

THE PINDARIC ODES 76

His OWN AIM IN POETRY 77

His STERILITY 78

CONTENTS. xi

II. LITERATURE: —

PAGE

SHAKSPERE, FIELDING, AND POETRY 79

COLLINS AND J. WARTON 81

CONTEMPORARY POETS 82

A BALLAD 83

( >SSIAN 84

OSSIAN 85

OSSIAN 86

OSSIAN 88

OSSIAN 89

OSSIAN 89

OSSIAN 90

OSSIAN 90

JEREMY TAYLOR 90

CASTLE OF OTRANTO AND ROUSSEAU 91

DAVID HUME AND SKEPTICISM 92

III. NATURE:—

EARLY APPRECIATION .,. 93

ALPINE SCENERY 94

ALPINE SCENERY : 95

ALPINE SCENERY 97

MOUNTAINS 98

JOURNAL IN THE LAKES 99

NOTES ON THE POEMS 127

NOTES ON THE PROSE 177

INTRODUCTION.

I. LIFE.

THOMAS GRAY was born in Cornhill, London, 26
December 1716. His father was Philip Gray, and his
mother Dorothy Antrobus Gray. They had twelve child
ren, of whom Thomas was the fifth ; all the others died
in infancy. Mrs. Gray was compelled to support her son
through school and college by her own exertions, as
Philip Gray — who was not only brutal but probably
crazy — refused to do anything for him. About 1727
Gray went to Eton, and there made the " quadruple
alliance " friendship with Horace Walpole, Richard West,
and Thomas Ashton. In 1734 he entered Peterhouse,
Cambridge, and like so many other eminent men, found
the curriculum routine unpalatable. He especially hated
mathematics. He made few acquaintances, indulged in
no sports, and was probably looked at askance by his
fellow-students. He left Cambridge without a degree in
1738. In 1739 he was invited by Horace Walpole to
accompany him on a trip over the continent ; they went
through France and across the Alps to Italy. Here they
quarreled and separated in April, 1740, and Gray returned
home alone. His father died, 6 November 1741, and
Gray lived at Stoke Poges with his mother and her two
sisters. The death of his brilliant friend, Richard West,
i June 1742, profoundly affected Gray; although he
seldom spoke of it, he never could allude to it calmly to

xiv INTRODUCTION.

the day of his death. It was probably the greatest sor
row of his life, though he was most tenderly attached to
his mother. In 1742 Gray settled down at Peterhouse,
Cambridge, and nibbled at the law. He took his LL.B.
in 1743. Greek seems to have been his favorite study,
and for six years he gave it intense application. From
this time until his death, Cambridge was Gray's home,
although he changed from Peterhouse to Pembroke in
1756, and when the British Museum was opened in 1759,
he lived at London for two years, in order to enjoy the
advantages of the library and manuscripts. Gray had no
college standing at Cambridge ; he was not a Fellow, nor
had he any official connection with the place until 1768,
when he was made Professor of Modern History and
Languages. In accordance with the prevailing custom,
he delivered no lectures and made no attempt to teach.
Gray lived at Cambridge because it was quiet and fairly-
cheap ; because the libraries were there, and the atmos
phere was intellectual ; and because he had a few college
friends, though college society in general he despised.

His mother died n March 1753, and was buried in
the chur.ch-yard at Stoke Poges. We cannot quote too
often the beautiful inscription Gray placed on her tomb —
the " mother of many children, one of whom alone had
the misfortune to survive her." Gray's life was lonely.
He was never married, and apparently never thought of
marrying, unless we magnify his slight and very tame
flirtation with Harriet Speed, the heroine of the Long
Story.

Gray's intimate friends were Horace Walpole (they
patched up the Italian quarrel), the Rev. William Mason
the poet, the Rev. Norton Nicholls, James Brown the
master of Pembroke, Thomas W'harton, and Charles Vic
tor de Bonstetten — a young Swiss gentleman, whom Gray

INTRODUCTION. xv

met in 1769, and for whom he had a strange, almost pas
sionate attachment. Bonstetten sat at his feet, and eagerly
drank in Gray's words of wisdom and instruction.

Gray never was in good health, and in the spring of
1771 had a dangerous attack of gout in the stomach.
He died in his rooms at Pembroke, 30 July 1771, at the
age of fifty-four. He was buried at Stoke Poges by his
mother's side. In strange accordance with his dislike of
publicity, there is no name or inscription on his grave,
although a hideous mausoleum, erected in 1799, stands
in Stoke Park, close by the church-yard.

With the possible exception of Milton, Gray was the
greatest scholar among the English poets. Perhaps it
would be better to say that Milton's scholarship was the
greatest, and Gray's the best. His knowledge was not
of the general information kind ; it was indeed remark
ably broad, but at the same time extremely accurate.
He was an accomplished linguist, a good zoologist
and botanist, thoroughly acquainted with the history
of literature, and a careful and enthusiastic student of
architecture. He studied nearly everything except
mathematics. When Greek was, comparatively speak
ing, neglected, he worked at it with eagerness, even to
the most minute details ; the large body of Greek notes
he left behind him ( Works, IV) attests the range and
accuracy of his knowledge. He was such a recluse, that
it was difficult for even Cambridge students to catch a
glimpse of him ; he did not dine in the hall, and sel
dom appeared anywhere except to make a trip to the
circulating library. After he became famous, and was
acknowledged to be the greatest living poet, people used
to watch patiently for his awkward figure to appear.
But he gave them no more chances than he could help,
as he shrank nervously from popularity. In 1757 he

xvi INTRODUCTION.

refused the offer of the Laureateship, being too familiar
with the history of that office.1

In religion Gray was apparently an orthodox Chris
tian, but entirely without missionary zeal. He disliked
emotional demonstration, perhaps because his own
religious sense was so deep and true. Atheism he
hated and despised.

Gray's character had its faults, most of them trivial.
He was proud, haughty in a feminine, I had almost
said a feline way, and perhaps too contemptuous toward
superficiality. He was not agreeable to chance acquaint
ances, and in differences of opinion was not at all
conciliatory ; but he had a keen sense of humor, and
although never jovial, was often sprightly and playful.
His intimate friends loved him, and friends and enemies
all respected him. Although he lacked energy, his intel
lectual and moral purposes were lofty ; he looked on life
with serious earnestness, and he was pure in heart. It
may be truly said that he was a good man.

The portrait facing the title-page of this volume is
taken from the large print in Mason's Memoirs of Gray
(I775)- Of this picture Horace Walpole, writing to Cole,
25 April 1775 (Letters, VI, 206), said: "The print, I
agree with you, though like, is a very disagreeable likeness,
and the worst likeness of him. It gives the primness he
had when under constraint ; and there is a blackness in the
countenance which was like him only the last time I
ever saw him, when I was much struck with it ; and.
though I did not apprehend him in danger, it left an
impression on me that was uneasy, and almost prophetic
of what I heard but too soon after leaving him. Wilson
drew the picture under much such impression, and I
could not bear it in my room ; Mr. Mason altered it a

1 See p. 64.

1NTR OD UC TION. xvii

little, but still it is not well, nor gives any idea of the
determined virtues of his heart. It just serves to help
the reader to an image of the person, whose genius and
integrity they must admire, if they are so happy as to
have a taste for either."

II. GRAY'S STERILITY.

Very few of the world's great poets have made it
easier for the general public to read their " Complete
Works " than Gray. The temptation to scribble and to
print is one that assails not only the would-be, but the
genuine poets. This accounts for the bulky volumes
which the student of a later age must buy and con, but
which the rank and file of even intelligent readers pass
by silently, content to have samples in place of the entire
stock. Nor does the student always wish that the master
had written more. We wish he had written more in his
best vein, but the chances are even that he would not
have written in his best vein. There are many of
Wordsworth's sonnets which the world has willingly let
die ; their titles in the Tables of Contents are merely
the headstones of their graves. The Excttrston — let it
be said softly and with a timid glance over the shoulder
— is long enough. With a man like Gray — there are
not very many men like Gray — the case is different.
His sterility is so surprising that it becomes necessary at
the outset not only to call attention to it — the price of
his "Complete Poetical Works" will do that — but to
attempt to explain it. This can be done without resort
ing to any subtle theories. The view given by Matthew
Arnold in his famous essay1 is entirely without founda
tion in fact. It is true that there is a curious lack of

1 Ward's English Poets, III, 302.

xviii INTRODUCTION.

harmony between Gray's cold, classical style and the
Romantic subjects he treated ; this no doubt often made
articulation extremely difficult. But Mr. Arnold's theory,
that his scantiness of production was caused by his living
in the " age of prose and reason " is quite wide of the
mark. The reason why Gray wrote so little was not
because he was chilled by the public taste of the age ;
he would probably have written no more had he lived a
hundred years before or since. He was not the man to
be depressed by an unfavorable environment ; for his
mind was ever open to new influences, and he welcomed
with the utmost eagerness all genuine signs of promise.
His correspondence shows how closely and intelligently
he followed the course of contemporary literature ; he
had something to say about every important new book.
The causes of his lack of production are simple enough
to those who start with no pre-conceived theory, and who
prefer a commonplace explanation built on facts to a
fanciful one built on phrases. Gray was a scholar,
devoted to solitary research, and severely critical ; this
kind of temperament is not primarily creative, and does
not toss off immortal poems every few weeks. The time
that Mason, for example, spent in production, Gray spent
in acquisition, and when he did produce, the critical
fastidiousness of the scholar appeared in every line. All
his verses bear evidence of the most painstaking labor
and rigorous self-criticism. Again, during his whole life
he was handicapped by wretched health, which, although
never souring him, made his temperament melancholy,
and acted as a constant check on what creative activity
he really possessed. And finally, he abhorred publicity
and popularity. No. one who reads his correspondence
can doubt this fact. He hated to be dragged out from
his scholarly seclusion, and evidently preferred complete

INTRODUCTION. xix

obscurity to any noisy public reputation. This reserve
was never affected ; it was uniformly sincere, like every
thing else in Gray's character. His reticence was indeed
extraordinary, keeping him not only from writing, but
from publishing what he did write. He wrote, in English
and Latin, more than sixty poems, but only twelve
appeared in print during his lifetime ; and his prose is all
posthumous. Gray's own friends would have had no diffi
culty in explaining his scantiness of production. Horace
Walpole, writing to George Montagu, 3 Sept. 1748,
says : " I agree with you most absolutely in your opinion
about Gray ; he is the worst company in the world. From
a melancholy turn, from living reclusely, and from a little
too much dignity, he never converses easily ; all his words
are measured and chosen, and formed into sentences ;
his writings are admirable ; he himself is not agreeable."
Again, referring to Gray's slowness in composition,
Walpole writes to Montagu, 5 May 1761. He is talking
about Gray's proposed History of Poetry, and he says :
" If he rides Pegasus at his usual foot-pace, [he] will
finish the first page two years hence." In the compo
sition of his poems as well as in his studies, Gray was
thorough ; he disliked all short cuts to knowledge.
Observe his admirable remark on such things : " Mr.
Gray always considered, that the Encyclopaedias and
universal Dictionaries of various kinds, with which the
world now abounds so much, afforded a very unfavour
able symptom of the age in regard to its literature ; as
no real or profound learning can be obtained but at
the fountain-head." 1 The adjective that perhaps best
expresses Gray is fastidious. He was as severe on the
children of his own brain as he was on those of others ;
he never let them appear in public until he was sure

1 Mathias, Observations, 1X15, p. 50.

xx INTR OD UC TION.

everything was exactly as it should be. Even his
greatest poem pleases more by its exquisite finish than
by its depth of feeling. These three reasons, then, his
scholarly temperament, his bad health, and his dignified
reserve, account satisfactorily for his lack of fertility. If
we wish to know why so deep and strong a nature pro
duced so little poetry, we must look at the man, and not
at his contemporaries.

III. CHIEF INFLUENCES THAT AFFECTED CRAY'S
STYLE.

Two English poets exerted a powerful impression
upon Gray — Dryden and Milton. The former influ
enced Gray's style in his early Odes ; in his later
poems Dryden's influence is scarcely discernible, but
Gray never ceased to admire Dryden's verse, freely
acknowledging how much he had gained from him, and
listening impatiently when Dryden was censured. Yet
for Dryden's character Gray had nothing but contempt.1
Spenser was a favorite of Gray's, as he has been with
nearly all the poets. Gray usually read Spenser just
before composing; but it was Milton whose influence
was most powerful and continuous. About 1750 the
Miltonic school of poets included the principal English
men of verse — Collins, the Wartons. Mason and
others ; and Gray was no exception.2 The abundance
of Miltonic words and phrases in Gray's poems is every
where noticeable ; and the Elegy was simply the culmina
tion of a class of literature which derived its inspiration
directly from // Penscroso.

1 See p. 65.

2 For an account of the influence of Milton on eighteenth cent
ury literature, see the editor's Beginning* of the English Romantic
Mcrement, chap. v.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

Gray's style was also greatly influenced by his pro
found knowledge of the classics ; among the Greek
poets, Pindar perhaps had the most pronounced effect
on his style. The polish, finish, and chiseled perfection
of Gray's verse was doubtless owing in no small degree
to his study and admiration of Greek ; even after Gray
adopted Romantic themes his style is often strictly
Classic. Gray's Latin poems are very little read now-
a-days, but they attest his knowledge and interest in
Roman literature ; and they called out words of praise
from that famous Latinist, Dr. Johnson.

The influence of French and Italian poetry — in both
these languages he was a good scholar — affected Gray
strongly. His admiration for Racine is well known ; l
but among contemporary French authors he was especi
ally influenced by Gresset.2 Gray called him a " great
master," 3 and quoted some of his verses in a letter to
Wliarton.3 His plays seemed to have perfectly charmed
Gray, who said, " The Mechant is the best comedy I
ever read."4 Moreover, according to Mason, Gresset is
responsible for one of Gray's poems ; for the Epitre a
ma Sceur inspired him to write his Ode on the Pleasure
Arising from Vicissitude.5 It is interesting, in view of
the great contrast between the men, to recall the fact
that when in Paris in 1739, Gray dined with the Abbe
Prevost, the author of that masterpiece of passion,
Manon Lescaut. Of the French people and French
habits of thought Gray had no very high opinion,
although his dislike of Voltaire and Rousseau was
doubtless largely due to religious prejudice.

1 Works, II, 167, 232.

2 Jean Baptiste Louis Gresset (1709-1777). '

3 Works, II, 182. 4 Works, II, 186.
5 See notes on that poem.

xxii INTRODUCTION.

The Romantic element in Ariosto must have influ
enced Gray ; and from Tasso and Dante he made
translations.1 In his own poetry Gray curiously unites
the mixture of the Classic and Romantic elements so
noticeable in Tasso. Gray had a profound admiration
for Dante, and the chance quotation of a passage from
the Italian poet was the beginning of his friendship with
Norton Nicholls.2 Nicholls said that Gray looked up to
the best Italian poets " as his great progenitors, and to
Dante as the father of all." 2

IV. GRAY'S PROGRESS TOWARD ROMANTICISM.

The most significant thing in the study of Gray's
poetry is his steady progress in the Romantic direction.
Beginning as a classicist and disciple of Dryden, he
ended in thorough-going Romanticism.3 His early poems
contain nothing Romantic ; his Elegy has something
of the Romantic mood, but shows many conventional
touches ; in the Pindaric Odes the Romantic feeling
asserts itself boldly ; and he ends in enthusiastic study of
Norse and Celtic poetry and mythology. Such a steady
growth in the mind of the greatest poet of the time shows
not only what he learned from the age, but what he
taught it. Gray is a much more important factor in the
Romantic movement than seems to be commonly sup
posed. This will appear from a brief examination of his
poetry.

While at Florence in the summer of 1740, he began to

1 Works, I, 148, 157.

2 Nicholls's Reminiscences, p. 44.

8 He never despised Dryden, however, though he went far beyond
him. 2 Oct. 1765, he wrote to Beattie, " Remember Dryden, and be
blind to all his faults." Works, III, 221.

INTRODUCTION. xxiii

write an epic poem in Latin, De Principiis Cogitandi.
Only two fragments were written,1 but they made a piece
of considerable length. This was an attempt to put into
poetic form the philosophy of Locke. It shows how little
he at that time understood his own future. The Gray of
1760 could no more have done a thing of this sort, than
he could have written the Essay on Man. In these early
years he was completely a Classicist. In 1748, when he
was largely under Dryden's influence, he began a didactic
poem in the heroic couplet, On the Alliance of Education
and Government. It is significant that he never finished
either of these poems. Mathias says : " When Mr.
Nicholls once asked Mr. Gray, why he never finished that
incomparable Fragment on ' The Alliance between good
Government and good Education, in order to produce
the happiness of mankind,' he said, he could not ; and then
explained himself in words of this kind, or to this effect :
' I have been used to write chiefly lyrick poetry, in which,
the poems being short, I have accustomed myself to
polish every part of them with care ; and as this has
become a habit, I can scarcely write in any other manner :
the labour of this in a long poem would hardly be toler
able.' " 2 Gray must have perceived early in this task
that the game was not worth the candle.

In 1742 Gray wrote three Odes : On the Spring, On a
Distant Prospect of Eton College, and To Adversity. These
well-known pieces contain little intimation of his later
work. They have nothing of the spirit of Romanticism,
and might have been written by any Augustan of suf
ficient talent. The moralizing is wholly conventional,
and the abundance of personified abstractions was in the

1 The second in 1742.

2 Observations, 1815, p. z,2. This passage in itself goes a long
way toward explaining Gray's sterility.

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

height of fashion.1 The poems thus far mentioned rep
resent Gray's first period. He was a disciple of Dryden,
and a great admirer of Pope, for writing to Walpole in
1746, he calls Pope "the finest writer, one of them, we
ever had." -

Gray's second period is represented by the Elegy, which
he probably began in 1742 and finished in June i75o.3
He was in no haste to print it ; the manuscript circulated
among his friends, and was first printed anonymously, with
a preface by Horace Walpole, 16 February 1751. How
long Gray meant to keep the Elegy from the public is
uncertain ; circumstances compelled its publication. On
10 February 1751, the editor of the Magazine of Maga
zines requested permission to print it. This alarmed
Gray ; he flatly refused the editor's request, and wrote
instantly to Walpole, asking him to get Dodsley to print
it as soon as possible.4

The Elegy is not a Romantic poem ; its moralizing is
conventional, and pleased eighteenth century readers for
that very reason. Scores of poems were written at that
time in which the strength of thought was neither above

1 For remarks on the fashion of Abstractions, see Phelps's
Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, especially p. 88.
Gray did not always admire these personifications, when others used
them. In a letter to Mason, 19 December 1756 (Works, II, 304),
in criticising Caractacus, he says, " I had rather some of these per
sonages, ' Resignation, Peace, Revenge, Slaughter, Ambition,' were
stript of their allegorical garb. A little simplicity here in the expres
sion would better prepare the high and fantastic strain."

- M'orks, II, 130.

3 Gray's interesting letter to Walpole about the Elegy, 12 June
1750, maybe found on p. 70. He says: "You will, I hope, look
upon it in the light of a thing with an end to it ; a merit that most
of my writings have wanted." He evidently felt the fragmentary
nature of his previous work.

4 This letter may be found on p. 71.

INTRODUCTION. xxv

nor below that of the Elegy, and these poems have nearly
all perished. What has kept Gray's contribution to the
Churchyard school alive and popular through all changes
in taste, is its absolute perfection of language. There
are few poems in English literature that express the
sentiment of the author with such felicity and beauty.
This insures its immortality ; and it is this fact that
deservedly gives it the first place in Gray's literary pro
ductions.

But although the Elegy is not strictly Romantic, it is
different from Gray's earlier work. It is Romantic in its
moody and stands as a transition between his period of
Classicism and his more highly imaginative poetry. It
was the culmination of the // Penseroso school, and that
school was in several ways intimately connected with the
growth of the Romantic movement. There is one highly
significant fact about the composition of the Elegy, which
shows with perfect distinctness that its author was pass
ing through a period of transition. One of its most
famous stanzas Gray originally wrote as follows : —

" Some Village Cato with dauntless Breast
The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood ;
Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest ;
Some Caesar, guiltless of his Country's Blood."

The fact that Gray should originally have put down the
Latin names, and afterwards inserted in their place the
three names Hampden, Milton, Cromwell — taken from
comparatively recent English history — is something cer
tainly worth attention. It marks the transition from
Classicism to Nationalism. In this stanza he shook off
the shackles of pseudo-classicism ; he made up his mind
that English historical examples were equal in dignity to
those taken from Latin literature. It was a long step

xxvi INTRODUCTION.

fvrward, and although perhaps a small thing in itself, is
an index to a profound change going on in Gray's mind.1
Gray's next work shows him well on the way toward
Romanticism. In 1754 he wrote The Progress of Poesy,
and in the same year began The Bard, which he finished
in 1757. Both these Pindaric Odes were first printed in
1757, on Horace Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill — the
first and the best things ever published there. These two
odes, especially the latter, are the most imaginative poetry
Gray ever produced, and were distinctly in advance of
the age. They were above the popular conception of
poetry, and their obscurity was increased by their allusive-
ness. The public did not take to them kindly; many
people regarded them as we see Browning and Wagner
regarded to-day. Their obscurity was ridiculed, and they
were freely parodied.'2 Gray was a little hurt by all this,

1 This point is fully and suggestively treated in the Saturday
A'tT'/iT.1 for 19 June 1875. Sir William Fraser, in his Hie ct Ubique,
1893, P- 268, says that Gray wrote one stanza beginning as follows:

" Some village Lais, with all conquering charms."

If this be true, the composition and final blotting of such a stanza are
also significant of the transition. With regard to this point, we find
in The Bibliographer, V, 61 (1884) E. Solly saying" that so far as he
can find out, this stanza was first published in " Willis's Current
Notes, July, 1854" with the note that it occurred in some MSS. of
Gray. Solly (who has obviously hunted high and low : cf. his
observations in Notes and Queries, 5th Series, V, 398, summing up a
discussion which resulted from Dr. Doran's editorial publication of
this stanza as "in the ist ed." of Elegy in A', £•> Q. 5th Ser., Ill, 100)
refuses to accept the stanza as genuine. The full stanza is as follows :

ne rural Lais, with all-conquering charms,
Perhaps now moulders in this grassy bourne !
Some Helen, vain to set the fields in arms,
Some Emma dead, of gentle love forlorn."

2 See pages 87, 89.

INTRODUCTION. xxvii

but he had foreseen their probable reception. He had
written to Walpole, " I don't know but I may send him
[Dodsley] very soon ... an ode to his own tooth, a high
Pindaric upon stilts, which one must be a better scholar
than he is to understand a line of, and the very best
scholars will understand but a little matter here and
there." x

In the Pindaric Odes, Gray ceased to follow the age ;
he struck out ahead of it, and helped to mould its literary
taste. From this time people began to regard him as a
Romanticist, and to look for wild and extravagant pro
ductions from his pen. When the Castle of Otranto
appeared in 1764, Gray was by many believed to be the
author. The Odes became much more popular after
Gray's death — a sign of growth in public taste. This
made Dr. Johnson angry, and had much to do with his
satirical treatment of the Odes in his wretched Life of
Gray. He did not like to think that Gray had really
taught the people anything, and so he declared that the
admiration, for Gray was all hypocrisy, just as many
honest people to-day make fun of those who admire
Wagner's music. Johnson said that in Gray's Odes "many
were content to be shewn beauties which they could not
see " ; and the Doctor was thinking of the Odes when the
following interesting conversation with Boswell took place:
" He attacked Gray, calling him ' a dull fellow.' EOSWELL.
' I understand he was reserved, and might appear dull in
company; but surely he was not dull in poetry.' JOHNSON.
' Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull
everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made
many people think him GREAT. He was a mechanical
poet.' He then repeated some ludicrous lines, which

1 Works, II, 218.

xxviii JXTKODl'CTWX.

have escaped my memory, and said, ' Is not that GREAT,
like his OdcsT"*

We now enter upon the third and last period of Gray's
literary production. In 1755 Paul Henri Mallet's Intro
duction a r Histoire de Dannemarc appeared. This had
a powerful effect on Gray, and aroused his interest in
Northern mythology, which he studied with the utmost
enthusiasm. In 1761, Gray wrote The Fatal Sisters, and
The Descent of Odin. Here we find him writing on strictly
Romantic themes. Evan Evans's book on Welsh poetry -
(1764) containing specimens from ancient Welsh bards,
inspired Gray again, and he wrote The Triumphs of Owen,
together with two other shorter pieces.

The Fatal Sisters, Odin, and Owen were published in
1768, in the edition of his writings revised by himself.
In 1760, when the Ossianic Fragments appeared, Gray
was wonderfully aroused. His friends knew he would
be excited, for Walpole, writing to Dalrymple, 4 April
1760, said : "You originally pointed him out as a likely
person to be charmed with the old Irish poetry you sent
me." Gray's letters on Ossian may be found among the
selections from his prose in this book ; also his interest
ing remark on the ballad Child Maurice, which he greatly
enjoyed.

As he advanced in life, Gray's ideas of poetry grew
free in theory as well as in practice. His Observations
on English Metre, written probably in 1760-61, and pub
lished in 1814, contains much interesting matter. Gray
had planned to write a History of English Poetry, but

1 Boswell's Johnson, ed. Hill, II, 374.

2 Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards. Trans
lated into English, with Explanatory Arotes on the Historical Passages,
and a short account of Men and Places mentioned by the Bards, in
order to give the Curious some Idea of the Taste and Sentiments of our
Ancestors, and their manner of Writing.

INTRODUCTION.

when he heard that Thomas Warton was engaged in
that work, he gave up the idea, and handed over his
general scheme to Warton. If Gray had completed
a history of this kind, it would certainly have been more
accurate than Warton's, and would probably have done
as much service to Romanticism. A few words may be
quoted from the Observations, to show how far Gray had
advanced in his ideas since 1740. Speaking of Milton,
he says : " The more we attend to the composition of
Milton's harmony, the more we shall be sensible how he
loved to vary his pauses, his measures and his feet,
which gives that enchanting air of freedom and wildness
to his versification, unconfined by any rules but those
which his own feeling and the nature of his subject
demands." 1

V. GRAY'S TROSE.

" I do not pretend to write prose, " Gray once
remarked ; 2 but nevertheless he wrote it admirably.
Although Gray often imitated Milton in his poetry, he
never attempted to do so in his prose, which Milton wrote,
to use his own words, with his left hand. The eighteenth
century was the golden age of letter writing ; cheap
postage had not then done its fatal work on epistolary
style. In the letters of Gray we see perhaps the best
representatives of the best period ; he does not suffer
even in comparison with the most famous of all English
letter-writers, Horace Walpole. Walpole is more bril
liant, but he is also more artificial ; and he too evidently
was writing for the benefit of posterity. Gray's style has
nearly all the charm of Walpole's, 'and it is simplicity
itself. One would imagine that his reserved tempera-

1 Works, I, 332 2 See p. 77.

xxx INTRODUCTION.

ment might make his letters cold, stiff, formal, and
therefore profitless reading ; on the contrary, they exhibit
the perfection of ease and grace. Walpole said, " Gray
never wrote anything easily but things of humour.
Humour was his natural and original turn." 1 To those
who know Gray only through the Elegy, this remark
seems scarcely true ; but it is eminently true of Gray
when writing to his friends. His familiar ways with
Mason, whom he called " Skroddles," his playful tone
with Xicholls, and his mild satires on literary ignorance
and political selfishness, all tend to prove the truth of
Walpole's statement. Nor can any one read Gray's
letters without admiring the man ; he is so sensible and
so genuine. His own troubles are mentioned with
reserve, as is fitting ; and his sympathy for the sorrows
of others is as full of depth as it is free from gush. His
remarks on men of letters and on current events are
sprightly and often keen ; but above all, his prose
epistles are interesting and valuable for the evidence
they show of unfeigned and discriminating appreciation
of nature. In this respect, they are deeply interesting
to the student of Romanticism. He was one of the first
men in Europe who had any real appreciation of wild
and romantic scenery. It has now become so fashionable
to be fond of mountains, and lakes, and picturesque
landscapes, that it seems difficult to believe that all this
is a modern taste. To-day the average summer traveler
speaks enthusiastically of precipices, mountain cascades
and shaded glens, and even to some extent interprets
them by the imagination ; but the average eighteenth
century sojourner neither could nor would do anything
of the sort. This appreciation of the picturesque in
external nature has a close kinship with the Romantic

1 Letters, VI, 206.

INTRODUCTION. xxxi

movement in literature ; for the same emotions are at
the foundation of both.

The Classicists had no more love for wild nature than
they had for Gothic architecture or Romantic poetry.
Let us take Addison as a conspicuous example. "In
one of his letters, dated December, 1701, he wrote that
he had reached Geneva after 'a very troublesome journey
over the Alps. My head is still giddy with mountains
and precipices ; and you can't imagine how much I am
pleased with the sight of a plain ! ' This little phrase is
a good illustration of the contempt for mountains, of the
way they were regarded as wild, barbaric, useless excres
cences. . . . The love of mountains is something really
of modern, very modern, growth, the first traces of which
we shall come across towards the middle of the last
century. Before that time we find mountains spoken of
in terms of the severest reprobation." x

Mountains and wild scenery were considered as
objects not of beauty or grandeur, but of horror. But
in Gray's letters we hear the modern tone. In this
respect he was even more in advance of his contem
poraries than in his Romantic poetry. From first to
last he was always a lover of wild nature ; and, as
this taste was so unfashionable, we may be sure of his
sincerity. Toward the close of his life, this feeling in
Gray becomes more and more noticeable. His Journal
in Uie Lakes 2 is a marvel when we consider its date, for
it is written in the true spirit of Wordsworth. But his
early letters and journals show that he knew how to
appreciate romantic scenery. Take two extracts from
his Journal in France (1739). These words are interest-

1 T. S. Perry's English Literature in the Eighteenth Century,

P- MS-

2 See p. 99.

xxxii INTRODUCTION.

ing simply as showing what attracted Gray's attention :
" Beautiful way, commonly on the side of a hill, cover'd
with woods, the river Marne winding in the vale below,
and Coteaux, cover'd with vines, riseing gently on the
other side ; fine prospect of the town of Joinville, with
the -castle on the top of the mountain, overlooking it. ...
Ruins of an old castle on the brow of a mountain, whose
sides are cover'd with woods."1 Again, describing the
journey to Geneva: "The road runs over a Mountain,
which gives you the first tast of the Alps, in it's magnifi
cent rudeness, and steep precipices ; set out from
Echelles on horseback, to see the Grand Chartreuse, the
way to it up a vast mountain, in many places the road
not 2 yards broad ; on one side the rock hanging over
you, & on the other side a monstrous precipice. In the
bottom runs a torrent . . . that works its way among
the rocks with a mighty noise, and frequent Falls. You
here meet with all the beauties so savage and horrid a
place can present you with ; Rocks of various and
uncouth figures, cascades pouring down from an immense
height out of hanging Groves of Pine-Trees, & the
solemn Sound of the Stream, that roars below, all concur
to form one of the most poetical scenes imaginable."5

All this is remarkable language for the year 1739.
Probably very few private journals of the eighteenth
century can show anything similar to it ; for Gray's feel
ings were, at that time, almost exclusively his own. His
letters, both at that time, and later, on Alpine scenery,
may be read in part in this edition. All his most impor
tant remarks on nature have been included.

By far the most significant of them is the Journal in tfic
Lakes, written in 1769, and published in 1775. This docu
ment is of great value, as throwing light on the purely

1 Works, I, 240. * Works, I, 24 i.

INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

imaginative side of Gray's nature. He took this Lake trip
alone, and wrote the Journal simply to amuse his friend,
Dr. Wharton. Here we have a very different view of
nature from that given by Dyer, Thomson and even by
the Wartons. This remarkable Journal is written in the
true Wordsworthian spirit. Gray not only observes but
spiritually interprets nature. The Journal in the Lakes is
one of the most significant pieces of eighteenth century
prose.

Mitford said : " No man was a greater admirer of
nature than Mr. Gray, nor admired it with better taste."
Perhaps Walpole had partly in mind Gray's superior
appreciation of Alpine scenery when he wrote, in 1775 :
"We rode over the Alps in the same chaise, but Pegasus
drew on his side, and a cart-horse on mine."1 There is
something noble and truly beautiful in the way in which
Walpole always insisted on his own inferiority to Gray.
His attitude in this was never cringing ; it was a pure
tribute of admiration, and that, too, from a sensitive man
who had been repeatedly snubbed by the very object of
his praise.

It is interesting to notice the strange and strong con
trast between the shy, reserved temperament of Gray,
and the pronounced radicalism of his literary tastes.
Had he been a demonstrative and gushing person like
Mason, his utterances about mountains and Ossianic
poetry would not seem so singular ; but that this secluded
scholar, who spent most of his hours over his books in
Cambridge and the manuscripts in the British Museum,
and who was always slow to speak, should have quietly
cultivated tastes so distinctly Romantic — this is a note
worthy fact. It seems to show that the one-man power
counts for something in literary developments. Gray

1 Letter to Cole, 10 December 1775.

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

influenced the age more than the age influenced him ; he
led rather than followed. In addition to all the various
forces silently working in the Romantic movement, we
must add the direct influence of the courage and genius
of Grav.

VI. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

Birth, 26 December, Cornhill, London.

Enters Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Leaves Cambridge.

Travels on the Continent with Horace Walpole.

Returns home, i September.

Death of Gray's father, 6 November.

Death of -Richard West, I June.

Writes Ode on the Spring, Eton Ode. Hymn to Adver
sity, Sonnet, and (probably) begins the Elegy.
i 742. Settles down at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
1743. Takes the degree of LL.B at Cambridge.

1747. Writes Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat.

1748. Writes the Alliance of Education and Government.

1750. Completes the Elegy, and writes A Long Story.

1751. Elegy published.

1753. Publication of Six Poems.

i 753. Death of Gray's mother, 1 1 March.

i 754. Writes Progress of Poesy, and begins the Bard.

1756. Removes from Peterhouse to Pembroke Hall.

1757. Publication of Pindaric Odes.
1761. Writes the Norse Poems.

1 764. Writes the Welsh Poems.

1768. Standard edition of his Poems published in London
and Glasgow.

1768. Made Professor of Modern History and Languages at

Cambridge.

1 769. Writes Ode for Music, which is published the same year.
1 769. Writes Journal in the Lakes.

1771. Death of Gray, 30 July.

INTRODUCTION. Xxxv

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

[The Bibliography up to 1771 is made as complete as possible; after that
date, only the more important editions are included.]

An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. (Anonymous.)
London, 1747. Folio.

Odes on Eton, on the Spring, and on the Death of a Favourite
Cat. (Anonymous.) In Dodsley's Collection of Poems.
Vol. II. London, 1748.

An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard. London, 1751.
(Anonymous.)

This has an Advertisement by H. Walpole ; the poem went through
four editions in two months, and by 1759 had gone through eleven
regular editions.

Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.
(Vignette.) London, 1753. Folio.

This beautiful volume contains six full-page prints, and a considerable
number of smaller ones in the shape of front and tail pieces, and initial
letters. The poems are set up in very large type, and are printed on
only one side of the leaves. At the eTld of the volume are brief explana
tions of the prints. The poems included are Spring, Cat, Eton, Long
Story, Adversity, Elegy.

Odes by Mr. Gray. <I*2NANTA 2TNETOI2I _ PINDAR, Olymp.
II. (Vignette.) Printed at Strawberry-Hill, For R. and J.
Dodsley in Pall-Mall. 1757.

This is a thin quarto, and the first edition of the two famous
Pindaric Odes, which are here called simply Ode I and Ode I!.

Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.
London, 1765. Folio.

Poems by Mr. Gray. London, 1 768.

This is the standard edition of Gray's poems, a small volume of 120
pages. It contains ten pieces, as follows : Spring, Cat, Eton, Adversity,
Progress of Poesy, Bard, Fatal Sisters, Odin, Owen, Elegy.

Poems by Mr. Gray. A New Edition. London, 1768.

This is a reprint of the preceding, with the same paging ; but the type
is smaller.

XXX VI

INTRODUCTION.

Poems by Mr. Gray. Glasgow, 1 768. Quarto.

This is a beautiful volume, in large type, and was printed by the
Foulis Brothers from Gray's own MS. He gave them permission to
print, to get what profit they could, and he himself sent them the MS..
which was the same as that sent to Dodsley at the same time.

Poems by Mr. Gray. Dublin, 1768.

This is a small volume, but contains, besides the ten poems in the
three preceding editions, the Long Story, two Latin translations of the
Elegy — Carmen Elegiacum and Elcgia — also parodies on the Eton
Ode, the Elegy, and the Bard.

A S.elect Collection of Poems, from the most approved
Authors. Edinburgh. Printed by A. Donaldson, 1768.
2 vols.

In these volumes are included Eton (I, 128), Spring (I, 131), Cat
(I, 133), Elegy (I, 220), Adversity (I, 225), Progress of Poesy (II, 196),
and Bard (II, 201).

Ode Performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge, July i,
1769, at the Installation of his Grace Augustus- Henry
Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University.
Set to Music by Dr. Randal, Professor of Music. (Anony
mous.) Cambridge, 1 769. Quarto.

This is a thin quarto of eight pages, printed in large type.

Poems. London, 1770. Svo.

Elegy. London, 1771.

Poems. Glasgow, 1773. iSmo.

Poems, etc. In British Poets (vol. 42). London, 1773. Svo.

Elegy. New Edition. London, 1775. Svo.

The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of
his Life and Writings, by W. Mason, M.A. York, 1775.
Quarto.

This thick quarto is the original standard Life of Gray. Mason
simply arranged Gray's letters in chronological order, connecting them
by comments of his own. He also printed among the letters a number
of Gray's posthumous pieces.

INTRODUCTION. xxxvii

The Poems, etc., by W. Mason, M.A. The Second Edition.
London, 1775. Quarto.

This is the same as the preceding.
Poems by Mr. Gray. Dublin, 1775. I2mo.

Very nearly the same as the Dublin edition of 1768.

Poems. [With plates.] London and Edinburgh, 1770.

The Poems, etc., by W. Mason, M.A. 2 vols. Dublin, 1776.
This contains the Memoirs also.

The Poems, etc., by W. Mason, M.A. 4 vols. York, 1778.

This contains the Memoirs also, but in this case the Poems come in
the first volume, and the Memoirs in the other three.

The Poems of Mr. Gray. With Notes by Gilbert Wakefield,
B.A. London, 1786. 8vo.

The copious notes in this volume, with the abundance of parallel
passages, have been a storehouse for Mitford and subsequent editors.

Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.
1789. Folio.

The Works, etc., by W. Mason, with extracts from the MSS.,
by T. J. Mathias. 2 vols. London, 1814. Quarto.

Mathias here printed for the first time Gray's observations on English
Metre, the Notes on Aristophanes and Plato, and other prose fragments.

Poems, with Life, Notes, and an Essay on his Poetry, by the
Rev. J. Mitford. London, 1814.

The Rev. John Mitford's name is now inseparably associated with
that of Gray. He was the first man to edit the text with accuracy, and
for many years he produced edition after edition, constantly adding new
and important matter. All subsequent editors have drawn largely from
Mitford.

Observations on the Writings and on the Character of Mr.
Gray. By T. J. Mathias. London, 1815.

This is a reprint in a small volume of the " postscript " to Mathias's
edition of Gray's Complete Works in 1814.

Poetical Wprks, with Life, etc. Edited by J. Mitford. " Aldine
Poets." London, 1830.

xxxvm

INTROD UC TION.

The Works of Thomas Gray. Edited by J. Mitford. 4 vols.
London (Pickering), 1836.

The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and the Rev. Norton
Nicholls. With Other Pieces Hitherto Unpublished.
Edited by the Rev. John Mitford. London (Pickering),
1843.
This small volume was published as Vol. V to the preceding edition.

Poetical Works. Eton, 1845.

Mitford wrote a new Life of Gray for this edition.

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. " Aldine." Edited by
J. Mitford. London (Pickering), 1853.

The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason,
To which are added some Letters addressed by Gray to
the Rev. James Brown, D.D. With Notes and Illustra
tions, by the Rev. John Mitford. London, 1853. 8vo.

Poetical Works, with Life, etc. Edited by J. Mitford.
"Aldine." London, 1866.

The Elegy, and Pindaric Odes. In Longer English Poems,
edited by the Rev. J. W. Hales. London, 1872.

Select Poems, etc. Edited by W. J. Rolfe. New York, 1876.
Revised edition, 1886.

The Works of Thomas Gray. Edited by Edmund Gosse.
4 vols. London, 1884.

This is now the standard edition of Gray, as it contains more matter
than any other. The letters are all arranged in a chronological order,
and several texts of the Elegy are given, besides a number of biblio
graphical notes. In spite of the claims of this edition, however, the text
is not perfectly accurate.

Poetical Works. Edited by John Bradshaw. New "Aldine."
London, 1891.

Selections from the Poetry and Prose. Edited by Wm. Lyon
Phelps. Boston, 1894.

INTRODUCTION. xxxix

Writings About Gray.
[Only those are included that are believed to be most useful.]

Life of Gray. By Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets.
London, 1779-1781.

This has the well-deserved reputation of being the worst "Life" in the
series of which it formed a part ; but it is interesting on historical and
critical grounds.

An Inquiry into some Passages in Dr. Johnson's Lives, etc.
By the Rev. R. Potter. London, 1783.

Potter, who was an enthusiastic admirer of Gray, and of Romantic
poetry in general, sharply attacked Johnson for his strictures on Gray's
Pindaric Odes.

Gray. An Essay by Matthew Arnold, prefixed to the selections
from Gray in Ward's English Poets. London, 1880.

For remarks on Arnold's view of Gray's sterility, see Introdiiciiun to
the present edition, part ii.

Life of Gray. By Edmund Gosse. In "English Men of
Letters" series. London, 1882. A new edition in 1889.

This is now the standard " Life," but it is so inaccurate as to be
untrustworthy in matters of detail.

(".ray. By Leslie Stephen. Article in the Dictionary of
National Biography, 1890.

Gray and his Friends. Letters and Relics in great part
hitherto unpublished. By Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge,
1890.

This book, besides containing an excellent general Introduction on
Gray, consists of a number of letters and journals, printed with great
accuracy. The book is really a memorial to Richard West.

Gray. An Essay by James Russell Lowell, in Latest Literary
Essays. Boston, 1892.

This essay was first published in the New Princeton Review, 1886 ; it
is one of the most brilliant and charming pieces Mr. Lowell ever com
posed.

APPENDIX.

GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE OF OLD NORSE.

THE most emphatic assertion of Gray's knowledge of the Old
Norse language is made by Mr. Gosse (Life of Gray, pp. 160 ff.),
who declares that, " whereas there is no atfsolute proof that Gray
was a Welsh scholar," The Fatal Sisters and T!ie Descent of Odin
" were translated direct from the Icelandic."

" It may well inspire us with admiration of the poet's intellectual
energy," continues this critic, " to find that he had mastered a
language 1 which was hardly known, at that time, by any one in
Europe, except a few learned Icelanders, whose native tongue made
it easy for them to understand Norroena. Gray must have puzzled
it out for himself, probably with the help of the Index Linguae
Scytho-Scandicae of Verelius. At that time what he rightly calls the
Norse tongue was looked upon as a sort of mystery ; it was called
' Runick,' and its roots were supposed to be derived from the
Hebrew. The Fatal Sisters is a lay of the eleventh century, the
text of which Gray found in one of the compilations of Torfceus
[read Torfieus] (Thormod Torveson), a great collector of ancient
Icelandic vellums at the close of the seventeenth century.

"... The Descent of Odin is a finer poem, better paraphrased.
Gray found the original in a book by Bartolinus [read BartAolinus],
one of the five great physicians of that name who flourished in
Denmark during the seventeenth century. The poem itself is the
Vegtamskvida, one of the most powerful and mysterious of those
ancient lays which form the earliest collection we possess of Scandi
navian poetry. It is probable that Gray never saw the tolerably
complete but very inaccurate edition of Sccmundar [read Seemunda,r\
Edda which existed in his time, nor knew the wonderful history of
this collection, which was discovered in Iceland, in 1643, by Brynjolfr

1 Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his life of Gray in the Diet, of Nat. Biogr., refers to
Mr. Gosse as authority for the statement that Gray learned Icelandic.

xlii APPENDIX.

Sveinnson, Bishop of Skalaholt. The text which Gray found in
Bartolinus, however, was sufficiently true to enable him to make a
better translation of the I'egtamskvida than any which has been
attempted since, and to make us deeply regret that he did not
' imitate ' more of these noble Eddaic chants. He even attempts
a philological ingenuity, for, finding that Odin, to conceal his true
nature from the Volva, calls himself Yegtam, Gray translates this
strange word ' traveller,' evidently tracing it to veg, a way. He
omits the first stave, which recounts how the yEsir sat in council to
deliberate on the dreams of Balder, and he also omits four spurious
stanzas, in this showing a critical tact little short of miraculous,
considering the condition of scholarship at that time."

This evidence looks convincing, but unfortunately it has no basis
of fact. The number of mistakes in the few sentences just quoted
is surprising. What is meant by " the tolerably complete but very
inaccurate edition of Scemundar Edda which existed in [Gray's]
time," it is hard to divine. There was no edition at all of the
so-called Sicnnind's Edda (i.e., The Poetic Edda} extant in Gray's
time, for none had been published. Gray died in 1771, and the first
edition of this Edda (the great Copenhagen edition) began to be
published in 1787, and was not completed till 1828. Meantime
Rask and Afzelius had published a complete edition in one small
volume in 1818. Of the more than thirty pieces which compose the
Poetic Edda only three (1\luspd, J/dramdl,1 and Vegtamskvf&a)
had been printed before Gray's death. The only edition of the

1 The Vqluspd and the Havamal had been edited by Resenius (1665) in a
volume which was usually bound up with his edition of the Prose Edda.
The poems were accompanied by a Latin translation by Stefdn Olafsson.
The stanzas of the Havamal concerning runes were printed by Resenius as a
separate poem, and this division accounts for Mallet's words "le petit poeme
intitule le chapitre runiquc, ou la magie d'Odin '• (Introd. h I' Hist, de
Danncmarc, 2d ed., II, 285 ; Northern Antiquities, 1770, II, 216). Wlien
Mallet first published his second volume (1/56), he did not even know
whether any part of the Poetic Edda was in existence except Vnlnspa,
.Ha-camal and this so-called Runic Chapter, and this uncertainty was shared
by the English translator in 1770 (Northern Antiquities, II, 201); but before
he published his third edition (1787), Mallet had learned better (II. 264 ff.).
The Hd-camal was re-edited by Goransson in 1750. A pretty complete list
of the contents of the Poetic Edda is given in Peringskjold's catalogue of
Copenhagen MSS. appended to Wanley's Catalogits (1705), p. 310. Wanley's
Catalogus (which Gray knew) forms, with Hickes's Thesaurus, the Antiqua
Liter at lira Scptcntrionalis.

A r FEND IX. xliii

Vcgtamskrfta (the original of The Descent of Odin) was that in
Bartholin's book.1 We are forced to conjecture that Mr. Gosse has
for the moment confused the Poetic Edda with the Prose Edda of
Snorri, which was edited by Resenius in 1665, and by Goransson
in 1746.-

All this, to be sure, though it may shake one's confidence in Mr.
Gosse's accuracy, does not affect the validity of his arguments from
Gray's " philological ingenuity " in translating l~?gtamr\yy Traveller
and from the omission of the four spurious stanzas. But these
arguments themselves rest on other misapprehensions. As to the
four spurious stanzas, they are omitted by Gray simply because he
was unaware of their existence. They do not stand in the Arna-
Mai;na:an MS. or in Bartholin's text, and were not printed at all
until 1787, when the Copenhagen editors inserted them in the text
from late paper manuscripts.3 The rendering of Vcgtamr by Trav
eller would doubtless be significant but for a fact which Mr. Gosse
neglects to mention, though it is of the first importance in settling
the main question : Bartholin appended to each stanza of the
original a literal translation into Latin, and that translation, which
renders Ve.gtamr by Viator, relieved Gray of the necessity of "at
tempting a philological ingenuity " in interpreting this strange word.

The fact that Bartholin's texts of the two poems which Gray
translated 4 are, like all his other Norse quotations, accompanied by

1 The Vegtamskvi^a is not contained in the manuscript discovered by
Bishop Brynjolfr Sveinsson, probably in 1643, — the so-called Codex Regius.
It is preserved (except for some paper copies of no consequence) only in the
Arna-Magnaean MS. 748, which contains, to be sure, merely a somewhat
different redaction of what is essentially the same collection. The poem was
doubtless made known to Bartholin by Arni Magmisson himself.

2 GSransson's Latin version of the first tract in the Prose Edda ( The
Deception of Gylfi ) was reprinted in Northern Antiquities, 1770, II, 273-352.

3 See Bugge, Norrocn Fornkvaf^ pp. 138-140. Mason reprinted Bartho
lin's Latin translation in his note at the end of The Descent of Odin.
Mitford's remark that "the first five stanzas of this Ode are omitted" by
Gray is repeated by Dr. Bradshaw without investigation : the fact is that
Gray omitted but one stanza (the first, also omitted by Bartholin) of the
genuine text, the other four are those four spurious strophes that misled Mr.
Gosse. Ten other spurious lines, which are in Bartholin, are accepted by Gray.

4 The Fatal Sisters is extracted by Gray from Torfaeus, but Torfaeus
refers to Bartholin, from whom he repeats both the original and the Latin
version. Gray too adds a reference to Bartholin. In his preface Bartholin
acknowledges his indebtedness to the famous Icelander Arni Magnusson with

xliv APPENDIX.

literal Latin renderings, has, as has just been suggested, an important
bearing on the general question of Gray's knowledge of the Old
Norse tongue. By the use of these literal renderings, Gray could
have written both The Fatal Sisters and The Descent of Odin without
reading a word in the original language. What we know of his
scholarly habits and of his insatiate love of investigation makes it
incredible, however, that he should have contented himself with so
humble a process. It is more probable that he carefully compared
the Latin text with the Old Norse and by this means made out
something of the originals. In this he would be assisted by the
striking similarity of many of the Scandinavian words to their
English cognates. Since he is likely to have done this with many
other interesting texts in Bartholin and elsewhere, he may perhaps
have arrived at a halting knowledge of the language : that he ever
" mastered " it, there is at any rate no evidence in his two " Xorse
odes."

The notes and introductions which Gray wrote for these Norse
odes seem at first sight to supply some of the evidence which is
lacking in the odes themselves. But an examination of this apparatus
reduces this testimony also to a minimum. Of all the comments
which Gray wrote on The Descent of Odin, including the long
note on the seeresses,1 the material is furnished in Latin by
Bartholin and some of it was also accessible to all Europe in Mallet.
The Preface to The Fatal Sisters is from Torfasus2 (Or cades, i, 10,
pp. 33 ff.) and the other notes are, as before, due to Bartholin. ( >f
only two bits of information is this not true : the translation of

regard to the Latin versions of the Norse poems that he quotes (•' ex ver-
sione, quae accuratae docti Islandi Arnae Magnaii industrial complementum
suum debet ").

1 Xot printed by Gray, but added by Mason from Gray's papers (see p. 169,
below).

2 Gray's date for the Battle of Clontarf, — "Christmas day'' (Preface to
The Fatal Sisters), — is a mere slip. Torfsus (Or cades, i, 10, p. 35) clearly
puts the battle on Good Friday : " Die Veneris, qvi, in diem memoriae pas-
sionis Servatoris, 'SuTijpia dictum," etc. Gray's note on the conversion of
the Orcadians is also derived in the main from Torfxus, who (Or cades, i, 10,
p. 33) gives an account of the heroic measures adopted in 995 by King Olave
Tryggvason to secure the baptism of Earl Sigurd. All the knowledge which
he shows of the " history of Olaus Tryggueson " in the same note, he could
easily have collected from the Orcades and from Torfaeus's Historic Rcrum
Norvegicarum (1711 ff., see vi, 7 ff., II, 246 ff.), supplemented perhaps by
Bartholin or by Peringskjold's Latin version of the Heimskringla (1697).

APPENDIX. xlv

fiolkunnug (read fj^lkunnig) by multi-scia and of visinda-kona by
oraculorum mulier in the long note inserted by Mason from Gray's
papers (see Descent of Odin, v. 51, p. 170, below) is not based on
anything in Bartholin and seems to betray a knowledge of the
component parts of those words. But we cannot build much on
this. Fjql- is a very common prefix and Gray may have found it
explained in various places. In the Glossary to Verelius's edition of
the Hcri'arar Saga (Upsala, 1672), for example, all-fiolkunnugur
(put under f) is glossed by multischis. In the same Glossar.y
I'isinda mam is explained by oraculorum interpretes : this would
furnish Gray with the meaning of visinda-, and kona is a very common
word, the meaning of which he would infallibly discover by the
process of comparison suggested above. We have no real evidence
that Gray knew this work of Verelius, but the presumption is
perhaps that way. It was certainly known to Warton l and Percy,2
and there was a copy in the Bodleian Library.3

Important direct evidence of Gray's interest in Scandinavian study
is contained in his well-known letter to Mason, Jan. 13, 1758 (Works,
II, 350 ff.). In this he insists on the distinction between Celtic and
Northern antiquities and expresses himself as follows about Odin :
"Woden himself is supposed not toWiave been older than Julius
Caesar ; but let him have lived when he pleases, it is certain that
neither he nor his Valhalla were heard of till many ages after. This
is the doctrine of the Scalds, not of the Bards; these are the songs
of Ilengist and Horsa, a modern new-fangled belief in comparison
with that which you ought to possess."4 " In short," he remarks in

1 History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, I, 120.

2 See Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, 1763, p. 4.

3 Catalogus Librontm Scptcntrionalium appended to Jdnsson (Runolphus
Jonas), Grammaticcc I slandicce Rudiment a, Oxford, 1688, p. 179. Of course,
as Mr. Gosse suggests, Gray may have used the Index Lingtice veteris Scytho-
Scandica; sire Gothica; of Verelius (Upsala, 1691).

4 I.e., the Druidical belief, which Mason needed for his Caractacus. In his
play, Mason makes the chorus of Druids present a sword to the hero :

" Caractacus !

Behold this sword : The sword of old Belinus,
Stain'd with the blood of giants, and its name Trifingus."

(Poems, 1764, p. 257.)

In a note (p. 316) he says: "TRIFINGUS. The name of the inchanted
sword in the Hervarer Saga." The reader will recognize the famous
Tyrfing.

xlvi APPENDIX.

the same letter (II, 352), " I am pleased with the Gothic Elysium.
Do you think I am ignorant about either that, or the hell before, or
the twilight? I have been there, and have seen it all in Mallet's
Introduction to the History of Denmark (it is in French), and many
other places." The first volume of Mallet's Introduction had ap
peared in 1755, the second (containing a translation of much of the
Prose Eddd] in 1756. If Gray's attention, like that of Europe in
general, was first called to the Norse mythology by this work, it is
interesting to observe that he had so far extended his reading by
the beginning of 1758 as to have seen the chief doctrines of the
Odinic system " in many other places." The letter gives us no
inkling as to what these places were, but it does inform us what one
of them was not : Gray expressly disclaims having read " Keysler,"
i.e., the Antiquitates Selectae Septentrionales et Celticae of Johann
Georg Keysler, Hannover, I72O.1

In 1761 Gray translated The Fatal Sisters and The Descent of
Odin, and these show that he had been reading the treatise of
Thomas Bartholin De Causis contemnendiz Mortis (Copenhagen,
1689) with much attention and that he had at any rate consulted the
Orcades of Torfaeus (1697). 2 If, as there seems little reason for
doubting, the Observations on the Pseudo-Rhythmus (}\rorks, I, 361
ff.), intended like the Norse Odes as material for the projected His
tory of English Poetry, were written at about the same time,3 we may

1 Mr. Gosse's suggestion (Gray's Works, II, 351) that the ''Keysler''
mentioned by Gray " was probably the second English edition, of 1 75 7, of
Johann Georg Keyslers Travels through Germany, Hungary, Bohemia,
Switzerland, Italy, and Larrain " was made in momentary forgetfulness of
Mason's 'letter of Jan. 5, 1758 (Correspondence of Gray and Mason, ed. Mit-
ford, p. 120), to which this of Gray's was a reply : Mason mentions the title
of the book, and in his reply to Gray (Jan. 16, 1758 ; id., p. 130), he returns
to the subject and gives an extract from Keysler. The work was in its day
well-known among antiquaries and is still worth consulting.

2 Torfaeus (pormoiSr Torfason), b. 1636, d. 1719, was a learned Icelander
and one of the founders of the science of Northern Antiquities. His most
important works (chiefly historical) were written while he was the King of
Denmark's historiographer royal for Norway. His History of the Orkneys
(Historia Orcadum, Copenhagen, 1867), is the work here referred to.

3 The essay contains a note as to Death and Life and Scottish Field, two
poems in the Percy MS. : " I read them in a MS. collection belonging to the
Rev. Mr. Thomas Piercy in 1761" (Works, I, 371); but this note proves
little. In a letter to Montagu, May 5, 1761 (Letters, ed. Cunningham, III,
399), Walpole writes: "Gray and Mason were with me, and we listened to

APPENDIX. xlvii

add Sir William Temple's essay Of Poetry, ^ the Literatura Runica of
Ole Worm (Olaus Wormius), the great Danish antiquary (Copen
hagen, 1636; 2d ed., 1651), and the Linguarwn Vctt. Septentriona-
liiim Thesaurus of the celebrated Dr. George Hickes (Oxford, 1705).
Gray's references to the Thesaurus in this essay show that he had
used the work with diligence, and in such a use of it he must have
paid some attention to the Old Norse Grammar which it contains.2
To Worm he refers for a remark about the Old Norse stanza known
as drottkvtett and for a passage from the tenth-century rhyming scal-
dic poem the Ransom of Egill? The latter reference is particularly
interesting. Gray quotes six lines of the poem in the original ( Works,
I, 862, n. 2). His quotation is from Worm, but he has transliterated
Worm's Runic characters into Roman letters. This he could of
course easily do without a knowledge of Icelandic by using the tables
of Runic equivalents given in Worm and in Hickes. Worm's book
furnishes a Latin version of the Ransom, but no transliteration.4

It is far from improbable that Gray knew all these books before
1758. Worm and Hickes were regarded as indispensable to any

the nightingales till one o'clock in the morning. Gray has translated two
noble incantations from the Lord knows who, a Danish Gray, who lived the
Lord knows when. They are to be enchased in a history of English bards,
which Mason and he are writing ; but of which the former has not written a
word yet, and of which the latter, if he rides Pegasus at his usual foot-pace,
will finish the first page two years hence." Mr. Gosse (Life of Gray, p. 164)
erroneously remarks that Walpole " did not see these poems till they were
printed" in 1768.

1 From which comes the remark referred to by Gray at beginning of the
essay (Works of Temple, ed. of 1770, 111,413). Temple's essay Of Heroic
Virtue, the companion-piece to that Of Poetry, was also, no doubt, familiar to
Gray, though he does not mention it anywhere : it contains much about Odin.
Mason, whose " no-reading " seems to have been a jest with Gray (Corre
spondence of Gray ami Mason, ed. Mitford, p. 130) discovered these two
essays for himself (id., p. 131).

- The GrammaticcE Islandicee Rudimcnta of Runolfr Jdnsson (Runolphus
Jonas). Gray does not mention this particular treatise. Of the other con
tents of the Thesaurus he refers expressly in this essay to Hickes's Institu-
tiones Grammatics Anglo-Saxonicce et Mceso-Gothiccc and Institutiones
Grammatical Franco-Thcotisccc. He also refers to Wanley's Catalogue.

3 The ffqfitftlatisn of Egill Skalla-Grimsson (Wisen, Carmina Norrcena,
I, 20 ff. ; Vigfiisson, Corpus Poeticum Borcale, I, 267 ff.). There is a translit
eration as well as a translation in Percy's Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, 1 763,
pp. 49 ff., 92 ff.

•* Literatura Runica, 2d ed., pp. 207 ff.

APPENDIX.

serious investigator of English antiquities — a subject in which Gray
was deeply interested. The minute nature of his historical studies
is well indicated by a single note to The Bard (v. u), in which he
quotes Higden's Polychronicon and Matthew of Westminster on a
point of Welsh topography (see below, p. 36). It is possible, then,
that he first consulted Worm and Hickes1 as a student of English
history, and that he was familiar with them when he wrote to Mason
in 1758. If so, we have at once some of the "many other places"
in which Gray had seen the " Gothic Elysium " and other particulars
of the Odinic system.2

Another book in Gray's time regarded as of capital importance to the
student of English history, and, therefore, not likely to have been neg
lected by him, is Robert Sheringham's De Anglorum Gentis Origine
Disceptatio (Cambridge, i6jo),s in which there are a sufficient number
of extracts from the Prose Edda (with Latin translations) to inform
the inquirer as to " hell " and " Elysium." Sheringham also dis
cusses the wanderings and the powers of Odin in an elaborate way.
If to these works Gray had, before 1758, added Bartholin, he was
within bounds in his phrase " and in many other places."

Hickes's Thesaurus, whenever Gray studied it, offered him the
original text and an English prose version of a magnificent Old
Norse poem, The Waking of Angantyr (from the Hervarar Saga).
This translation by Hickes has never received from students of
Romanticism the attention which it deserves. Buried in the great

1 See note 3 below.

z The "Elysium" is mentioned by Torfasus, Hist. Rerum Novcg., iii, 18,
I, 1 86.

3 The regard in which Worm, Hickes and Sheringham were held by Eng.
lish antiquaries is shown, not only by the frequency with which they are cited
by eighteenth-century historians, but by an interesting piece of direct testi
mony : Sir Joseph Ayloffe in answering the inquiries of a correspondent " as
to what are the most proper books to be read by a young student in our an
tiquities" includes in his list Sheringham, the Thesaurus, Worm's Alomt-
menta Danica "and his other pieces" (see his letter, Dec. 28, 1769, in
Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, VIII, 486). Sir William Temple's Excerpta ex
Edda and Excerpta ex Snorrone in his essay Of Heroic Virtue ( I Vorks, ed.
1770, III, 354) may have been selected from passages quoted by Sheringham,
pp. 234 ff. It will be remembered that Wormius was adopted by Pope as a
name for the typical mousing antiquary (Dtinciad, iii, 188 ; cf. Pope's dis
claiming note). Blair in his Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian,
1763, p. 4, «., refers to Worm and gives the Latin version of the Ragnar
Lo~Sbr6k ode.

APPENDIX. xlix

Thesaurus, it would not have merited much at their hands but for
two facts : ( i ) it was extracted therefrom and printed (along with the
Icelandic), with the typographical arrangement of verse, in the Mis
cellany Poems "published by Mr. Dryden," 1716, VI, 387-91, the
translator's name not being given ; (2) it was adopted (with due
credit) by Percy for his Runic Poetry. Whether or not, then, Gray
knew Verelius's edition of the Hervarar Saga, he had opportunities
enough to become acquainted with the gem of the work — this
splendid poem. It is curious that Warton seems to say that Gray
himself translated The Waking of Angantyr — an almost incredible
blunder.1 One collection with which Warton seems to have had
some familiarity would have been a joy to Gray: E. J. Bjorner's
Nordiska Kaiiipa-Dater (Stockholm, 1737), a folio containing, in par
allel columns, a Latin and a Swedish translation of the Sagas of
Hrolf Kraki, Frrttyjof, Ragnar, the Volsungs, and other important
texts.

The work to which Gray was chiefly indebted for whatever
scholarly knowledge of Scandinavian matters he possessed was
undoubtedly the Antiquitatum Danicarum de. Cansis contcmptce
Mortis a Danis adhuc Gentilibiis Libri Tres (Copenhagen, 1689). The
author, Thomas Bartholin the younger (1659-1690), professor at
Copenhagen, is justly celebrated as one of the founders of the science
of Northern antiquities. His book is very learned, and, for a
seventeenth-century polymath, surprisingly methodical. His object is
to explain the almost proverbial contempt for death on the part of the
heathen Xorsemen. First undertaking to prove the fact of this senti
ment, he proceeds to trace its causes, quoting copiously from Old Norse
texts, many of them unprinted, in prose and verse, — among them
not less than eighteen articles of the Poetic Edda. In the course of
his argument he has occasion to discuss, with much fullness, the
ancient Scandinavian beliefs as to the Fates, runes, magic, prophecy,
Ilel, Valhalla, etc. The whole forms a quarto of more than 700
pages, which is still read with interest by scholars. Gray could
have got hold of no better book for his purpose ; and he evidently

1 " This piece \sc. the Anglo-Saxon Battle of BrunanburK\, and many other
Saxon odes and songs now extant, are written in a metre resembling that of
the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr, which has been beautifully
translated into English, in the true spirit of the original, and in a genuine
strain of poetry, by Gray." History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, I, 124.
Blair, Critical Dissertation, 1763, p. 6, refers to the fact that Hickes's version
was published in the Miscellany Poems.

1 APPENDIX.

studied it with great care, as is shown by his observations that accom
pany the Norse Odes and by some other facts to which attention
is called in the Notes on these poems in the present edition (see
below, pp. 164-170). It should not be forgotten, however, that
Bartholin, like Worm and Torfaeus, never thinks of quoting a
particle of Old Norse without appending a literal Latin translation,
so that whatever information his book contained was within the
reach of every educated man in Europe, whether a student of Norse
or not. A close student of his book, however, would inevitably
pick up a knowledge of the meanings of some words and phrases
and even acquire a sort of ability to read the passages quoted.
This is probably the kind of knowledge possessed by Gray. No
doubt he had read over the originals of The Fatal Sisters and The
Descent of Odin till he was able, after a fashion, to translate them
without looking at his "crib"; but that he ever "mastered the
language," as Mr. Gosse thinks, — that he ever was able to trans
late a poem of which he had never seen a translation, — there is,
as we have seen, not a particle of evidence.1

G. L. K.

1 Two linguistic errors of a somewhat elementary character remain as
indications of the limits of Gray's knowledge of Old Norse. In the little
excursus on seeresses extracted by Mason from the poet's papers and printed
as a note to The Descent of Odin, v. 51 (see below, p. 170), Gray follows
Bartholin (p. 688) in using the dative sogu (/>., sggu) : " is described at large
in Eirik's Rauda Sogu." Bartholin uses this form because the construction
of the Latin sentence demands it ; in writing English, however, there was
no such compulsion, and Gray, if he had been sure of his ground, would
doubtless have written Saga. In the same note Gray says that the seeresses
"were called Fiolkyngi? following a bad reading in Bartholin's quotation
from Eiriks Saga Ratt'Sa (p. 689). Fjqlkyngi is an abstract noun meaning
sorcery, as Gray might have learned, if he had been a close student of the
language, from the brief Dictionarium Islandlaim in Hickes:s Thesaurus
(III, 77): "fiolkinge, artes magicaj' or from a passage of Snorri quoted, in
translation, by Sheringham (p. 243).

POEMS.

I.

ODE ON THE SPRING.

Lo ! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,

Fair VENUS' train appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers,

And wake the purple year !

The Attic warbler pours her throat, 5

Responsive to the cuckow's note,

The untaught harmony of spring :
While whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky

Their gather'd fragrance fling. 10

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch

A broader browner shade ;
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech

O'er-canopies the glade 1

Beside some water's rushy brink i$

With me the Muse shall sit, and think

(At ease reclin'd in rustic state)
How vain the ardour of the Crowd,
How low, how little are the Proud,

How indigent the Great ! 20

Still is the toiling hand of Care :
The panting herds repose :

1 a bank

O'ercanopied with luscious woodbine.

Shakesp. Mids, Nighfs Dream.

POEMS.

Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air

The busy murmur glows !

The insect youth are on the wing, 25

Eager to taste the honied spring,

And float amid the liquid noon : *
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some shew their gaily-gilded trim

Quick-glancing to the sun.2 30

To Contemplation's sober eye3

Such is the race of Man :
And they that creep, and they that fly,

Shall end where they began.

Alike the Busy and the Gay 35

But flutter thro' life's little day,

In fortune's varying colours drest :
Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance,
Or chill'd by age, their airy dance

They leave, in dust to rest. 4°

Methinks I hear in accents low

The sportive kind reply :
Poor moralist ! and what art thou ?

A solitary fly !

Thy Joys no glittering female meets, 45

No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,

1 '' Xare per nsstatem liquidam ."

Virgil. Gcorg. lib. 4.
sporting with quick glance

Shew to the sun their waved coats drop'd with gold.

Milton's Paradise Lost, book 7.

3 While insects from the threshold preach, etc. — M. Green, in the
Grotto. Dodsley's Miscellanies, Vol. V. p. 161.

ODE ON ETON COLLEGE.

No painted plumage to display :
On hasty wings thy youth is flown ;
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone —

\Ye frolick, while 'tis May. 50

II.

ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.

"A^pwTros • iKavj] irp6<pa.(ns eis r6 Svcrri/xeZV.

Menander.

YE distant spires, ye antique towers,

That crown the watry glade,
Where grateful Science still adores

Her HENRY'S 1 holy Shade ;
And ye, that from the stately brow
Of WINDSOR'S heights th' expanse below

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among «
Wanders the hoary Thames along

His silver-winding way.

Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade,

Ah fields belov'd in vain,
Where once my careless childhood stray'd,

A stranger yet to pain !
I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
A momentary bliss bestow,

As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
My weary soul they seem to sooth,
And, redolent 2 of joy and youth,

To breathe a second spring.

1 King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the College.

2 And bees their honey redolent of spring.

Dryden's Fable on the J\thai^. Svstem.

POEMS.

Say, Father THAMES, for thou hast seen

Full many a sprightly race
Disporting on thy margent green

The paths of pleasure trace,

Who foremost now delight to cleave 25

With pliant arm thy glassy wave ?

The captive linnet which enthrall?
What idle progeny succeed
To chase the rolling circle's speed,

Or urge the flying ball ? 30

While some on earnest business bent

Their murm'ring labours ply
'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint

To sweeten liberty :

Some bold adventurers disdain 35

The limits of their little reign,

And unknown regions dare descry :
Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,

And snatch a fearful joy. 40

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,

Less pleasing when possest ;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,

The sunshine of the breast :

Theirs buxom health of rosy hue, 45

Wild wit, invention ever-new,

And lively chear of vigour born ;
The thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,

That fly th' approach of morn. 50

ODE ON ETON COLLEGE. 5

Alas, regardless of their doom,

The little victims play !
No sense have they of ills to come,

Nor care beyond to-day :

Yet see how all around 'em wait 55

The Ministers of human fate,

And black Misfortune's baleful train !
Ah, shew them where in ambush stand
To seize their prey the murth'rous band !

Ah, tell them, they are men ! 6o

These shall the fury Passions tear,

The vulturs of the mind,
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,

And Shame that sculks behind ;
Or pinfcing Love shall waste their youth, 65

Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,

That inly gnaws the secret heart,
And Envy wan, and faded Care,
Grim-visag'd comfortless Despair,

And Sorrow's piercing dart.

Ambition this shall tempt to rise,

Then whirl the wretch from high,
To bitter Scorn a sacrifice,

And grinning Infamy.
The stings of Falshood those shall try,
And hard Unkindness' alter'd eye, '

That mocks the tear it forc'd to flow ;
And keen Remorse with blood defil'd,
And moody Madness * laughing wild

Amid severest woe.

i Madness laughing in his ireful mood.

Drydeifs Fable of Pdlamon and Arcite.

POEMS.

Lo, in the vale of years beneath

A griesly troop are seen,
The painful family of Death,

More hideous than their Queen :
This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 85

That every labouring sinew strains,

Those in the deeper vitals rage :'
Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,
That numbs the soul with icy hand,

And slow-consuming Age. 90

To each his suff rings : all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain ;

Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah ! why should they know their fate ? 95

Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more ; where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise. I00

III.

HYMN TO ADVERSITY.

— Zijva
us 656-

s, in Agamemnone.
DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless Power,
Thou Tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour,
The Bad affright, afflict the Best !

HYMN TO ADVERSITY. 7

•

Bound in thy adamantine chain 5

The Proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple Tyrants vainly groan
• With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.

When first thy Sire to send on earth

Virtue, his darling Child, design'd, 10

To thee he gave the heav'nly Birth,

And bad to form her infant mind.

Stern rugged Nurse ! thy rigid lore

With patience many a year she bore :

What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, x 15

And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe.

Scared at thy frown terrific, fly

Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood,

Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy,

And leave us leisure to be good. • 20

Light they disperse, and with them go

The summer Friend, the flatt'ring Foe ;

By vain Prosperity received,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believed.

Wisdom in sable garb array 'd 25

Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,

And Melancholy, silent maid

With leaden eye, that loves the ground,

Still on thy solemn steps attend :

Warm Charity, the gen'ral Friend, 3°

With Justice to herself severe,

And Pity dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear.

Oh, gently on thy Suppliant's head,

Dread Goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand !

Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, 35

Nor circled with the vengeful Band

POEMS.

(As by the Impious thou art seen)

With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien,

With screaming Horror's funeral cry,

Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. 40

Thy form benign, oh Goddess, wear,

Thy milder influence impart,

Thy philosophic Train be there

To soften, not to wound my heart,

The gen'rous spark extinct revive, 45

Teach me to love and to forgive,

Exact my own defects to scan,

What others are, to feel, and know myself a Man.

IV.
SONNET

[ON THK DKATH OF RICHARD WEST.]

Ix vain to me the smileing Mornings shine,

And redning Phoebus lifts his golden Fire :
The Birds in vain their amorous Descant joyn :

Or chearful Fields resume their green Attire :
These Ears, alas ! for other Notes repine,

A different Object do these Eyes require.
My lonely Anguish melts no Heart, but mine ;

And in my Breast the imperfect Joys expire.
Vet Morning smiles the busy Race to chear,

And new-born Pleasure brings to happier Men :
The Fields to all their wonted Tribute bear :

To warm their little Loves the Birds complain :
I fruitless mourn to him, that cannot hear,

And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

At Stoke, Aug. 1742.

ODE ON A CAT. 9

V.
ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT,

DROWNED IN A TUH OF GOLD FISHES.

'TWAS on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dy'd

The azure flowers, that blow ;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima reclin'd, 5

Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declar'd ;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,

The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, 10

Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,

She saw ; and purr'd applause.

Still had she gaz:d ; but 'midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,

The Genii of the stream : 15

Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue
Thro' richest purple to the view

Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless Nymph with wonder saw :

A whisker first and then a claw, 20

With many an ardent wish,
She stretch'd in vain to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise ?

What Cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous Maid ! with looks intent 25

Again she stretch'd, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.

POEMS.

(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiPcl)
The slipp'ry verge her feet beguil'd,

She tumbled headlong in. 30

Eight times emerging from the flood
She mevv'd to ev'ry watry God,

Some speedy aid to send.
No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd :
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard. 35

A Kav'rite has no friend !

From hence, ye Beauties, undeceiv'd.
Know, one false step is ne'er retrieval.

And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes 4°

And heedless hearts, is lawful prize ;

Nor all, that glisters, gold.

THK ALLIAXCK OF EDUCATION AXD GOVERNMENT.
A FKA<;MI:\T.
Commentary.^

THE Author's subject being (as we have seen) The
necessary Alliance between a good Form of Government and
a good !\fode of Education, in order to produce the Happi
ness of Mankind, the Poem opens with two similes ; an
uncommon kind of exordium : but which I suppose the 5
Poet intentionally chose, to intimate the analogical method
he meant to pursue in his subsequent reasonings, ist,

1 " On carefully reviewing the scattered papers in prose which he
writ, as hints for his own use in the prosecution of this work, I think
it best to form part of them into a kind of commentary." — Mason.

EDUCATION AM) GOVERNMENT. n

He asserts that men without education are like sickly
plants in a cold or barren soil, (line i to 5, and 8 to 12 ;)
and, 2dly, he compares them, when unblest with a just 10
and well regulated government, to plants that will not
blossom or bear fruit in an unkindly and inclement air
(1. 5 to 9, and 1. 13 to 22). Having thus laid down
the two propositions he means to prove, he begins by
examining into the characteristics which (taking a general 15
view of mankind) all men have in common one with
another (1. 22 to 39) ; they covet pleasure and avoid pain
(1. 31) ; they feel gratitude for benefits (1. 34) ; they desire
to avenge wrongs, which they effect either by force or
cunning (1. 35) ; they are linked to each other by their 20
common feelings, and participate in sorrow and in joy (1.
36, 37). If then all the human species agree in so many
moral particulars, whence arises the diversity of national
characters ? This question the Poet puts at 1. 38, and
dilates upon to 1. 64. Why, says he, have some nations 25
shewn a propensity to commerce and industry ; others to
war and rapine ; others to ease and pleasure ? (1. 42 to
46) Why have the Northern people overspread, in all
ages, and prevailed over the Southern ? (1. 46 to 58) Why
has Asia been, time out of mind, the seat of despotism, 3°
and Europe that of freedom? (1. 59 to 64). Are we from
these instances to imagine men necessarily enslaved to
the inconveniences of the climate where they were born?
(1. 64 to 72) Or are we not rather to suppose there is a
natural strength in the human mind, that is able to van- 35
quish and break through them? (1. 72 to 84) It is con-
fest, however, that men receive an early tincture from the
situation they are placed in, and the climate which pro
duces them (1. 84 to 88). Thus the inhabitants of the
mountains, inured to labour and patience, are naturally 4°
trained to war (1. 88 to 96) ; while those of the plain

1 2 POEMS.

are more open to any attack, and softened by ease and
plenty (1. 96 to 99). Again, the ^Egyptians, from the
nature of their situation, might be the inventors of home-
navigation, from a necessity of keeping up an intercourse 45
between their towns during the inundation of the Nile
(1. 99 to . . . ). These persons would naturally have the
first turn to commerce, who inhabited a barren coast like
the Tyrians, and were persecuted by some neighbouring
tyrant ; or were drove to take refuge on some shoals, like S°
the Venetian and Hollander ; their discovery of some
rich island, in the infancy of the world, described. The
Tartar hardened to war by his rigorous climate and
pastoral life, and by his disputes for water and herbage
in a country without land-marks, as also by skirmishes 55
between his rival clans, was consequently fitted to
conquer his rich Southern neighbours, whom ease and
luxury had enervated : Yet this is no proof that liberty
and valour may not exist in Southern climes, since the
Syrians and Carthaginians gave noble instances of both ; 60
and the Arabians carried their conquests as far as the
Tartars. Rome also (for many centuries) repulsed those
very nations, which, when she grew weak, at length
demolished her extensive Empire. * * *

ESSAY I.

. . . Horay' , ti 'yafa ; rav yap doiSav

OVTI TTW et'j A'tdav ye rbv ^K\€\d0ovTa </>u\a£«s.

Theocritus, Id. I. 63.

As sickly Plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her gen'rous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins :

EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 13

And as in climes, where Winter holds his reign, 5

The soil, tho' fertile, will not teem in vain,

Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,

Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies :

So draw Mankind in vain the vital airs,

Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares, 10

That health and vigour to the soul impart,

Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart :

So fond Instruction on the growing powers

Of Nature idly lavishes her stores,

If equal Justice with unclouded face 1S

Smile not indulgent on the rising race,

And scatter with a free, tho' frugal hand

Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land :

But Tyranny has fix'd her empire there

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, 20

And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey
From where the rolling Orb, that gives the day,
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds. 25

How rude soe'er th' exteriour form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike, to all the kind, impartial Heav'n
The sparks of truth and happiness has giv'n :
With sense to feel, with memory to retain, 3°

They follow pleasure, and they fly from pain ;
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws,
Th' event presages, and explores the cause.
The soft returns of gratitude they know,
By fraud elude, by force repell the foe, 35

While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear
The social smile, and sympathetic tear.

1 4 POEMS.

Say, then, thro' ages by what fate confin'd
To different climes seem different souls assign'd ?
How measur'd laws and philosophic ease 40

Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace ;
There industry and gain their vigils keep,
Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep.
Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail ;
There languid Pleasure sighs in every gale. 45

Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar
Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war ;
And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway
Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away.
As oft have issued, host impelling host, 50

The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltick coast.
The prostrate South to the Destroyer yields
Her boasted titles, and her golden fields :
With grim delight the Brood of winter view
A brighter day, and Heav'ns of azure hue, 55

Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose,
And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows.
Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod,
Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,
While European freedom still withstands 60

Th' encroaching tide, that drowns her lessening lands ;
And sees far off with an indignant groan
Her native plains, and Empires once her own*
Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame
O'erpower the fire, that animates our frame ; 65

As lamps, that shed at eve a chearful ray,
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day?
Need we the influence of the Northern star
To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war?
And, where the face of nature laughs around, 7°

Must sick'ning virtue fly the tainted ground?

ED UCA TION A ND GO VERNMENT. 1 5

Unmanly thought ! what seasons can controul,

What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul,

Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs,

By reason's light, on resolution's wings, 75

Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes

O'er Libya's deserts and thro' Zembla's snows ?

She bids each slumb'ring energy awake,

Another touch, another temper take,

Suspends th' inferior laws, that rule our clay : 80

The stubborn elements confess her sway ;

Their little wants, their low desires, refine,

And raise the mortal to a height divine.

Not but the human fabric from the birth
Imbibes a flavour of its parent earth. 85

As various tracts enforce a various toil,
The manners speak the idiom of their soil.
An iron-race fhe mountain-cliffs maintain,
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain :
For where unwearied sinews must be found 90

With side-long plough to quell the flinty ground,
To turn the torrent's swift-descending flood,
To brave the savage rushing from the wood,
What wonder, if to patient valour train'd
They guard with spirit, what by strength theygain'd? 95
And while their rocky 'ramparts round they see,
The rough abode of want and liberty,
(As lawless force from confidence will grow)
Insult the plenty of the vales below?

What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread 100

Where Nile redundant o'er his summer-bed
From his broad bosom life and verdure flings,
And broods o'er ^Egypt with his wat'ry wings,
If with advent'rous oar and ready sail
The dusky people drive before the gale ; 105

1 6 POEMS.

Or on frail floats to distant cities ride,
That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide.

" I find also among these papers a single couplet much too
beautiful to be lost, though the place where he meant to introduce
it cannot be ascertained." — Mason.

When Love could teach a monarch to be wise,
And Gospel-light first dawn'd from BULLEN'S Eyes.

VII.
ELEGY

WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.

THE Curfew tolls l the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 5
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds ;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r

The mopeing owl does to the moon complain i°

Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

squilla di lontano,

Che paia '1 giorno pianger, che si muore.

Dante. Purgat. 1. 8.

ELEGY. 17

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 15

The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,

The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 20

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care :

No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 25

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ;

How jocund did they drive their team afield !

How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke !

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure ; 3°

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,

The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,

Awaits alike th' inevitable hour. 35

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye Proud, impute to These the fault,
If Mem'ry o'er their Tomb no Trophies raise,

Where thro' the long-drawn isle and fretted vault

The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 4°

POEMS.

Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ?

Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of Death ?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 45

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ;

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to extasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page

Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ; 5°

Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear :

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 55

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little Tyrant of his fields withstood ;

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. 60

Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbad : nor circumscrib'd alone 65

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd ;

Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

ELEGY. 19

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 7°

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray ;

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life 75

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect

Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhimes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 80

Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply :
And many a holy text around she strews,

That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, 85

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,

Left the warm precincts of the chearful day,
Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind ?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,

Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; 9°

Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Ev'n in our Ashes live their wonted Fires.1

1 Ch' i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco,
Fredda una lingua, & due begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville.

Petrarch. Son. 169.

POEMS.

For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate ;

If chance, by lonely contemplation led, 95

Some kindred Spirit shall inquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say,
' Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn

' Brushing with hasty steps the dews away

' To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 100

' There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
' That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

' His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
' And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 105

' Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove,

' Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
'Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

'Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree ; "o

' Another came ; nor yet beside the rill,

' Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he ;

' The next with dirges due in sad array

' Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him born£,.
'Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay, i»5

'Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.'

THE EPITAPH.

HERE rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A Youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

Fair Science frown' d not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy marked him for her own. 1 20

A LONG STORY. 21

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

Heart 11 did a recommence as largely send :
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,

He gain' d from Heart n ^twas all he wish'd} a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose, 125

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode.

(There they alike in trembling hope repose^
The bosom of his Father and his- God.

VIII.
A LONG STORY.

IN Britain's Isle, no matter where,

An ancient pile of building stands :
The Huntingdons and Hattons there

Employ'd the power of Fairy hands

To raise the cieling's fretted height, 5

Each pannel in achievements cloathing,

Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages, that lead to nothing.

Full oft within the spatious walls,

When he had fifty winters o'er him, 10

My grave 2 Lord- Keeper led the Brawls :

The Seal, and Maces, danc'd before him.

His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green,
His high-crown'd hat, and sattin-doublet,

Mov'd the stout heart of England's Queen, 15

Tho' Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it.

1 paventosa speme.

Petrarch. Son. 114.

2 Hatton, prefer'd by Queen Elizabeth for his graceful Person
and fine Dancing.

22 POEMS.

What, in the very first beginning !

Shame of the versifying tribe !
Your Hist'ry whither are you spinning?

Can you do nothing but describe ? 20

A House there is, (and that's enough)
From whence one fatal morning issues

A brace of Warriors, not in buff,

But rustling in their silks and tissues.

The first came cap-a-pee from France, 25

Her conqu'ring destiny fulfilling,
Whom meaner Beauties eye askance,

And vainly ape her art of killing.

The other Amazon kind Heaven

Had arm'd with spirit, wit, and satire : 3°

But COBHAM had the polish given,

And tip'd her arrows with good-nature.

To celebrate her eyes, her air —

Coarse panegyricks would but teaze her.

Melissa is her Nom de Guerre. 35

Alas, who would not wish to please her !

With bonnet blue and capucine,

And aprons long they hid their armour,

And veil'd their weapons bright and keen

In pity to the country-farmer. 40

Fame in the shape of Mr. P 1

(By this time all the Parish know it)

Had told, that thereabouts there lurk'd
A wicked Imp they call a Poet,

A LONG STORY. 23

Who prowl'd the country far and near, 45

Bewitch'd the children of the peasants,
Dried up the cows, and lam'd the deer,

And suck'd the eggs, and kill'd the pheasants.

My Lady heard their joint-petition,

Swore by her coronet and ermine, 50

She'd issue out her high commission

To rid the manour of such vermin.

The Heroines undertook the task,.

Thro' lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventur'd,
Rap'd at the door, nor stay'd to ask, 55

But bounce into the parlour enter'd.

The trembling family they daunt,

They flirt, they sing, they laugh, they tattle,

Rummage his Mother, pinch his Aunt,

And up stairs in a whirlwind rattle. 60

Each hole and cupboard they explore,

Each creek and cranny of his chamber,
Run hurry-skurry round the floor,

And o'er the bed and tester clamber,

Into the Drawers and China pry, 65

Papers and books, a huge Imbroglio !
Under a tea-cup he might lie,

Or creased, like dogs-ears, in a folio.

On the first marching of the troops

The Muses, hopeless of his pardon, 70

Convey'd him underneath their hoops

To a small closet in the garden.

POEMS.

So Rumor says. (Who will, believe.)

But that they left the door a-jarr,
Where, safe and laughing in his sleeve, 75

He heard the distant din of war.

Short was his joy. He little knew,

The power of Magick was no fable.
Out of the window, whisk, they flew,

But left a spell upon the table. 80

The words too eager to unriddle

The Poet felt a strange disorder :
Transparent birdlime form'd the middle,

And chains invisible the border.

So cunning was the Apparatus, 85

The powerful pothooks did so move him,

That, will he, nill he, to the Great-house
He went, as if the Devil drove him.

Yet on his way (no sign of grace,

For folks in fear are apt to pray) 9°

To Phcebus he prefer'd his case,

And beg'd his aid that dreadful day.

The Godhead would have back'd his quarrel,

But with a blush on recollection
Own'd, that his quiver and his laurel 95

'Gainst four such eyes were no protection.

The Court was sate, the Culprit there,

Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping

The "Lady Janes and/oans repair,

And from the gallery stand peeping : 100

A LONG STOKY. 25

Such as in silence of the night

Come (sweep) along some winding entry

(Styack l has often seen the sight)
Or at the chappel-door stand sentry ;

In peaked hoods and mantles tarnish'd, 105

Sour visages, enough to scare ye,
High Dames of honour once, that garnish'd

The drawing-room of fierce Queen Mary !

The Peeress comes. The Audience stare,

And doff their hats with due submission ; no

She curtsies, as she takes her chair,
To all the People of condition.

The Bard with many an artful fib,

Had in imagination fenc'd him,
Disproved the arguments of Squib? "5

And all that Groom 3 could urge against him.

But soon his rhetorick forsook him,

When he the solemn hall had seen ;
A sudden fit of ague shook him,

He stood as mute as poor Madeane* 120

Yet something he was heard to mutter,

' How in the park beneath an old-tree
' (Without design to hurt the butter,

' Or any malice to the poultry,)

' He once or twice had pen'd a sonnet ; 125

' Yet hoped, that he might save his bacon :

' Numbers would give their oaths upon it,
' He ne'er was for a conj'rer taken.

1 The House-Keeper.

2 Groom of the Chambers.

3 The Steward.

4 A famous Highwayman hang'd the week before.

26 POEMS.

The ghostly Prudes with hagged face

Already had condemn'd the sinner. 13°

My Lady rose, and with a grace —

She smiled, and bid him come to dinner.

' Jesu-Maria ! Madam Bridget,

' Why, what can the Vicountess mean ?

(Cried the square Hoods in woful fidget) 135

' The times are alter'd quite and clean !

' Decorum's turn'd to mere civility ;

' Her air and all her manners shew it.
' Commend me to her affability !

' Speak to a Commoner and Poet ! !4°

[Here 500 Stanzas are lost.]

And so God save our noble King,

And guard us from long-winded Lubbers,

That to eternity would sing,

And keep my Lady from her Rubbers.

IX.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

A PINDARIC ODE.

rb TTO.V

Pindar, Olymp. II.

ADVERTISEMENT.

When the Author first published this and the following Ode, he

was advised, even by his Friends, to subjoin some few explanatory

Notes; but had too much respect for the understanding of his
Readers to take that liberty.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 27

I. i.

AWAKE, .^Eolian lyre, awake,1
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take :
The laughing flowers, that round them blow, 5

Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,
Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign :
Now rowling down the steep amain, 10

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour :
The rocks, and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.

I. 2.

Oh ! Sovereign of the willing soul,2
Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
Enchanting shell ! the sullen Cares, 15

And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul.
On Thracia's hills the Lord of War,
Has curb'd the fury of his car,

1 Awake, my glory : awake, lute and harp.

David's Psalms.

Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompanyments,
Kio\rfh yuoATTTj, At'o'XtSes xopSol, Aio\iSwv irvoal dv\uv, /Eolian song,
;Eolian strings, the breath of the ^Eolian flute.

The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The
various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches,
are here described ; its quiet majestic progress enriching every
subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and
luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible
course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous
passions.

2 Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The 1
thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar.

28 POEMS.

And drop'd his thirsty lance at thy command.

Perching on the scept'red hand 1 20

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king

With ruffled plumes, and flagging wing :

Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terror of his beak, and light'nings of his eye.

I- 3-

Thee the voice, the dance, obey,2 25

Temper'd to thy warbled lay.

O'er Idalia's velvet-green

The rosy-crowned Loves are seen

On Cytherea's day

With antic Sports, and blue-eyed Pleasures, 3°

Frisking light in frolic measures ;

Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet :

To brisk notes in cadence beating

Glance their many-twinkling feet.3 35

Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare :

Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay.
With arms sublime, that float upon the air,

In gliding state she wins her easy way :
O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move 40

The bloom of young Desire, and purple light of
Love.4

1 This is a weak imitation of some incomparable lines in the same
Ode.

2 Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the
body.

0-rjfiTO Trod&v • 6av/j.a^e 5t 6v(i.$.

Homer. Od. 0.

4 Ad/jLiTfi 8' tiri iropfivptycri
Hapetyo'i. tf>Cis epcoros.

Phrynichus, apud Athenaeum.

s'

THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 29

II. i.

Man's feeble race what Ills await,1
Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,
Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,
And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate ! 45
The fond complaint, my Song, disprove,
And justify the laws of Jove.
Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse ?
Night, and all her sickly dews,

Her Spectres wan, and Birds of boding cry, 5°

He gives to range the dreary sky :
Till down the eastern cliffs afar2
Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts of
war.

II. 2.

In 8 climes beyond the solar 4 road,
Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 55
The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom
To chear the shiv'ring Native's dull abode.

1 To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the Muse was
given to Mankind by the same Providence that sends the Day by its
chearful presence to dispel the gloom and terrors of the Night.
2 Or seen the Morning's well-appointed Star
Come marching up the eastern hills afar.

Cowley.

3 Extensive influence of poetic Genius over the remotest and most
uncivilized nations : its connection with liberty, and the virtues that
naturally attend on it. (See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welch Frag
ments, the Lapland and American songs.)

* " Extra anni solisque vias."

Virgil.

11 Tutta lontana dal camin del sole."

Petrarch, Canzon 2.

30 POEMS.

And oft, beneath the od'rous shade

Of Chili's boundless forests laid,

She deigns to hear the savage Youth repeat 60

In loose numbers wildly sweet

Their feather-cinctured Chiefs, and dusky Loves.

Her track, where'er the Goddess roves,

Glory pursue, and generous Shame,

Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. 65

II. 3.

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,1
Isles, that crown th' yfigean deep,
Fields, that cool Ilissus laves,
Or where Marauder's amber waves

In lingering Lab'rinths creep, 7°

How do your tuneful Echo's languish,
Mute, but to the voice of Anguish ?
Where each old poetic Mountain
Inspiration breath'd around :

Ev'ry shade and hallow'd Fountain 75

Murmur'd deep a solemn sound :
Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant-Power,
And coward Vice, that revels in her chains. 80

When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,
They sought, oh Albion ! next thy sea-encircled coast.

1 Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to
England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of
Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Tho. Wyatt
had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there ; Spenser
imitated the Italian writers ; Milton improved on them : but this
School expired soon after the Restoration, and a new one arose on
the French model, which has subsisted ever since.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 31

III. i.

Far from the sun and summer-gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's l Darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, 85

To Him the mighty Mother did unveil
Her aweful face : The dauntless Child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.
This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year : 9°

Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy !
This can unlock the gates of Joy ;
Of Horrour that, and thrilling Fears,
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.

III. 2.

Nor second He,2 that rode sublime 95

Upon the seraph-wings of Extasy,
The secrets of th' Abyss to spy.
He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time : 3
The living Throne, the saphire-blaze,4
Where Angels tremble, while they gaze, 100

He saw ; but blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.5

1 Shakespear.

2 Milton.

8 " flammantia moenia mundi."

Lucretius.

* For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. — And
above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the likeness of
a throne, as the appearance of a saphire-stone. — This was the
appearance of the glory of the Lord. — Ezekiel i. 20, 26, 28.

6 ' Q<t>0a.\fj.&v fjiiv Hfiepffe • diSov d' ySetav aoidr/v.

Homer. Od.

32

POEMS.

Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car,
Wide o'er the fields of Glory bear

' Two Coursers of ethereal race,1 I05

With necks in thunder cloath'd, and long-resounding

pace.2

III. 3-

Hark, his hands the lyre explore !
Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er
Scatters from her pictur'd urn

Thoughts, that breath, and words, that burn.3 "o
But ah ! 'tis heard no more 4 -
Oh ! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit
Wakes thee now ? tho' he inherit
Nor the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban Eagle bear 5 "5

Sailing with supreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air :

1 Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy of
Dryden's rhimes.

2 Hast thou cloathed his neck with thunder?

Job.

3 Words, that weep, and tears, that speak.

Cowley.

* We have had in our language no other odes of the sublime kind,
than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's day : for Cowley (who had his
merit) yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task.
That of Pope is not worthy of so great a man. Mr. Mason indeed
of late days has touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand,
..in some of his Choruses, — above all in the last of Caractacus,

Hark ! heard ye not yon footstep dread ? etc.

6 Ato's Trpo's 6pt>ixa Btiov. Olymp. 2. Pindar compares himself to that
bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain
below, while it pursues its flight, regardless of their noise.

ODE ON VICISSITUDE. 33

Yet oft before his infant eyes would run

Such forms, as glitter in the Muse's ray

With orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun : i

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

Beneath the Good how far — but far above the Great.

X.

ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE.

Now the golden Morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing,
With vermeil-cheek and whisper soft

She woo's the tardy spring ;

Till April starts, and calls around 5

The sleeping fragrance from the ground ;
And lightly o'er the living scene
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

New-born flocks, in rustic dance,

Frisking ply their feeble feet ; 10

Forgetful of their wintry trance,

The Birds his presence greet ;
But chief, the Sky-lark warbles high
His trembling thrilling ecstasy;
And, lessening from the dazzled sight, 15

Melts into air and liquid light.

Rise, my soul ! on wings of fire,
Rise the rapturous choir among ;

Hark ! 'tis Nature strikes the lyre,
And leads the general song.

34

POEMS.

Yesterday the sullen year

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly ;
Mute was the musick of the air,

The Herd stood drooping by ;

Their raptures now that wildly flow, 25

No yesterday, nor morrow know ;
'Tis man alone that Joy descries
With forward and reverted eyes.

Smiles on past Misfortune's brow

Soft Reflection's hand can trace ; 3°

And o'er the cheek of Sorrow throw

A melancholy grace ;
While Hope prolongs our happier hour,
Or deepest shades, that dimly lower
And blacken round our weary way, 35

Gilds with a gleam of distant day.

Still, where rosy Pleasure leads,

See a kindred Grief pursue ;
Behind the steps that Misery treads,

Approaching Comfort view ; 4°

The hues of Bliss more brightly glow,
Chastised by sabler tints of woe ;
And blended form, with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of Life.

See the Wretch, that long has tost 45

On the thorny bed of Pain,
At length repair his vigour lost,

And breathe and walk again ;
The meanest flowret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale, 5°

The common Sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening Paradise.

THE BARD. 35

Humble Quiet builds her cell,

Near the source whence Pleasure flows ;
She eyes the clear chrystalline well, 55

And tastes it as it goes.

* *

XL
THE BARD.

A PINDARIC ODE.
ADVERTISEMENT.

The following Ode is founded on a Tradition current in Wales,
that EDWARD THE FIRST, when he compleated the conquest of
that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands, to be
put to death.

I. i.

'Ruin seize thee, ruthless King !
' Confusion on thy banners wait,
' Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing
' They mock the air with idle state.1

' Helm, nor Hauberk's 2 twisted mail, 5

' Nor even thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail
' To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,
'From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears !<*'
Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested 3 pride

Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, 10

1 Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

Shakespear 's King John.

2 The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven,
forming a coat of mail, that sate close to the body, and adapted
itself to every motion.

3 The crested adder's pride.

Drydcii's Indian Queen.

3 6 POEMS.

As down the steep of Snowdon's l shaggy side
He wound with toilsome march his long array.
Stout Glo'ster 2 stood aghast in speechless trance :
To arms ! cried Mortimer,3 and couch'd his quiv'ring
lance.

I. 2.

On a rock, whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Robed in the sable garb of woe,
With haggard eyes the Poet stood ;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair4
Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) 5
And with a Master's hand, and Prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

1 Sncrwdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous
tract, which the Welch themselves call Craigian-eryri : it included
all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east
as the river Conway. R. Hygden speaking of the castle of Conway
built by King Edward the first, says, " Ad ortum amnis Conway ad
clivurri montis Erery " ; and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann.
1283), "Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniae fecit erigi
castrum forte."

2 Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and
Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

3 Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore.

They both were Lords-Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders
of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition.

4 The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael,
representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel : there are
two of these paintings (both believed original), one at Florence, the
other at Paris.

5 Shone, like a meteor, streaming to the wind.

Milton'1 s Paradise Lost.

THE BARD. 37

' Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,

' Sighs to the torrent's aweful voice beneath !

' O'er thee, oh King ! their hundred arms they wave, 25

' Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breath ;

' Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,

' To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

1-3-

' Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

' That hush'd the stormy main : 30

' Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed :
' Mountains, ye mourn in vain
' Modred, whose magic song

' Made huge Plinlimmon bow his vdoud-top'd head.
'On dreary Arvon's shore they lie,1 35

' Smear d with gore, and ghastly pale :
' Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail ;
' The famish'd Eagle 2 screams, and passes by.
' Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,
' Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes, 3 4°

' Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,3
' Ye died amidst your dying country's cries —
' No more I weep. They do not sleep.

1 The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the isle of Anglesey.

2 Cambden and others observe, that eagles used annually to build
their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as
some think) were named by the Welch Craigian-eryri, or the crags
of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon
is called the eagle's nest. That bird is certainly no stranger to this
island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland,
etc. can testify : it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire.
(See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.)

8 As dear to me as are the ruddy drops,
That visit my sad heart. — Shakesp. Jul. Ccesar.

38 POEMS.

1 On yonder cliffs, a griesly band,

' I see them sit, they linger yet, 45

' Avengers of their native land :

' With me in dreadful harmony they join,1

' And weave 1 with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.'

II. i.

" Weave the warp, and weave the woof,
" The winding-sheet of Edward's race. 5°

" Give ample room, and verge enough
" The characters of hell to trace.
" Mark the year, and mark the night,
"When Severn shall re-eccho with affright2
" The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roofs that ring, 55
" Shrieks of an agonizing King !
" She-Wolf 8 of France, with unrelenting fangs,*
" That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled Mate,
" From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs 4
" The scourge of Heav'n. What Terrors round him wait ! 60
" Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,
" And sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind.

II. 2.

" Mighty Victor, mighty Lord,
" Low on his funeral couch he lies ! 5
" No pitying heart, no eye, afford 65

" A tear to grace his obsequies.

1 See the Norwegian Ode, that follows.

2 Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-Castle.

3 Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen.

4 Triumphs of Edward the Third in France.

5 Death of that King, abandoned by his Children, and even
robbed in his last moments by his Courtiers and his Mistress.

THE BARD. 39

" Is the sable Warriour ! fled ?

" Thy son is gone. He rests among the Dead.

" The Swarm, that in thy noon-tide beam were born ?

" Gone to salute the rising Morn. 70

" Fair laughs 2 the Morn, and soft the Zephyr blows,

" While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

" In gallant trim the gilded Vessel goes ;

" Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ;

" Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway, 75

" That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening-prey.

II. 3.

" Fill high the sparkling bowl,3
" The rich repast prepare,
" Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast :
" Close by the regal chair 80

" Fell Thirst and Famine scowl
" A baleful smile upon their baffled Guest.
" Heard ye the din of battle 4 bray,
" Lance to lance, and horse to horse ?

" Long Years of havock urge their destined course, 85

" And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their way.
" Ye Towers of Julius,5 London's lasting shame,
" With many a foul and midnight murther fed,

1 Edward, the Black Prince, dead some time before his Father.

2 Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard, and
other contemporary Writers.

3 Richard the Second, (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and
the confederate Lords in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsing-
ham, and all the older Writers,) was starved to death. The story of
his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon, is of much later date.

4 Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

5 Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth,
Richard Duke of York, etc. believed to be murthered secretly in
the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly
attributed to Julius Cassar.

4o POEMS.

" Revere his Consort's 1 faith, his Father's 2 fame,

" And spare the meek Usurper's 3 holy head. 9°

" Above, below, the rose 4 of snow,

" Twined with her blushing foe, we spread :

" The bristled Boar 5 in infant-gore

" Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

" Now, Brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom 95

" Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.

III. i.

" Edward, lo ! to sudden fate
" (Weave we the woof. The thread is spun)
" Half of thy heart we consecrate.6
" (The web is wove. The work is done.) " J°°

' Stay, oh stay ! nor thus forlorn
' Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn :
' In yon bright track, that fires the western skies,
' They melt, they vanish from my eyes.
' But oh ! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height 105
' Descending slow their glitt'ring skirts unroll ?

1 Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard
to save her Husband and her Crown.

2 Henry the Fifth.

3 Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lan
caster had no right of inheritance to the Crown.

4 The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster.

5 The silver Boar was the badge of Richard the Third ; whence he
was usually known in his own time by the name of the Boar.

6 Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales.
The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her Lord is well
known. The monuments of his regret, and sorrow for the loss of
her, are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and
other places.

THE BARD. 41

' Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,

' Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my soul !

' No more our long-lost Arthur 1 we bewail.

' All-hail, ye genuine Kings,2 Britannia's Issue, hail !

III. 2.

1 Girt with many a Baron bold
' Sublime their starry fronts they rear ;
' And gorgeous Dames, and Statesmen old
' In bearded majesty, appear.

'In the midst a Form divine ! "5

' Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line ;
' Her lyon-port,3 her awe-commanding face,
• Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.
' What strings symphonious tremble in the air,
'What strains of vocal transport round her play ! 120

' Hear from the grave, great Taliessin,4 hear ;
' They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
' Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings,
' Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings.

1 It was the common belief of the Welch nation, that King Arthur
was still alive in Fairy-Land, and should return again to reign over
Britain.

2 Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welch
should regain their sovereignty over this island ; which seemed to be
accomplished in the House of Tudor.

3 Speed relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul
Dzialinski, Ambassadour of Poland, says, " And thus she, lion-like
rising, daunted the malapert Orator no less with her stately port and
majestical deporture, than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes."

4 Taliessin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the Vlth century.
His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high venera
tion among his Countrymen.

42 POEMS.

HI- 3-

' The verse adorn again I25

' Fierce War, and faithful Love,1
' And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.
'In buskin'd2 measures move
' Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

'With Horrour, Tyrant of the throbbing breast. 13°

' A Voice,3 as of the Cherub-Choir,
' Gales from blooming Eden bear ;
' And distant warblings lessen on my ear,4
' That lost in long futurity expire.

' Fond impious Man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud, '35
' Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the Orb of day ?
' To-morrow he repairs the golden flood,
' And warms the nations with redoubled ray.
' Enough for me : With joy I see

' The different doom our Fates assign. 140

' Be thine Despair, and scept'red Care,
'To triumph, and to die, are mine.'
He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height
Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night.

1 Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song. Spenser's
Proeme to the Fairy Queen.

2 Shakespear.

3 Milton.

4 The succession of Poets after Milton's time.

SfSS OWN CHARACTER. 43

XII.

SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER.

WRITTEN IN 1761, AND FOUND IN ONE OF HIS POCKET-BOOKS.

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune ;

He had not the method of making a fortune ;

Could love, and could hate, so was thought somewhat

odd ;

No very great wit, he believ'd in a God. 5

A Post or a Pension he did not desire,
But left Church and State to Charles Townshend and

Squire.

XIII.

SONG.

THYRSIS, when we parted, swore
Ere the spring he would return —

Ah ! what means yon violet flower !
And the buds that deck the thorn !

'Twas the Lark that upward sprung !

'Twas the Nightingale that sung !

Idle notes ! untimely green !

Why this unavailing haste ?
Western gales and skies serene

Speak not always winter past.
Cease, my doubts, my fears to move,
Spare the honour of my love.

44 POEMS.

XIV.
THE FATAL SISTERS.

AN ODE, (FROM THE NORSE-TONGUE,)

IN THE ORCADES of THORMODUS TORF^EUS ; HAFNI^;, 1697,
Folio : and also in BARTHOLINUS.

VlTT ER ORPIT FYRIR VALFALLI, &C
ADVERTISEMENT.

The Author once had thoughts (in concert with a Friend) of giving
the History of English Poetry : In the Introduction to it he meant
to have produced some specimens of the Style that reigned in
ancient times among the neighbouring nations, or those who had
subdued the greater part of th4s Island, and were our Progenitors :
the following three Imitations made a part of them. He has long
since drop'd his design, especially after he had heard, that it was
already in the hands of a Person well qualified to do it justice, both
by his taste, and his researches into antiquity.

In the Eleventh Century Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney-Islands, went
with a fleet of ships and a considerable body of troops into Ireland,
to the assistance of Sictryg with the silken beard, who was then
making war on his father-in-law Brian, King of Dublin : the Earl
and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sictryg was in danger of a
total defeat ; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of
Brian, their King, who fell in action. On Christmas-day, (the day of
the battle), a Native of Caithness in Scotland saw at a distance a
number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill,
and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them,
till looking through an opening in the rocks he saw twelve gigantic
figures resembling women : they were all employed about a loom ;
and as they wove, they sung the following dreadful Song; which
when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and
(each taking her portion) galloped Six to the North and as many
to the South.

THE FATAL SISTERS. 45

Now the storm begins to lower,
(Haste, the loom of Hell prepare,)
Iron-sleet of arrowy shower a
Hurtles in the darken'd air.2

Glitt'ring lances are the loom, 5

Where the dusky warp we strain,
Weaving many a Soldier's doom,
Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane.

See the griesly texture grow,

('Tis of human entrails made,) 10

And the weights, that play below,

Each a gasping Warriour's head.

Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore,

Shoot the trembling cords along.

Sword, that once a Monarch bore, 15

Keep the tissue close and strong.

Mista black, terrific Maid,

Sangrida, and Hilda see,

Join the wayward work to aid :

'Tis the woof of victory. 20

NOTE. — The Valkyrhir were female Divinities, Servants of Odin
{or Woden} in the Gothic mythology. Their name signifies Chusers
of the slain. They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn
swords in their hands ; and in the throng of battle selected such as
were destined to slaughter, and conducted them to Valkalla, the
hall of Odin, or paradise of the Brave ; where they attended the
banquet, and served the departed Heroes with horns of mead and
ale.

1 How quick they wheel'd ; and flying, behind them shot

Sharp sleet of arrowy shower

Milton's Par. Regained.

2 The noise of battle hurtled in the air.

Shakesp. Jul. Ccesar.

46 POEMS.

Ere the ruddy sun be set,
Pikes must shiver, javelins sing,
Blade with clattering buckler meet,
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring.

(Weave the crimson web of war)
Let us go, and let us fly,
Where our Friends the conflict share,
Where they triumph, where they die.

As the paths of fate we tread,

Wading thro' th' ensanguin'd field : 3°

Gondula, and Gcira, spread

O'er the youthful King your shield.

We the reins to slaughter give,

Ours to kill, and ours to spare :

Spite of danger he shall live. 35

(Weave the crimson web of war.)

They, whom once the desart-beach

Pent within its bleak domain,

Soon their ample sway shall stretch

O'er the plenty of the plain. 4°

Low the dauntless Earl is laid,
Gor'd with many a gaping wound :
Fate demands a nobler head ;
Soon a King shall bite the ground.

Long his loss shall Eirin weep, 45

Ne'er again his likeness see ;
Long her strains in sorrow steep,
Strains of Immortality !

THE DESCENT OF ODIN. 47

Horror covers all the heath,

Clouds of carnage blot the sun. 5°

Sisters, weave the web of death ;

Sisters, cease, the work is done.

Hail the task, and hail the hands !

Songs of joy and triumph sing!

Joy to the victorious bands ; 55

Triumph to the younger King.

Mortal, thou that hear'st the tale,

Learn the tenour of our song.

Scotland, thro' each winding vale '

Far and wide the notes prolong. 60

Sisters, hence with spurs of speed :
Each her thundering faulchion wield ;
Each bestride her sable steed.
Hurry, hurry to the field.

XV.

THE DESCENT OF ODIN.

AN ODE, (FROM THE NORSE-TONGUE,)

IN BARTHOLINUS, de causis contemnendae mortis; HAFNI^;, 1689,
Quarto.

UPREIS ODINN ALLDA GAUTR, &c.

UPROSE the King of Men with speed,
And saddled strait his coal-black steed ;
Down the yawning steep he rode,
That leads to HELA'S l drear abode.

1 Niflheimr, the hell of the Gothic nations, consisted of nine
worlds, to which were devoted all such as died of sickness, old-age,
or by any other means than in battle : Over it presided HELA, the
Goddess of Death.

48 POEMS.

Him the Dog of Darkness spied, 5

His shaggy throat he open'd wide,

While from his jaws, with carnage fill'd,

Foam and human gore distill'd :

Hoarse he bays with hideous din,

Eyes that glow, and fangs, that grin ; 10

And long pursues, with fruitless yell,

The Father of the powerful spell.

Onward still his way he takes,

(The groaning earth beneath him shakes,)

Till full before his fearless eyes 15

The portals nine of hell arise.

Right against the eastern gate,
By the moss-grown pile he sate ;
Where long of yore to sleep was laid
The dust of the prophetic Maid. 20

Facing to the northern clime,
Thrice he traced the runic rhyme ;
Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread,
The thrilling verse that wakes the Dead ;
Till from out the hollow ground 25

Slowly breath'd a sullen sound.

PR. What call unknown, what charms presume
To break the quiet of the tomb ?
Who thus afflicts my troubled sprite,
And drags me from the realms of night ? 3°

Long on these mould'ring bones have beat
The winter's snow, the summer's heat,
The drenching dews, the driving rain !
Let me, let me sleep again.

Who is he, with voice unblest, 35

That calls me from the bed of rest?

THE DESCENT OF ODIN. 49

O. A Traveller, to thee unknown,
Is he that calls, a Warriour's Son.
Thou the deeds of light shalt know ;
Tell me what is done below, 4°

For whom yon glitt'ring board is spread,
Brest for whom yon golden bed.

PR. Mantling in the goblet see
The pure bev'rage of the bee,

O'er it hangs the shield of gold ; 45

'Tis the drink of Balder bold :
Balder 's head to death is giv'n.
Pain can reach the Sons of Heav'n !
Unwilling I my lips unclose :
Leave me, leave me to repose. 50

O. Once again my call obey.
Prophetess, arise, and say,
What dangers Odiits Child await,
Who the Author of his fate.

PR. In Hoder's hand the Heroe's doom : 55

His Brother sends him to the tomb.
Now my weary lips I close :
Leave me, leave me to repose.

O. Prophetess, my spell obey,

Once again arise, and say, 60

Who th' Avenger of his guilt,
By whom shall Hoder's blood be spilt.

PR. In the caverns of the west,
By Odin's fierce embrace comprest,
A wond'rous Boy shall Rinda bear, 65

Who ne'er shall comb his raven-hair,

50 POEMS.

Nor wash his visage in the stream,

Nor see the sun's departing beam ;

Till he on HodeSs corse shall smile

Flaming on the fun'ral pile. 7°

Now my weary lips I close :

Leave me, leave me to repose.

O. Yet a while my call obey.
Prophetess, awake, and say,

What Virgins these, in speechless woe, 75

That bend to earth their solemn brow,
That their flaxen tresses tear,
And snowy veils, that float in air.
Tell me, whence their sorrows rose :
Then I leave thee to repose. 8o

PR. Ha ! no Traveller art thou,
King of Men, I know thee now,
Mightiest of a mighty line

O. No boding Maid of skill divine
Art thou, nor Prophetess of good ; 85

But Mother of the giant-brood !

PR. Hie thee hence, and boast at home,
That never shall Enquirer come
To break my iron-sleep again ;
Till Lok l has burst his tenfold chain. 9°

Never, till substantial Night
Has reassum'd her ancient right ;
Till wrap'd in flames, in ruin hurl'd,
Sinks the fabric of the world.

1 Lok is the evil Being, who continues in chains till the Twilight of
the Gods approaches, when he shall break his bonds ; the human
race, the stars, and sun, shall disappear ; the earth sink in the seas,
and fire consume the skies : even Odin himself and his kindred-
deities shall perish. For a farther explanation of this mythology,
see Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark, 1755, Quarto.

THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN. 51

XVI.

THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN.

A FRAGMENT.

FROM MR. EVANS'S Specimens of the Welch Poetry; LONDON,
1764, Quarto.

ADVERTISEMENT.

OWEN succeeded his Father GRIFFIN in the Principality of
North- Wales, A.D. 1120. This battle was fought near forty Years
afterwards.

OWEN'S praise demands my song,

OWEN swift, and OWEN strong ;

Fairest flower of Roderic's stem,

Gwyneth's1 shield, and Britain's gem.

He nor heaps his brooded stores, 5

Nor on all profusely pours ;

Lord of every regal art,

Liberal hand, and open heart.

Big with hosts of mighty name,
Squadrons three against him came ; 10

This the force of Eirin hiding,
Side by side as proudly riding,
On her shadow long and gay
Lochlin 2 plows the watry way ;
There the Norman sails afar 15

Catch the winds, and join the war :
Black and huge along they sweep,
Burthens of the angry deep.

i North-Wales. 2 Denmark.

POEMS.

Dauntless on his native sands
The Dragon-Son of Mona stands ; l 20

In glitt'ring arms and glory drest,
High he rears his ruby crest.
There the thund'ring strokes begin,
There the press, and there the din ;
Talymalfra's rocky shore 25

Echoing to the battle's roar.
Where his glowing eye-balls turn,
Thousand Banners round him burn.
Where he points his purple spear,
Hasty, hasty Rout is there, 3°

Marking with indignant eye
Fear to stop, and shame to fly.
There Confusion, Terror's child,
Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild,
Agony, that pants for breath, 35

Despair and honourable Death.

XVII.
THE DEATH OF HOEL.

AN ODE, SELECTED FROM THE GODODIN.

HAD I but the torrent's might,

With headlong rage and wild affright

Upon Deira's squadrons hurl'd,

To rush, and sweep them from the world !

1 The red Dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which all his
descendants bore on their banners.

CARADOC. 53

Too, too secure in youthful pride, 5

By them my friend, my Hoel, died,
Great Cian's son ; of Madoc old
He ask'd no heaps of hoarded gold ;
Alone in nature's wealth array'd,
He ask'd and had the lovely maid. 10

To Cattraeth's vale in glitt'ring row
Thrice two hundred warriors go ;
Every warrior's manly neck
Chains of regal honour deck,

Wreath'd in many a golden link ; 15

From the golden cup they drink
Nectar that the bees produce,
Or the grape's extatic juice.
Flush'd with mirth and hope they burn
But none from Cattraeth's vale return, 20

Save Ae'ron brave, and Conan strong,
(Bursting through the bloody throng)
And I, the meanest of them all,
That live to weep and sing their fall.

XVIII.
CARADOC.

HAVE ye seen the tusky boar,
Or the bull, with sullen roar,
On surrounding foes advance ?
So Caradoc bore his lance.

54

POEMS,

XIX.

CONAN.

CONAN'S name, my lay, rehearse,
Build to him the lofty verse,
Sacred tribute of the bard,
Verse, the hero's sole reward.
As the flame's devouring force ;
As the whirlwind in its course ;
As the thunder's fiery stroke,
Glancing on the shiver'd oak ;
Did the sword of Conan mow
The crimson harvest of the foe.

XX.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

TO MRS. ANNE, REGULAR SERVANT TO THE REV. MR. PRECENTOR
OF YORK.

A MOMENT'S patience, gentle Mistress Anne ;

(But stint your clack for sweet St. Charitie)
'Tis Willy begs, once a right proper man,

Though now a book, and interleaved you see.

Much have I borne from canker'd critic's spite, 5
From fumbling baronets and poets small,

Pert barristers, and parsons nothing bright,
But what awaits me now is worst of all.

'Tis true, our master's temper natural

Was fashion'd fair in meek and dove-like guise ; 10
But may not honey's self be turn'd to gall

By residence, by marriage, and sore eyes?

ODE FOR MUSIC. 55

If then he wreak on me his wicked will,
Steal to his closet at the hour of prayer ;

And (when thou hear'st the organ piping shrill)
Grease his best pen, and all his scribbles, tear.

Better to bottom tarts and cheesecakes nice,
Better the roast meat from the fire to save,

Better be twisted into caps for spice,

Than thus be patch'd and cobbled in one's grave.

So York shall taste what Clouet never knew,
So from our works sublimer fumes shall rise ;

While Nancy earns the praise to Shakespeare due,
For glorious puddings and immortal pies.

XXI.

ODE FOR MUSIC.

[PERFORMED AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE CHANCELLOR OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 1769.]

AIR.

" HENCE, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)
" Comus, and his midnight-crew,
" And Ignorance with looks profound,
" And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue,
" Mad Sedition's cry profane,
" Servitude that hugs her chain,
" Nor in these consecrated bowers
" Let painted Flatt'ry hide her serpent-train in flowers.

CHORUS.

" Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain
" Dare the Muse's walk to stain,
" While bright-eyed Science watches round :
" Hence, away, 'tis holy Ground !

5 6 POEMS.

RECITATIVE.

From yonder realms of empyrean day

Bursts on my ear th' indignant lay :

There sit the sainted Sage, the Bard divine, 15

The Few, whom Genius gave to shine

Through every unborn age, and undiscovered clime.

Rapt in celestial transport they, (accomp.}

Yet hither oft a glance from high

They send of tender sympathy 20

To bless the place, where on their opening soul

First the genuine ardor stole.

'Twas Milton struck the deep-toned shell,

And, as the choral warblings round him swell,

Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime, 25

And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyme.

AIR.

" Ye brown o'er-arching Groves,

" That Contemplation loves,

" Where willowy Camus lingers with delight !

" Oft at the blush of dawn 3°

" I trod your level lawn,

" Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright

" In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,

" With Freedom by my Side, and soft-ey'd Melancholy.

RECITATIVE.

But hark ! the portals sound, and pacing forth 35

With solemn steps and slow

High Potentates and Dames of royal birth

And mitred Fathers in long order go :

Great Edward with the lillies on his brow

ODE FOR MUSIC. 57

From haughty Gallia torn, 40

And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn

That wept her bleeding Love, and princely Clare,

And Anjou's Heroine, and the paler Rose,

The rival of her crown, and of her woes,

And either Henry there, 45

The murther'd Saint, and the majestic Lord,

That broke the bonds of Rome.

(Their tears, their little triumphs o'er, (accomp^)

Their human passions now no more,

Save Charity, that glows beyond the tomb) 50

All that on Grantds fruitful plain

Rich streams of regal bounty pour'd,

And bad these aweful fanes and turrets rise,

To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come ;

And thus they speak in soft accord 55

The liquid language of the skies.

QUARTETTO.

" What is Grandeur, what is Power ?

" Heavier toil, superior pain.

" What the bright reward we gain ?

" The grateful mem'ry of the Good. 60

" Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,

" The bee's collected treasures sweet,

" Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet

" The still small voice of Gratitude.

RECITATIVE.

Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud 65

The venerable Margaret see !

" Welcome, my noble Son, (she cries aloud)

" To this, thy kindred train, and me :

58 POEMS.

" Pleas'd in thy lineaments we trace

" A Tudor' s fire, a Beaufort's grace. 7°

AIR.

"Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye,

" The flower unheeded shall descry,

" And bid it round heaven's altars shed

" The fragrance of it's blushing head :

" Shall raise from earth the latent gem 75

" To glitter on the diadem.

RECITATIVE.

" Lo, Grantd waits to lead her blooming band,

" Not obvious, not obtrusive, She

" No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings ;

" Nor dares with courtly tongue refin'd 80

" Profane thy inborn royalty of mind :

" She reveres herself and thee.

" With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow

" The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings,

" And to thy just, thy gentle hand 85

" Submits the Fasces of her sway,

" While Spirits blest above and Men below

" Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay.

GRAND CHORUS.

•

" Thro' the wild waves as they roar

" With watchful eye and dauntless mien 9°

" Thy steady course of honor keep,

" Nor fear the rocks, nor seek the shore :

" The Star of Brunswick smiles serene,

" And gilds the horrors of the deep.

PROSE.

[The selections from Gray's prose are divided into three parts ; first,
those that are Autobiographical, — throwing light on his own
character, or referring to his poems ; second, those of a Literary
nature, — containing allusions to contemporary writings ; third,
those expressing appreciation of Nature. The titles have been
supplied.]

I.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL.

COLLEGE LIFE.

TO RICHARD WEST.

You must know that 1 do not take degrees, and, after
this term, shall have nothing more of college impertinences
to undergo, which I trust will be some pleasure to you, as
it is a great one to me. I have endured lectures daily
and hourly since I came last, supported by the hopes of 5
being shortly at full liberty to give myself up to my
friends and classical companions, who, poor souls ! though
I see them fallen into great contempt with most people
here, yet I cannot help sticking to them, and out of a
spirit of obstinacy (I think) love them the better for it ; 10
and indeed, what can I do else ? Must I plunge into
metaphysics ? Alas, I cannot see in the dark ; nature
has not furnished me with the optics of a cat. Must I
pore upon mathematics? Alas, I cannot see in too much
light ; I am no eagle. It is very possible that two and 15
two make four, but I would not give four farthings to
demonstrate this ever so clearly ; and if these be the
profits of life, give me the amusements of it. The people
I behold all around me, it seems, know all this and more,
and yet I do not know one of them who inspires me with 20
any ambition of being like him. Surely it was of this
place, now Cambridge, but formerly known by the name
of Babylon, that the prophet spoke when he said, "The
wild beasts of the desert shall dwell there, and their
houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall 25
build there, and satyrs shall dance there ; their forts and

62 PROSE.

towers shall be a den forever, a joy of wild asses ; there
shall the great owl make her nest, and lay and hatch and
gather under her shadow ; it shall be a court of dragons ;

30 the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself
a place of rest." You see here is a pretty collection of
desolate animals, which is verified in this town to a tittle,
and perhaps it may also allude to your habitation, for
you know all types may be taken by abundance of

35 handles ; however, I defy your owls to match mine.

If the default of your spirits and nerves be nothing but
the effect of the hyp, I have no more to say. We all
must submit to that wayward queen ; I too in no small
degree own her sway,

40 I feel her influence while I speak her power.

But if it be a real distemper, pray take more care of your
health,1 if not for your own at least for our sakes, and do
not be so soon weary of this little world : I do not know
what refined friendships you may have contracted in the
45 other, but pray do not be in a hurry to see your acquaint
ance above ; among your terrestrial familiars, however,
though I say it, that should not say it, there positively is
not one that has a greater esteem for you than yours
most sincerely, etc.

PETERHOUSE, December, 1736.

MELANCHOLY.

TO RICHARD WEST.

August 22, /7J7-

*********
Low spirits are my true and faithful companions ; they
get up with me, go to bed with me, make journeys and

1 West was a consumptive.

PROSE. 63

returns as I do ; nay, and pay visits, and will even affect
to be jocose, and force a feeble laugh with me ; but most
commonly we sit alone together, and are the prettiest
insipid company in the world. * * *

SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER.

TO RICHARD WEST.

FLORENCE, April 21, 1741.

I KNOW not what degree of satisfaction it will give you
to be told that we shall set out from hence the 24th of
this month, and not stop above a fortnight at any place
in our way. This I feel, that you are the principal
pleasure I have to hope for in my own country. Try at 5
least to make me imagine myself not indifferent to you ;
for I must own I have the vanity of desiring to be
esteemed by somebody, and would choose that somebody
should be one whom I esteem as much as I do you. As
I am recommending myself to your love, methinks I ought 10
to send you my picture (for I am no more what I was,
some circumstances excepted, which I hope I need not
particularize to you) Jtyou must add then, to your former
idea, two years of age, a reasonable quantity of dulness,
a great deal of silence, and something that rather 15
resembles, than is, thinking ; a confused notion of many
strange and fine things that have swum before my eyes
for some time, a want of love for general society, indeed
an inability to it. On the good side you may add a
sensibility for what others feel, and indulgence for their 20
faults and weaknesses, a love of truth, and detestation of
everything else. Then you are to deduct a little imperti
nence, a little laughter, a great deal of pride, and some
spirits. These are all the alterations I know of/you

64 PXOSE.

25 perhaps may find more. Think not that I have been
obliged for this reformation of manners to reason or
reflection, but to a severer school-mistress, Experience.
One has little merit in learning her lessons, for one
cannot well help it ; bat they are more useful than others,

30 and imprint themselves in the very heart. * * *

MELANCHOLY.

TO RICHARD WEST.

LONDON, May 27, 1742.

j( MINE, you are to know, is a white Melancholy, lor
rather Leucocholy for the most partj] which, though it
seldom laughs or dances, nor ever amounts to what one
calls Joy or Pleasure, yet is a good easy sort of a state,
5) and fa ne laisse que dc s'amtiser^j The only fault of its
insipidity; which is apt now and then to" give a sort of
Ennui, [which makes one form certain little wishes that
signify nothing. But there is another sort, black indeed,
which I have now and then felt, that has somewhat in it

16 like Tertullian's rule of faith, Credo qnia impossibilc est ;
for it believes, nay, is sure of everything that is unlikely,
so it be but frightful ; and on the other hand excludes
and shuts its eyes to the most possible hopes, and every
thing that is pleasurable ; from this the Lord deliver us !

15 for none but he and sunshiny weather can do it. * * *

THE OFFICE OF POET-LAUREATE.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

December 19,

DEAR MASON — Though I very well know the bland
emollient saponaceous qualities both of sack and silver,

PROSE. 65

yet if any great man would say to me, " I make you rat
catcher to his Majesty, with a salary of .£300 a year and
two butts of the best Malaga ; and though it has been 5
usual to catch a mouse or two, for form's sake, in public
once a year, yet to you, sir, we shall not stand upon these
things," I cannot say I should jump at it ;. nay, if they
would drop the very name of the office, and call me
Sinecure to the King's Majesty, I should still feel a little 10
awkward, and think everybody I saw smelt a raf about
me ; but I do not pretend to blame any one else that has
not the same sensations ; for my part I would rather be
Serjeant trumpeter or pinmaker to the palace. Neverthe
less I interest myself a little in the history of it, and 15
rather wish somebody may accept it that will retrieve the
credit of the thing, if it be retrievable, or ever had any
credit. Rowe was, I think, the last man of character
that had it. As to Settle, whom you mention, he belonged
to my lord mayor not to the king. Eusden was a person 20
of great hopes in his youth, though at last he turned out
a drunken parson. Dryden was as disgraceful to the
office, from his character, as the poorest scribbler could
have been from his verses. The office itself has always
humbled the professor hitherto (even in an age when 25
kings were somebody), if he were a poor writer by mak
ing him more conspicuous, and if he were a good one by
setting him at war with the little fry of his own pro
fession, for there are poets little enough to envy even a
poet-laureat. 30

I am obliged to you for your news ; pray send me some
moje, and better of the sort. I can tell you nothing in
return ; so your generosity will be the greater ; • — only
Dick is going to give up his rooms, and live at Ashwell.
Mr. Treasurer sets Sir M. Lamb at nought, and says he 35
has sent him reasons half a sheet at a time : and Mr.

66 PROSE.

Brown attests his veracity as an eye-witness. I have had
nine pages of criticism on the "Bard" sent me in an
anonymous letter, directed to the Reverend Mr. G. at

40 Strawberry Hill ; and if I have a mind to hear as much
more on the other Ode, I am told where I may direct.
He seems a good sensible man, and I dare say a clergy
man. He is very frank, and indeed much ruder than he
means to be. Adieu, dear Mason, and believe me that I

45 am too.

ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

January j, 1758.

DEAR MASON — A life spent out of the world has its
hours of despondence, its inconveniences, its sufferings,
as numerous and as real (though not quite of the same
sort) as a life spent in the midst of it. ,\The power we
5 have, when we will exert it, over our own minds, joined
to a little strength and consolation, nay, a little pride we
catch from those that seem to love us, is our only support
in either of these conditions. T I am sensible I cannot
return to you so much of this assistance as I have

10 received from you._)I can only tell you that one who has
far more reason than you (I hope) will ever have to look
on life with something worse than indifference, is yet
no enemy to it, and can look backward on many bitter
moments partly with satisfaction, and partly with patience,

15 and forward too, on a scene not very promising, with
some hope and some expectations of a better day.

PROSE. 67

MELANCHOLY.

TO THE REV. JAMES BROWN.

September 7, iJ^S.

#####*#*#

MY health I cannot complain of, but as to my spirits
they are always many degrees below changeable, and I
seem to myself to inspire everything around me with
ennui and dejection ; but some time or other all these
things must come to a conclusion, till which day I shall
remain very sincerely yours, T. G.

GRAY'S MOTHER.

TO THE REV. NORTON NICHOLLS.

PEMBROKE HALL, August 26, 1766.

DEAR SIR — It is long since that I heard you were
gone in hast into Yorkshire on account of your mother's
illness ; and the same letter informed me that she was
recovered ; otherwise I had then wrote to you, only to
beg you would take care of her, and to inform you that I 5
had discovered a thing very little known, which is, that in
one's whole life one never can have any more than a
single mother. You may think this is obvious, and (what
you call) a trite observation. You are a green gosling !
I was at the same age (very near) as wise as you, and yet 10
I never discovered this (with full evidence and convic
tion, I mean) till it was too late. It is thirteen years
ago, and seems but yesterday ; and every day I live it
sinks deeper into my heart. Many a corollary could I
draw from this axiom for your use (not for my own) but I 15
will leave you the merit of doing it. yourself.

68 PROSE.

CONSOLATION.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

Sunday, February ij, 1767.

* * * THERE are a few words in your letter that make
me believe you wish I were in town.1 I know myself how
little one like me is formed to support the spirits of
another, or give him consolation ; one that always sees
5 things in their most gloomy aspect. However, be assured
I should not have left London while you were in it, if I
could well have afforded to stay there till the beginning
of April, when I am usually there. This, however, shall
be no hindrance, if you tell me it would signify anything
10 to you that I should come sooner. Adieu : you (both of
you) have my best and sincerest good wishes. — I am
ever yours, T. G.

SYMPATHY.

TO HIE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

March 28,

MY DEAR MASON — I break in upon you at a moment
when we least of all are permitted to disturb our friends,
only to say that you are daily and hourly present to my
thoughts. If the worst be not yet passed, you will neglect
5 and pardon me ; but if the last struggle be over, if the
poor object of your long anxieties be no longer sensible
to your kindness, or to her own sufferings, allow me (at
least in idea, for what could I do were I present more
than this), to sit by you in silence, and pity from my
10 heart, not her who is at rest, but you who lose her. May
He who made us, the Master of our pleasures and of our
pains, preserve and support you. Adieu !

I have long understood how little you had to hope.

1 Mason's wife was fatally ill.

PROSE. 69

THE SHADOW OF DEATH.

TO THOMAS WHARTON.

May 24, if] i.

*********

MY summer was intended to have been passed in
Switzerland : but I have dropped the thought of it, and
believe my expeditions will terminate in Old Park : for
travel I must, or cease to exist. Till this year I hardly
knew what (mechanical) low spirits were : but now I
even tremble at an East-wind. It is here the height of
Summer, but with all the bloom and tender verdure of
Spring. * * * [Gray died July 30.]

HIS POETRY.
THE ODE ON WALPOLE'S CAT.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

CAMBRIDGE, March i, 1747.

As one ought to be particularly careful to avoid
blunders in a compliment of condolence, it would be
a sensible satisfaction to me (before I testify my sorrow,
and the sincere part I take in your misfortune) to know
for certain, who it is I lament. I knew Zara and Selima 5
(Selima was it ? or Fatima ?), or rather I knew them both
together ; for I cannot justly say which was which. Then
as to your handsome Cat, the name you distinguish her
by, I am no less at a loss, as well knowing one's hand
some cat is always the cat one likes best ; or if one be 10
alive and the other dead, it is usually the latter that is
the handsomest. Besides, if the point were never so
clear, I hope you do not think me so ill-bred or so
imprudent as to forfeit all my interest in the survivor ;
oh no ! I would rather seem to mistake, and imagine to 15

;o PROSE.

be sure it must be the tabby one that had met with this
sad accident. * * * Heigh ho ! I feel (as you to be sure
have done long since) that I have very little to say, at
least in prose. Somebody will be the better for it ; I do
20 not mean you, but your Cat, feue Mademoiselle Selime,
whom I am about to immortalise for one week or fort
night, as follows.

[Here follows the Ode.]

There's a poem for you, it is rather too long for an
Epitaph.

THE ELEGY.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

STOKE, June 12, 1750.

DEAR SIR — As I live in a place, where even the
ordinary tattle of the town arrives not till it is stale, and
which produces no events of its own, you will not desire
any excuse from me for writing so seldom, especially as
5 of all people living I know you are the least a friend to
letters spun out of one's own brains, with all the toil and
constraint that accompanies sentimental productions. I
have been here at Stoke, a few days (where I shall
continue good part of the summer) ; and having put an

10 end to a thing, whose beginning you have seen long ago,
I immediately send it you. You will, I hope, look upon
it in the light of a thing with an end to it : a merit that
most of my writings have wanted, and are like to want,
but which this epistle I am determined shall not want,

15 when it tells you that I am ever yours,

T. GRAY.

Not that I have done yet ; but who could avoid the
temptation of finishing so roundly and so cleverly, in the
manner of good Queen Anne's days ? * * *

PROSE. 7 1

THE ELEGY.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

CAMBRIDGE, February n, 1751.

As you have brought me into a little sort of distress,
you must assist me, 1 believe, to get out of it as well as I
can. Yesterday I had the misfortune of receiving a letter
from certain gentlemen (as their bookseller expresses it),
who have taken the Magazine of Magazines into their 5
hands. They tell me that an ingenious Poem, called
reflections in a Country Church-yard, has been com
municated to them, which they are printing forthwith ;
that they are informed that the excellent author of it is I
by name, and that they beg not only his indulgence, but 10
the honour of bis correspondence, etc. As I am not at all
disposed to be either so indulgent, or so correspondent,
as they desire, I have but one bad way left to escape the
honour they would inflict upon me ; and therefore am
obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it 15
immediately (which may be done in less than a week's
time) from your copy, but without my name, in what
form is most convenient for him, but on his best paper
and character ; he must correct the press himself, and
print it without any interval between the stanzas, because 20
the sense is in some places continued beyond them ; and
the title must be, — Elegy, written in a Country Church
yard. If he would add a line or two to say it came into
his hands by accident, I should like it better. If you
behold the Magazine of Magazines in the light that I do, 25
you will not refuse to give yourself this trouble on my
account, which you have taken of your own accord before
now. If Dodsley do not do this immediately, he may as
well let it alone.

72 PROSE.

THE ELEGY.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

Ash-lVcdnesday, CAMBRIDGE, 1751.

MY DEAR SIR — You have indeed conducted with
great decency my little misfortune; you have taken a
paternal care of it, and expressed much more kindness
than could have been expressed from so near a relation.
5 But we are all frail ; and I hope to do as much for you
another time.

Nurse Dodsley has given it a pinch or two in the
cradle, that (I doubt) it will bear the marks of as long as
it lives. But no matter : we have ourselves suffered

10 under her hands before now ; and besides, it will only
look the more careless and by accident as it were. I
thank you for your advertisement, which saves my
honour, and in a manner bicn fatteuse pour moi, who
should be put to it even to make myself a compliment in

15 good English.

You will take me for a mere poet, and a fetcher and
carrier of sing-song, if I tell you that I intend to send you
the beginning of a drama, not mine, thank God, as you
will believe, when you hear it is finished, but wrote by a

20 person whom I have a very good opinion of. It is
(unfortunately) in the manner of the ancient drama, with
choruses, which I am to my shame the occasion of ; for,
as great part of it was at first written in that form, I
would not suffer him to change it to a play fit for the

25 stage, and as he intended, because the lyric parts are the
best of it, they must have been lost. The story is
Saxon, and the language has a tang of Shakespeare, that
suits an old-fashioned fable very well. In short I don't
do it merely to amuse you, but for the sake of the author,

30 who wants a judge, and so I would lend him mine: yet

PROSE. 73

not without your leave, lest you should have us up to
dirty our stockings at the bar of your house, for wasting
the time and politics of the nation. — Adieu, Sir ! I am
ever yours,

T. GRAY.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

TO HORACE WAH'OLE.

*********

I DO not wonder at Dodsley. You have talked to him
of six Odes, for so you are pleased to call everything I
write, though it be but a receipt to make apple-dumplings.
He has reason to gulp when he finds one of them only a
long story. I don't know but I may send him very soon 5 (
(by your hands) an ode to his own tooth, a high Pindaric
upon stilts, which one must be a better scholar than he is
to understand a line of, and the very best scholars will
understand but a little matter here and there.

It wants but seventeen lines of having an end, I don't 10
say of being finished. As it is so unfortunate to come
too late for Mr. Bentley, it may appear in the fourth
volume of the Miscellanies, provided you don't think it
execrable, and suppress it. Pray when the fine book is
to be printed, let me revise the press, for you know you i.^

can't ; and there are a few trifles I could wish altered.

*********

THE "SIX POEMS" OF 1753.

TO ROBERT DODSLEY.

CAMBRIDGE, February 12,

SIR — I am not at all satisfied with the title. To
have it conceived that I publish a collection of Poems,

74 PXOSE.

and half a dozen little matters (four of which too have
already been printed again and again) thus pompously
5 adorned would make me appear very justly ridiculous.
I desire it may be understood (which is the truth), that
the verses are only subordinate and explanatory to the
Drawings, and suffered by me to come out thus only for
that reason : therefore, if you yourself prefixed this title,

10 I desire it may be altered. Or, if Mr. W[alpole] ordered
it so, that you would tell him why I wish it were changed
in the manner I mentioned to you at first, or to that
purpose. For the more I consider it, the less I can bear
it, as it now stands. I even think there is an uncommon

15 sort of simplicity that logks like affectation, in putting
our plain Christian and surnames without a Mr. before
them. But this (if it signifies anything) I easily give up,
the other I cannot. You need not apprehend that this
change in the title will be any prejudice to the sale of

20 the book. * * * Perhaps you may have burnt my
letter, so I will again put down the title — "Designs by
Mr. R. Bentley for six poems of Mr. T. Gray."- — I am,
Sir, your humble se'rvant,

T. G.

THE PINDARIC ODES.

TO RICHARD HURD.

STOKE, August 25, 7737.

DEAR SIR — I do not know why you should thank me
for what you had a right and title to ; but attribute it to
the excess of your politeness, and the more so because
almost no one else has made me the same compliment.
5 As your acquaintance in the University (you say) do me
the honour to admire, it would be ungenerous in me not
to give them notice that they are doing a very unfashion-

PROSE. 75

able thing, for all people of condition are agreed not to
admire, nor even to understand : one very great man,
writing to an acquaintance of his and mine, says that he 10
had read them seven or eight times, and that now, when
he next sees him, he shall not have above thirty ques
tions to ask. Another, a peer, believes that the last
stanza of the Second Ode relates to King Charles the
First and Oliver Cromwell. Even my friends tell me 15
they do not succeed, and write me moving topics of
consolation on that head ; in short, I have heard of
nobody but a player and a doctor of divinity that profess
their esteem for them. Oh yes ! a lady of quality, a
friend of Mason's, who is a great reader. She knew 20
there was a compliment to Dryden, but never suspected
there was anything said about Shakespeare or Milton,
till it was explained to her ; and wishes that there had
been titles prefixed to tell what they were about.

From this mention of Mason's name you may think, 25
perhaps, we are great correspondents ; no such thing ;
I have not heard from him these two months. I will be
sure to scold in my own name as well as in yours. I
rejoice to hear you are so ripe for the press, and so
voluminous, — • not for my own sake only, whom you 30
flatter with the hopes of seeing your labours both public
and private, — but for yours too, for to be employed is to >
be happy. This principle of mine, and I am convinced 1
of its truth, has, as usual, no influence on my practice. I
I am alone and ennuye to the last degree, yet do nothing ; 35
indeed I have one excuse ; my health, which you so
kindly enquire after, is not extraordinary, ever since I
came hither. It is no great malady, but several little
ones, that seem brewing no good to me.

It will be a particular pleasure to me to hear whether 40
Content dwells in Leicestershire, and how she entertains

7 6 PROSE.

herself there ; only do not be too happy, nor forget
entirely the quiet ugliness of Cambridge. I am, dear
Sir, your friend and obliged humble servant,

T. GRAY.

THE PINDARIC ODES.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

DEAR MASON — You are welcome to the land of the
living, to the sunshine of a court, to the dirt of a chap
lain's table, to the society of Dr. Squire and Dr. Chapman.
Have you set out, as Dr. Cobden ended, with a sermon
5 against adultery ? or do you, with deep mortification and
a Christian sense of your own nothingness, read prayers
to Princess Emily while she is putting on her dress?
Pray acquaint me with the whole ceremonial, and how
your first preachment succeeded ; whether you have

10 heard of anybody that renounced their election, or made
restitution to the Exchequer ; whether you saw any
woman trample her pompons under foot, or spit upon
her handkerchief to wipe off the rouge.

I would not have put another note to save the souls of

15 all the owls in London. It is extremely well as it is —
nobody understands me, and I am perfectly satisfied.
Even the Critical Review (Mr. Franklin, I am told), that
is rapt and surprised and shudders at me, yet mistakes
the yEolian lyre for the harp of /Kolus, which, indeed, as

2° he observes, is a very bad instrument to dance to. If
you hear anything (though it is not very likely, for I
know my day is over), you will tell me. Lord Lyttleton
and Mr. Shenstone admire me, but wish I had been a
little clearer. Mr. (Palmyra) Wood owns himself disap-

2S pointed in his expectations. Your enemy, Dr. Brown,

PROSE. 77

says I am the best thing in the language. Mr. Fox,
supposing the Bard sung his song b'ut once over, does
not wonder if Edward the First did not understand him.
This last criticism is rather unhappy, for though it had
been sung a hundred times under his window, it was 30
absolutely impossible King Edward should understand
him ; but that is no reason for Mr. Fox, who lives almost
500 years after him. It is very welj ; the next thing I
print shall be in Welch, — that's all. * * *

HIS OWN AIM IN POETRY.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

January /j, 1758.

J[

EXTREME conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicu
ous, and musical, is one of the grand beauties of lyric
poetry. ' This I have always aimed at, and never could
attain j/rhe necessity of rhyming is one great obstacle to
it : another and perhaps a stronger is, that way you have 5
chosen of casting down your first ideas carelessly and at
large, and then clipping them here and there, and form
ing them at leisure ; this method, after all possible pains,
will leave behind it in some places a laxity, a diff useness ;
the frame of a thought (otherwise well invented, well 10
turned, and well placed) is often weakened by it. Do I
talk nonsense, or do you understand me ? I am per
suaded what I say is true in my head, whatever it may
be in prose, — for I do not pretend to write prose.

78 PROSE.

HIS STERILITY.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

PEMBROKE COLLEGE, February 25, 1768.

* * * DODSLEY told me in the Spring that the plates
from Mr. Bentley's designs were worn out, and he wanted
to have them copied and reduced to a smaller scale for a
new edition. I dissuaded him from so silly an expense,
5 and desired he would put in no ornaments at all. The
Long Story was to be totally omitted, as its only use (that
of explaining the prints) was gone : but to supply the
place of it in bulk, lest my works should be mistaken for
the works of a flea, or a pismire, I promised to send him

10 an equal weight of poetry or prose : so, since my return
hither, I put up about two ounces of stuff, viz. the
"Fatal Sisters," the "Descent of Odin" (of both which
you have copies), a bit of something from the Welch, and
certain little Notes, partly from justice (to acknowledge

15 the debt where I had borrowed anything) partly from ill
temper, just to tell the gentle reader that Edward I. was
not Oliver Cromwell, nor Queen Elizabeth the Witch of
Endor. This is literally all ; and with all this, I shall be
but a shrimp of ah author. * * * T o what you say

20 to me so civilly, that I ought to write more, I reply in
your own words (like the Pamphleteer, who is going to
confute you out of your own mouth) What has one to do
when turned of fifty, but really to think of finishing ?
However, I will be candid (for you seem to be so with

25 me), and avow to you, that till fourscore-and-ten, when
ever the humour takes me, I will write, because I like it ;
and because I like myself better when I do so. If I do
not write much, it is because I cannot. * * *

PROSE. 79

II.

LITERATURE.

SHAKSPERE, FIELDING, AND POETRY.

TO RICHARD WEST.

LONDON, April, Thursday

You are the first who ever made a Muse of a Cough ; *
to me it seems a much more easy task to versify in one's
sleep (that indeed you were of old famous for), than for
want of it. Not the wakeful nightingale (when she had
a cough), ever sung so sweetly. I give you thanks for 5
your warble, and wish you could sing yourself to rest.
These wicked remains of your illness will sure give way
to warm weather and gentle exercise ; which I hope you
will not omit as the season advances. Whatever low
spirits and indolence, the effect of them, may advise to I0
the contrary, I pray you add five steps to your walk daily
for my sake ; by the help of which, in a month's time, I
propose to set you on horseback.

I talked of the Dunciad as concluding you had seen it ;
if you have not, do you choose I should get and send it 15
you ? I have myself, upon your recommendation, been
reading Joseph Andrews? The incidents are ill laid and
without invention ; but the characters have a great deal
of nature, which always pleases even in her lowest shapes.
Parson Adams is perfectly well ; so is Mrs. Slipslop, and 20
the story of Wilson ; and throughout he shows himself
well read in Stage-Coaches, Country Squires, Inns, and
Inns of Court. His reflections upon high people and

1 West had sent Gray a Latin poem on his own sickness.

2 It had just appeared.

8o PROSE.

low people, and misses and masters, are very good.

25 However the exaltedness of some minds (or rather as I
shrewdly suspect their insipidity and want of feeling or
observation), may make them insensible to these light
things (I mean such as characterise and paint nature),
yet surely they are as weighty and much more useful than

3° your grave discourses upon the mind, the passions, and
what not. Now as the paradisaical pleasures of the
Mahometans consist in playing upon the flute and lying
with Houris, be mine to read eternal new romances of
Marivaux and Crebillon.

35 You are very good in giving yourself the trouble to
read and find fault with my long harangues. Your
freedom (as you call it), has so little need of apologies,
that I should scarce excuse your treating me any other
wise ; which, whatever compliment it might be to my

40 vanity, would be making a very ill one to my understand
ing. As to matter of stile, I have this to say : the
language of the age is never the language of poetry ; 1
except among the French, whose verse, where the thought
or image does not support it, differs in nothing from

45 prose. Our poetry, on the contrary, has a language
peculiar to itself ; to which almost everyone, that has
written, has added something by enriching it with foreign
idioms and derivatives : nay sometimes words of their
own composition or invention. Shakespear and Milton

50 have been great creators this way ; and no one more
licentious than Pope or Dryden, who perpetually borrow
expressions from the former. * * * In truth, Shake-
spear's language is one of his principal beauties ; and he
has no less advantage over your Addisons and Rowes in

55 this, than in those other great excellencies you mention.

1 Compare this, and what follows, with Wordsworth's celebrated
theory.

PKOSE. 8 1

Every word in him is a picture. Pray put me the follow- ,
ing lines into the tongue of our modern dramatics :

" But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass :
I, that am rudely stampt, and want love's majesty 60

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph :
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up — 65

And what follows. To me they appear untranslatable ;
and if this be the case, our language is greatly degener
ated. However, the affectation of imitating Shakespear
may doubtless be carried too far ; and is no sort of
excuse for sentiments ill-suited, or speeches ill-timed, 70
which I believe is a little the case with me. * * *

COLLINS AND J. WARTON.

TO THOMAS WHARTON.

* HAVE you seen the works of two young authors,
a Mr. Warton and a Mr. Collins, both writers of Odes ?
It is odd enough, but each is the half of a considerable
man, and one the counterpart of the other. The first has
but little invention, very poetical choice of expression,
and a good ear. The second, a fine fancy, modelled
upon the antique, a bad ear, great variety of words, and
images with no choice at all. They both deserve to last
some years, but will not.1 Adieu ! dear Sr- — I am very
sincerely yours, ^ Q

December 27, [1746].

I was thirty years old yesterday. What is it o'clock
by you ?

1 Joseph Warton's Odes sold much better than Collins's.

82 PROSE.

CONTEMPORARY POETS.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

I AM obliged to you for Mr. Dodsley's book,1 and
having pretty well looked it over, will (as you desire)
tell you my opinion of it. He might, methinks, have
spared the graces in his frontispiece, if he chose to be
5 economical, and dressed his authors in a little more
decent raiment — not in whited-brown paper, and dis
torted characters, like an old ballad. I am ashamed to
see myself ; but the company keeps me in countenance :
so to begin with Mr. Tickell. This is not only a state-

10 poem (my ancient aversion), but a state-poem on the
peace of Utrecht. If Mr. Pope had wrote a panegyric
on it, one could hardly have read him with patience : but
this is only a poor short-winded imitator of Addison, who
had himself not above three or four notes in poetry,

15 sweet enough indeed, like those of a German flute, but
such as soon tire and satiate the ear with their frequent
return. Tickell has added to this a great poverty of
sense, and a string of transitions that hardly become a
school-boy. However, I forgive him for the sake of his

20 ballad, which I always thought the prettiest in the world.

All there is of M. Green here, has been printed

before ; there is a profusion of wit everywhere ; reading

would have formed his judgment, and harmonised his

verse, for even his wood-notes often break out into strains

25 of real poetry and music. The " School Mistress " 2 is
excellent in its kind and masterly ; and (F am sorry to
differ from you, but) "London" is to me one of those
few imitations that have all the ease and all the spirit of
an original. The same man's verses 3 on the opening of

1 Dodsley's Collection of Poems (1748).

2 By W. Shenstone.
8 Dr. Johnson's.

PROSE. 83

Garrick's theatre are far from bad. Mr. Dyer (here you 30
will despise me highly) has more of poetry in his imagina
tion than almost any of our number ; l but rough and
injudicious. I should range Mr. Bramston only a step
or two above Dr. King, who is as low in my estimation
as in yours. Dr. Evans is a furious madman ; and pre- 35
existence is nonsense in all her altitudes. Mr. Lyttleton
is a gentle elegiac person. Mr. Nugent sure did not
write his own Ode. I like Mr. Whitehead's little poems,
I mean the Ode on a Tent, the Verses to Garrick, and
particularly those to Charles Townsend, better than 40
anything I had seen before of him. * * *

A BALLAD.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

CAMBRIDGE, Saturday, June, [1757}.

* * * I WISH you were here, for I am tired of writing
such stuff ; and besides, I have got the old Scotch
ballad '2 on which Douglas was founded ; it is divine, and
as long as from hence to Aston. Have you never seen
it ? Aristotle's best rules are observed in it in a manner c
that shows the author never had heard of Aristotle. It
begins in the fifth act of the play. You may read it
two-thirds through without guessing what it is about ;
and yet, when you come to the end, it is impossible not
to understand the whole story. I send you the two first 10

verses —

Gil Maurice was an Earle's son,

His fame it wexed wide.

It was nae for his grete riches,

Nae for his mickle pride ; 1 5

1 Wordsworth thought so too. See his Sonnet To the Poet, John
Dyer.

2 Child Maurice. (See Child's Ballads, II, 263.)

84 PROSE.

But it was for a ladie gay
That lived on Carron's side.
" Where shall I get a bonny boy
That will win hose and shoon,
That will gae to Lord Barnard's ha',
And bid his ladie come ?
Ye maun rin this errand, Willie,
And ye maun rin with pride ;
When other boys gae on their feet,
On horseback ye sal ride,"
" Ah na, ah na, my master dear," etc. etc.
*******

OSSIAN.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

I AM so charmed with the two specimens of Erse
poetry, that I cannot help giving you the trouble to
enquire a little farther about them, and should wish to
see a few lines of the original, that I may form some

5 slight idea of the language, the measures, and the rhythm.

Is there anything known of the author or authors, and

of what antiquity are they supposed to be ? Is there any

more to be had of equal beauty, or at all approaching to

it? I have been often told that the Poem called

10 " Hardicanute " (which I always admired and still admire)
was the work of somebody that lived a few years ago.
This I do not at all believe, though it has evidently been
retouched in places by some modern hand : but however,
I am authorised by this report to ask, whether the two

15 Poems in question are certainly antique and genuine.
I make this enquiry in quality of an antiquary, and am
not otherwise concerned about it : for, if I were sure that
any one now living in Scotland had written them to
divert himself, and laugh at the credulity of the world, I

PROSE. 85

would undertake a journey into the Highlands only for 2o
the pleasure of seeing him.

OSSIAN.

TO RICHARD STONEHEWER.

LONDON, y«w 29, 1760.

* * * I HAVE received another Scotch packet with a
third specimen, inferior in kind (because it is merely
description), but yet full of nature and noble wild imagina
tion. Five Bards pass the night at the Castle of a Chief
(himself a principal Bard); each goes out in his turn to 5
observe the face of things, and returns with an extempore
picture of the changes he has seen ; it is an October
night (the harvest-month of the Highlands). This is the
whole plan ; yet there is a contrivance, and a preparation
of ideas, that you would not expect. The oddest thing I0
is, that every one of them sees Ghosts (more or less).
The idea, that struck and surprised me most, is the
following. One of them (describing a storm of wind and
rain) says

" Ghosts ride on the tempest to-night : 15

Sweet is their voice between the gusts of wind;

Their songs are of other worlds /"

Did you never observe (uiJiile rocking winds are piping
loud} that pause, as the gust is recollecting itself, and
rising upon the ear in a shrill and plaintive note, like the
swell of an ^Eolian harp ? I do assure you there is 20
nothing in the world so like the voice of a spirit.
Thomson had an ear sometimes : he was not deaf to
this ; and has described it gloriously, but given it
another different turn, and of more horror. I cannot
repeat the lines : it is in his " Winter." There is another 25

86 PROSE.

very fine picture in one of them. It describes the break
ing of the clouds after the storm, before it is settled into
a calm, and when the moon is seen by short intervals.

" The waves are tumbling on the lake,
30 And lash the rocky sides.

The boat is brim-full in the cove,

The oars on the rocking tide.

Sad sits a maid beneath a cliff,

And eyes the rolling stream :
35 Her lover promised to come,

She saw his boat (when it was evening) on the lake ;

Are these his groans in the gale ?

Is this his broken boat on the shore ? "

OSSIAN.

TO THOMAS WHARTON.

[Endorsed July, 1760].

* * * IF you have seen Stonehewer he has probably
told you of my old Scotch (or rather Irish) poetry. I am
gone mad about them. They are said to be translations
(literal and in prose) from the Erse tongue, done by one

5 Macpherson, a young clergyman in the Highlands. He
means to publish a collection he has of these specimens
of antiquity, if it be antiquity : but what plagues me is, I
cannot come at any certainty on that head. I was so
struck, so extasie with their infinite beauty, that I writ

I0 into Scotland to make a thousand enquiries. The letters
I have in return are ill wrote, ill reasoned, unsatisfactory,
calculated (one would imagine) to deceive one, and yet
not cunning enough to do it cleverly. In short, the whole
external evidence would make one believe these frag-

j ments (for so he calls them, though nothing can be more
entire) counterfeit : but the internal is so strong on the
other side, that I am resolved to believe them genuine,

PROSE. 87

spite of the Devil and the Kirk. It is impossible to con
vince me, that they were invented by the same man, that
writes me these letters. On the other hand it is almost 20
as hard to suppose, if they are original, that he should be
able to translate them so admirably. What can one do ?
since Stonehewer went, I have received another of a very
different and inferior kind (being merely descriptive)
much more modern than the former (he says) yet very old 25
too ; this too in its way is extremely fine. In short this
man is the very Daemon of poetry, or he has lighted on a
treasure hid for ages. The Welch Poets are also coming
to light : I have seen a Discourse in MS. about them (by
one Mr. Evans, a clergyman) with specimens of their 30
writings. This is in Latin, and though it don't approach
the other, there are fine scraps among it.

You will think I am grown mighty poetical of a sudden ;
you would think so still more, if you knew, there was a
Satire printed against me and Mason jointly, it is called 35
Two Odes : l the one is inscribed to Obscurity (that is me)
the other to Oblivion. It tells me, what I never heard
before, for (speaking of himself) the Author says, though
he has,

" Nor the Pride, nor self-Opinion, 40

That possess the happy Pair,
Each of Taste the fav'rite Minion,
Prancing thro' the desert air :
Yet shall he mount, with classic housings grac'd,
By help mechanick of equestrian block ; 45

And all unheedful of the Critic's mock
Spur his light courser o'er the bounds of Taste."

The writer is a Mr. Colman, who published the Con
noisseur, nephew to the late Lady Bath, and a friend of
Garrick's. I believe his Odes sell no more than mine 50

1 A Parody on Gray's Pindaric Odes.

•V

88 PROSE.

did, for I saw a heap of them lie in a bookseller's window,
who recommended them to me as a very pretty thing.

If I did not mention Tristram l to you, it was because
I thought I had done so before. There is much good

55 fun in it, and humour sometimes hit and sometimes
missed. I agree with your opinion of it, and shall see
the two future volumes with pleasure. Have you read
his sermons (with his own comic figure at the head of
them) ? they are in the style, I think, most proper for the

60 pulpit, and shew a very strong imagination and a sensible
heart : but you see him often tottering on the verge of
laughter, and ready to throw his periwig in the face of his
audience. * * *

OSSIAX.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

PEMBROKE HALL, August 7, 7760.

* * * THE Erse Fragments have been published five
weeks ago in Scotland, though I had them not (by a
mistake) till last week. As you tell me new things do
not soon reach you at Aston, I enclose wrhat I can ; the

5 rest shall follow when you tell me whether you have not
got it already. I send the two which I had before, for
Mr. Wood, because he has not the affectation of not
admiring. I continue to think them genuine, though my
reasons for believing the contrary are rather stronger

10 than ever : but I will have them antique, for I never
knew a Scotchman of my own time that could read, much
less write, poetry ; and such poetry too ! I have one
(from Mr. Macpherson) which he has not printed : it is
mere description, but excellent, too, in its kind. If you

15 are good, and will learn to admire, I will transcribe it.

1 Sterne's Tristram Shandy, published 1759.

PROSE. 89

Pray send to Sheffield for the last Monthly Review : there
is a deal of stuff about us and Mr. Colman. It says one
of us, at least, has always borne his faculties meekly. I
leave you to guess which that is : I think I know. You
oaf, you must be meek, must you ? and see what you get 20
by it! * * *

OSSIAN.

TO DR. CLARKE.

PEMBROKE HALL, Augiist 12, ij6o.

* * * HAVE you seen the Erse Fragments since they
were printed ? I am more puzzled than ever about their
antiquity, though I still incline (against everybody's
opinion) to believe them old. Those you have already
seen are the best ; though there are some others that are
excellent too.

OSSIAN.

TO THOMAS WHARTON.

LONDON, October 21, 1760.

* * * THERE is a second edition of the Scotch Frag
ments, yet very few admire them, and almost all take
them for fictions. I have a letter from D. Hume, the
historian, that asserts them to be genuine, and cites . the
names of several people (that know both languages) who 5
have heard them current in the mouths of pipers, and
other illiterate persons in various and distant parts of the
Highlands. There is a subscription for Mr. Macpherson,
which will enable him to undertake a mission among the
Mountaineers, and pick up all the scattered remnants of 10
old Poetry. He is certainly an admirable judge ; if his
learned friends do not pervert or overrule his taste. * * *

90 PROSE.

OSSIAN.

TO THOMAS WHARTON.

PEMBROKE COLLEGE, January, 1761.

* * * JTOR me, I admire nothing but " Fingal " (I con
clude you have read it : if not Stonehewer can lend it
you), yet I remain still in doubt about the authenticity
of those poems, though inclining rather to believe them
genuine in spite of the world. Whether they are the
inventions of antiquity, or of a modern Scotchman, either
case is to me alike unaccountable. Je m'y pers. * * *

OSSIAN.

TO THE REV. JAMES BROWN.

February 77, 1763.

* * * NEITHER Count Algarotti, nor Mr. Howe (I
believe) have heard of Ossian, the Son of Fingal. If Mr.
Howe were not upon the wing, and on his way home
wards, I would send it to him in Italy. He would there

5 see, that Imagination dwelt many hundred years ago in
all her pomp on the cold and barren mountains of Scot
land. The truth (I believe) is that without any respect
of climates she reigns in all nascent societies of men,
where the necessities of life force every one to think and

10 act much for himself. Adieu !

JEREMY TAYLOR.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON.

LONDON, January 22, 1761.

*********

I HAVE long thought of reading Jeremy Taylor, for I
am persuaded that chopping logic in the pulpit, as our

PROSE. 91

divines have done ever since the Revolution, is not the
thing ; but that imagination and warmth of expression
are in their place there as much as on the stage, moder
ated however, and chastised a little by the purity and
severity of religion.

CASTLE OF OTRANTO AND ROUSSEAU.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

Sunday, December 30, 1764.

I HAVE received the Castle of Otranto, and return you
my thanks for it. It engages our attention here, makes
some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to
bed o' nights. We take it for a translation, and should
believe it to be a true story, if it were not for St. 5
Nicholas.

When your pen was in your hand you might have been
a little more communicative, for though disposed enough
to believe the opposition rather consumptive, I am entirely
ignorant of all the symptoms. Your canonical book I 10
have been reading with great satisfaction. He speaketh
as one having authority. If Englishmen have any feeling
left, methinks they must feel now ; and if the Ministry
have any feeling (whom nobody will suspect of insensi
bility) they must cut off the author's ears, for it is in all 15
the forms a most wicked libel. Is the old man and the
lawyer put on, or is it real ? or has some real lawyer
furnished a good part of the materials, and another
person employed them ? This I guess ; for there is an
uncouthness of diction in the beginning which is not 20
supported throughout, though it now and then occurs
again, as if the writer was weary of supporting the
character he had assumed, when the subject had warmed
him, beyond dissimulation.

92 PROSE.

Rousseau's Letters I am reading heavily, heavily ! He

25 justifies himself, till he convinces me that he deserved

to be burnt, at least that his book did. I am not got

through him, and you never will. Voltaire I detest, and

have not seen his book : I shall in good time. You

surprise me, when you talk of going in February. Pray,

30 does all the minority go too ? I hope you have a reason.

Desperare de republica is a deadly sin in politics.

Adieu ! I will not take my leave of you ; for (you
perceive) this letter means to beg another, when you can
spare a little.

DAVID HUME AND SKEPTICISM.

TO JAMES liEATTIE.

PEMBROKE HALL, July 2,

******** *

I HAVE always thought David Hume a pernicious
writer, and believe he has done as much mischief here as
he has in his own country. A turbid and shallow stream
often appears to our apprehensions very deep. A pro-

5 fessed sceptic can be guided by nothing but his present
passions (if he has any) and interests ; and to be masters
of his philosophy we need not his books or advice, for
every child is capable of the same thing, without any
study at all. Is not that naireie and good humour, which

10 his admirers celebrate in him, owing to this, that he has
continued all his days an infant, but one that has
unhappily been taught to read and write ? That childish
nation, the French, have given him vogue and fashion,
and we, as usual, have learned from them to admire him

15 at second hand.

PROSE. 93

III.

NATURE.

EARLY APPRECIATION.

TO HORACE WALPOLE.

September,

* * * I ARRIVED safe at my uncle's, who is a great
hunter in imagination ; his dogs take up every chair in
the house, so I am forced to stand at this present writing ;
and though the gout forbids him galloping after them
in the field, yet he continues still to regale his ears and 5
nose with their comfortable noise and stink. He holds
me mighty cheap, I perceive, for walking when I should
ride, and reading when I should hunt. My comfort
amidst all this is, that I have at the distance of half a
mile, through a green lane, a forest (the vulgar call it a 10
common) all my own, at least as good as so, for I spy no
human thing in it but myself. It is a little chaos of
mountains and precipices ; mountains, it is true, that do
not ascend much above the clouds, nor are the declivities
quite so amazing as Dover cliff ; but just such hills as ^
people who love their necks as well as I do may venture
to climb, and crags that give the eye as much pleasure as
if they were more dangerous. Both vale and hill are
covered with most venerable beeches, and other very
reverend vegetables, that, like most other ancient people, 2o
are always dreaming out their old stories to the winds,

And as they bow their hoary tops relate,

In murm'ring sounds, the dark decrees of fate ;

While visions, as poetic eyes avow,

Cling to each leaf, and swarm on every bough. 25

94 PROSE.

At the foot of one of these squats ME I (il penseroso), and
there grow to the trunk for a whole morning. The timor
ous hare and sportive squirrel gambol around me like
Adam in Paradise, before he had an Eve ; but I think he
30 did not use to read Virgil, as I commonly do there. * * *

ALPINE SCENERY.

TO MRS. DOROTHY GRAY.

LYONS, October

IT is a fortnight since we set out from hence upon a
little excursion to Geneva. We took the longest road,
which lies through Savoy, on purpose to see a famous
monastery, called the grand Chartreuse, and had no

5 reason to think our time lost. After having travelled
seven days very slow (for we did not change horses, it
being impossible for a chaise to go post in these roads)
we arrived at a little village, among the mountains of
Savoy, called fichelles ; from thence we proceeded on

10 horses, who are used to the way, to the mountain of the
Chartreuse. It is six miles to the top ; the road runs
winding up it, commonly not six feet broad ; on one hand
is the rock, with woods of pine-trees hanging overhead ;
on the other, a monstrous precipice, almost perpendicular,

15 at the bottom of which rolls a torrent, that sometimes
tumbling among the fragments of stone that have fallen
from on high, and sometimes precipitating itself down
vast descents with a noise like thunder, which is still
made greater by the echo from the mountains on each

20 side, concurs to form one of the most solemn, the most
romantic,1 and the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld :

1 This word was not at that time often used in a favourable sense.

PROSE. 95

add to this the strange views made by the craggs and
cliffs on the other hand ; the cascades that in many places
throw themselves from the very summit down into the
vale, and the river below ; and many other particulars
impossible to describe ; you will conclude we had no 25
occasion to repent our pains. *

ALPINE SCENERY.

TO MRS. DOROTHY GRAY.

TURIN, jYtK'eniber 7, 1739.

I AM this night arrived here, and have just set down to
rest me after eight days' tiresome journey. For the
three first we had the same road we before passed through
to go to Geneva ; the fourth we turned out of it, and for
that day and the next travelled rather among than upon 5
the Alps ; the way commonly running through a deep
valley by the side of the river Arve, which works itself a
passage, with great difficulty and a mighty noise, among
vast quantities of rocks, that have rolled down from the
mountain-tops. The winter was so far advanced, as in i0
great measure to spoil the beauty of the prospect ;
however, there was still somewhat fine remaining amidst
the savageness and horror of the place : the sixth we
began to go up several of these mountains ; and as we
were passing one, met with an odd accident enough : Mr. 15
Walpole had a little fat' black spaniel, that he was very
fond of, which he sometimes used to set down, and let it
run by the chaise side. We were at that time in a very
rough road, not two yards broad at most ; on one side
was a great wood of pines, and on the other a vast preci- 20
pice ; it was noonday, and the sun shone bright, when
all of a sudden, from the wood-side (which was as steep

96 PROSE.

upwards as the other part was downwards), out rushed a
great wolf, came close to the head of the horses, seized

25 the dog by the throat, and rushed up the hill again with
him in his mouth. This was done in less than a quarter
of a minute ; we all saw it, and yet the servants had not
time to draw their pistols, or do anything to save the dog.
If he had not been there, and the creature had thought

3° fit to lay hold of one of the horses ; chaise, and we, and
all must inevitably have tumbled above fifty fathoms
perpendicular down the precipice. The seventh we came
to Lanebourg, the last town in Savoy ; it lies at the foot
of the famous Mount Cenis, which is so situated as to

35 allow no room for any way but over the very top of it.
Here the chaise was forced to be pulled to pieces, and
the baggage and that to be carried by mules. We our
selves were wrapped up in our furs, and seated upon a
sort of matted chair without legs, which is carried upon

40 poles in the manner of a bier, and so begun to ascend by
the help of eight men. It was six miles to the top, where
a plain opens itself about as many more in breadth,
covered perpetually with very deep snow, and in the
midst of that a great lake of unfathomable depth, from

45 whence a river takes its rise, and tumbles over monstrous
rocks quite down the other side of the mountain. The
descent is six miles more, but infinitely more steep than
the going up ; and here the men perfectly fly down with
you, stepping from stone to stone with incredible swift-

5° ness in places where none but they could go three paces
without falling. The immensity of the precipices, the
roaring of the river and torrents that run into it, the huge
craggs covered with ice and snow, and the clouds below
you and about you, are objects it is impossible to con-

55 ceive without seeing them ; and though we had heard
many strange descriptions of the scene, none of them at

PROSE. 97

all came up to it. We were but five hours in performing
the whole, from which you may judge of the rapidity of
the men's motion. We are now got into Piedmont, and
stopped a little while at La Ferriere, a small village about 60
three-quarters of the way down, but still among the
clouds, where we began to hear a new language spoken
round about us ; at last we got quite down, went through
the Pas de Suse, a narrow road among the Alps, defended
by two fortresses, and lay at Bussoleno. Next evening 65
through a fine avenue of nine miles in length, as straight
as a line, we arrived at this city, which, as you know, is
the capital of the Principality, and the residence of the
King of Sardinia. * * * We shall stay here, I believe, a
fortnight, and proceed for Genoa, which is three or four 7°
days' journey to go post. — I am, etc.

ALPINE SCENERY.

TO RICHARD WEST.

TURIN, November 16, 1739-

* * * I OWN I have not, as yet, anywhere met with
those grand and simple works of Art, that are to amaze
one, and whose sight one is to be the better for : but
those of Nature have astonished me beyond expression.
X In our little journey up to the Grande Chartreuse, I do ' 5
not remember to have gone ten paces without an exclama
tion, that there was no restraining. Not a precipice, not
a torrent, not a cliff, but is pregnant with religion and
poetry. There are certain scenes that would awe an
atheist into belief, without the help of other argument. i°
One need not have a very fantastic imagination to see
spirits there at noonday ; you have Death perpetually
before your eyes, only so far removed, as to compose the

98 PROSE.

mind without frighting it. I am well persuaded St.

15 Bruno was a man of no common genius, to choose such
a situation for his retirement ; and perhaps should have
been a disciple of his, had I been born in his time.- You
may believe Abelard and Heloise were not forgot upon
this occasion. If I do not mistake, I saw you too every

20 now and then at a distance along the trees ; il me semble,
que j'ai vu ce chien de visage la quelque part. You seemed
to call to me from the other side of the precipice, but the
noise of the river below was so great, that I really could
not distinguish what you said ; it seemed to have a cadence

25 like verse. In your next you will be so good to let me
know what it was. The week we have since passed
among the Alps, has not equalled the single day upon
that mountain, because the winter was rather too far
advanced, and the weather a little foggy. However, it

3° did not want its beauties ; the savage rudeness of the
view is inconceivable without seeing it : I reckoned in
one day, thirteen cascades, the least of which was, I dare
say, one hundred feet in height. * * * Mont Cenis,
I confess, carries the permission mountains have of being

35 frightful rather too far ; and its horrors were accompanied
with too much danger to give one time to reflect upon
their beauties. There is a family of the Alpine monsters
I have mentioned, upon its very top, that in the middle
of winter calmly lay in their stock of provisions and firing,

4° and so are buried in their hut for a month or two under
the snow. * * *

MOUNTAINS.

TO THE RKV. WILLIAM MASON.

*7t>5-

*********

I AM returned from Scotland charmed with my expedi
tion ; it is of the Highlands I speak ; the Lowlands are

PROSE. 99

worth seeing once, but the mountains are ecstatic, and
ought to be visited in pilgrimage once a year. None but
those monstrous creatures of God know how to join so 5
much beauty with so much horror. A fig for your poets,
painters, gardeners, and clergymen, that have not been
among them ; their imagination can be made up of
nothing but bowling-greens, flowering shrubs, horse-
ponds, Fleet ditches, shell grottoes, and Chinese rails. 10
Then I had so beautiful an autumn, Italy could hardly
produce a nobler scene, and this so sweetly contrasted
with that perfection of nastiness, and total want of
accommodation, that Scotland only can supply. Oh, you
would have blessed yourself. I shall certainly go again ; 15
what a pity it is I cannot draw, nor describe, nor ride on
horseback.

JOURNAL IN THE LAKES.1

JOURNAL, 30 SEPT. 1769.

WIND at N. W. ; clouds and sunshine. A mile and a
half from Brough on a hill lay a great army encamped.
To the left opened a fine valley with green meadows and
hedge rows, a gentleman's house peeping forth from a
grove of old trees. On a nearer approach, appeared 5
myriads of horses and cattle in the road itself and in all
the fields round me, a brisk stream hurrying cross the
way, thousands of clean healthy people in their best
party-coloured apparel, farmers and their families,
esquires and their daughters, hastening up from the dales 10
and down the xfells on every side, glittering in the sun

1 This Journal was kept merely for the amusement of Dr. Wharton,
whose illness prevented him from accompanying Gray.

ioo PROSE.

and pressing forward to join the throng : while the dark
hills, on many of whose tops the mists were yet hanging,
served as a contrast to this gay and moving scene, which
continued for near two miles more along the road, and
5 the crowd (coming towards it) reached on as far as
Appleby.

On the ascent of the hill above Appleby the thick
hanging wood and the long reaches of the Eden (rapid,
clear, and full as ever) winding below with views of the

I0 castle and town gave much employment to the mirror ; 1
but the sun was wanting and the sky overcast. Oats
and barley cut everywhere, but not carried in. Passed
Kirby-thore, Sir W. Dalston's house at Acorn-Bank,
Whinfield Park, Hart-horn Oaks, Countess-Pillar, Broug-

15 ham-Castle, Mr. Brown (one of the Six Clerks) his large
new house, crossed the Eden and the Eimot (pronounce
Eeman) with its green vale, and at three o'clock dined
with Mrs. Buchanan, at Penrith, on trout and partridge.
In the afternoon walked up the Beacon-hill a mile to the

20 top, saw Whinfield and Lowther Parks, and through an
opening in the bosom of that cluster of mountains, which
the Doctor 2 well remembers, the lake of Ulz-water, with
the craggy tops of a hundred nameless hills. These to
W. and S. ; to the N. a great extent of black and dreary

25 plains ; to E. Crossfell just visible through mists and
vapours hovering round it.

October i. AVind at S. W. : a gray autumnal day, air
perfectly calm and gentle. Went to see Ulz-water, five
miles distant. Soon left the Keswick road, and turned

3° to the left through shady lanes along the vale of Ecman,

1 Mr. Gray carried usually with him on these tours a plano-convex
mirror, of about four inches diameter, on a black foib, and bound up
like a pocket-book. — Mason.

- Thomas Wharton.

PROSE. 101

which runs rapidly on near the way, rippling over the
stones. To the right is Delmaine, a large fabric of pale
red stone, with nine windows in front, and seven on the
side built by Mr. Hassle, behind it a fine lawn surrounded
by woods and a long rocky eminence rising over them. 5
A clear and brisk rivulet runs by the house to join the
Eeman, whose course is in sight and at a small distance.
Farther on appears Hatton St. John, a castle-like old
mansion of Mr. Huddleston. Approached Dunmattcrt, a
fine pointed hill, covered with wood planted by old Mr. 10
Hassle, before mentioned, who lives always at home, and
delights in planting. Walked over a spungy meadow or
two and began to mount this hill through a broad and
strait green alley among the trees, and with some toil
gained the summit. From hence saw the lake opening 15
directly at my feet majestic in its calmness, clear and
smooth as a blue mirror, with winding shores and low
points of land covered with green inclosures, white farm
houses looking out among the trees, and cattle feeding.
The water is almost every where bordered with cultivated 20
lands gently sloping upwards till they reach the feet of
the mountains, which rise very rude and awful with their
broken tops on either hand : directly in front, at better
than three miles distance, Place Fell, one of the bravest
among them, pushes its bold broad breast into the midst 25
of the lake and forces it to alter its course, forming first
a large bay to the left, and then bending to the right.

I descended Dunmallert again by a side avenue, that
was only not perpendicular, and came to Barton bridge
over the Eeman, then walking through a path in the wood 30
round the bottom of the hill came forth, where the Eeman
issues out of the lake, and continued my way along its
western shore close to the water, and generally on a level
with it. Saw a cormorant flying over it and fishing.

102 PROSE.

The figure of Ulz-water nothing resembles that laid
down in our maps: it is 9 miles long, and (at widest)
under a mile in breadth. After extending itself three
miles and a half in a line to S. W. it turns at the foot of
- Place Fell, almost due W. and is here not twice the
breadth of the Thames at London. It is soon again
interrupted by the roots of Helvellyn, a lofty and very
rugged mountain, and spreading again turns off to S. E.
and is lost among the deep recesses of the hills. To this

10 second turning I pursued my way about 4 miles along its
borders beyond a village scattered among trees, and
called Water-Mallock, in a pleasant grave day, perfectly
calm and warm, but without a gleam of sunshine. Then
the sky seeming to thicken the valley to grow more

15 desolate, and evening drawing on, I returned by the way
I came to Penrith.

October 2. Wind at S. E. ; sky clearing, Cross Fell
misty, but the outline of the other hills very distinct.
Set out at 10 for Keswick, by the road we went in 1767.

20 Saw Greystock town and castle to the right, which lie
only 3 miles (over the Fells) from Ulz-water. Passed
through Pcnradock and Threlcot at the feet of Saddleback,
whose furrowed sides were gilt by noonday sun, while its
brow appeared of a sad purple from the shadow of the

25 clouds, as they sailed slowly by it. The broad and green
valley of Gardies and Loivsidc, with a swift stream glitter
ing among the cottages and meadows lay to the left ; and
the much finer (but narrower) valley of St. John's opening
into it. Hill-top, the large, though low, mansion of the

30 Gaskarths, now a farm-house, seated on an eminence
among woods under a steep fell, was what appeared the
most conspicuous, and beside it a great rock like some
ancient tower nodding to its fall. Passed by the side of
Skiddaw, and its cub called Lattcrrig ; and saw from an

PROSE.

103

eminence, at two miles distance, the vale of Elysium in
all its verdure, the sun then playing on the bosom of the
lake, and lighting up all the mountains with its lustre.

Dined by 2 o'clock at the Queen's head, and then
straggled out alone to the Parsonage, fell down on my r
back across a dirty lane, with my glass open in one hand,
but broke only my knuckles, staid nevertheless, and saw
the sun set in all its glory.

October 3. Wind at S. E. ; a heavenly day. Rose at
7, and walked out under the conduct of my landlord to 10
Borrodale. The grass was covered with a hoar frost,
which soon melted, and exhaled in a thin blueish smoke.
Crossed the meadows obliquely, catching a diversity of
views among the hills over the lake and islands, and
changing prospect at every ten paces ; left Cockshut and 1 5
Castlchill (which we formerly mounted) behind me, and
drew near the foot of Walla-crag, whose bare and rocky
brow, cut perpendicularly down above 400 feet, as I
guess, awef ully overlooks the way ; our path here tends
to the left, and the ground gently rising, and covered 20
with a glade of scattering trees and bushes on the very
margin of the water, opens both ways the most delicious
view, that my eyes ever beheld. Behind you are the
magnificent heights of Walla-crag ; opposite lie the thick
hanging woods of Lord Egremont, and Newland valley, 25
with green and smiling fields embosomed in the dark
cliffs ; to the left the jaws of Borrodale, with that turbu
lent chaos of mountain behind mountain, rolled in
confusion ; beneath you, and stretching far away to the
right, the shining purity of the Lake, just ruffled by the 3°
breeze, enough to shew it is alive, reflecting rocks, woods,
fields, and inverted tops of mountains, with the white
buildings of Keswick, Crosthivait church, and Skiddaw
for a back ground at a distance. Oh ! Doctor ! I never

1 04 PROSE.

wished more for you; and pray think, how the glass
played its part in such a spot, which is called Carf-close-
reeds ; I chuse to set down these barbarous names, that
any body may enquire on the place, and easily find the
5 particular station, that I mean. This scene continues to
Barrow-gate, and a little farther, passing a brook called
Barrow-beck, we entered Borrodalc. The crags, named
Lodoor-banks, now begin to impend terribly over your
way ; and more terribly, when you hear, that three years

10 since an immense mass of rock tumbled at once from the
brow, and barred all access to the dale (for this is the
only road) till they could work their way through it.
Luckily no one was passing at the time of this fall ; but
down the side of the mountain, and far into the lake lie

15 dispersed the huge fragments of this ruin in all shapes
and in all directions. Something farther we turned aside
into a coppice, ascending a little in front of Lodoor water
fall, the height appears to be about 200 feet, the quantity
of water not great, though (these three days excepted) it

20 had rained daily in the hills for near two months before :
but then the stream was nobly broken, leaping from rock
to rock, and foaming with fury. On one side a towering
crag, that spired up to equal, if not overtop, the neighbour
ing cliffs (this lay all in shade and darkness) on the other

25 hand a rounder broader projecting hill shagged with
wood and illumined by the sun, which glanced sideways
on the upper part of the cataract. The force of the
water wearing a deep channel in the ground hurries away
to join the lake. We descended again, and passed the

30 stream over a rude bridge. Soon after we came under
Gowder crag, a hill more formidable to the eye and to the
apprehension than that of Lodoor ; the rocks a-top, deep-
cloven perpendicularly by the rains, hanging loose and
nodding forwards, seem just starting from their base in

PROSE. 105

shivers ; the whole way down, and the road on both sides
is strewed with piles of the fragments strangely thrown
across each other, and of a dreadful bulk. The place
reminds one of those passes in the Alps, where the
guides tell you to move on with speed, and say nothing, 5
lest the agitation of the air should loosen the snows
above, and bring down a mass, that would overwhelm a
caravan. I took their counsel here and hastened on in

silence.

Non ragionam di lor ; ma guarda, e passa ! 10

The hills here are clothed all up their steep sides with
oak, ash, birch, holly, &c. : some of it has been cut 40
years ago, some within these 8 years, yet all is sprung
again green, flourishing, and tall for its age, in a place
where no soil appears but the staring rock, and where a I5
man could scarce stand upright.

Met a civil young farmer overseeing his reapers (for it
is oat-harvest here) who conducted us to a neat white
house in the village of Grange, which is built on a rising
ground in the midst of a valley. Round it the mountains 20
form an awful amphitheatre, and through it obliquely
runs the Derwent clear as glass, and shewing under its
bridge every trout that passes. Beside the village rises
a round eminence of rock, covered entirely with old trees,
and over that more proudly towers Castle-crag, invested 25
also with wood on its sides, and bearing on its naked
top some traces of a fort said to be Roman. By the side
of this hill, which almost blocks up the way, the valley
turns to the left and contracts its dimensions, till there is
hardly any road but the rocky bed of the river. The 30
wood of the mountains increases and their summits grow
loftier to the eye, and of more fantastic forms : among
them appear Eagle's Cliff, Dove 's- Nest, Whitedale-pike,
&c., celebrated names in the annals of Keswick. The

106 PROSE.

dale opens about four miles higher till you come to Sea
Whaite (where lies the way mounting the hills to the
right, that leads to the Wadd-mincs) all farther access is
here barred to prying mortals, only there is a little path
5 winding over the Fells, and for some weeks in the year
passable to the Dale's-men ; but the mountains know
well, that these innocent people will not reveal the
mysteries of their ancient kingdom, the reign of Chaos
and Old Night. Only I learned, that this dreadful road,

10 dividing again leads one branch to Ravenglas, and the
other to Hawkshead.

For me I went no farther than the farmer's (better
than 4 m : from Keswick) at Grange : his mother and he

\ brought us butter, that Siserah would have jumped at,

15 though not in a lordly dish, bowls of milk, thin oaten
cakes, and ale ; and we had carried a cold tongue thither
with us. Our farmer wras himself the man, that last year
plundered the eagle's eirie : all the dale are up in arms
on such an occasion, for they lose abundance of lambs

20 yearly, not to mention hares, partridge, grouse, &c. He
was let down from the cliff in ropes to the shelf of rock,
on which the nest was built, the people above shouting
and hollowing to fright the old birds, which flew scream
ing round, but did not dare to attack him. He brought

25 off the eaglet (for there is rarely more than one) and an
addle egg. The nest was roundish and more than a yard
over, made of twigs twisted together. Seldom a year
passes but they take the brood or eggs, and sometimes
they shoot one, sometimes the other parent, but the

30 survivor has always found a mate (probably in Ireland),
and they breed near the old place. By his description I
learn, that this species is the Erne (the Vultur Allncilla
of Linnaeus in his last edition, but in yours Falco Albidlld)
so consult him and Pennant about it.

PROSE. 107

Walked leisurely home the way we came, but saw a
new landscape : the features indeed were the same in
part, but many new ones were disclosed by the midday
sun, and the tints were entirely changed. Take notice
this was the best or perhaps the only day for going up 5
Skiddaw, but I thought it better employed : it was
perfectly serene, and hot as Midsummer.
V In the evening walked alone down to the Lake by the '
side of Crow-Park after sun-set and saw the solemn
colouring of night draw on, the last gleam of sunshine 10
fading away on the hill-tops, the deep serene of the
waters, and the long shadows of the mountains thrown
across them, till they nearly touched the hithermost
shore. At distance heard the murmur of many waterfalls
not audible in the day-time. Wished for the Moon, but 15
she was dark to me and silent, hid in her vacant interhmar
cave, /

October 4. Wind E. ; clouds and sunshine, and in the
course of the day a few drops of rain. Walked to Crow-
Park, now a rough pasture, once a glade of ancient oaks, 20
whose large roots still remain on the ground, but nothing
has sprung from them. If one single tree had remained,
this would have been an unparalleled spot ; and Smith
judged right, when he took his print of the Lake from
hence, for it is a gentle eminence, not too high, on the 25
very margin of the water and commanding it from end to
end, looking full into the gorge of Borrodale. I prefer it
even to Cockshut-hill, which lies beside it, and to which
I walked in the afternoon : It is covered with young trees
both sown and planted, oak, spruce, Scotch-fir, &c., all 30
which thrive wonderfully. There is an easy ascent to
the top, and the view far preferable to that on Castle-
hill (which you remember) because this is lower and
nearer to the Lake : for I find all points, that are much

Io8 PROSE.

elevated, spoil the beauty of the valley, and make its
parts (which are not large) look poor and diminutive.
While I was here, a little shower fell, red clouds
came marching up the hills from the east, and part
5 of a bright rainbow seemed to rise along the side of
Castle-hill.

From hence I got to the Parsonage a little . before
sunset, and saw in my glass a picture, that if I could-
transmit to you, and fix it in all the softness of its living

10 colours, would fairly sell for a thousand pounds. This is
the sweetest scene I can yet discover in point of pastoral
beauty. The rest are in a sublimer style.

October 5. Wind X. E. Clouds and sunshine. Walked
through the meadows and corn-fields to the Derwent and

15 crossing it went up How-hill. It looks along the Basinth-
waite water and sees at the same time the course of the
river, and a part of the upper lake with a full view of
Skiddaw. Then I took my way through Portingskall
village to the Park, a hill so called covered entirely with

20 wood : it is all a mass of crumbling slate. Passed round
its foot between the trees and the edge of the water, and
came to a Peninsula that juts out into the lake, and looks
along it both ways. In front rises Walla-crag, and
Castle-hill, the town, the road to Penrith, Skiddaw and

25 Saddle-back. Returning met a brisk and cold North
Eastern blast, that ruffled all the surface of the lake and
made it rise in little waves that broke at the foot of the
wood. After dinner walked up the Penrith road two
miles or more and turning into a corn-field to the right,

30 called Castle-Rigg, saw a Druid circle of large stones 108
feet in diameter, the biggest not eight feet high, but most
of them still erect : They are fifty in number, the valley
of Naddle appeared in sight, and the fells of St. John's,
particularly the summits of Catchidecam (called by

PROSE. 109

Camden, Casticand) and Helvellyn, said to be as high as
Skiddaw, and to arise from a much higher base. A
shower came on, and I returned.

October 6. Wind E. ; clouds and sun. Went in a
chaise eight miles along the west side of Bassinthwaite- 5
water, to Ousc-bridge (pronounce Eius bridge) the road in
some part made, and very good, the rest slippery and
dangerous cart-road, or narrow rugged lanes, but no
precipices : it runs directly along the foot of Skiddaw.
Opposite to Thornthwaite falls, and the brows of Widhope- 10
btwvs (covered to the top with wood) a very beautiful
view opens down the lake, which is narrower and longer
than that of Keswick, less broken into bays and without
islands, at the foot of it a few paces from the brink gently
sloping upward stands Armathwaite in a thick grove of 1 5
Scotch firs, commanding a noble view directly up the
lake. At a small distance behind the house is a large
extent of wood, and still behind this a ridge of cultivated
hills, on which (according to the Keswick Proverb) the
sun always shines. The inhabitants here on the contrary 20
call the vale of Derwent-water the Devil's Chamber-Pot,
and pronounce the name of Skiddaw-Fell (which termi
nates here) with a sort of terror and aversion. Armath-
waitc-house is a modern fabric, not large, and built of
dark red stone, belonging to Mr. Spedding, whose grand- 25
father was steward to old Sir James Lowther, and bought
this estate of the Himers. So you must look for Mr.
Michell in some other country. The sky was overcast
and the wind cool, so after dining at a public house,
which stands here near the bridge (that crosses the 3°
Derwent just where it issues from the lake), and saunter
ing a little by the water-side, I came home again. The
turnpike is finished from Cockermouth hither (five miles)
and is carrying on to Penrith ; several little showers

1 1 o PROSE.

to-day. A man came in, who said there was snow on
Cross-fell this morning.

Oct. 7. Market day here. Wind, North East. Clouds
and sunshine : little showers at intervals all day : yet
5 walked in the morning to Crow-park, and in the evening
up Penrith road : the clouds came rolling up the mount
ains all round very unpromising, yet the moon shone at
intervals, it was too damp to go towards the lake.
To-morrow mean to bid farewell to Keswick.

10 Botany might be studied here in perfection at another
season because of the great variety of soils and elevations
all lying within a small compass. I observed nothing
but several curious Lichens, and plenty of Gale, or Dutch
Myrtle perfuming the borders of the lake. This year the

15 Wadd-mine had been opened (which is done once in five
years) it is taken out in lumps sometimes as big as a
man's fist, and will undergo no preparation by fire, not
being fusible. When it is pure, soft, black, and close
grained, it is worth sometimes 30 shillings a pound. The

20 mine lies about a mile up the Fells, near Sca-ivaitc, at the
head of Borrodale. There are no charr ever taken in
these lakes, but plenty in Buttermere-water, which lies a
little way north of Borrodale, about Martlemas, which are
potted here. They sow chiefly oats and bigg here, which

25 are now cutting and still on the ground. There is some
hay not yet got in. The rains have done much hurt ; yet
observe, the soil is so thin and light, that no day has
passed, in which I could not walk out with ease, and you
know, I am no lover of dirt. Their wheat comes from

3° Cockermouth or Penrith. Fell-mutton is now in season
for about six weeks ; it grows fat on the mountains, and
nearly resembles venison : excellent pike and perch (here
called bass) trout is out of season: partridge in great
plenty.

PROSE. 1 1 1

Receipt to dress Perch (for Mrs. Wharton). "Wash,
but neither scale, nor gut them. Broil till they are
enough, then pull out the fins, and open them along the
back, take out the bone and all the inwards without
breaking them : put in a good lump of butter and salt, 5
clap the sides together, till it melts, and serve very hot ;
it is excellent. The skin must not be eaten."

October 8th. Bid farewell to Keswick and took the
Ambleside road in a gloomy morning ; wind east and
afterwards north east ; about two miles from the town 10
mounted an eminence called Castle Rigg, and the sun
breaking out discovered the most beautiful view I have
yet seen of the whole valley behind me, the two lakes,
the river, the mountain, all in their glory ! had almost a
mind to have gone back again. The road in some little 15
patches is not completed, but good country road through
sound, but narrow and stony lanes, very safe in broad
daylight. This is the case about Causeway-foot, and
among Naddle-fells to Lanthwaite. The vale you go in
has little breadth the mountains are vast and rocky, the 20
fields little and poor, and the inhabitants are now making
hay, and see not the sun by two hours in a day so
long as at Keswick. Came to the foot of Helvellyn,
along which runs an excellent road, looking down from a
little height on Lee's-water, (called also Thirl-meer, or 25
Wiborn-water) and soon descending on its margin. The
lake from its depth looks black, (though really as clear as
glass) and from the gloom of the vast crags, that scowl
over it : it is narrow and about three miles long, resem
bling a river in its course ; little shining torrents hurry 30
down the rocks to join it, with not a bush to overshadow
them, or cover their march : all is rock and loose stones
up to the very brow, which lies so near your way, that
not above half the height of Helvellyn can be seen. (To
be continued, but now we have got franks.)

112 PROSE.

Past by the little chapel of Wiborn, out of which the
Sunday congregation were then issuing. Past a beck
near Dunmailraise and entered Westmoreland a second
time, now begin to see Helm-crag distinguished from its
5 rugged neighbours not so much by its height, as by the
strange broken outline of its top, like some gigantic
building demolished, and the stones that composed it
flung across each other in wild confusion. Just beyond
it opens one of the sweetest landscapes that art ever

10 attempted to imitate. The bosom of the mountains
spreading here into a broad bason discovers in the midst
Grasmere-water ; its margin is hollowed into small bays
with bold eminences : some of them rocks, some of soft
turf that half conceal and vary the figure of the little lake

15 they command. From the shore a low promontory
pushes itself far into the water, and on it stands a white
village with the parish-church rising in the midst of it,
hanging enclosures, corn-fields, and meadows green as an
emerald, with their trees and hedges, and cattle fill up

20 the whole space from the edge of the water. Just
opposite to you is a large farm-house at the bottom of a
steep smooth lawn embosomed in old woods, which climb
half way up the mountain's side, and discover above
them a broken line of crags, that crown the scene. Not

25 a single red tile, no flaming gentleman's house, or garden
walls break in upon the repose of this little unsuspected
paradise, but all is peace, rusticity, and happy poverty in
its neatest, most becoming attire.

The road winds here over Grasmere-hill, whose rocks

3° soon conceal the water from your sight, yet it is continued
along behind them, and contracting itself to a river com
municates with Ridah-water, another small lake, but of
inferior size and beauty ; it seems shallow too, for large
patches of reeds appear pretty far within it. Into this

PROSE. 113

vale the road descends : on the opposite banks large
and ancient woods mount up the hills, and just to the
left of our way stands Riddle-hall, the family seat of Sir
Mic. Fleming, but now a farm-house, a large old fashioned
fabric surrounded with wood, and not much too good for 5
its present destination. Sir Michael is now on his
travels, and all this timber far and wide belongs to him,
I tremble for it when he returns. Near the house rises
a huge crag called Ridale-head, which is said to command
a full view of Wynandcr-mere, and I doubt it not, for 10
within a mile that great lake is visible even from the
road. As to going up the crag, one might as well go up
Skiddaw.

Came to Ambleside eighteen miles from Keswick, mean
ing to lie there, but on looking into the best bed-chamber 15
dark and damp as a cellar, grew delicate gave up
Wynander-mere in despair, and resolved I would go on to
Kendal directly, fourteen miles farther ; the road in
general fine turnpike but some parts (about three miles
in all) not made, yet without danger. 20

Unexpectedly was well rewarded for my determination.
The afternoon was fine^and the road for full five miles
runs along the side of Wynander-mere, with delicious
views across it, and almost from one end to the other : it
is ten miles in length and at most a mile over, resembling 25
the course of some vast and magnificent river, but no flat
marshy grounds, no osier beds, or patches of scrubby
plantation on its banks : at the head two valleys open the
mountains, one, that by which we came down, the other
Langsledale in which Wrynose and Hard-knot two great 30
mountains rise above the rest. From thence the fells
visibly sink and soften along its sides. Sometimes they
run into it, (but with a gentle declivity) in their own dark
and natural complexion, oftener they are green and culti-

114 PROSE.

vated with farms interspersed and round eminences on
the border covered with trees: towards the South it
seems to break into larger bays with several islands and
a wider extent of cultivation : the way rises continually
5 till at a place called Orresthead it turns to South East
losing sight of the water. Passed by Ing's chapel and
Stavely, but I can say no farther for the dusk of the
evening coming on I entered Kcndal almost in the dark,
and could distinguish only a shadow of the castle on a

10 hill, and tenter grounds spread far and wide round the
town, which I mistook for houses. My inn promised
sadly, having two wooden galleries (like Scotland) in
front of it. It was indeed an old ill-contrived house, but
kept by civil sensible people, so I stayed two nights with

15 them, and fared and slept very comfortably.

Oct. 9. Wind N. W. clouds and sun air as mild as
summer ; all corn off the ground sky-larks singing aloud
(by the way I saw not one at Kesivick perhaps because
the place abounds in birds of prey) went up the castle-

20 hill, the town consists chiefly of three nearly parallel
streets almost a mile long, except these all the other houses
seem as if they had been dancing a country-dance and
were out ; there they stand back to back, corner to
corner, some up hill some down without intent or mean-

25 ing ; along by their side runs a fine brisk stream, over
which are three stone bridges, the buildings (a few com
fortable houses excepted) are mean, of stone and covered
with a bad rough cast. Near the end of the town stands
a handsome house of Col. Wilson's and adjoining to it

3° the church, a very large Gothic fabric with a square
tower, it has no particular ornaments but double aisles
and at the east end four chapels or choirs, one of the
Parrs, another of the Stricklands, the third is the proper
choir of the church, and a fourth of the Bellinghams, a

PROSE. 115

family now extinct. The remains of the castle are seated
on a fine hill on the side of the river opposite to the
town, almost the whole enclosure of walls remains with
four towers, two square and two round, but their upper
part and embattlements are demolished, it is of rough 5
stone and cement ; without any ornaments or arms round,
enclosing a court of like form and surrounded by a moat,
nor ever could have been larger than it is for there are
no traces of outworks, there is a good view of the town
and river with a fertile open valley through which it winds. 10

After dinner went along the Milthrop turnpike four
miles to see the falls (or force) of the river Kent : came
to Siserge (pronounce Siser) and turned down a lane to
the left, Siser, the seat of the Stricklands an old catholic
family is an ancient hall-house with a very large tower 15
embattled : the rest of the buildings added to this are of
later date, but all is white, and seen to advantage on a
back ground of old trees ; there is a small park also well
wooded, opposite to this turned to the left and soon came
to the river : it works its way in a narrow and deep rocky 20
channel overhung with trees. The calmness and bright
ness of the evening, .the roar of the waters, and the
thumping of huge hammers at an iron forge not far
distant made it a singular walk, but as to the falls (for
there are two) they are not four feet high. I went on 25
down to the forge and saw the demons at work by the
light of their own fires : the iron is brought in pigs to
Milthrop by sea from Scotland, and is here beat into bars
and plates. Two miles farther at Levens is the seat of
Lord Suffolk, where he sometimes passes the summer : it 3°
was a favorite place of his late Countess, but this I did
not see.

Oct. 10. Went by Burton to Lancaster. Wind N. W.
Clouds and sun: twenty-two miles: very good country

n6 PKOSE.

well inclosed and wooded, with some common inter
spersed ; passed at the foot of Farlton-Knot a high fell ;
four miles north of La?icaster, on a rising ground called
Bolton (pronounce Boutoti) we had a full view of CartmeU-
5 sands, with here and there a passenger riding over them,
(it being low water) the points of Furness shooting far
into the sea, and lofty mountains partly covered with
clouds extending North of them. Lancaster also appeared
very conspicuous and fine, for its most distinguished

10 features, the castle and the church mounted on a green
eminence, were all that could be seen. Woe is me !
when I got thither, it was the second day of their fair ;
the inn in the principal street was a great old gloomy
house full of people, but I found tolerable quarters, and

15 even slept two nights in peace.

Ascended the castle-hill in a fine afternoon ; it takes
up the higher top of the eminence on which it stands,
and is irregularly round encompassed with a deep moat.
In front towards the town is a magnificent Gothic gate-

20 way, lofty and huge, the over-hanging battlements are
supported by a triple range of corbels, the intervals
pierced through and showing the day from above ; on its
top rise light watch-towers of small height, it opens below
with a grand pointed arch ; over this is a wrought taber-

25 nacle, doubtless once containing the founder's figure, on
one side a shield of France semy quartered with England,
on the other the same with a label ermine for John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. This opens to a court
within, which I did not much care to enter being the

30 county gaol and full of prisoners, both criminals and
debtors. From this gate-way the walls continue and join
it to a vast square tower of great height, the lower part
at least of remote antiquity; for it has small round-
headed lights with plain short pillars on each side of

PROSE. 1 1 7

them ; there is a third tower also square and of less
dimensions, this is all the castle : near it and but little
lower stands the church a large and plain Gothic fabric :
the high square tower at the west end has been rebuilt of
late years, but nearly in the same style. There are no 5
ornaments of arms, &c. any where to be seen, within it is
lightsome and spacious, but not one monument of
antiquity, or piece of painted glass is left : from the
church-yard there is an extensive sea-view (for now the
tide had almost covered the sands, and filled the river), 10
and besides greatest part of Fiirness I could distinguish
Peel-castle on the Isle of Fowdrey, which lies off its south
ern extremity, the town is built on the slope, and at the
foot of the Castle-hill more than twice the bigness of
Auckland, with many neat buildings of white stone, but a 15
little disorderly in their position ad libitum like Kendal.
Many also extend below on the Keys by the river side,
where a number of ships were moored, some of them
three mast vessels, decked out with their colours in
honour of the fair. Here is a good bridge of four arches 20
over the Lune, which runs when the tide is out in two
streams divided by a bed of gravel, which is not covered
but in spring tides, below the town it widens to near the
breadth of the Thames at London, and meets the sea at
five or six miles distance to the S. \V. 25

Oct. ii. Wind S. W. ; clouds and sun: warm and a
fine dappled sky : crossed the river and walked over a
peninsula three miles to the village of Pooton, which
stands on the beach. An old fisherman mending his
nets (while I enquired about the danger of passing those 30
sands) told me in his dialect a moving story. How a
brother of the trade, a cockier (as he styled him) driving
a little cart with two daughters (women grown) in it, and
his wife on horseback following, set out one day to pass

u8 PROSE.

the Seven Mile Sands, as they had frequently been used
to do : for nobody in the village knew them better than
the old man did. When they were about half way over a
thick fog rose, and as they advanced, they found the
5 water much deeper than they expected. The old man
was puzzled, he stopped, and said he would go a little
way to find some mark he was acquainted with. They
staid a little while for him but in vain. They called
aloud, but no reply, at last the young women pressed

10 their mother to think where they were, and go on. She
would not leave the place, she wandered about forlorn
and amazed. She would not quit her horse, and get into
the cart with them. They determined, after much time
wasted to turn back, and give themselves up to the

15 guidance of their horses. The old woman was soon
washed off and perished. The poor girls clung close to
their cart, and the horse, sometimes wading, and some
times swimming brought them back ,to land alive, but
senseless with terror and distress and unable for many

20 days to give any account of themselves. The bodies of
their parents were found soon after (next ebb) ; that of
the father a very few paces distant from the spot where
he had left them.

In the afternoon wandered about the town and by the

25 key till it was dark. A little rain fell.

Oct. 12. Wind North-east. Sky gloomy, then gleams
of sunshine. Set out for Settle by a fine turnpike road,
29 miles.

Rich and beautiful enclosed country diversified with

3° frequent villages and churches very uneven ground, and
on the left the river Lune winding in a deep valley, its
hanging banks clothed with fine woods, through which
you catch long reaches of the water, as the road winds
about at a considerable height above it. Passed the

PROSE. 119

Park (Hon. Mr. Clifford's, a Catholic) in the most
picturesque part of the way. The grounds between him
and the River are indeed charming : the house is ordinary,
and the Park nothing but a rocky fell scattered over with
ancient hawthorns. Came to Hornby, a little town on 5
the River Wanning, over which a handsome bridge is
now in building. The Castle in a lordly situation
attracted me, so I walked up the hill to it. First
presents itself a large but ordinary white gentleman's
house sashed, behind it rises the ancient keep built by 10
Edward Stanley, Lord Monteagle, in Henry the VIHth's
time. It is now a shell only, though rafters are laid
within it as for flooring. I went up a winding stone
staircase in one corner to the leads, and at the angle is a
single hexagon watch-tower rising some feet higher fitted 15
up in the taste of a modern Toot, with sash-windows in
gilt frames, and a stucco cupola, and on the top a vast
gilt eagle, by Mr. Charteris, the present possessor. But
he has not lived here since the year 1745, when the
people of Lancaster insulted him, threw stones into his 20
coach and almost made his wife (Lady Catherine Gordon)
miscarry. Since that he has built a great ugly house of
red stone (thank God it is not in England) near Hadding-
ton, which I remember to have passed by. He is the
second son of the Earl of Wemyss, and brother to the 25
Lord Elcho ; grandson to Colonel Charteris, whose name
he bears. From the leads of the tower there is a fine
view of the country round and much wood near the
Castle. Ingleborough, which I had seen before distinctly
at Lancaster, to North-east, was now completely wrapt in 3°
clouds, all but its summit, which might have been easily
mistaken for a long black cloud too, fraught with an
approaching storm. Now our road began gradually to
mount towards the Appennine, the trees growing less and

120 PROSE.

thinner of leaves till we came to Ingleton, 18 miles : It is
a pretty village, situated very high and yet in a valley at
the foot of that huge creature of God Ingleborough. Two
torrents cross it with great stones rolled along their bed
5 instead of water : over them are two handsome arches
flung. Here at a little ale-house, where Sir Bellingham
Graham, and Mr. Parker, Lord of the Manor, (one of
them six feet and a half high, and the other as much in
breadth) came to dine. The nipping air (though the

10 afternoon was growing very bright) now taught us we were
in Craven ; the road was all up and down (though no where
very steep) to the left were mountain-tops, to the right a
wide valley ; (all enclosed ground) and beyond it high
hills again. In approaching Settle the crags on the left

15 draw nearer to our way ; till we ascended Brun ton-brow,
into a cheerful valley, (though thin of trees) to Giggles-
wick, a village with a small piece of water by its side
covered over with coots. Near it a church, which
belongs also to Settle, and half a mile further having

20 passed the Ribble over a bridge arrived at Settle. It is
a small market-town standing directly under a rocky fell,
There are not a dozen good-looking houses, the rest are
old and low, with little wooden porticoes in front. My
Inn pleased me much (though small) for the neatness and

25 civility of the good woman that kept it, so I lay there two
nights, and went

Oct. 13, to visit Gordale-scar. Wind N. E. : day gloomy
and cold. It lay but six miles from Settle, but that way
was directly over a fell, and it might rain, so I went

3° round in a chaise the only way one could get near it in a
carriage, which made it full thirteen miles ; and half of it
such road ! but I got safe over it, so there's an end ;
and came to Mallham (pronounce it Maum) a village in
the bosom of the mountains seated in a wild and dreary

PROSE. 1 2 i

valley : from thence I was to walk a mile over very rough
ground. A torrent rattling along on the left hand. On
the cliffs above hung a few goats ; one of them danced
and scratched an ear with its hind foot in a place where
I would not have stood stock-still for all beneath the 5
moon : As I advanced the crags seemed to close in,
but discovered a narrow entrance turning to the left
between them. I followed my guide a few paces, and lo,
the hills opened again into no large space, and then all
further way is barred by a stream, that at the height of 10
above 50 feet gushes from a hole in the rock, and spread
ing in large sheets over its broken front, dashes from
steep to steep, and then rattles away in a torrent down
the valley. The rock on the left rises perpendicular with
stubbed yew-trees and shrubs, staring from its side to the 15
height of at least 300 feet ; but those are not the things :
it is that to the right under which you stand to see the
fall, that forms the principal horror of the place. From
its very base it begins to slope forwards over you in one
block and solid mass without any crevice in its surface 20
and overshadows half the area below with its dreadful
canopy. When I stood at (I believe) full four yards
distance from its foot, the drops which perpetually distil
from its brow, fell on my head, and in one part of the top
more exposed to the weather there are loose stones that 25
hang in the air ; and threaten visibly some idle spectator
with instant destruction : It is safer to shelter yourself
close to its bottom, and trust the mercy of that enormous
mass, which nothing but an earthquake can stir: The
gloomy uncomfortable day well suited the savage aspect 3°
of the place and made it still more formidable.

I stayed there (not without shuddering) a quarter of an
hour, and thought my trouble richly paid, for the impres
sion will last for life : At the ale-house where I dined in

122 PROSE.

Maum, Vivares, the landscape painter, had lodged for a
week or more ; Smith and Sellers had also been there ;
and two prints of Gordale have been engraved by them :
I returned to my comfortable inn : Night fine : but windy
5 and frosty.

Oct. 14. Went to Skipton 16 miles. Wind North East ;
gloomy. At one o'clock a little sleet falls. From several
parts of the road, and in many places about Settle, I saw
at once the three famous hills of this country, Ingle-

10 borough, Penigent, and Pendle ; the first is esteemed the
highest ; their features are hard to describe, but I could
trace their outline with a pencil. [In the manuscript is
inserted a rough outline of the shape of these three
mountains, in this place.] Craven after all is an unpleas-

15 ing country, when seen from a height. Its valleys are
chiefly wide and either marshy or enclosed pasture with
a few trees: Numbers of black cattle are fatted here,
both of the Scotch breed and a larger sort of oxen with
great horns. There is little cultivated ground except a

20 few oats.

Oct. 15. Wind North East. Gloomy. At noon a
few grains of sleet fell, Then bright and clear. Went
through Long Preston and Gargrave to Skipton, 16 miles :
It is a pretty large market town in a valley with one very

25 broad street gently sloping downwards from the castle
which stands at the head of it ; this is one of our good
Countess's buildings, but on old foundations, it is not
very large ; but of a handsome antique appearance with
round towers, a grand gateway, bridge, and moat, and

30 many old trees about it. In good repair, and kept up as
a habitation of the Earl of Thanet ; though he rarely
comes thither. What with the sleet and a foolish dispute
about chaises that delayed me, I did not see the inside
of it : But went on 1 5 miles to Ottley. First up Shode-

PROSE. 123

bank, the steepest hill I ever saw a road carried over in
England. For it mounts up in a straight line (without
any other repose for the horses than by placing stones
every now and then behind the wheels) for a full mile.
Then the road goes on a level along the brow of this high 5
hill over Rumbold Moor, till it gently descends into Wharf-
dale. So they call the Vale of the Wharf : and a beauti
ful vale it is. Well wooded, well cultivated, well
inhabited, but with high crags at distance, that border
the green country on either hand, through the midst of 10
it, deep, clear, full to the brink and of no inconsiderable
breadth runs in long windings the river ; how it comes to
pass that it should be so fine and copious a stream here,
and at Tadcaster ( so much lower) should have nothing
but a wide stony channel without water, I cannot tell 15
you ; I passed through Long Addingham, Ilkeley (pro
nounce Eccla) distinguished by a lofty brow of loose
rocks to the right ; Burley, a neat and pretty village
among trees ; On the opposite side of the river lay
Middleton Lodge, belonging to a Catholic gentleman of 20
that name. Weston, a venerable stone fabric with large
offices, of Mr. Vavasor. The meadows in front gently
descending to the water, and behind a great and shady
wood. Farnley (Mr. Fawkes) a place like the last ; but
larger and rising higher on the side of the hill. Ottley is 25
a large airy town, with clean but low rustic buildings, and
a bridge over the Wharf. I went into its spacious Gothic
church, which has been new roofed with a flat stucco
ceiling. In a corner of it is the monument of Thomas
Lord Fairfax and Helen Aske, his Lady, descended from 3°
the Cliffords and Latimers, as her epitaph says. The
figures not ill cut ; particularly his in armour, but bare
headed ; lie on the tomb. I take them for the grand
parents of the famous Sir Thomas Fairfax.

124 PROSE.

I have utterly forgot, where my journal left off, but
(I think) it was after the account of Gordale, near Settle.
If so, there was little more worth your notice : the
principal things were Wharf dale in the way from Skipton
5 to Ottley, and Kirkstall Abbey, three miles from Leeds.
The -first is the valley formed by the River Wharf, well
cultivated, well inhabited, well wooded, but with high
rocky crags at distance, that border the green country on
either hand : Through the midst of it, runs the river in

10 long windings deep, clear, and full to the brink, and of
no inconsiderable breadth. How it comes to be so fine
and copious a stream here, and at Tadcaster (so much
lower) should have nothing but a wide stony channel,
with little or no water, I cannot tell you. Kirkstall is a

15 noble ruin in the Semi-Saxon style of building, as old as
K. Stephen, toward the end of his reign, 1152. The
whole church .is still standing (the roof excepted) seated
in a delicious quiet valley on the banks of the River Are,
and preserved with religious reverence by the Duke of

20 Montagu. Adjoining to the church between that and the
river are variety of chapels, and remnants of the abbey,
shattered by the encroachments of the ivy, and sur
mounted by many a sturdy tree, whose twisted roots
break through the fret of the vaulting, and hang stream-

25 ing from the roofs. The gloom of these ancient cells,
the shade and verdure of the landscape, the glittering
and murrnur of the stream, the lofty towers and long
perspectives of the church, in the midst of a clear bright
day, detained me for many hours and were the truest

3° subjects for my glass I have yet met with any where.
As I lay at that smoky ugly busy town of Leeds, I dropt
all farther thoughts of my journal, and after passing two
days at Mason's (though he was absent), pursued my way
by Nottingham, Leicester, Harborough, Kettering,

PXOSE. 125

Thrapston, and Huntingdon, to Cambridge, where I
arrived, 22 October; having met with no rain to
signify, till this last day of my journey. There's luck
for you !

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

ODE ON THE SPRING.

Gray wrote this Ode at Stoke in June, 1742. He sent it to his
school friend, Richard West, not knowing that West's death had
already occurred on the first of June. The Ode was first published
in 1748, in Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands, with
no signature ; it next appeared in the folio of 1753, Designs by Mr.
R. B entity, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray. Gray added the foot
notes in the edition of his Poems in 1768. Mason said that Gray
originally gave the title of Noontide to this Ode ; and Mr. Gosse,
Gray's Works, I, 4, notes that in a copy of the poem, in Gray's
handwriting, preserved at Pembroke College, the title is : Noon-tide.
An Ode. Mason said that Gray probably meant to write two com
panion pieces, Morning and Evening. He suggested that the Ode
on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude, beginning " Now the
golden Morn aloft " may have been intended for the Morning ode,
and the Elegy for the Evening. These conjectures are ingenious,
whether true or not.

i. Hours. The Horae, goddesses of the changes of the seasons.
Cf. Comus, 986 : " The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours."
Mitford notes that the Hours are joined with Aphrodite in the
second Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5) and that to Apollo (194-5)
and are made part of her train in Hesiod (Works and Days, 75).

3. Disclose. Open, expand. Cf.

" The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons [i.e. buds] be disclosed."

Hamlet, i, 2, 39-40.

5. The Attic Warbler. The Nightingale. This bird is very
common in Attica. Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of
Athens, was supposed to have been changed into a nightingale. —
Wakefield compares Milton, Par. Reg., iv, 245:

I2g NOTES ON THE POEMS.

" Where the Attic bird
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long " ;

and Mitford adds Pope, Essay on Man, iii, 33 :

" Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat ? "

ii. Where'er the oak's, etc. The quiet scenery here described
exhibits, perhaps, a touch of Romantic feeling ; but the conventional
moralizing at the end of the stanza is thoroughly Augustan.

14. The passage from Shakspere that Gray gives in his note on
this line is from Mid. Night's Dream, ii, I, 249-251 :

" I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine."

21. Care. Gray's fondness for personified abstractions is espe
cially noticeable in his early odes. This custom was very fashionable
among his contemporaries. They were all much affected in this
respect by Milton's early poems. See Introduction, p. xxiv.

27. The note by Gray is from the Georgics, iv, 59.

30. Par. Lost, vii, 405, 406.

31. To Contemplation's, etc. Cf. Gray's Letter to Walpole
(Gray's Works, ed. Gosse, II, 222): "I send you a bit of a thing for
two reasons ; first, because it is one of your favourites, Mr. M. Green;
and next, because I would do justice. The thought on which my
second Ode [Spring] turns is manifestly stole from hence ; not that
I knew it at the time, but having seen this many years before, to be
sure it imprinted itself on my memory, and, forgetting the Author,
I took it for my own. The subject was the Queen's Hermitage."
He then quotes a long passage, of which the verses that follow are
the most significant :

" The thinking sculpture helps to raise
Deep thoughts, the genii of the place :
To the mind's ear, and inward sight,
There silence speaks, and shade gives light :
While insects from the threshold preach,
And minds dispos'd to musing teach ;
Proud of strong limbs and painted hues,
They perish by the slightest bruise ;
Or maladies begun within
Destroy more slow life's frail machine ;
From maggot-youth, thro' change of state,
They feel like us the turns of fate:

NOTES ON THE POEMS. I2g

Some born to creep have liv'd to fly

And chang'd earth's cells for dwellings high :

And some that did their six wings keep,

Before they died, been forced to creep.

They politics, like ours, profess ;

The greater prey upon the less.

Some strain on foot huge loads to bring,

Some toil incessant on the wing :

Nor from their vigorous schemes desist

Till death ; and then they are never mist.

Some frolick, toil, marry, increase,

Are sick and well, have war and peace ;

And broke with age in half a day,

Yield to successors, and away."

44. A solitary fly. Mason, writing to Gray, 8 January 1761, said,
[I am living] " in that state of life which my old friend Jeremy
Taylor so well describes in his sermon aptly entitled the Marriage
Ring. ' Celibate life,' says he, 'like the flie in the heart of an apple,
dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined, and
dies in singularity. But marriage, like the useful bee, builds a house,
gathers sweetness from every flower, labours, and unites into societys
and republics,' &c. If I survive you, and come to publish your
works, I shall quote this passage, from whence you so evidently
(without ever seeing it) took that thought, ' Poor moralist, and what
art thou,' &c. But the plagiarism had been too glaring had you
taken the heart of the apple, in which, however, the great beauty
of the thought consists. After all, why will you not read Jeremy
Taylor ? Take my word and more for it, he is the Shakespeare of
divines." It is interesting to learn from Mason's letter that at this
time Gray had not read Taylor ; his remarks in reply to Mason may
be found on page 90 of this volume.

48. Thy youth is flown. Gray had reached the age of twenty-
five.

II.
ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.

Gray wrote this ode in August, 1742, at Stoke, but it was not
printed till 1747. It was the first of his English pieces to appear
in print, and was published anonymously at sixpence. In 1748 it
appeared, once more anonymously, in Dodsley's Collection of Poems ;

I30 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

and in 1753 it came third in the ornate Six Poems edition. The
motto is from Menander, ap. Stobaeum, Florileg. 98, 7. Fragm.
Comic. Graec. ed. A. Meineke IV, 291, fragm. 263; also Comic.
Attic, fragm. ed. Th. Kock III, 221, fragm. 811. A similar thought
in Philemon, fragm. (Meineke Frag. Com. Gr. 100).

i. The view here described is full of the quiet beauty of the
English landscape.

i. Antique. By this word Gray means simply "ancient"; we
often use it with the connotation " old-fashioned."

4. Her Henry's holy shade. Ilolinshed's words (Chronicles, ed.
1808, III, 324-5) give the pertinent facts: "Of his owne naturall
inclination he abhorred all the vices as well of the bodie as of the
soule. His patience was such that of all the iniuries to him doone
(which were innumerable) he never asked vengeance, thinking that
for such adversitie as chanced to him, his sinnes should be for
gotten and forgiven. . . . For these before remembered, and other
the like properties of reputed holinesse, which was said to rest in
him, it pleased God to worke miracles for him in his life time as
men have listed to report. By reason whereof, King Henrie the
Seaventh sued to Pope lulio the Second to have him canonized a
saint. But for that the canonizing of a king seemed to be more
costlie than for a bishop, the said king left off his sute in that
behalf." Wakefield calls attention to some of Gray's other references
to Henry VI. : "And spare the meek Usurper's holy head," Bard,
v. 90 ; " the murther'd saint," Ode for Music, v. 46.

5. And ye, etc. The towers of the castle of Windsor, the present
residence of the Queen.

9. Hoary Thames. Rivers are often spoken of as old; cf. " Old
Father Tiber." Cf. also Pope, " Old father Thames advanced his
reverend head," Windsor Forest, 330. Cf. also Spenser's famous
description of "full-aged" Thame (F. Q. iv, n, 25-26), and Milton's
of Camus "reverend sire," Lycidas, 103 ff.

12. Fields belov'd in vain. They recall to him the happy days
he had spent with his school friend Richard West, who had just
died (see p. 127). These fields cannot now give him any pleasure,
because they remind him of his loss.

1 6. Momentary bliss. Forgetting his sorrow for a moment in
the joy of happy recollections.

19. Gray's note is from Dryden's verses Of the Pythagorean
Philosophy (v. no). From the Fifteenth Book of Ovid's Meta
morphoses.

NOTES ON THE POEMS. 131

25-30. Who foremost, etc. Referring to school sports : swim
ming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my
authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead
of cricket.

32. Murm' ring labours. School-boys mouthing over their books.

39. They hear a voice. The pursuing master.

42. Less pleasing when possest. Mildly pessimistic.

48. The easy night. Gray's ill-health made his nights anything
but " easy " in later life.

51. Alas, regardless of their doom. Rather heavy moralizing
for a poet of twenty-five.

55. Around 'em. This abbreviation sounds vulgar to the taste
of to-day ; but it caused no shock then.

60. Ah, tell them, they are men ! A stronger touch of pessimism.
Cf. the motto of the poem : " Man, a sufficient occasion for calamity."

61-80. Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv).

79. Palamon and Arcite, ii, 1192.

81. Lo ! in the vale of years, etc. After the mental sufferings
caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age.

83. Cf. Progress of Poesy, 42 ff. Family is fa m ilia in the literal
Latin sense.

84. More hideous, etc. Diseases worse than death.

92. Alike. "Alike" goes with "condemned," not with "to
groan."

95. Yet ah ! why should they know their fate ? Wakefield
gives the following illustrative passages. — Milton's Comus, 359-363:

" Peace, brother : be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils ;
For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid ? "

and from Terence, Hecyra, Hi, i , 6 :

" Nam nos omnes, quibus alicunde aliquis objectus labos,
Omne quod interea tempus, prius quam id rescitumst, lucrost."

The sentiment is common enough, however, and had found perhaps
its most familiar expression only a few years before Gray's lines were
written, in Pope's Essay on Man, i, 77 ff.:

" Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate," etc.

132 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

III.
HYMN TO ADVERSITY.

The summer of 1742 was a prolific season for Gray. The two
preceding Odes, the following Sonnet, and the present Hymn were
all written then. This poem he wrote at Stoke in August, as we
learn from his MS. note. It appeared in print for the first time as
No. 5 in the Six Poems of 1753; and in 1755 it was printed in
Vol. IV of Dodsley's Collection of Poems. Gray was never in a
hurry to publish.

i. Daughter of Jove. Homer, Iliad, xix, 91, makes Ate (*ATT?)
the daughter of Zeus, but Mitford goes too far in suggesting that Ate
(Infatuation) "may be called the goddess of Adversity." The
alternative suggestion is doubtless right : God sends adversity to
men with some wise purpose; Daughter of Jove alludes to the
Greek motto of the poem, Agamem. 167-171, which means "Zeus
it is who has led mortals to wisdom by establishing it as a fixed law
that knowledge comes by suffering." The readings of this passage
from yEschylus vary in details in different editions ; misprints are
TU> for r<5 : fj.adav for fj,d6av.

1-8. Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently
suggested by Paradise Lost:

" The vassals of his anger, when the scourge
Inexorably, and the torturing JiourT — ii, 90, 91.

" In adamantine chains and penal fire." — i, 48.

" Strange horror seize thee, and fangs ttnfelt before!' — ii, 703.

But adamantine chains is very common among poets.

7. Purple Tyrants. Wakefield quotes Horace, Od. i, 35, 12:
' Purpurei metuunt tyranni."

10-12. The common thought that virtue springs from adversity,
as vice from luxury — as false as common.

18. Folly's idle brood. Cf. // Penseroso, 1-2.

22. The summer friend. Referring to summer's days of ease.
Cf. Hamlet, iii, 2, 217 ff. Mitford quotes George Herbert:

"... fall and flow

Like leaves about me, or like summer friends,
Flies of estates and sunshine."

The Temple, short poem The Answer.

NOTES ON THE POEMS. T^

26 ff. Wakefield quotes Milton, // Penseroso, 38-44 :

" With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes :
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast."

35. Gorgon terrors. , The snaky head of Medusa.

36. Vengeful band. The Furies.

40. Ghastly Poverty. Poverty always seemed terrible to Gray.
Cf. Progress of Poesy, 43: " Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,"
and Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, 88, where Poverty
" fills the band " of disease, and " numbs the soul with icy hand."

41-44. To some people Adversity is not a curse ; it brings only
a " sweet melancholy," stimulating reflection.

47. Exact my own defects, etc. Gray was proud, fastidious, and
over-sensitive, and he knew it.

IV.
SONNET ON THE DEATH OF RICHARD WEST.

Richard West died on the first of June, 1742, and Gray wrote
this Sonnet at Stoke in August of the same year ; but it was not
published until 1775, when it appeared in Mason's Life of Gray.

This poem has a historical significance, as it was the first English
sonnet written in the eighteenth century that has survived. With
the exception of Walsh's Sonnet on Death, this sonnet of Gray's has
the distinction of being the first poem of the kind since the sonnets
of Milton — another interesting link between Gray and the great
Puritan poet. For an account of the disappearance and revival of
the Sonnet-form, see Wm. Lyon Phelps, Beginnings of the English
Romantic Movement (1893), PP- 44""4^- Observe the curious metrical
form, ab, ab, ab, ab, cd, cd, cd.

This sonnet is full of Miltonic phrases : Bradshaw notes " smiling
morn," Par. Lost, v, 168 ; xi, 173-175; "amorous descant," Par.
Lost, iv, 603 ; and Milton uses " attire " for the covering of the fields,
Par. Lost, vii, 501.

I34 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

2. Phoebus. Wordsworth was no doubt thinking of this and
other classicisms in Gray when he made his unjust attack on this
Sonnet. See Wordsworth's Prose Works, ed. Grosart, II, 85.

4. Chearful fields, etc. Gray was usually a most sympathetic
observer of the changes of nature.

5. Other notes. West had been in the habit of sending his
verses to Gray, as fast as he composed them. Gray usually care
fully and minutely criticised them, as he did the productions of
Mason and Beattie. See D. C. Tovey, Gray and His Friends (1890),
Section II, and the letters from West to Gray in Gray's Works,
Vol. II.

7. My lonely anguish. Gray never shared his emotions with
any one. In spite of the classicisms, the tone of sincerity in this
Sonnet is unmistakable. Gray never loved man or woman as he
loved Richard West. Observe his apostrophe to West, under the
name Favonius, at the end of Gray's Latin fragment, De Principiis
CogitatiJi.

V.

ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT.

This Ode was written early in the year 1747, and first saw the
light in a letter to Horace Walpole, dated i March, 1747, in which
we learn that the poem was playfully written by Gray to commemo
rate the untimely drowning of one of his friend's pet cats. (See
p. 69.) Walpole seems to have admired the poem fully as much as
he had loved its object ; and after Gray's death the china bowl in
which the cat was drowned was placed on a pedestal at Strawberry
Hill, with a quotation from the present poem.

This Ode was first published in Vol. II of Dodsley's Collection of
Poems, 1748, and that Gray himself liked it may be seen from the
fact that it appeared also in the Six Poems of 1753, and in Gray's
own carefully edited volume of 1768. The Ode is a trifle, but is
polished with all of Gray's fastidious workmanship. Gray sent it to
his friend Thomas Wharton, with some playful comments, March,
1747 (Works, II, 164).

3. That blow. The flowers are painted on the vase in full bloom.

4. Tabby. Skeat gives the meaning of this word as " a kind of
waved silk," and adds, " A tabby cat is one marked like the silk.''

NOTES ON THE POEMS. ^5

The word comes from the Arabic. A tabby cat would, therefore,
strictly mean a cat whose fur is streaked black and gray ; but in
line 10 Gray seems to imply that the cat in question was a tortoise-
shell. Tortoise-shell cats are often called tabby ; indeed, the adjec
tive is not infrequently applied to cats in general. Gray uses the
word again in his letter to Walpole. (See p. 70.) In Bentley's Print
the cat is gray, with pronounced black streaks ; not a tortoise-shell.

6. The lake. The poem is consistently mock-heroic throughout.

12. She saw. She gazes with pride on the reflection of her own
beauty, like Narcissus.

16. Tyrian hue. Alluding to Tyrian purple.

26. Again she stretch'd. A good picture of the comical length
ening out of a cat's form when her eyes are on the game.

31. Eight times. A cat has nine lives, as everybody knows.

34. No Dolphin came. Alluding to the well-known story of the
dolphin's carrying Arion on his back to land. It is possible that
the allusion in Nereid is to the story of Sabrina in Comus.

42. Nor all, that glisters, gold. A very old proverb, of which
Mitford quotes many examples. His list could be indefinitely
extended.

VI.
THE ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT.

Gray sent a portion of this poem to his friend, Dr. Wharton, in a
letter from Stoke, August, 1748, in which he speaks of it as " a sort
of Essay." The poem, with its serious ethical purpose, and with its
Heroic Couplet form, is distinctly Augustan, and is included in this
edition less on account of its intrinsic interest than because of its
significance in Gray's career. The fact that he never finished it
gives evidence that he outgrew it ; and, indeed, it is wellnigh impos
sible to imagine the Gray of later years writing a piece like this.
His friends, who were greatly pleased with such a didactic poem,
besought him again and again to complete it ; his answer was,
he could not.

The Alliance was first published by Mason, in 1775, in his Memoirs
of Gray. Few notes are necessary, as Mason's commentary is
enough to satisfy all ordinary curiosity. For the present text, I
have collated Mason, Gosse, and Bradshaw.

136

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

The Motto from Theocritus, Id. i, 62, 63, may be thus translated :
" Come on, my friend ; for your song you shall not hoard up for
Hades, which brings forgetfulness."

The last couplet quoted by Mason is really worth all the rest of
the poem; Gray had a way of omitting extremely good things, as
we know by the stanzas he wrote but would not publish with his
Elegy.

An interesting subject for study would be a metrical analysis of
this poem ; although the measure is the regulation Heroic Couplet,
Gray's use of it is more free and less monotonous than was cus
tomary at the time. Even on a poor limited instrument, confined to
only onfe key, Gray could produce more music than many a poet
could with better materials and with a more tuneful theme.

VII.
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.

Although nearly all the editors state as a fact that the Elegy was
begun in 1742, there seems to be no actual basis for this statement.
In Mason's Memoirs of Gray (1775), p. 157, we find: " I am inclined
to believe that the Elegy in a Country Church-yard was begun, if
not concluded, at this time also" (August, 1742). But this is all
the genuine evidence I have been able to discover. In Wakefield's
Poems of Mr. Gray (1786), p. xi, we find : " It is highly probable that
the Elegy in a Country Church-yard was begun also about this
time" (August, 1742). Later editors state positively that it was
begun in 1742 (Mitford, Gosse, Bradshaw, Rolfe, etc.). Mason seems
to have had evidence for the 1742 date sufficient to satisfy Walpole,
though what that evidence was we do not know. Writing to Mason,
i December 1773 (Letters, VI, 22), Walpole says, speaking of the
forthcoming Memoirs of Gray : " There are . . . errors in point of
dates. . . . The 'Churchyard' was, I am persuaded, posterior to
West's death [1742] at least three or four years, as you will see by
my note. At least I am sure that I .had the twelve or more first
lines from himself above three years after that period, and it was
long before he finished it." Mason evidently made some satisfac
tory reply, for two weeks later, 14 December 1773 (Letters, VI, 31),
Walpole writes : " Your account of- the ' Elegy ' puts an end to my

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

J37

other criticism." Then Mason in 1775 made the statement just
quoted above. At any rate, 1742 is the traditional date; we know
that it was finished at Stoke Poges, in June, 1750 (see p. 70). It
is not probable that Gray was steadily working at it all these years,
even if he did begin it in 1742. For interesting conjectures as to
causes that inspired the poem, see Gosse, Life of Gray, pp. 66, 96.

Gray was in no more haste to publish the poem than he had
apparently been to complete it. After June, 1750, it was circulated
in manuscript among his friends, and only an accident hastened its
publication. An editor of the Magazine of Magazines, a cheap
periodical, sent word to Gray that he was about to print it, and
naturally the author did not care to have a poem of this nature
make its entrance into the world by so obscure a by-path. He
therefore had it published (anonymously) on February 16, 1751, by
the great London publisher, Dodsley.

The Elegy leaped immediately into enormous popularity. Edition
followed edition in rapid succession ; it was translated into living
and dead languages; and — a sure evidence of popularity — it was
repeatedly parodied.

The facts as to its publication, etc., may be found in Gosse's
edition of Gray's Works, and in Gosse's Life of Gray, although Mr.
Gosse curiously contradicts himself on pp. 66 and 96 of the latter
book.

1. The curfew tolls. The passage from Dante quoted by Gray
is Purgatorio, canto viii, 5, 6.

The standard History of England in Gray's time, that by Thomas
Carte, describes the curfew law of William the Conqueror as " an
ordinance, that all the common people should put out their fire and
candle and go to bed at seven a clock, upon the ringing of a bell,
called the couvre fen bell, on pain of death ; a regulation, which
having been made in an assembly of the estates of Normandie at
Caen, in A.D. 1061, to prevent the debauches, disorders, and other
mischiefs frequently committed at night, had been practised with
good success in that country." (Book v, vol. I, p. 422, 1747.)

2. Wind. Often incorrectly printed and quoted "winds."
" Wind " is better for two reasons : it is more melodious, as it
avoids the hiss of a double s ; it has more poetical connotation,
for it suggests a long, slowly-moving line of cattle rather than a
closely packed herd.

Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening, which contains a number of
passages strikingly similar to the Elegy, although — so far as I

!-,$ NOTES ON THE POEMS.

know — the similarity has not been noticed by editors. Warton's
Odes were published in 1746. One stanza in particular Gray may
have had in mind when he composed the first stanza of his Elegy:

" Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves."

Collins's Odes were published the same year as J. Warton's (1746),
and the whole atmosphere of Collins's Ode to Evening is similar to
that of the Elegy. Cf. especially stanza 10 :

" And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires ;
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
The dewy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil."

For Gray's remarks on Warton's and Collins's Odes, see p. 81. Cf.
also Ambrose Philips, Pastoral ii, end :

" And now behold the sun's departing ray
O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day.
With songs the jovial hinds return from plow,
And unyok'd heifers, pacing homeward, low."

5. Now fades, etc. This is a bit of the quiet scenery so dear to
the hearts of the early Romanticists ; and in the next stanza we
have the inevitable owl in the moonlight. The scenery as well as
the meditations of the Elegv were by no means original ; they simply
established more firmly literary fashions which were already fast
becoming popular.

6. And all the air. "Air" is subject, not object, of "holds."

7. Save where the beetle. Cf. Macbeth, iii, 2 :

" The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums."
Cf. also J. Warton's Ode to Evening:

"And with hoarse hummings of unnumber'd flies."
Cf. also Collins's Ode to Evening, stanza 3 :

" Or when the beetle winds,
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in needless hum."

Milton's Lycidas, 28 :

" What time the grey-fly winds her sultry i

NOTES ON THE POi

'39

n. Bow'r. In the old sense of chamber. The bower was the
sleeping apartment for the lord and lady ; while the hall was the
living-room, the dining-room, and, for the retainers, the sleeping-
room.

1 6. Rude. Referring to their rustic simplicity. The poor people
were always buried in the church-yard ; the rich inside the church.

20. Lowly bed. This probably refers to the humble couch on
which they have spent the night ; but it is meant to suggest the
grave as well.

21. For them no more, etc. Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907 :

•• At jam non donuis accipiet te l.iet.i, in-quo uxor
Optima, nee dulces occurrent oscula nati

: ipere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent."

\Vakefield also quotes Thomson, ll'infer, 311, describing the man
dying in the snow :

"In vain for him the officious wife prep
The tiro tair-bl.i/.ing and the vestment warm:
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence. Alas!
Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold,
Nor friends, nor sacred home."

26. Glebe. From l.ati; neaning the ground.

29-32. The rimes in this statua are scarcely exact ; but the last
line is one of the most famous in tl.

33. The boast of heraldry, etc. Mitford compares West's

.•v.'.v.v, lH>dsle\' -• (-/" / \vw.r, vol. ii:

"All me! what boots us all our boasted p

Cur golden treasure, and our purple state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate."

This Monody directly followed Gray's three odes, /:.

in Dodsiey.

35. Awaits. " //,';<•;•" is the subject, not the object of '

Many editors have printed "awii/," doubtless thinking that

,_>/" •:. :c.. was meant to be the sul>!

43. Provoke. In the Latin sense, (Rolfe.)

46. Pregnant with celestial fire. Divinely inspired.

I4o NOTES ON THE POEMS.

50. Rich with the spoils of time. Mitford quotes Sir Thomas
Browne, Religio Medici, section xiii (verse) :

" Rich with the spoils of nature."

51. Rage. Often used for enth usiasm. (Hales.)

52. Genial. This can hardly be taken in the modern sense ; it
may be used in the sense of " natural," " belonging to one's genius,"
or possibly with the meaning " endowed with genius."

53. Full many a gem, etc. There are a number of passages
strikingly similar to this. Mitford suggests the following (I give
the references more exactly) from Coimis, lines 22-23 :

" That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep."

From Ambrose Philips, The Fable of Thule:

" Like woodland flowers, which paint the desert glades,
And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades."

From William Chamberlayne, Pharonnida (London, 1659), Book
iv, canto 5, p. 94 :

" Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste the scent
Of odors in unhanted desarts."

From Bishop Joseph Hall, Contemplations, Book vi, Cont. i (Com
plete Works, Oxford, 1863, I> r37) : "There is many a rich stone
laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the
bosom of the sea, that never was seen nor never shall be."

Wakefield quotes Pope, Rape of the Lock, iv, 1 57, 1 58 :

" There kept my charms conceal'd from mortal eye,
Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1782, calls
attention to the following lines from Young, Love of Fame, Satire v,
On Women, lines 229-232 :

" In distant wilds, by human eyes unseen,
She rears her flow'rs and spreads her velvet green :
Pure gurgling rills, the lowly desert trace,
And waste their music on the savage race."

56. This line almost immediately became proverbial.

57. Some village Hampden, etc. See remark in Introduction,
p. xxvi, on this passage. Observe that Gray praises Hampden more

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

141

than Cromwell, who was at that time still generally misunderstood.
John Hampden, who lived in the same county that contained this
church-yard, refused in 1636 to pay the ship-money tax levied by
King Charles I.

59. Mute inglorious Milton. The glorious Milton rested for
some time in a cottage in the little village of Chalfont St. Giles,
where he finished Paradise Lost. This cottage is a very short
distance from Stoke Poges.

72. Here Gray originally inserted the following four stanzas :

" The thoughtless world to Majesty may bow,

Exalt the brave, and idolize success;
But more to innocence their safety owe,

Than Pow'r, or Genius, e'er conspir'd to bless.

" And thou, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead,

Dost in these notes their artless tale relate,
By night and lonely contemplation led
To wander in the gloomy walks of fate :

" Hark! how the sacred Calm, that breathes around,

Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease ;
In still small accents whispering from the ground,
A grateful earnest of eternal peace.

" No more, with reason and thyself at strife,

Give anxious cares and endless wishes room ;
But through the cool sequestered vale of life
Pursue the silent tenor of thy doom."

One must agree with Mason who said, " I think the third of these
rejected stanzas equal to any in the whole Elegy."

73. Far from, etc. Cf. the well-known line from Drummond
(ed. Turnbull, p. 38) :

" Far from the madding worldling's hoarse discords."

73. If there were no comma after "strife," the sense of this
couplet would be precisely the opposite of what Gray intended. No
wonder he was particular about his punctuation.

78. Still = always, as commonly in Shakspere.

81. Th' unlettr'd muse. Epitaphs are famous for ridiculous
errors.

85, 86. This may mean one of two things, (a) " For who, a prey
to dumb Forgetfulness, e'er resigned this pleasing anxious being ? "

142

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

or (b), " For who e'er resigned this pleasing anxious being to be a
prey to dumb Forgetfulness ? " Hales has discussed the matter at
length.

87. Precincts. This word, and the phrase "pleasing anxious
being," sound thoroughly Augustan ; no wonder Dr. Johnson
thought this stanza especially fine.

89-92. This stanza poetically answers the question put in the
preceding one. The last two lines are strongly imaginative. Some
editors think they refer to the epitaph cut on the stone, though no
such interpretation is really necessary. Could Gray have had in
mind Chaucer's line, as Mitford suggests ?

" Yet in cure asshen colde is fyr i-reke."

Prologue Reeve's Tale, 28.

92. Petrarch, Sonnet 170, lines 12, 13, 14.

95. Chance = perchance.

97-100. After this stanza Gray originally inserted the following :

" Him have we seen the greenwood side along,
While o'er the heath we hied our labour done,
Oft as the woodlark pip'd her farewell song,
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun."

100. Lawn. This means strictly, " a cleared place in a wood."
The word indicates nothing artificial, but is used as in Milton :
Lycidas, 25, 26 :

" Together both, ere Hie high lawns appeared
Under the opening eyelids of the Morn."

Mitford quotes (incorrectly) Par. Lost, v, 428, 429 :

" Though from off the boughs each morn we brush mellifluous dews."

101. Of yonder nodding beech. Cf. Gray's letter to Walpole,
Sept., 1737, p. 93, line 18 ff.

105-112. These two stanzas are now inscribed on the large and
unsightly memorial to Gray, which stands close by the church-yard
in Stoke Park.

115. For thou can'st read. This may mean that the "hoary-
headed swain " could not read ; or it may be a bit of poetical
emphasis.

1 1 6. After this stanza Gray originally inserted the following
beautiful quatrain, which, as Mr. Lowell justly said, cannot be

NOTES ON THE POEMS. I43

obliterated from the memory of men, even if Gray did run his pen
through it :

" There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen^re show'rs of violets found ;
The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground."

118. This line, which soon became proverbial, was certainly not
descriptive of Gray after the Elegy was published.

119. Fair science, etc. Science is here simply a general term
for Knowledge. The line means that Knowledge looked favorably
upon him at his birth (a quasi-astrological figure).

127. Petrarch, Sonnet 115, line 12 :

" Ma freddo foco, e paventosa speme."

VIII.
A LONG STORY.

This poem was written in 1750, and was first published in the
ornate Six Poems edition of 1753. Gray was unwilling to have it
published again, saying that it was of only personal interest (see
Gray's Works, III, 285). It was therefore omitted in the regular
1768 edition. Gosse and Bradshaw are wrong, however, in saying
that this poem was printed only once in Gray's lifetime (see Gosse's
Life of Gray, p. 103, and Bradshaw's Aldine edition, p. 231), for it
was published in a Dublin edition of Gray's poetry in 1768. (See
Bibliography.)

The circumstances connected with the birth of this poem are as
follows : Lady Cobham, who lived at Stoke Poges, had seen a MS.
copy of the Elegy, and was very anxious to know who the author
was. Learning that it was a Mr. Thomas Gray, and that this quiet
gentleman was then (August, 1750) living at his aunt's house at Stoke,
she determined to seek his acquaintance. She used as a cat's paw
two ladies who were then with her, Lady Schaub and Miss Harriet
Speed, and persuaded them to call on Gray's aunt. The two ladies
did so ; but unfortunately Mr. Gray was not at home. In a spirit
of fun they left a little note for him. Gray returned the call, and
became afterward intimately acquainted with Miss Speed. He cele-

I44 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

brated the call made on him by playfully writing his Long Story,
in the month of August, 1750, as we know by his own note to the
Pembroke MS. of the poem.

What Miss Speed thought we may see from her letter to Gray
(Tovey, Gray and his Friends, p. 197):

"SIR,

I am as much at a los/ to bestow the Commendation due to your per
formance as any of our modern Poets would be to imitate them ; Everybody
that has seen it, is charm'd and Lady Cobham was the first, tho' not the last
that regretted the loss of the 400 stanzas [should be 500] ; all that I can
say is, that your obliging inclination in sending it has fully answered ; as it
not only gave us amusement the rest of the Evening, but always will, on
reading it over. Lady Cobham and the rest of the Company hope to have
your's tomorrow at dinner.

" I am your oblig'd & obedient

"HENRIETTA JANE SPEED.

" Sunday."
[prob. Aug. 1750.]

2. An ancient pile. The mansion at Stoke was then occupied
by Lady Cobham. It had previously belonged to the Earls of Hun
tingdon and the Hatton family (but see note on v. n).

ii. My grave Lord-keeper. Cf. Naunton's famous sketch : " Sir
Christopher Hatton came into the Court as his opposite, Sir lohn
Perrot, was wont to say by the Galliard, for he came thither as a
Private Gentleman of the Innes of Court in a Mask ; and for his
activity and person, which was tall and proportionable, taken into
favour : he was first made Vice-Chamberlain, and shortly afterward
advanced to the place of Lord Chancellor : a Gentleman, that besides
the graces of his person, and dancing, had also the adjectaments
of a strong and subtill capacity, one that could soon learn the dis
cipline and garb both of the times and Court ; the truth is, he had
a large proportion of gifts and endowments, but too much of the
season of envy ; and he was a meer vegetable of the Court, that
sprung up at night, and sunk again at his noon." Sir Robert
Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia, 1653 (written probably about 1630),
ed. Arber, p. 44. Hatton was made Lord Chancellor in 1587.

Gray has perhaps purposely mixed up Hatton's two famous dancing
exploits (a) that in his youth, by which he danced himself into Queen
Elizabeth's favor ; (6) that which has given rise to the " Lie there,
Lord Chancellor " anecdote. The famous incident of Hatton's
dancing when Lord Chancellor is derived from a letter from Captain

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

145

Francis Allen to Anthony Bacon, 17 August 1589, excerpted by Sir
Harris Nicolas, Life and Times of Hatton, 1847, P- 4?8 : " My Lord
Chancellor's heir, Sir William Hatton, hath married Judge Gawdy's
daughter and heir ; and my Lord Chancellor danced the measures
at the solemnity. He left the gown in the chair, saying, ' Lie thou
there, Chancellor.'" Hatton was then 49 years old (born 1540).
Nicolas shows that Gray was " mistaken in supposing that Sir
Christopher Hatton ever owned Stoke Pogeis, or ever resided there.
The manor house was re-built, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by
Henry Earl of Huntingdon ; and Sir Edward Coke, who had married
Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Earl of Exeter, and second wife and
widow of Sir William Hatton, the Chancellor's nephew, held it as
lessee under the Crown in 1601, in which year he entertained the
Queen there ; and about 1621 it was granted to him by King James
the First," etc. Nicolas, p. 479. A full account of the vicissitudes
of ownership may be found in Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1806, I,
i,63Sff.

ii. Brawls. "A kind of French dance resembling a cotillon."
Murray (who gives abundant illustrative quotations). What the
letter says the Lord Chancellor actually did is, — to dance in the
measures, slow, sedate dances, minuets.

13. His bushy beard. The usual portrait of Hatton represents
him with a full but not shaggy beard. The reason for Gray's epithet
may be seen from the following interesting passage in Joseph Spence's
Poly metis, dialogue vi, 2d ed., London, 1755, p- 52 : " It is true we
scarce ever see a full beard on any but the lowest sort of people
among us ; and that has given us a mean idea of the thing itself.
Nature perhaps designed it for the ornament of old age ; but custom
has got the better of her. ... A full beard still carries that idea
of majesty with it, all over the East : which it may, possibly, have
had ever since the times of the patriarchal government there. The
Grecians had a share of this oriental notion of it. The very name
is apt to carry something low and rude along with it among us."
The two styles of trimming the beard in vogue in the Elizabethan
time were the bodkin cut (the peaked beard which we are apt to
regard as peculiarly Elizabethan) and the "bush" (see Lyly's Endi-
mion, iii, 3); but it is not likely that Gray had this distinction in
mind.

16. Tho' Pope and Spaniard. Referring to the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1588. Pope refers more strictly to the papal
opposition to Queen Elizabeth, which found its most decided

146

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

expression in the bull of Pius V. (1570), which released English
Catholics from their allegiance and declared that Elizabeth had no
right to her crown.

23. A brace of Warriors. Lady Schaub and Miss Speed. — Buff.
A leather military coat.

25. The first. Lady Schaub. — Cap-a-pee. From head to foot,
at all points. Gray means* she was dressed in the latest French
style.

29.' The other Amazon. Miss Harriet Speed, or more properly,
Miss Henrietta Jane Speed. Their acquaintance led to an intimate
friendship, which friends on both sides thought would result in
marriage. At any rate, Miss Speed is the only lady whom Gray
ever seems to have addressed or considered romantically. For
further details, see Tbvey, Gray and His Friends, section v.

31. Cobham. Lady Cobham treated Miss Speed as a daughter.

37. Capucine. "A female garment, consisting of a cloak and
hood, made in imitation of the dress of Capuchin friars ; whence its
name." Johnson.

41. P 1. The Rev. Mr. Purt, Gray's neighbor, who had

informed Lady Cobham of the name and whereabouts of Gray.
Mr. Purt was offended at his name's being mentioned in this poem.

51. Her high commission. Alluding to Henry IV.'s edict against
Welsh bards. Mitford quotes as follows : " And it is enacted, that
no master-rimour, minstrel, or other vagabond, be in any wise sus
tained in the land of Wales, to make commoiths, or gatherings upon
the people there." Mitford's note is defaced by two bad blunders,
which Bradshaw repeats. This is the French text of the ordinance
of 1403 from Wotton, Leges IVallicae, 1730, p. 548: "Item, Pur
eschiever plusours diseasz & meschefs quaunt advenuz devaunt cez
heurez en la terre de Gales par plusours Wastours, Rymours, Minis-
tralx & autres Vacabundez, ordenuz est & establez que nullez
Wastours, Rymours, Ministralx ne Vacabundez soent ascunement
sustenuz en la terre de Galez pur faire commortha ou coillage sur
la commune poeple illoeques." Observe that Mitford's "master-
rimour " is a mistake, and that " commoiths " should be " com-
morths." In 1401 Henry IV. had also made a previous ordinance,
much to the same effect. Henry IV.'s edicts were practically
reenactments of Edward I.'s (see notes on the Hard). There were
many other and more recent enactments against wandering minstrels.

54. Ventur'd. " Entered " rimes with this word here. This rime
represents the common pronunciation of " ventured " at that time.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

147

59. His Mother. Gray's mother and aunt lived together.

64. Tester. A canopy over the bed.

65. Into the drawers, etc. Mitford remarks on the similarity
between the style of this part of the Long Story and that of Prior's
The Dove, and quotes the following stanzas (9, 25, 27) from Prior's

poem :

" With one great peal they rap the door,

Like footmen on a visiting day.
Folks at her house at such an hour !
Lord ! what will all the neighbours say ?

" Her keys he takes, her doors unlocks ;

Through wardrobe and through closet bounces;
Peeps into every chest and box,

Turns all her furbelows and flounces.

" I marvel much, she smiling said,

Your poultry cannot yet be found;
Lies he in yonder slipper dead,
Or may be, in the tea-pot drowned ! "

80. A spell. The little note left by the ladies : " Lady Schaub's
compliments to Mr. Gray ; she is sorry not to have found him at
home, to tell him that Lady Brown is very well."

83. Transparent birdlime. Playfully alluding to his being taken
captive by the note.

93-96. A thoroughly Augustan stanza.

99. The lady Janes. The great pictures of the Elizabethan
ladies that hung in the room come down from their frames, as their
spirits were said to do when the nights were especially dark.

103. Styack. Mrs. Tyacke, the housekeeper. Gray may have
purposely changed her name a little, in his playful poem.

116. Squib. James Squibb, who was in Lady Cobham's service
as Groom of the Chambers.

128. He ne'er was for a conj'rer taken. To say a person is no
conjurer is a mild way of calling him not over-wise. Cf. Gray's
letter to Wharton, Jan. 1761 (Works, III, 83): "he is a very sober
man; good natured, and honest, and no conjurer"; and 18 Sept.
1754 (Works, II, 255): "Dr. Akenside (I perceive) is no conjurer in
Architecture." In the present passage there is an obvious play on
words.

129. Prudes. The spirits of the haughty ladies in the paintings.
— Ragged. Like a hag. Nothing whatever to do with the word
"haggard" (cf. note on The Bard, v. 18).

148

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

135. The square-hoods, i.e., the ladies mentioned above as prudes.
They are of course sticklers for exclusiveness and etiquette.
144. Rubbers. The Lady's games at cards.

IX.
THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

This ode Gray wrote in 1754 at Cambridge. It was printed in
1757, in company with The Bard, at Horace Walpole's press at
Strawberry-Hill, with the following title: "Odes by Mr. Gray.
Printed at Strawberry-Hill. For R. and J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall.
MDCCLVII." This thin quarto contained only a very few notes.
Walpole, writing to Sir Horace Mann, 4 August 1757, said, "I send
you two copies ... of a very honourable opening of my press —
two amazing Odes of Mr. Gray : they are Shakspearian, they are
Pindaric, they are sublime ! consequently, I fear, a little obscure :
the second particularly, by the confinement of the measure, and the
nature of prophetic vision, is mysterious. I could not persuade him
to add more notes ; he says, whatever wants to be explained, don't
deserve to be." In the 1768 edition of his poems, Gray added
explanatory notes to these odes, and in his sarcastic Advertisement
(see p. 26) told the public why he did so. Gray's foot-notes must
certainly be read, as they are exceedingly important for a correct
understanding of his Pindaric Odes.

The selections from Gray's letters which contain the most im
portant references to these Odes are given on pp. 73, 74, 76, and 87.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH PINDARIC ODE.

The popular notion is that the poet Cowley (1618-1667) was the
first man to write Pindaric Odes in English. He published his
Pindaric Odes in 1656. They were not a mere imitation, but an
invention. But he was more indebted to earlier work than seems to
be generally supposed. Spenser's Epithalamion (1595) reminds one
instantly of later odes. His stanzas fall into three or four parts,
with short lines to break the monotony, but the parts are held
| together by rime. The grouping of verses is somewhat similar to
what we see in the Pindaric Odes.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

149

It is sometimes claimed that Ben Jonson wrote the first Pin
daric Ode. In his Underwoods there is a Pindaric Ode To the

*

Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble Pair, Sir Lucius
Gary, and Sir H. Morison. This is divided as Pindar's odes were
divided, into Strophes, Antistrophes, and Epodes. Jonson called
his Strophe a " Turn," his Antistrophe a ' Counter-turn," and his
Epode the " Stand." Undoubtedly he had classic odes in mind.
Thomas Randolph, in his Ode to Ben Jonson, upon the occasion
of the failure of The A'ew Inn, says : " Twere fond to let all other
flames expire, To sit by Pindar's fire"; thus recognizing Jonson's
Pindaric attempts. Randolph himself wrote poems that look some- 1
thing like Pindaric Odes.

Cowley's Pindarics are by no means a strict imitation of Pindar.
They are simply groups of verses of irregular length ending with a
long line. At the time (1656) his curious metrical forms surprised
everybody. He thought his rhapsodies and variations made his
odes Pindaric ; and some of his odes were in reality paraphrases of
Pindar. But of course it was his deliberately studied enthusiasm
joined with his poor ear for music, that killed his odes.

Congreve wrote true Pindaric Odes, going back more to Ben
Jonson's notions, without apparently knowing what Jonson had
done. The most famous man to write Pindarics after Cowley and
Congreve, was Gray. It is unnecessary to say that the Progress
of Poesy and the Bard axe the best Pindaric Odes ever written.

THE METRE.

As Hales pointed out, this Ode is really divided into 3 stanzas,
with 41 lines in each stanza. Again, each stanza is divided into
3 parts — strophe, antistrophe, and epode — the turn, counter-turn,
and after-song, Greek theatrical names. The three strophes, anti-
strophes, and epodes are identical in construction ; hence the archi
tecture of the whole poem is curiously symmetrical, though one
could easily read it without any perception of this fact.

This was, of course, in imitation of the symmetry of the Greek
odes, which particularly appealed to Gray's precise metrical sense.

His own remarks on the metre are interesting. In a letter to
Wharton, 9 March 1755 (Works, II, 262), he said : "I am not quite
of your opinion with regard to Strophe and Antistrophe. Setting
aside the differences, methinks it has little or no effect upon the ear,
which scarce perceives the regular return of metres at so great a

jco NOTES ON THE POEMS.

distance from one another. To make it succeed, I am persuaded
the stanzas must not consist of above nine lines each at the most.
Pindar has several such odes." Mason adds an interesting note :
"lie often made the same remark to me in conversation, which led
me to form the last Ode of Caractacus in shorter stanzas : But we
must not imagine that he thought the regular Pindaric method
I without its use ; though, as he justly says, when formed in long
I stanzas, it does not fully succeed in point of effect on the ear : for
! there was nothing which he more disliked than that chain of irreg
ular stanzas which Cowley introduced, and falsely called Pindaric ;
and which from the extreme facility of execution, produced a
number of miserable imitators. ... It is also to be remarked, that
Mr. Congreve, who first introduced the. regular Pindaric form into
the English language, made use of the short stanzas which Mr.
Gray here recommends."

The Motto. Pindar, Olymp. ii, 153, 154. Gray himself translates
this motto in a Letter to the Rev. James Brown, 17 Feb. 1763
(Works, III, 148): "The Odes . . ., as their motto shews, were
meant to be vocal to the intelligent alone. How few they were in my
own country, Mr. Howe can testify ; and yet my ambition was
terminated by that small circle." Cf. Letter to Wharton, 7 Sept.
1757 (Works, II, 330) : "Miss Spfeed] seems to understand; and to
all such, as do not, she says — <f>uvavra ffwerotai — in so many
words. And this is both my motto and comment."

The Critical Review, IV, 167, says, "The author might, with
great propriety, have added

5£ TO irav

It is interesting to see that in the edition of 1768, Gray actually
adopted this suggestion.

i. Gray's note on this line inaccurately quotes Psalms, 57, 8 :
"Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp." The word
"lute," which occurs in Gray's quotation, does not occur in Young's
Analytical Concordance.

-SSolian lyre. Gray's note on this is said to have been called out
by a blundering critic (Critical Review, IV, 167) who mistook the
>Eolian lyre for the harp of /Eolus, or wind-harp: "The first of
these odes is addressed to the /Eolian lyre, which it emulates in the
enchanting softness, ravishing flow, and solemn tones of melody.

NOTES ON THE POEMS. 151

... A severe critic would . . . censure the sentiment . . . which
represents the Loves dancing to the sound of this lyre. Such an
instrument as the /Eolian harp, which is altogether uncertain and
irregular, must be very ill adapted to the dance, which is one con-
tin ued*regular movement." The whole article deserves to be read
as an example of the puerilities that then passed for criticism.
The same critic suggested that v. 20 ff. meant, strictly speaking,
that the lyre not the eagle was perching on Jove's sceptred hand.
That Gray had seen this article is obvious from two places in his
letters (Works, II, 327): "Even the Critical Review (Mr. Franklin,
I am told), that is rapt and surprised and shudders at me, yet
mistakes the yEolian for the harp of yEolus which indeed, as he
observes, is a very bad instrument to dance to." A second is in a
letter to Wharton, 7 Sept. 1757: "The Critical Review you have
seen or may see. He is in raptures (they say it is Professor
Franklin) but mistakes the ^Eolian lyre for the harp of ^Eolus and
on this mistake founds a compliment and a criticism." ( Works,

H.33I-)

7. Cf. Horace, Odes, iii, 29, 32 : perhaps Gray thought this too
obvious to mention.

12. Rebellow. Imitated from Latin reboare: cf. "reboant sil-
vaeque et longus Olympus," Vergil, Ccorg. iii, 223. Mitford refers
to Pope's Iliad, " Rocks rebellow to the roar."

14. sweet and solemn-breathing airs. Cf. Milton, Comus, 555 :
" A soft and solemn-breathing sound."

15. Shell. Alluding to the mythical origin of the lyre ; Hermes
made it from a tortoise shell.

17. The Lord of War. Ares, or Mars. He was especially
worshiped in Thrace. Cf. Chaucer's splendid description of " the
grete temple of Mars in Trace" (Knighfs Tale, vv. ni4ff.).

21. Feather'd king. The eagle, sacred to Zeus, and often
represented with the thunderbolt in his clutch.

27. Idalia. This was a town in the island of Cyprus, containing
a temple where Venus was worshiped. Venus first landed on
Cyprus, after she had been born from the foam of the sea ; but the
island Cythera, in the ^Egean sea, gave the name Cytherea to
Venus, as many believed that she had appeared there before landing
at Cyprus.

31. This line in rhythm is certainly reminiscent of L? Allegro. It
is useless to point out all the words that Milton and Gray happened
to use in common.

I52 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

35. Homer, Odyssey, 0, 265.

40. Gray's poetry is seldom so warm as this, though this would
be cold for some poets.

41. Gray's note on this line refers to lines that are twice quoted
in Athenaeus, viz. Athen. xiii, 604 (ed. Kaibel): ws (caXtDs $pvvi-xos
firotT]<T€v cliras • Xd/Ltirei 5' eirl Tropcpvptais irapyffi 0wj e/wros, and
again, Athen. xiii, 564: $ptivtxfa re firl TOV Tpwi'Xou <S<J>TI \d/j.Treiv twl
•jrop<j)vpcus Traprjffi 0<2s epwros. Gray no doubt had the former one
in mind. The poet is Phrynichus tragicus (there was also a comic
poet of the name). It is fragment 2 of Phrynichus in the fourth
ed. of Bergk's Poet. Lyr. Gr.

43. Here Gray drops back into his old fondness for Abstractions.

46. Fond. Foolish.

50. Birds of boding cry. The regulation Screech-owl.

52. The quotation from Cowley is given inaccurately in Gray's
note ; it is from the Pindaric ode Brutus, 55-57 :

" One would have thought 't had heard the Morning crow
Or seen her well-appointed Star
Come marching up the Eastern Hill afar."

53. Hyperion. The Titan, who was the father of the sun, moon,
and stars. Here used, as often, for the sun.

Glitt'ring shafts. The rays of the morning sun.

54. Vergil, Aeneid, vi, 797. Petrarch, Canzone 5, line 48.

57. This line is entirely omitted in Bradshaw's Aldine edition of
Gray.

68. Ilissus. A river flowing through Athens.

69. Maeander. The progress of this river was so winding that
it gave its name to our verb, " meander." It was in Phrygia.

70-71. Milton suggests "by slow Meander's margent green" as
the residence of the nymph Echo (Comus, v. 232).

82. Gray means that poetry flourishes best in eras of national
vigor and political independence ; when Greece was conquered, the
Muses went to Rome ; after the downfall of the Roman empire,
they went to Albion, i.e., England.

84. Nature's Darling. In the two centuries that followed
Shakspere, he was often spoken of as the child of Nature — in con
trast to his more learned contemporaries, who drew their inspiration
from the classics. The well-known passage hi L1 Allegro was chiefly
responsible for this.

86. The mighty Mother. This may refer either to Nature or to
Poetry.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

'53

89. Pencil. Paint brush.

95. It is an interesting fact that Gray puts Milton in the second
place in English poetry, and that in this stanza he distinctly puts
Dryden below the Puritan poet. In Gray's earlier years, Dryden
was his idol and model ; but at this time, in common with all the
other Romanticists, he gave himself up to the worship of Milton.
It is interesting, however, to observe that Gray never forgot his
debt to Uryden. In a letter to Beattie, 2 Oct. 1865 ( Works, III,
222) he said : " Remember Dryden, and be blind to all his faults."
Cf. Mason's note, from which it appears that Gray told Beattie " that
if there was any Excellence in his own numbers he had learned it
wholly from that great poet. And pressed him with great earnest
ness tc study him, as his choice of words and versification were
singularly happy and harmonious."

98. Lucretius, i, 73, 74.

99. The sentence from Ezekiel, i, 28, reads more exactly : " This
was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."

102. Homer, Odyssey, 0, 64.

Closed his eyes. Referring to Milton's blindness. If Gray's
explanation is not scientific, it is certainly poetical. But Dr. John
son has succeeded in accounting prosaically for this figure. " His
account of Milton's blindness, if we suppose it caused by study
in the formation of his poem, a supposition surely allowable, is
poetically true, and happily imagined." (Life of Gray.) Unhappily
for this suggestion, Milton's blindness had no such cause.

106. Job, xxxix, 19.

107. Long-resounding pace. The comparison in Pope's famous
lines (suggested by Mitford) must occur to every one :

" Waller was smooth ; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
The long majestic March, and Energy divine."

hn. of Horace, Book ii, Ep. i, vv. 267-69.

108. Fancy. Imagination. The distinction between fancy and
imagination drawn by Wordsworth in the Preface to his Lyrical
Ballads, ed. 1815, and now usually observed in criticism was not
much heeded in the language of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.

no. Cowley, The Prophet (v. 20) in The Mistress. Incorrectly
quoted by Gray :

" Tears, which shall understand, and speak."

154

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

in. Gray's note on this line is interesting, as showing how
seriously he took Mason and Caractacus. The poet William Mason
(1725-1797) was an intimate friend of Gray's, a servile imitator of
Milton's and Gray's poetry, and the executor of Gray's literary
remains. By far his most enduring contribution to literature is his
Memoirs of Gray (1775). Mason wrote two tragedies, Elfrida
(1751), and Caractacus (1759). These are on the model of the
ancient Greek drama, and though they contain some fine passages,
they lack vitality. He stoutly upheld the Unities and insisted on
the retention of the Chorus. Caractacus is a story of Druid times,
in which Druids play an important part ; the scene is laid in Mona.
Gray criticised Mason's poems in MS. with great care, and often
with merciless severity ; but in this instance he seems to have
seriously believed that Mason had produced something good.
Mason and Gray were often coupled together by contemporary
critics, and the alleged obscurity of their odes was freely parodied
(see pp. 87 and 89). For Gray's remarks on Mason's Choruses in
Caractacus, see his Works, II, 317, 332 ff., 350 ff. Perhaps the best
account of Mason's life and works is given in Hartley Coleridge's
Northern Worthies.

115. Pindar, Olymp., ii, 159.

120. Orient hues. Mitford compares Spenser :

" With much more orient hue."

An Hymn in Honour of Beauty, v. 79.
also Milton :

" With orient colours waving."

Par. Lost, \, 546.

We might add also,

" His orient liquor in a crystal glass."

Comus, v. 65.

"Orient" in these passages of course means "bright," "lustrous,"
— perhaps because the most beautiful jewels came from the East.
Milton uses " orient " in this sense at least nine times in Paradise
Lost alone.

121. The last three lines are interesting as a description of Gray's
own character and poetical aims. Did he himself feel that he was
the only poet since Dryden ?

.\'O'/'£S ON I'll!-: 1'OEMS.

ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM
VICISSITUDE.

This poem, in its present unfinished state, was found among Gray's
papers after his death. He seems to have composed the fragment
during 1754 and 1755. Mason first published it, pp. 236 and 237 of
his Memoirs of Gray (1775). In the Appendix to that work Mason
published it again, filling out broken lines and adding stanzas with
his own pen. The poem is here printed as Gray left it, without any
of Mason's additions, although a few fragmentary words and broken
lines remain, which are not included here at all. Mason remarked
(Tot-ms of Mr. Gray, 1775, p. 82): " I have heard Mr. Gray say, that
M. Gresset's ' Epitre a ma Sceur' (see his works in the Amsterdam
edition, 1748, p. 180) gave him the first idea of this Ode: and who
ever compares it with the French Poem, will find some slight traits
of resemblance, but chiefly in our Author's seventh stanza." The
idea, however, is so common that the likeness to Gresset does not
seem especially remarkable. See below.

In Gray's memorandum book for the year 1754, Mason found the
following rough notes, which give the poet's plan for this Ode :
" Contrast between the winter past and coming spring. — Joy owing
to that vicissitude.- — Many who never feel that delight. — Sloth.
— Envy. — Ambition. How much happier the rustic who feels it,
tho' he knows not how."

3. Vermeil-cheek. Vermilion; a bright red. Cf. Milton, Comus, 752.

13. These four lines on the sky-lark will stand comparison with
Wordsworth's and Shelley's poems on the same subject.

29. Gray's fondness for abstractions appears again in the fifth
and sixth stanzas. The whole poem should be read in connection
with the Ode on the Spring ; see notes on that poem.

49-52. These lines are in Gray's best vein, and exhibit the true
Wordsworthian attitude toward nature. It is this stanza which
Mason said was most similar to Gresset. It may be interesting to
quote some lines from Gresset's Epitre a ma Saur, sur ma Con
valescence, (Envres, 1777, I, 136:

" O jours de la Convalescence !
Jours d'une pure volupte !
C'est une nouvelle naissance,
Un rayon d'immortalite.

j-g NOTES ON THE POEMS.

Quel feu ! tous les plaisirs ont vole dans mon ame ;

J 'adore avec transport le celeste flambeau;

Tout nvinteresse, tout m'enflanie,

Pour moi 1'Univers est nouveau.

Sans doute que le Dieu qui nous rend 1'existence,

A 1'heureuse Convalescence

Pour de nouveaux plaisirs donne de nouveaux sens ;

A ses regards impatiens

Le cahos fuit ; tout nait, la lumiere commence ;

Tout brille des feux du printems ;

Les plus simples objets, le chant d'une Fauvette,

Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois,

La fraicheur d'une violette ;

Mille spectacles, qu'autrefois

On voyoit avec nonchalance,

Transported aujourd'hui, presentent des appas

Inconnus a 1'indifference,

Et que la soule ne voit pas."

55. Note the pronunciation, crystalline, found also in Milton,
P. Z.,-iii, 482 ; vi, 772 ; and vii, 271.

XL
THE BARD.

Gray began to write this ode in 1754, and worked at it, but only
occasionally, until 1757, when he finished it. We learn from a letter
to Mason, 1757 (Works, II, 312), that the following incident inspired
Gray to finish thefiard: "Mr. Parry has been here and scratched
out such ravishing blind harmony, such tunes of a thousand years
old, with names enough to choke you, as have set all this learned
body a-dancing, and inspired them with due reverence for Odikle,
whenever it shall appear. Mr. Parry . . . has put Odikle in motion
again." He then encloses the conclusion of the poem. In the
same year (1757) it was printed as " Ode II " along with the Progress
of Poesy on Horace Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill. (See Intro
ductory note to the Progress of Poesy.} Gray's own foot-notes, added
chiefly in the 1768 edition of his poems, are necessary to a correct
understanding of this ode.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

'57

In Mason's Notes on the Bard (p. 91 of his Poems of Gray, 1775),
he gives " the original argument of this capital Ode, as its author
had set it down on one of the pages of his common-place book."
It is as follows : " The army of Edward I. as they march through a
deep valley, are suddenly stopped by the appearance of a venerable
figure seated on the summit of an inaccessible rock, who, with a
voice more than human, reproaches the King with all the misery
and desolation which he had brought on his country; foretells the
misfortunes of the Norman race, and with prophetic spirit declares,
that all his cruelty shall never extinguish the noble ardour of poetic
genius in this island ; and that men shall never be wanting to cele
brate true virtue and valour in immortal strains, to expose vice and
infamous pleasure, and boldly censure tyranny and oppression.
His song ended, he precipitates himself from the mountain, and is
swallowed up by the river that rolls at its foot."

The popular reception of the Bard, as well as of the Progress of
Poesy, was not altogether gratifying. See Introduction, part iv, also
PP- 74-77. 87, 89, and Works, II, 323, 331.

Advertisement. The tradition that Edward I. (reign 1272-1307)
hanged all the bards, Gray may have met with in Carte's History of
England, Book viii, vol. II, p. 196. This second volume was pub
lished in 1750, and Gray did not begin to write until 1754. Carte
says : " The only set of men among the Welsh, that had reason to
complain of Edward's severity, were the bards who used to put
those of the ancient Britons in mind of the valiant deeds of their
ancestors : he ordered them all to be hanged, as inciters of the
people to sedition." lie refers as his authority to a seventeenth-
century work, Sir J. Wynne's History of the Gwedir Family. The
so-called "tradition," which has not been traced to any earlier source
than Wynne, is exploded by Thomas Stephens {Literature of the
Kymry, 2d ed., 93 ff.), who remarks: "It is probable that the
worthy Baronet was led to form this conclusion from knowing that
Edward issued an edict against the bards." This edict, however,
Stephens shows to have been, like all the later edicts, directed merely
against vagrant minstrels and not dissimilar probably to those regu
lations which Ritson gleefully quoted against Bishop Percy as to the
English minstrels. No one will wish to contend that a vagrant
Welsh harper may not at some time have been hanged ; but there
is no evidence for it, still less for a general massacre of bards.
Henry IV.'s edict was to all intents and purposes a re-enactment of
that of Edward I. (See note to Long Story, v. 51.)

I58 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

2. Confusion. Destruction.

4. King John, v, i, 72.

8. Cambria. An old Latinization of Welsh Cymru, the land of
the Kymry (or Welsh).

g. Gray's quotation in the note is from Dryden's Indian Queen,
iii, i. (Vol. I, p. 196, ed. 1735 .)

11. The passage from Higden in Gray's note is Polychronicon
Ranulphi Higden, ed. Lumby, I, 418.

12. It was in the years 1282-84 that King Edward completely
conquered Wales.

15-18. These lines are thoroughly romantic in tone.

1 8. Haggard. Gray writing to Thomas Wharton, 21 August
1755 (ll'orks, II, 268), said: "Though haggard, which conveys to
you the idea of a Witch, ii> indeed only a metaphor taken from an
unreclaimed Hawk, which is called a haggard, and looks wild and
farouche, and jealous of its liberty." See also note on " hagged,"
Long Story, 1 29.

20. Paradise Lost, i, 537.

28. High-born Hoel. The son of Prince Owain Gwynedd, of
North Wales (see Introductory Note to The Triumphs of O'vcn).
He was both a warrior and a poet. For a full account of him,
with specimens of his poetry in the original and in translation, see
Thomas Stephens, Literature of the Kymry, 2d ed., 1876, pp. 37 ff.
Stephens supposes that he is referred to in the line translated by
Gray in Triumphs of Owen, v. 20.

29. Cadwallo and Urien were Welsh poets. Nothing is extant
of their works. Evans, Dissertatio de Bardis, p. 78.

33. Modred. Modred or Mordred is the villain of the Arthur
story ; but no person of this name is known as a bard. Mitford's
conjecture that Gray altered " Myrddin ab Morvryn " for the sake
of euphony is not probable.

34. Plinlimmon. A Welsh mountain.

35. They lie. The dead bards.
40. Julius Caesar, ii, i, 289, 290.

44. A griesly band. Possibly Gray may be referring to the Bard
when he writes to Mason in 1756 (Works, II, 284): " I am of your
opinion, that the ghosts will spoil the picture, unless they are thrown
at a huge distance, and extremely kept down."

48. Gray's note refers to the Fatal Sisters.

49. At this point, beginning with the words " Weave the warp,"
the spirits of the dead bards alluded to in the last stanza join in the

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

'59

song ; this chorus is continued through line 100, where the spirits
vanish and the one Singer continues in solitude. This conception
of Gray's is as dramatic as it is poetical.

49. Warp and woof. The warp means the threads extended
lengthwise in the loom in weaving, and the woof means the threads
that cross the warp.

51. Verge. Literally, the border. The passage means simply:
" Let there be plenty of room to get everything in."

54. Severn. The river.

55. Berkley's roofs. Berkeley castle, which stands S.-E. of the
town of Berkeley. It is said to have been built soon after the
Norman conquest, and is in good condition to-day.

57. Mitford quotes Henry VI., pt. Ill, i, 4, i n :

" She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France."

61. Amazement. Confusion, as commonly in Shakspere.

71. In his note Gray refers to Froissart. Writing to Wharton,
23 Jan. 1760 ( Works, III, 24), he says : "Froissard is a favourite book
of mine (though I have not attentively read him, but only dipp'd
here and there)," and continues with further remarks about him. —
Fair laughs, etc. Cf. Henry IV. 's description of the levity of his
predecessor, Richard II., in Henry IV., pt. I, iii, 2, 60 ff.

91. Above, below. In the loom. The two roses were united
by the marriage of Henry VII. (Lancaster) and Elizabeth (York).
Cf. Ode for I\fusic.

99. Half of thy heart. Eleanor, wife of Edward I., died in
1290. The "heroic proof of her affection" alludes to the story of
her husband's wound from a poisoned dagger, which she cured by
sucking out the venom.

101. Stay, oh stay! The bard calls on the vanishing spirits of
his brother poets.

102. In the fragment sent to Wharton, 21 August 1755 (Works,
II, 270), this line stood : " Leave your despairing Caradoc to mourn ! "
Afterwards, in a letter to Walpole, n July 1757 (Works, II, 319),
Gray said, " Caradoc I have private reasons against ; and besides it
is in reality Caradoc, and will not stand in the verse." Cf. the
fragment on Caradoc, p. 53.

109. In his Remarks on the Poems of Lydgate (Works, I, 389),
Gray quotes Lydgate's Fall of Princes, viii, 24, as evidence that the
"notion [was] then [i.e. in the i5th century] current in Britain, that
King Arthur was not dead, but translated to Fairy-Land, and should

!6o NOTES ON THE POEMS.

come again to restore the Round Table." In a note he adds : " Peter
of Blois, who lived in 1170, says ironically, in his epistles, 57 :

' Quibus si credideris,
Expectare poteris
Arturum cum Britonibus."'

These passages are interesting as illustrative of the range and
minuteness of Gray's studies in what may be called Romantic
material. Records of this pathetic confidence in Arthur's return
which made " the credulity of the Britons " a by-word for centuries
must have come under Gray's eye in many places : for example, in
the Polychronicon of Ranulphus de Higden ad ann. 1 177 (ed. Lumby,
VIII, 60), a work which Gray quotes in his note to v. n of this
very poem.

no. The prophecies of Merlin (Merddin) and Taliesin here referred
to have been proved by Thomas Stephens not to be earlier than
the 1 2th century and hence to have nothing to do with those bards,
whose date is in the 6th century. See his Literature of the Kymry,
2d ed., ch. ii, sect. 4, pp. 198 ff.: "Poems fictitiously ascribed to
Merddin, Taliesin, Aneurin," etc.

in ff. Cf. Sir Richard Baker on the "state" of Queen Elizabeth
(Chronicle of the Kings of England, ed. of 1684, p. 400) : " Never
Prince kept greater State with less stateliness : Her Pensioners and
Guard were always the tallest and goodliest Gentlemen and Yeomen
of the Kingdom : Her Maids of Honor and other Women about
her, the fairest and most beautiful Ladies of the Realm ; and yet
her self a Diana amongst the Nymphs."

112. Starry fronts. Mitford compares Milton, The Passion,
stanza iii :

" His starry front low-roofed beneath the skies."

115. A Form divine. This language toward Elizabeth sounds
more like Spenser than Gray.

116. Briton-Line. The Welsh were the original Britons ; so the
Bard says that in the person of Elizabeth, — who had Welsh blood
in her veins, Henry VII. being the grandson of a Welsh chief,—
the Welsh once more will rule England.

121. A few of the poems of Taliesin have been preserved, but
most of those attributed to him in Gray's time are not earlier than
the 1 2th century. See note on v. no. Gray had his doubts as to
the authenticity of Taliesin's poems. See his note to the Observa
tions on the Pseudo-Rhythmus (Works, I, 365).

NOTES OA' THE POEMS. j6i

126. Spenser, Fairy Queen, first stanza of dedication.

128. Buskin'd. The buskin was the poetical name for Tragedy.
There is a kind of " Progress of Poesy " in this stanza.

135. Fond. Foolish.

140. The different doom. The different judgment on you, King
Edward, the destruction of your house, and on me, my final triumph
in the house of Tudor and the Elizabethan poets.

XII.
SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER.

This was first printed by Mason, in his Memoirs of Gray (1775),
p. 264. Mason especially approved of the theistic sentiment Gray
expressed, printing line 4 in capitals.

3. Could love, and could hate. Although Gray was never
demonstrative, his likes and dislikes were remarkably strong.

4. In Swift's great Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, we
find much the same sarcastic tone taken toward affected atheism.

6. Charles Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1767).
He was as famous for wit and oratory as for political versatility. —
Squire. Dr. Samuel Squire, Fellow of St. John's College, Cam
bridge. He was Rector of St. Anne's, Soho, afterwards Dean of
Bristol, and then Bishop of St. David's in 1761 ; he died 7 May
1766. Gray mentions him in a letter to Mason (see p. 76).

XIII.
SONG.

Gray wrote these lines in October, 1761, to an old air, at the
request of his friend Miss Speed, the heroine of A Long Story.
Horace Walpole, writing to the Countess of Aylesbury, 28 November
1761, says, " You will like better to see some words which Mr. Gray
has writ, at Miss Speed's request, to an old air of Geminiani : the
thought is from the French." Then follows the Song. (Works,
ed. 1798, V, 561.)

62 NOTES OAr THE POEMS.

i. Thyrsis. The conventional name for a pastoral lover,
g. Gales. A very favorite word with Gray.

XIV.
THE FATAL SISTERS.

This ode was written in 1761, and first published in the 1768
edition of Gray's poems. It is a free rendering of a Latin transla
tion from the Old Norse. (See Appendix to Introduction, on Grafs
Knowledge of Norse^ The chief interest of Gray's version is the fact
that it shows his love and eager study of strictly Romantic themes.

Torfaeus. For particulars, see Appendix.

Bartholinus. Thomas Bartholin, the younger (1659-1690). For
particulars as to his book on Northern antiquities, and as to Gray's
use of it, see Appendix.

The Old Norse words quoted by Gray form a part of the opening
sentence of the song : •

" Vitt er orpit fyr val-falli
rifs reiNi-sky."

" The pendent cloud of loom [i.e. the fateful web which the val-
kyrjur are weaving] is stretched out wide before the slaughter."

Gray translated from the Latin version in Bartholin, which is
repeated in Torfaeus. No doubt he referred to the original, which
they also print.

This original is to be found in the Icelandic Njdlssaga (the Saga
of Njall or Niel), cap. 157 (hlendinga Sogiir, Copenhagen, 1875,
III, 898-901). The accompanying prose furnishes an introduction
and a conclusion, which are put together by Gray in his Preface.
The text of the song (without the prose) is edited, with an English
prose translation, in Vigfusson and Powell, Corpus Poeticum Borealc,
Oxford, 1883, I, 281-283. The poem is much older than the Saga
which has preserved it, and must, indeed, be nearly contemporary
with the event which it celebrates — the Battle of Clontarf, fought
April 23 (Good Friday) — not Christmas, as Gray has it, — 1014. ! It
is one of the most powerful of the Old Norse poems. The metre

1 See Konrad Maurer, Bekehntng dcs noru'egiscJicn Stammcs. I, 549 ff.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

163

and style are of course entirely different from the metre and style
of Gray's paraphrase. The Latin version is reprinted, not because
it gives a fair idea of the original, but because it is essential for
comparison with Gray's Ode.

Bartholin, De Cat/sis contemptae a Danis adhuc Gentilibus Mortis,
1689, pp. 618-624.

Late diffunditur
ante stragem futuram
sagittarum nubes,
depluit sangvis,
jam hastis applicatur
cineracea
tela virorum.
qvam amicae, texunt
rubro subtegmine,
Randveri mortis.

Texitur haec tela
intestinis humanis,
staminiqve stricte alligantur
capita humana ; -
sunt sangvine roratae
hastae, pro insilibus :
textoria instrumenta, ferrea :
ac sagittae pro radiis :
densabimus gladiis
hanc victoriae telam.

Prodeunt ad texendum Hilda
et Hiorthrimula,
Sangrida et Svipula,
cum strictis gladiis:
hastile frangetur,
scutum diffindetur,
ensisqve
clypeo illidetur.

Texamus, texamus

telam Darradi.

Hunc (glacfijtm) rex juvenis

prius possidebat :

Prodeamus

et cohortes intremus,

ubi nostri amici

armis dimicant.

Texamus, texamus
telam Darradi,
et Regi

deinde adhaereamus :
ibi videbant
sangvine rorata scuta
Gunna et Gondula,
qvae regem tutabantur.

Texamus. texamus
telam Darradi,
ubi arma concrepant
bellacium virorum,
non sinamus cum
vita privari,
habent Valkyriae
caedis potestatem.

I Hi populi
terras regent,
qvi deserta promontoria
antea incolebant.
dico potenti regi
mortem imminere,
jam sagittis
occubuit Comes.

Et Hibernis

dolor accidet,

qvi nunqvam

apud viros delebitur.

jam tela texta est,

campus vero (sangvine) roratus,

terras percurret

conflictus militum.

Nunc horrendum est
circumspicere,

164

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

cum sangvinea nubes bene sit nobis canentibus !

per aera volitet. Discat autem ille

tingetur aer qvi auscultat

sangvine virorum, bellica carmina multa,

antequam vaticinia nostra et viris referat.

omnia corruant. Eqvitemus in eqvis

Bene canimus qvoniam efferimus

de rege juvene strictos gladios,

victoriae carmina multa, ex hoc loco.

Advertisement. The " Friend " Gray mentions was Thomas
Warton (1728-1790). Gray had planned to write a History of
English Poetry, but when he heard that Thomas Warton was
engaged in that work, he gave up the idea, and handed over his
general scheme to Warton, who published years afterward the
History, (ist vol. 1774, 2d vol. 1778, 3d vol. 1781.) Gray's scheme
is contained in his letter to Warton, 15 April 1770 (Works, III,
364). Parts of the material that Gray had collected may be found
in his Works, vol. I. See also a letter from Horace Walpole to
Montagu, 5 May 1761 (Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, III,

399)-

Preface. Mason, in his 1775 edition of Gray's Poems, p. 100,
quotes Gray's MS. note about the conversion of the people of the
Orkney islands : " The people of the Orkney islands were Christians,
yet did not become so till after A.D. 966, probably it happened in
995 ; but though they, and the other Gothic nations, no longer
worshiped their old divinities, yet they never doubted of their
existence, or forgot their ancient mythology, as appears from the
history of Olaus Tryggueson."

King Olave Tryggvason is said to have forced Sigurd, Plarl of the
Orkneys, to accept baptism in 995, but Konrad Maurer (Bekehrung
des norwegisc/ien Stammes, I, 339) suggests that the nearness of
Scotland and Ireland, which were Christian, must have previously
caused the conversion of a large portion of the islanders. The
" history of Olaf Tryggvason " to which Gray refers was accessible
to him in Latin in the works of Torfaeus.

Sictryg, better Sigtrygg (Old Norse Sigtryggr). Sigtrygg was
King of Dublin, Brian was King of Ireland. Brian was Sigtrygg's
step-father (this is no doubt what Gray means by father-in-law).
Both Brian and Sigtrygg fell in the battle.

i. The valkyrjur. The information in Gray's note is derived
from Bartholin, bk. ii, chaps, n and 12. The account given of the

NOTES ON THE POEMS. ^5

Valkyrjur (Old Norse plural; singular Valkyrja) and of Valhalla
(Old Norse I'ahh^ll} accurately represents the belief that obtained
among the vikings at the time when this poem was composed, but
must be regarded as a special Scandinavian development, forming
itself gradually among the warrior class in what is known as the
"viking age" (A.D. 750-1050 roughly), and not as a general Germanic
creed (Gray's "Gothic" in this connection doubtless = Germanic,
Teutonic), nor even as a creed ever accepted by the common people
in Scandinavia. The student who wishes an accurate idea of these
matters should not trust the popular handbooks of mythology,
which seldom take into account the results of recent scholarship,
and, indeed, show little advance beyond the authorities which were
accessible to Gray. He may consult for the whole subject Mogk's
article Deutsche Mythologie in Paul's Grundriss cier germanischen
Philologie, vol. II, or E. II. Meyer's Deutsche Mythologie (Berlin,
1891); for the Valkyrjur, W. Golther's Der Valkyrjenmythus, in the
Abhandlnngen of the Bavarian Academy, I. Cl., XVIII, ii, 401 ff. ;
Schullerus, Znr Krltik des altnordischen Valhojlglaubens, in Paul
and Braune's Beitrdge, XII, 221 ff. "Valkalla" in Gray's note is
of course a mere misprint for "Valhalla."

3. Paradise Regained, iii, 323, 324. The original has "showers."

4. Julius Caesar, ii, 2, 22.

8. Randver's bane. Gray here follows Bartholin's Latin, which
misrepresents the original. The Icelandic has "the friends of the
slayer of Randverr," i.e., " the friends of Odin," i.e., "the valkyrjur,"
— a typical skaldic phrase. (So Vigfusson, doubtless correctly.)

16. There is something in the rhythm of this line that recalls the
witches in MacbetJi, iv, I, 32 : " Make the gruel thick and slab."

17-18. Bartholin's Latin has as the names of the valkyrjur in
these two lines Hilda, Iliorthrimula, Sangrtda, Svifula (in the
original : Hildr, Hjqr\>rimitl, Sangrl^r, Svipul), and in v. 31 Gnnna,
Gondula (in the original : Gunnr, Go_nJul). Gray found the names
Jfis/ii and Gcira in Bartholin's translation (p. 554) of a stanza in
another poem of the Poetic Edda (the Grlmnismdl), where they
occur in a long list of names of valkyrjur. The Old Norse forms
in Bartholin's text are Mist and Geira. The latter is a false form,
the correct reading being probably Geirojutl.

24. Hauberk. Well explained in Gray's note to the Bard, v. 5.

32. According to Vigfusson the young king is Sigtrygg. Cf.
v. 56.

37. The Northmen.

!66 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

41. The Earl. Probably Sigurd, though Vigfiisson takes it as
referring to the son of King Brian.
56. Younger King. See v. 32.

XV.

THE DESCENT OF ODIN.

This Ode was written in 1761, and first published in the 1768
edition of Gray's poems. Like the preceding, it is a free rendering
of the Latin. Probably Gray was first inspired to write this by
reading Mallet's Monuments cU la mythologie et de la poesie des Celtes,
et particulierement des anciens Scandinaves (1756). Mallet alluded
to this Ode in the first volume of his Introduction <} rhistoire de
Dunnemarc (1755), and in the second volume, the title of which is
quoted above, Mallet gave a French version in prose, of a portion
of this very Ode.

The Icelandic line should read " Upp reis Oftinn aldinn gautr "
(" Up rose Odin, the old Creator"). Gray followed Bartholin's text
(P- 632).

Bartholin, De Cansis contcmptac a Danis adhnc Gentilibus Mortis,
1689, pp. 632-640.

Surgebat Odinus Eqvitavit Odinus,

virorum summus, terra subtus tremuit,

et Sleipnerum donee ad altum veniret

ephippio stravit, Helae habitaculum.

eqvitabat deorsum turn eqvitavit Odinus

Niflhelam versus, ad orientale ostii latus,

obvium habuit catellum ubi fatidicae

ab Helae habitacuhs venientem. tumulum esse novit.

Huic sangvine aspersa erant Sapienti carmina

pectus anterius, mortuos excitantia cecinit,

rictus mordendi avidus, boream inspexit,

et maxillarum infima; literas (tumulo) imposuit,

allatrabat ille, sermones proferre coepit,

et rictum diduxit responsa poposcit,

magiae patri, donee invita surgeret

et diu latrabat. et mortuorum sermonem proferret

.\'O7'£S ON THE POEMS.

167

Qvisnam hominum
mihi ignotorum,
mihi facere praesumit
tristem animum ?
nive eram
et nimbo aspersa,
pluviaque rorata,
mortua diu jacui.

Viator nominor,

Bellatoris films sum,

enarra mihi qvae apud Helam ge-

runtur,

ego tibi, qvae in mundo.
Cuinam sedes
auro stratae sunt ?
lecti pulchri
auro ornati.

Hie Baldero medo
paratus extat,
purus potus,
scuto superinjecto;
divina vero suboles
dolore afficietur.
invita haec dixi,
jamqve silebo.

Noli fatidica tacere,
te interrogare volo
donee omnia novero.
adhuc scire volo,
qvisnam Baldero
necem inferet,
ac Odini filium
vita privabit ?

H6dus excelsum fert

lionoratum fratrem (sc. se if sum)

illuc.

is Baldero
necem inferet,
et Odini filium
vita privabit.
invita haec dixi
jamqve tacebo.

Noli tacere fatidica,
adhuc te interrogare volo
donee omnia novero,
adhuc scire volo
qvisnam Hodo
odium rependet?
aut Balderi interfectorem,
occidendo, rogo adaptet.

Rinda filium pariet

in habitaculis occidentalibus,

hie Odini films,

unain noctem natus, armis utetur;

manum non lavabit,

nee caput pectet,

anteqvam rogo imponat

Balderi inimicum.

invita haec dixi,

jamqve tacebo.

Noli tacere fatidica,

adhuc te interrogare volo,

qvaenam sunt virgines

qvae prae cogitationibus lachryman-

tur,

et in coelum jaciunt
cervicum pepla ?
hoc solum mihi dicas,
nam prius non dormies.

Non tu viator es,
ut antea credidi ;
sed potius Odinus,
virorum summus.
Tu non es fatidica,
nee sapiens foemina,
sed potius trium
gigantum mater.

Eqvita domum Odine,
ac in his gloriare,
nemo tali modo veniet
ad sciscitandum,
vsqve dum Lokus
vinculis solvatur :
et Deorum crepusculum
dissolventes aderint.

j68 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

The original is known as Vegtamskvifta (i.e., The Song of Veg-
tamr ') or as Baldrs Draumar (Baldr's Dreams). It is found in the
collection of Old Norse poetry known as the Elder or Poetic Edda.
This collection was at one time thought to be the work of Saemund
the Wise (1056-1133). The Poetic Edda was discovered in Iceland
in 1643 and until a comparatively recent time very extravagant
notions of its age (which of course Gray shared) were current
amongst scholars. In anything like their present form none of
these poems antedate the loth century and some of them are much
later. The present poem is one of the later songs and is perhaps
not much older than the Royal MS. of the Edda (end of I3th
century). The Old Norse text may be found in any edition of the
Poetic Edda. Vigfusson's text (Corpus Poeticum Boreale, I, 181-183)
is accompanied by an English prose translation.

The first stanza, which Gray has omitted (omitted also in Bar-
tholin), says that " all the gods and goddesses were in council to
learn why Baldr's dreams were so threatening." Baldr, the god of
light, was the favorite son of Odin and beloved of all the gods.
Distressed by fears of Baldr's death, Odin determines to learn the
truth from a seeress, long dead, and for that purpose he visits the
underground realm of Ilel, goddess of Hades.

4. Gray's note on Niflheimr comes from Bartholin, pp. 387, 585,
and is based on a passage in the Prose Edda. It represents, like the
Valhalla creed, a late stage of Viking belief. The Old Norse form
of the goddess's name is Hel. Hell in this note should be under
stood as = Hcdes, not as = a place of torment.

17. The line is from Milton's L" Allegro, 59.

22. Thrice he traced the runic rhyme. Runic is a term applied
to alphabets used by the Scandinavians and other Germanic races
before the adoption of the Roman letters. Magic power was often
attributed to runes. In an interpolation in the original (which
stood in F.artholin's text), Odin is apparently represented as "laying
runes" on the tomb (though the word runes is not used), but the
text is quite as vague as Gray's "traced." Bartholin translates
"Literas (tumulo) imposuit," which Gray seems to have taken as
meaning that spells were written on the tomb by Odin. Gray's
information about the magic powers of runes was derived from
Bartholin, pp. 641 ff.

24. verse that wakes the dead. " The original word is Valgalldr
[read valgaldr} ; from Valr, mortuus, and Galldr [read galdr],

1 Name assumed by Odin.

NOTES ON THE POEMS. ^9

iacantatio." Gray (as extracted by Mason from the MS.). Gray's
note is from Bartholin, p. 640. The etymology is correct.

27 ff. The seeress' unwillingness to be disturbed recalls the
words of Samuel when evoked by the Witch of Endor : " Why hast
thou disquieted me to bring me up ? " i Samuel, xxviii, 1 5. The
idea is familiar to all nations.

37. A Traveller. In the original, Od*in conceals his identity by
assuming the name Vegtamr (hence the title of the poem Vegtams-
kvffia], which means IVanJerer.

44. The pure beverage of the bee. Mead, a favorite old
Germanic drink made from honey. The heroes drink mead in
Valhalla. See Gray's Preface to The Fatal Sisters, and the note.
The periphrasis is Gray's own.

86. Odin recognizes the seeress as the goddess Hel herself. But
this interpretation is doubtful. In any case, he taunts her with
being an uncanny, diabolic creature: "mother of three giants," as
the original has it.

go. In Gray's note Lok should be Loki. The phrase Twilight of
the Gods (Gotterdammerung) is an old misunderstanding of the Old
Norse Ragnaro_k, which = merely The Fates of the Gods. Gray
refers his readers to Mallet as an easily accessible source of informa
tion, but he had himself no doubt used Bartholin, pp. 587 ff., where
a part of the Vqlusfd (The Sibyl's Soothsaying), the first poem in
the Poetic Edda and our chief authority for this belief, is quoted and
translated : see especially p. 595.

51. In Mason's Poems of Gray (1775), p. 103, he quotes Gray's
MS. note : " Women were looked upon by the Gothic nations as
having a peculiar insight into futurity; and some there were that
made profession of magic arts and divination. These travelled
round the country, and were received in every house with great
respect and honour. Such a woman bore the name of Volva
Seidkona or Spakona. The dress of Thorbiorga, one of these
prophetesses, is described at large in Eirik's Rauda Sogu (apud
Bartholin, lib. i, cap. iv, p. 688). She had on a blue vest spangled
all over with stones, a necklace of glass beads, and a cap made of
the skin of a black lamb lined with white cat-skin. She leaned on a
staff adorned with brass, with a round head set with stones ; and
was girt with a Hunlandish belt, at which hung her pouch full of
magical instruments. Her buskins were of rough calf-skin, bound
on with thongs studded with knobs of brass, and her gloves of
white cat-skin, the fur turned inwards, &c. They were also called

17o .VOTES OA' THE POEMS.

Fiolkyngi, or Fiol-ktutnug, i.e., Multi-scia ; and Visinda-kona, i.e.,
Oraculorum Mulier, A'ornir ; i.e., Parcae." This note is almost
wholly from Bartholin (see p. xli, above). A few corrections are
necessary. Read vglva, seiftkona, spdkona, Thorbjojrg (for Thorbiorga,
which is Bartholin's Latinized form), Eiriks Saga Rau^ia (i.e., the
Saga of Eric the Red, famous as containing an account of Leif
Ein'ksson's Vinland voyage). The passage referred to by Gray is
one of capital importance. It is in ch. 3, and has been printed,
with notes, by Vigfusson and Powell in their Icelandic Reader
(p. 126). At the end of the note, read fj^l-kunnig for fiol-kunmtg.
Fjo_lkyngi, which Gray seems to have got from a false reading in
Bartholin's extract from Eric the Red's Saga, is a noun, and means
the prophetic art. The A'ornir or Norns were really the Norse Fates.
They are, however, confounded with ordinary seeresses in a story
quoted by Bartholin, p. 685 (cf. p. 612).

55. Hoder. Old Xorse Ho/Sr. The unwitting cause of Baldr's
death. The whole story is told in the Prose Edda (Gylfaginning,
ch. 49 ff.), and has been often translated. See Matthew Arnold's
Balder Dead. Cf. Gayley, Classic Myths in English Literature,
1893, pp. 380 ff., where the Edda story is told. For a good brief
account of the Eddas, see article Edda, in Johnson's Universal
Cyclopaedia, revised edition.

XVI.
THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN.

Gray wrote this ode probably in the year 1764, immediately after
the publication of the Rev. Evan Evans's Specimens of the Antient
Welsh Bards (see Introduction, part iv). This was a collection of
Welsh poems with English prose translations, followed by a Disser-
tatio de Bardis ; Gray turned one of the pieces into rime. The
poem was first published in the 1768 edition.

The prose version which Gray versified runs as follows : * "A
Panegyric upon Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, by Gwalch-
mai, the son of Melir, in the Year 1157.

l A revision of Evans's translation may be found in The Literary Remains
of the Rev. Thomas Price, 1854, I, 195.

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

171

" I will extol the generous hero, descended from the race of
Roderic, the bulwark of his country, a prince eminent for his good
qualities, the glory of Britain, Owain the brave and expert in arms,
a prince that neither hoardeth nor coveteth riches. — Three fleets
arrived, vessels of the main, three powerful fleets of the first rate,
furiously to attack him on a sudden. One from Iwerddon, the
other full of well-armed Lochlynians, making a grand appearance
on the floods, the third from the transmarine Normans, which was
attended with an immense, though successless toil.

" The Dragon of Mona's sons were so brave in action, that there
was a great tumult on their furious attack, and before the prince
himself, there was vast confusion, havock, conflict, honourable death,
bloody battle, horrible consternation, and upon Tal Moelvre a
thousand banners. There was an outrageous carnage, and the rage
of spears, and hasty signs of violent indignation. Blood raised the
tide of the Menai, and the crimson of human gore stained the brine.
There were glittering cuirasses, and the agony of gashing wounds,
and the mangled warriors prostrate before the chief, distinguished
by his crimson lance. Lloegria was put into confusion, the contest
and confusion was great, and the glory of our prince's wide-wasting
sword shall be celebrated in an hundred languages to give him his
merited praise."

Advertisement. A convenient account of Owain Gwynedd may be
found in B. B. Woodward, History of Wales, London, 1859, pp. 265-
288. He succeeded his father Gruffydd ab Cynan (the last prince
of North Wales who bore the title of king) in 1 1 37, and died in
1169 (or, less probably, 1171). The Battle of Tal y Moelvre, which
this poem celebrates, is thought to be identical with " the defeat of
the fleet entrusted by Henry II. to Madoc ab Meredydd in 1157."
See Thomas Stephens, Literature of the. Kymry, ad ed., p. 17.

3. Roderic's stem. " Owain Gwynedd . . . was descended in a
direct line from Roderic the Great (Rhodri Mawr), prince of all
Wales (in the tenth century), who (according to tradition) divided
his principality amongst his three sons." Evans's note.

4. Gwyneth. North-Wales (Gray). /.<?., Gwynedd (Venedotia).
Owain took the surname Gwynedd on succeeding to this principality.

10. Squadrons three. The fleets from the three countries men
tioned below.

n. Eirin. Ireland.

13. On her shadow, etc. "The Danish fleet (Lochlin) in a long
and gay line, sails on its own shadow."

I72 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

20. Cadwallader (Gray's note). Cf. Henry V., v, i, 28 : "Not
for Cadwallader, and all his goats."

20. Mona. Anglesea. Cf. Gray's letter to Mason, 25 July 1756
(Works, II, 286): "I can only tell you not to go and take Mona
for the Isle of Man ; it is Anglesey, a tract of plain country, very
fertile, but picturesque only from the view it has of Caernarvonshire,
from which it is separated by the Menai, a narrow arm of the sea."

20. See note on Bard, v. 28.

25. Talymalfra. A little bay on the N. E. coast of Anglesea.

26. In Mason's edition of Gray's poems (1775), he added after
this line the following four lines, saying they were " from the Author's

MS.":

" Check'd by the torrent-tide of blood
Backward Meinai rolls his flood ;
While, heap'd his master's feet around,
Prostrate Warriors gnaw the ground."

XVII.
THE DEATH OF HOEL.

This and the two following poems were probably written in 1764,
and, like the Triumphs of Owen, came from Evans's Specimens.
They were first published by Mason, in 1775.

The Gododin, from which these three pieces are extracts, is one of
the few genuine relics of ancient (sixth-century) Welsh poetry. The
author, Aneurin, was contemporary with Taliesin. Gray translated
from the Latin version given by Evans in the Dissertatio de Bardis
appended to his Specimens. The occasion of the original poem is
disputed, but the most general opinion seems to be that it celebrates
a battle between the Strathclyde Britons and Northumbrian Saxons
(see D. W. Nash, Taliesin, 1858, p. 65; but cf. Thos. Stephens, Lit.
of the Kymry, 2d ed., p. 3).

The Latin version is as follows :

Evans, pp. 71, 73.

"Si mihi liceret sententiaml de Deirorum populo ferre,
Aeque ac diluvium omnes una strage prostrarem ;

1 " Fortasse, ' Vindictam in Deirorum populum,' &c."

NOTES ON THE POEMS, 173

Amicum enim amisi incautus,

Qui in resistendo firmus erat

Non petiit magnanimus dotem a socero,

Filius CIANI ex strenuo GWYNGWN ortus.

" Viri ibant ad CATTRAETH, et fuere insignes,
Vinum et mulsum ex aureis poculis erat eorum potus.

Trecenti et sexaginta tres aureis torquibus insigniti erant,
Ex iis autem qui nimio potu madidi ad bellum properabant,
Non evasere nisi tres, qui sibi gladiis viam muniebant,
Sc. bellator de Aeron et CONANUS DAEARAWD,
Et egomet ipse (sc. Bardus Aneurinus) sanguine rubens,
Aliter ad hoc carmen compingendum non superstes fuissem."

Evans, p. 73.

"Quando ad bellum properabat CARADOCUS,
Filius apri sylvestris qui truncando mutilavit hostes,
Taurus aciei in pugnae conflictu,
Is lignum (*'. e. hastam) ex manu contorsit."

Evans, p. 75.

" Debitus est tibi cantus, qui honorem assecutus es maximum,
Qui eras instar ignis, tonitrui et tempestatis,
Viribus eximie, eques bellicose
RHUDD FEDEL, bellum meditaris."

3. Deira. This included about what is now Yorkshire.

n. Cattraeth's vale. In Yorkshire, near Richmond. Cattraeth
is not called a vale in the original. Stephens, Lit. of the ICymry, 2d
ed., p. 3, supposes it to be the Roman town " Cataracton, now called
Catterick," in York.

XIX.
CARADOC.

For Gray's remark on the pronunciation of this word, see note on
v. 102 of the Bard.

I74 NOTES ON THE POEMS.

XX.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

These verses were sent in a letter to Mason under date 16 July
1765. They were first published by Mitford in The Correspondence
of Thomas Gray and William Mason, 1853, pp. 339-40.

i. Mistress Anne. The servant of the Rev. Wm. Mason at York.

3. Proper. Handsome.

5. Much have I borne. Referring to the eighteenth-century
Shaksperian critics and commentators.

12. Residence. Mason disliked his compulsory residence at
York cathedral.

Marriage. Mason was then engaged, and was married on
25 September.

Sore eyes. Mason was constantly troubled with weak eyes.

17. Better to bottom tarts, etc. Better use the paper on which
Shakspere's works are printed for cooking purposes than to let the
commentators disfigure him.

21. Clouet. A famous cook. For Gray's studies in gastronomy,
see Works, III, 81.

XXI.
ODE FOR MUSIC.

This was the last poem Gray wrote. It was published in the year
of its composition (1769) as a thin quarto of eight pages, with the
following title-page : Ode Performed in the Senate-House at Cam
bridge, July i, 1769, At the Installation of his Grace Augustus-Henry
Fitzroy, Dtike of Grafton, Chancellor of the University. Set to Music
by Dr. Randal, Professor of Music. Cambridge, Printed by J. Arch
deacon Printer to the University. M. DCC. LXIX. The title over
the first page of the text is simply Ode for Music. It is interesting
to notice that Gray's name nowhere appears in the quarto. In this
volume this ode is for the first time given exactly as it appeared in
the original 1769 edition. The circumstances which called it into
being are as follows : The Duke of Grafton had in 1768 made Gray
Professor of Modern History and Languages at Cambridge, an
honor for which the poet felt genuine gratitude. When the Duke
was elected Chancellor of the University, Gray offered to write an

NOTES ON THE POEMS. 175

Ode to be sung at the Installation on July i, 1769. Gray performed
this task with reluctance, and evidently felt that the poetry was more
artificial than spontaneous. The first stanza, with its personified
abstractions, reminds one of his earliest period, and immediately
suggests Milton's minor poems.

The poem has really added nothing to Gray's reputation, and the
following contemporary criticism seems just: "The Installation Ode
of Mr. Gray is a recent instance of flattery bestowed indiscriminately
on the great, and will do no credit to that celebrated writer." —
Joseph Cockfield to the Rev. Weeden Butler, 27 July 1769, Nichols,
Illustr. of Lit., V, 797.

Mason appended notes on the personages mentioned in this Ode.
I have made use of these often, but with corrections and additions.

13. Empyrean. " Empyrean," and " empyreal " are favorite words
with Milton. The word is from Gk. irGp = fire ; and means the high
est heaven, where the ancients supposed the region of pure fire to be.

18. Accomp. This meant that, though the recitative was held,
the next nine lines were also accompanied.

25. Newton's self. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). He is said
to have resided at Trinity College, Cambridge, for thirty-five years,
without a month's interruption.

His state sublime. His chair of state, as often in Shaks'pere.

27. Ye brown, etc. Mason remarks that "this stanza, being
supposed to be sung by Milton, is very judiciously written in the
metre " of the great Christmas hymn. The stanza is also full of
Miltonic expressions.

39. Edward. Edward III., who in 1340 formally claimed to be
king of France ; and quartered the French arms (the fleur de lys)
with his own.

41. Sad Chatillon. Aymer de Valence married, as his third wife,
Marie de Castillon (Chatillon), daughter of Guy IV., count of St.
Pol, 5 July 1321 ; he died suddenly (murder was suspected) near
Paris, 23 June 1324. See Annales Paulini, in Stubbs, Chronicles
of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., I, 292, 307. His widow,
who founded Pembroke Hall in 1343, long survived him.

42. Clare. Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of Gilbert de Clare,
Earl of Gloucester, by Joan of Acres, daughter of Edward I. She
married John de Burgh, son and heir to the Earl of Ulster. She
afterwards married Roger. Damory. She rebuilt Clare Hall (which
had been founded by Dr. Richard Badew in 1326 under the name of

i76

NOTES ON THE POEMS.

University Hall), and gave it this name, about 1342. See Dugdale,
Baronage of England, 1675, *> 2O9> 2I7-

43. Anjou's Heroine. Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI.;
she founded Queen's College in 1448 ; though the foundation was
not completed until 1465, and then, curiously enough, by Elizabeth,
wife of Edward IV., Henry's rival. Gray alludes to Margaret in
the Bard, v. 89. — Paler Rose. Elizabeth Woodville ; she is called
the paler rose because her husband, Edward IV., was of the house
of York — as distinguished from the red rose, Lancaster.

45. Either Henry. Henry VI. and Henry VIII. Henry VI.
founded King's College in 1441, and Henry VIII. was Trinity's
greatest benefactor ; Henry VI. is also said to have trebled the
revenue of Pembroke Hall.

51. Granta. The river Cam.

54. Fitzroy. The family name of the Duke of Grafton.

66. The Lady Margaret Beaufort, daughter of John, Duke of
Somerset, married, 1454, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Their
son succeeded to the throne as Henry VII. See Doyle, Official
Baronage, III, 118. "Although Christ's College was originally
founded in the reign of King Henry VI. by the name of God's
House, yet its foundation is usually dated from its second and more
ample establishment, by Margaret Countess of Richmond, in 1505."
Lysons, Magna Britannia, I, 120. "The foundation of St. John's
College was projected and begun by Margaret Countess of Richmond a
short time before her death, which happened in 1509." Ibid., I, 121.

70. A Tudor's fire, etc. "The Countess was a Beaufort, and
married to a Tudor ; hence the application of this line to the Duke
of Grafton, who claims descent from both these families." — Mason.

72. The flower unheeded. Cf. Elegy, v. 55. Gray means here
that the Duke will discover obscure men of genius and make their
merits known.

78. Obvious. In the literal Latin sense. Cf. Par. Lost, viii, 504 :
" Not obvious, not obtrusive."

84. Cecil. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's
famous Lord Treasurer. He was elected Chancellor of the University
of Cambridge in 1558. He was not made Lord Burghley until 1571.

89. Thro' the wild waves, etc. Mr. Gosse justly calls this stanza
the only absurd thing in Gray's poetry. It might indeed have been
written by any Augustan parasite.

NOTES ON THE PROSE.1

PAGE 61, 1. 23. Gray was probably thinking of Isaiah, xxxiv, 13,
14, 15: "It shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of
the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the screech owl also
shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the
great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her
shadow."

62, 36. Hyp. Hypochondria.

64, 17. Sack and silver. 'Silver' of course refers to the poet
laureate's salary, the ' sack ' is the famous yearly butt of Canary wine
from the king's cellars which was formerly allowed to this official.

65, 18. Rowe. Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718), the dramatist.

65, 19. Settle. Elkanah Settle (1648-1723), the dramatist, now
remembered only for his literary controversy with Uryclen in 1673.

65, 20. Eusden. " Appointed poet laureate by Lord Halifax, in
1716." Mitford.

65, 22. Dryden. It is interesting to observe Gray's strong moral
feeling asserting itself ; he greatly admired Dryden's poetry.

65, 34. Dick. The Rev. Richard Forester. He gave up his
fellowship at the end of this month (December, 1757).

65, 35. Mr. Treasurer. "Mr. Joseph Gaskarth was the college
treasurer, but the subject of his disagreement with Sir M. Lamb does
not appear to be known." AIHford.

Sir M. Lamb. " Probably Sir Matthew Lamb, of Brocket Hall,
Herts, created a Baronet in 1755." Mitford.

72, 18. A drama. Elfrida, by Mason, published 1751.

73, 12. Mr. Bentley. Mr. Richard Bentley, son of the great
scholar, made the designs for Gray's poems in the sumptuous
edition of 1753.

1 Some of the important allusions that required only a word of explanation
are discussed in foot-notes to the text.

i78

NOTES ON THE PROSE.

73, 13. Miscellanies. Dodsley's Collection of Poems. Three
volumes were published in 1748, and with the fourth edition of
these in 1755 a fourth volume was added. The Progress of Poesy,
however, was not included.

74, 21. Designs, etc. The exact title, as it finally appeared, was
slightly different : " Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for Six Poems by
Mr. T. Gray" — "by" substituted for "of" (before "Mr. T.
Gray").

74, 24. Richard Kurd (1720-1808), the famous Bishop, author
of the Moral and Political Dialogues, and Letters on Chivalry and
Romance. For an account of his important influence on English
Romanticism, see the editor's Beginnings of the English Romantic
Movement, pp. 112-115.

75, 1 8. A player and a doctor of divinity. Garrick and Dr.
Warburton. Cf. Gray's letter to'Wharton, 7 October 1757 (Works,

II, 341).

75, 29. So ripe for the press. Probably alluding to Hurd's Moral
and Political Dialogues, published shortly after this.

77, 35. These remarks were made in a letter criticising Mason's
Caractacus.

80, 34. Marivaux. Pierre Carlet de Marivaux (1688-1763), dram
atist and novelist. He was the author of the famous romance
Marianne (1731-1742), which has been sometimes called the origin
of Richardson's Pamela, — Crebillon. C. P. Jolyot de Crebillon
(1707-1778), called Crebillon the Younger, son of the dramatist
Crebillon the Elder (1674-1762). He was a writer of novels, as
corrupt as they are brilliant and entertaining. For the influence of
Gray's French reading on his style, see Introduction, part iii.

80, 51. Licentious. Free in coining words.

82, 9. Tickell. Thomas Tickell (1686-1740). His poem On the
Prospect of Peace stood first in Dodsley's Collection.

82, 20. Ballad, Colin and Lucy (Dodsley, I, 28).

82, 21. M. Green. Matthew Green (1696-1737), author of The
Spleen (1737). For Gray's debt to Green, see p. 128.

83, 3. Douglas. The famous drama (1756) by John Home (1722-
1808).

83, 30. Dyer. 1 le alludes to the nature-poem Grongar Hill, and
possibly to the Ruins of Rome (Dodsley, I, 220, 226), by John Dyer
(died 1758).

83, 38. Whitehead's. William Whitehead (1715-1785), the
Poet-Laureate.

NOTES ON THE PROSE.

I79

84, 10. Hardicanute. Gray was deceived. Hardicanute was
written in imitation of the old Scottish ballad style by Lady Ward-
law of Pitrevie in Fife (1677-1726-7). It maybe found in Percy's
Keliques.

85, 25. "Winter." Probably alluding to lines 175-201 in Winter,
beginning,

" Nor less at land the loosen'd tempest reigns."

87, 30. Mr. Evans. See note on The Triumphs of Owen, and
Introduction, part iv.

94, i5?f. Cf. Gray's Latin Alcaics written in the travelers' book
at the Grande Chartreuse (VVorks, I, 182).

106, 3. Wadd-mines. Plumbago, or black lead.

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