"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Gray's annotations
[Era gia l' ora, che volge 'l disio
A' naviganti, e 'ntenerisce 'l cuore
Lo di ch' han detto a' dolci amici addio:
E che lo nuovo peregrin d' amore
Punge, se ode] — squilla di lontano
Che paia 'l giorno pianger, che si muore.
[(It was already the hour which turns back the desire
Of the sailors, and melts their hearts,
The day that they have said good-bye to their sweet friends,
And which pierces the new pilgrim with love,
If he hears) — from afar the bell
Which seems to mourn the dying day.]
Dante. Purgat. l. 8. [Canto 8 lines i-vi.]
Fredda una lingua, & due begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville.
[For I see in my thoughts, my sweet fire,
One cold tongue, and two beautiful closed eyes
Will remain full of sparks after our death.]
Petrarch. Son. 169. [170 in usual enumeration]
Petrarch. Son. 114. [115 in usual enumeration]
Expanding the poem lines shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 338 textual and 352 explanatory notes/queries.
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" 9 Explanatory, 14 Textual Skip to next line
Title/Paratext] "[The Elegy written in a [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"[The Elegy written in a Country Church-Yard was begun at Stoke-Poges in the autumn of 1742, probably on the occasion of the funeral of Jonathan Rogers, on the 31st of October. In the winter of 1749 Gray took it in hand again, at Cambridge, after the death of his aunt, Mary Antrobus. He finished it at Stoke on the 12th of June 1750. The poem was circulated in MS., and on the 10th of February 1751 Gray received a letter from the editor of the Magazine of Magazines, asking leave to publish it. The poet refused, and wrote next day to Horace Walpole, directing him to bring it out in pamphlet form. Accordingly, so soon as the 16th of February, there appeared anonymously ''An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard. London: Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row. 1751. (Price sixpence).'' There was a preface by Horace Walpole. The text here given is that of the Edition of 1768, which appears to be authoritative and final. Gray has appended the following bibliographical note to the Pembroke MS.: - ''Published in Febry. 1751, by Dodsley, & went thro' four editions, in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 9th, 10th, & 11th; printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of wch. there is a 2d edition; & again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, vol. iv, & in a Scotch Collection call'dthe Union; translated into Latin by Chr. Anstey, Esq., and the Revd. Mr. Roberts, & published in 1762, & again in the same year by Rob. Lloyd, M. A.'' Besides these legitimate editions, the poem was largely pirated; the Magazine of Magazines printed it on the last of February, the London Magazine on the last of March, and the Grand Magazine of Magazines on the last of April. It first appeared with Gray's name as the last of the Six Poems of 1753. The MSS. referred to in the notes are that which belonged to Wharton, and is now among the Egerton MSS. at the British Museum, and that which belonged to Mason, and now belongs to Sir William Fraser, Bart., who printed a transcript of it in 100 copies in January 1884. The variations between the text here given and those of the first edition of 1751, and of the Pembroke MS., are not noted because both the latter are given verbatim in appendices. - Ed.]"
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 72.Title/Paratext] "Although nearly all the editors [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Although nearly all the editors state that 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, 1 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 satisfactory reply, for two weeks later, 14 December 1773 (Letters, VI, 31), Walpole writes: ''Your account of the 'Elegy' puts an end to my 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 firends, 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."
Title/Paratext] "The ''Elegy Written in a [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The ''Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard'' was begun at Stoke-Poges in 1742, probably about the time of the death of Gray's uncle, Jonathan Rogers, who died there on the 21st of October. In the winter of 1749, after the death of his aunt, Mary Antrobus, Gray resumed it at Cambridge, and finished it at Stoke early in June, 1750; and on the 12th of that month he sent a copy of it in MS. to Horace Walpole, who circulated it among his friends. On the 10th of February, 1751, Gray received a letter from the editors of the ''Magazine of Magazines,'' asking permission to publish it. He thereupon wrote next day to Walpole, as follows: -
''Cambridge, Feb. 11, 1751.Walpole lost no time, and on the 16th of February the poem was published in a quarto pamphlet, the following being the content of the title-page: - ''An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard. London: Printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-Noster Row. 1751. (Price sixpence.)''
''As you have brought me into a little sort of distress, you must assist me, I 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 hands. They tell me that an ingenious Poem, called 'Reflections in a Country Church-yard,' has been communicated 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 the honour of his 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 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 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, 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.''
This then was the first appearance of the ''Elegy'' in print. It was anonymous, and contained these prefatory remarks by Walpole: -
Advertisement. - The following Poem came into my hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a Term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more. - The Editor.The poem was at once reproduced in the magazines; it appeared in the ''Magazine of Magazines'' on the 28th of February, in the ''London Magazine'' and in the ''Scots' Magazine,'' on the 31st of March, and in the ''Grand Magazine of Magazines'' on the 30th of April.
Gray has entered the following note in the margin of the Pembroke MS: - ''Publish'd in Febry. 1751, by Dodsley, & went thro' four editions, in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 9th, 10th, & 11th; printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of wch. there is a 2d edition; & again by Dodsley in his 'Miscellany,' vol. 4th, & in a Scotch Collection call'd the 'Union'; translated into Latin by Chr. Anstey, Esq., and the Revd. Mr. Roberts, & published in 1762, & again in the same year by Rob. Lloyd, M.A.''
It first appeared with Gray's name in the ''Six Poems'' of 1753.
Mason says that Gray ''originally gave it only the simple title of 'Stanzas written in a Country Church-yard,' '' but that he ''persuaded him first to call it an Elegy, because the subject authorized him so to do, and the alternate measure seemed particularly fit for that species of composition; also so capital a poem written in this measure, would as it were appropriate it in the future to writings of this sort.''
The title of the eighth edition, 1753, is ''Elegy, originally written in a Country Churchyard.''
Three copies of the ''Elegy'' in Gray's handwriting still exist. One of these belonged to Wharton, and is now among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum, and this copy is therefore referred to as the ''Egerton MS.'' The two other copies were among the ''books, manuscripts, coins, music printed or written, and papers of all kinds,'' which Gray bequeathed in his will to Mason, ''to preserve or destroy at his own discretion.'' These Mason bequeathed to Stonehewer (Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and a friend of Gray's), who, at his death in 1809, left the greater portion to Pembroke College, and the remainder to his friend Mr. Bright, - each set containing a copy of the ''Elegy.'' The copy in the possession of the College is usually described as the ''Pembroke MS.,'' and of it there is a facsimile in Mathias' edition of Gray's Works, published in 1814. The collection left to Mr. Bright was sold by auction in 1845; the MS. of the ''Elegy'' was bought by Mr. Granville John Penn, of Stoke Park, for £100; in 1854 the MS. was sold for £131; and in 1875 it was bought by Sir William Fraser for £230, who had 100 copies of it printed in 1884. Mr. Rolfe calls this the ''Fraser MS.''; and Mr. Gosse refers to it as the ''Mason MS.''; but it may not always belong to the Fraser family; and ''Mason MS.'' is not sufficiently distinctive, as the ''Pembroke MS.'' was also Mason's. As this MS. seems to have been the rough draft, and contains a greater number of original readings and alterations, the other two apparently being made from it by Gray when he had almost ceased correcting the ''Elegy,'' I shall refer to it in the Notes and Various Readings as the ''Original MS.''"The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 211-214.
Title/Paratext] "Mason states that Gray originally [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Mason states that Gray originally gave the poem only ''the simple title of 'Stanzas written in a Country Church-yard.' I persuaded him first to call it an Elegy, because the subject authorized him so to do; and the alternate measure, in which it was written, seemed peculiarly fit for that species of composition. I imagined too that so capital a Poem, written in this measure, would as it were appropriate it in future to writings of this sort; and the number of imitations which have since been made of it (even to satiety) seem to prove that my notion was well founded.''
Mason delighted to pose as Gray's literary confrere and adviser; and when we remember that he was capable of inserting in his version of Gray's letters compliments to himself which never came from Gray, we must accept such statements of his, particularly those which refer to this early stage of the friendship between the two men, with great caution.
Johnson was thinking of this sentence of Mason's when (in the Life of Hammond) he said, ''Why Hammond or other writers have thought the quatrain of ten syllables elegiac it is difficult to tell. The character of the Elegy is gentleness and tenuity; but this stanza has been pronounced by Dryden, whose knowledge of English verse was not inconsiderable, to be the most magnificent of all the measures which our language affords.'[']
Since the name was invented there have been elegies and elegies; but the residuum of truth in Johnson's remark is that this measure, because of its stateliness, at once betrays, by mere force of contrast, 'tenuity' of thought. Take one of the three stanzas of Hammond which Johnson derides:
''Panchaia's odours be their costly feast,Even the few weak places of Dryden's Annus Mirabilis become through this mould the more obvious. It cannot therefore be successfully employed on trivial themes. It was used inter alios by Davenant for his heroic poem of Gondibert; by Hobbes for his curious translation of Homer; by Dryden for his Annus Mirabilis. The suggestion that the posthumous publication of Hammond's Love Elegies in 1745 had anything to do with Gray's choice of this measure may be dismissed; it comes oddly from those who affirm that the Elegy was begun in 1742."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 133/134.
And all the pride of Asia's fragrant year,
Give them the treasures of the farthest East,
And what is still more precious, give thy tear.''
Title/Paratext] "To the title of the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"To the title of the Pembroke MS. he [Gray] has appended a note: ''Published in Febry. 1751, by Dodsley: and went thro four Editions; in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 9th, and 10th, and 11th. Printed also in 1753 with Mr Bentley's Designs, of whch there is a 2nd Edition and again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, Vol. 7th, and in a Scotch Collection call'd The Union, translated into Latin by Chr. Anstey Esq., and the Revd Mr Roberts, and publish'd in 1762, and again the same year by Robert Lloyd, M.A.''"
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 133.Title/Paratext] "In August 1746 Gray writes [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"In August 1746 Gray writes to Wharton from Stoke, ''The Muse, I doubt, is gone, and has left me in far worse company; if she returns, you will hear of her.'' And from the same place to the same correspondent, on the following Sept. 11 (after the account of Aristotle quoted by Matthew Arnold in his Essay on Gray): ''This and a few autumnal Verses are my Entertainments dureing the Fall of the Leaf.'' I know of no poem but the Elegy to which these fitful efforts of the 'Muse' are likely to belong.
Once more from Stoke, on June 12, 1750, Gray writes to Walpole, ''I have been here a few days (where I shall continue a good part of the summer) and having put an end to a thing, whose beginning you have seen long ago, I immediately send it to you. You will I hope look upon it in the light of a thing with an end to it; a merit which most of my writings have wanted, and are likely to want.''
That this 'thing' was the Elegy there can be no doubt. Walpole could not have seen the 'beginning' of it at an earlier date than Nov. 1745, - the date, as I have shown (Gray and His Friends, p. 7), of his reconciliation with Gray, - except we adopt the extremely bold hypothesis that the Elegy was begun before the quarrel, that is to say before, as far as can be ascertained, Gray had written a line of original English verse."
Title/Paratext] "Mason, in his Memoirs of [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Mason, in his Memoirs of Gray, speaking of the date August 1742, that month of exceptional efflorescence in Gray, says, ''I am inclined to believe that the Elegy in a Country Churchyard was begun, if not concluded, at this time also. Though I am aware that, as it stands at present, the conclusion is of a later date; how that was originally, I have shown in my notes on the poem.'' (The four stanzas which, according to Mason, originally ended the poem will be found infra, n. on l. 72.)
Of the MS. of the Elegy in which these four stanzas occur, called by Dr Bradshaw the 'Original,' by Mr Gosse the 'Mason,' and by Mr Rolfe the 'Fraser' MS. 100 copies were printed in 1884. The MS. does not end with these four stanzas, but contains them with the conclusion as we now read the poem [Footnote: ''Mason says, 'In the first manuscript copy of this exquisite poem I find the conclusion different from that which he afterwards composed.' He has only inferred that the four stanzas were the original conclusion and endeavours thus to force this inference upon his readers.'']. Gray added his after-thoughts without effacing the lines for which he meant to substitute them: this is characteristic of him, for he had a great aversion to erasure. That he could not have intended the second and fourth of these stanzas to remain is clear, because they are remodelled in ll. 73-76, and ll. 93-96; but the four stanzas, however beautiful, are abrupt, considered as the last lines of the poem. When Gray sent the poem to Walpole in 1750, he could congratulate himself that the 'thing' had really an end to it, both as compared with its previous state and with the fragmentary Agrippina.
Walpole did not at first accept the account of the date of the poem, submitted to him by Mason before the Memoirs of Gray went to press. He writes, Dec. 1, 1773:
''The 'Churchyard' was, I am persuaded, posterior to West's death [1742] at least three or four years. 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.''
And yet Mason appears to have satisfied Walpole that the opinion expressed in the Memoirs was correct, for Walpole writes to him Dec. 14, 1773, that his account of the Elegy puts an end to his criticism on the subject.
Walpole was surely complaisant, if Mason induced him, against his better memory, to admit that the Elegy could have been concluded, in any sense, in 1742. What evidence could Mason have adduced that it was even begun in this year? Not certainly the testimony of Gray himself, for if Mason could have relied upon that he would have let us know it. He must, I think, have persuaded Walpole that the three or four opening stanzas were not, as Walpole supposed, written shortly before he saw them, but, like the fragment of Agrippina, had long been laid aside. But would not Gray have told Walpole this, and would not Walpole, whose own impressions receive much confirmation from Gray's hints to Wharton in 1746, have recollected it?
If, as seems probable, Gray gave Walpole these opening stanzas not by letter, but when the reconciled friends were together, whether in '45 or in the summer of '46, when he was at Stoke and 'seeing Walpole a great deal' (to Wharton Aug. [13] 1746), Walpole would have no documentary evidence to oppose to Mason's representations whatever they may have been, and might easily have been induced by a man more conceited and obstinate than himself to mistrust his memory of what had happened twenty-seven years before. And that Mason's notions of the date of the Elegy were in no way modified by what Walpole told him, leads one to mistrust those notions altogether. However this may be, there can be no doubt that a goodly part of the Elegy was composed at intervals between August 13, 1746, and June 12, 1750. That the death of Gray's maiden aunt , Mrs Mary Antrobus, at Stoke, on Nov. 5, 1749, stimulated Gray to resume the poem may be true, and is more probable than that the death of his uncle Rogers in October 1742 prompted him to begin it.
Lastly, Gray's heading to the Pembroke MS. is 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard 1750.' He has given in the same MS. minute details as to the editions of the Elegy; if he had written a substantial part of it as early as 1742 (a year so memorable to him), he might have been expected to record this.
Of the Elegy there are three copies in Gray's handwriting extant; the one mentioned already, which may be considered as the rough draft; this was purchased in 1875 by Sir Wm. Fraser. It will be referred to in these notes, after Mr Rolfe, as the Fraser MS. Another copy was in Wharton's possession, and accordingly is in the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum. I have never seen it, for when I consulted the Wharton Letters there, the Elegy had been taken out for exhibition. Of the third, the MS. at Pembroke College, Cambridge, I made such memorands as a brief opportunity admitted. Many therefore of the Various Readings here recorded are given on the faith of previous editors.
Walpole was so delighted with the Elegy that he showed it about in manuscript with the result that it got into the hands of the enterprising publisher. Accordingly Gray wrote to Walpole from Cambridge, Feb. 11, 1751:
''As you have brought me into a little sort of distress, you must assist me, I 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 hands. They tell me that an ingenious Poem called Reflections in a Country Churchyard has been communicated 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 the honour of his correspondence, &c. 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 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 the sense is in some places continued beyond them; and the title must be, - Elegy, written in a Country Churchyard. 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, 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.''
The Elegy appeared on the 16th of February 1751 in a quarto pamphlet with the following Title-page.
Church Yard
Title/Paratext] " ['']Advertisement. The following Poem [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ['']Advertisement. The following Poem came into my hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has spread, may be call'd by so slight a Term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more. The Editor.''
The Editor is Walpole, as will be seen by Gray's letter infra. He pretends to have been one of many readers into whose hands the poem accidentally fell, and to have taken the same unwarrantable liberty with it, which had in fact been taken by the Magazine of Magazines. The plain truth might easily have been told as to the circumstances which led to its publication by Dodsley, without any sacrifice of the anonymity which Gray desired. And how does a poet indifferent to fame and money prevent the surreptitious publication of his works, by making the public believe that the offence has been twice committed with no remonstrance on his part? His real injury is the issue of a bad text; his only remedy the issue of a text revised by himself. Such remedy Macaulay took when an unauthorized edition of his speeches, deformed by ridiculous blunders, was published by Vizetelly. Such remedy Gray did not take; with a consequence of which he could not reasonably complain. He writes to Walpole from Cambridge on Ash Wednesday, 1751:
''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 [? expected] from so near a relation. 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 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 bien flatteuse pour moi, who should be put to it even to make myself a compliment in good English.''
It is hard to understand why Gray's honour needed saving, or how by this expedient it was saved. But the worst of an affectation pushed as far as he pushed it, is that it leads to much bewilderment, and a good deal of superfluous lying.
The 'pinches' were more severe than I supposed. See Gray to Walpole, Mar. 3, 1751, and notes in my edition of the letters; the punctuation is perhaps not quite exact; and in stanza 7, l. 3 [see textual note], the word 'they' is twice repeated. There is no interval between the stanzas, but the first line of every stanza is indented. Gray took ample pains in the long run that the world should know what he had really written."
Title/Paratext] "Begun possibly in 1742, but [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st 1926].
"Begun possibly in 1742, but more probably in 1746 at Stoke Poges, and perhaps carried as far as l. 72, with the four stanzas preserved by Mason, as its conclusion (see note at l. 72). Revised and completed in 1749-50, and sent to Walpole (see Letter XXII). It was circulated in manuscript copies until the editor of The Magazine of Magazines applied to Gray for leave to publish it; whereupon Gray got it published by Dodsley without his name (see Letter XXIII). 'It went through four editions in two months,' Gray noted, 'and afterwards a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh; printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of which there is a second edition; and again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, vol. iv, and in a Scotch Collection call'd The Union; translated into Latin by Chr. Anstey, Esq., and the Rev. Mr. Roberts, and published in 1762, and again in the same year by Rob. Lloyd, M.A.' It had the success of a popular ballad. General Wolfe is said to have declaimed it to his officers on the eve of the battle of Quebec, and to have added: 'I would prefer being the author of that Poem to the glory of beating the French tomorrow.' It was translated into the chief European languages, and had a considerable vogue in France owing to the republican sentiment which it was supposed to contain. Marie-Joseph Chénier published a translation of it in 1805 to supersede the paraphrases and imitations which had done duty for it in French. Gray told Dr. Gregory 'with a good deal of acrimony' that it 'owed its popularity entirely to the subject, and that the public would have received it as well if it had been written in prose.' But in that he was clearly mistaken. It is evident from the swarm of imitations or unconscious echoes which it produced in contemporary poetry that it had charmed the age by its metrical splendour and verbal music quite as much as by its sentiment."
Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], p. 164/165.Title/Paratext] "[According to Mason, the Elegy [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"[According to Mason, the Elegy was begun in August 1742; but we can only say for certain that Gray wrote the main portion of the poem between 1746 and 1750. It was finished by June 12, 1750. On February 10, 1751, the editors of the Magazine of Magazines asked for permission to print it. Gray refused and at once wrote to Horace Walpole asking him to publish it anonymously. On February 15 it appeared as a quarto pamphlet under the title An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard, together with the following preface by Walpole: 'The following Poem came into my hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more. The Editor.'
The text here printed is taken from the edition of 1768. Three copies of the Elegy in Gray's handwriting are still preserved. The MS. formerly in the possession of Sir W. Fraser and now at Eton College contains probably the original draft. This differs considerably from the form in which the poem was published, and for this reason it is printed below (Appendix I). A second copy was sent to Wharton and is among the Egerton MSS. at the British Museum (No. 2400), and a third is at Pembroke College. The variations in these two manuscripts are given in the notes. The following bibliographical note is appended to the Pembroke MS. in Gray's writing: '1750. publish'd in Feb:ry 1751. by Dodsley; and went through four [five cancelled] editions; in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th 9th & 10th & 11th. printed also in 1753 with Mr Bentley's Designs, of w[hi]ch there is a 2[n]d Edition & again by Dodsley in his Miscellany Vol. 4th & in a Scotch Collection call'd the Union. translated into Latin by Chr Anstey Esq. & the Rev. Mr Roberts, & publish'd in 1762, & again in the same year by Rob: Lloyd M: A:'. For the history of its publication and an account of the different editions, etc., see An Elegy ... by Thomas Gray, ed. F. G. Stokes, Oxford, 1929.]"
Title/Paratext] "There are numerous variations in [...]" W.C. Eppstein, 1959.
"There are numerous variations in the readings of this poem; they will be found in Gosse's Edition of the works of Gray (Macmillan). The poem was sent to Walpole, who was so delighted that he handed it round to his friends. The publisher of the Magazine of Magazines wrote to Gray informing him he was printing the poem. Gray thereupon wrote to Dodsley asking him to print it, which he did, anonymously. The London Magazine then stole it, and others followed the bad example. It is not its brilliancy and originality, but its balanced perfection that is its chief quality. Many of its phrases have become integral parts of our language. The form, the historic quatrain, is not new and may have been suggested by Dryden's Annus Mirabilis, but it lacks the latter's hard, metallic tone, and it is no exaggeration to say that Gray has handled the metre form with an infinite variety and charm unequalled by any other writer."
Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959, p. xxiv-xxv.Title/Paratext] "First printed by Dodsley in [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"First printed by Dodsley in 1751 (Q1). Some of the errors which Gray pointed out were corrected in the third edition (Q3). The eighth quarto (Q8) of 1753, according to Dodsley, was corrected by Gray, although this claim makes it difficult to account for the persistence of one of the most obvious of the errors (see note to line 11) which Gray had mentioned in his letter of 3 Mar. 1751 to Walpole (T & W no. 159): see notes to ll. 11, 96, 105. [...] Dodsley followed [the text recommended by Gray to Dodsley (B), c. 1 Feb. 1768 (T & W no.465)] closely in P[oems, 1768]. The three extant holograph MSS. are the one at Eton College (E), probably the earliest; the one sent to Wharton (Wh) in Gray's letter of 18 Dec. 1750 (T & W no. 156), Brit. Mus. Egerton MS. 2400, ff. 45-46; and the one in C[ommonplace] B[ook], ii. 617-18. Although in his letter to Walpole, 11 Feb. 1751 (T & W no. 157), Gray had asked that the poem be printed 'without any Interval between the Stanza's because the Sense is in some Places continued beyond them' (this was done in Q1 although the first line of each stanza was indented), he does not seem to have repeated this request for B and P[oems, 1768]; he either had overlooked the issue or had concluded that that closing up the intervals was not necessary or desirable. With some editorial hesitation, the poem is printed here with the customary intervals."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.Title/Paratext] "Title: Stanza's wrote in a [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Title: Stanza's wrote in a . . . E[ton College MS.]; An ELEGY wrote in a . . . Q[uarto]1; . . . written ORIGINALLY in a . . . / . . . Corrected by the Author. Q[arto]8."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.Title/Paratext] "Although Mason believed that the [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Although Mason believed that the poem was begun as early as 1742, most scholars date its composition between 1745 and 1750. (For a detailed discussion see T & W, Appendix I, pp. 1214-16, and Stokes's edition of the Elegy.) Gray sent a copy to Walpole, who appears to have circulated it rather freely. In any event, to Gray's annoyance an imperfect copy was acquired by a journal which he disliked; consequently he wrote to Walpole (11 Feb. 1751, T & W no. 157): 'As you have brought me into a little Sort of Distress, you must assist me, I 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 Hands. they tell me, that an ingenious Poem, call'd Reflections in a Country-Churchyard, has been communicated to them, wch they are printing forthwith: that they are inform'd that the excellent Author of it is I by name, & that they beg not only his Indulgence, but the Honor of his Correspondence, &c: 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. & therefore am obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it immediately (wch 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 in his best Paper & Character. he must correct the Press himself ... 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 Mag: of Mag:s in the Light that I do, you will not refuse to give yourself this Trouble on my Account, wch you have taken of your own Accord before now. ... If Dodsley don't do this immediately, he may as well let it alone.' Dodsley brought out the first edition of the Elegy, anonymously, on 15 Feb., one day before the Magazine of Magazines printed it with the author named as Mr. Gray of Peterhouse. Walpole prefaced to the first edition this statement:
Despite his sensitivity to the criticisms of his friends, Gray expressed considerable indifference to the opinions of the reading public in general (T & W no. 156, to Wharton, 18 Dec. 1750): 'On the other hand the Stanza's [the Elegy], wch I now enclose to you, have had the Misfortune by Mr W[alpole]:s Fault to be made still more publick, for wch they certainly were never meant, but it is too late to complain. they have been so applauded, it is quite a Shame to repeat it. I mean not to be modest; but I mean, it is a Shame for those, who have said such superlative Things about them, that I can't repeat them. I should have been glad, that you & two or three more People had liked them, wch would have satisfied my ambition on this Head amply.' Mason, although the accuracy of his statement is open to some suspicion, claimed to be responsible for the title: 'I persuaded him first to call it an ELEGY, because the subject authorized him so to do; and the alternate measure, in which it was written, seemed peculiarly fit for that species of composition. I imagined too that so capital a Poem, written in this measure, would as it were appropriate it in future to writings of this sort; and the number of imitations which have since been made of it (even to satiety) seem to prove that my notion was well founded' (M[ason], ii. 108).Advertisement. The following POEM came into my hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more. The EDITOR.
There have been innumerable notes designed to explain the meaning or to indicate the sources of the Elegy. It seems to the editors unnecessary to repeat them here. The editions of Mitford, Bradshaw, and Tovey are rich in material of this sort, and the bibliographies of Northup and Starr list many additional sources."The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 222/223.
Title/Paratext] "The success of the Elegy [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The success of the Elegy was remarkable. The Monthly Review iv 309, for Feb. 1751 (published at the end of the month), commented that 'This excellent little piece is so much read, and so much admired by every body, that to say more of it would be superfluous'. John Hill, in the first of his series of contributions to the Daily Advertiser entitled 'The Inspector' on 5 March 1751 praised the Elegy enthusiastically, asserting that it 'comes nearer the manner of Milton than any thing that has been published since the time of that poet' and comparing it favourably with Lycidas. In 'The Inspector' No. 4 he printed a complimentary poem to the author of the Elegy by 'Musaphil'. The 4th quarto edn of G.'s poem had been published by 7 April and there was a 5th before the end of 1751. By 1763 twelve edns based on Dodsley's quarto had appeared. Inevitably the literary periodicals felt free to publish so celebrated a poem and, apart from the Magazine of Magazines, it had appeared in the London Mag., the True Briton and the Scots Mag. by April 1751. M. Rothkrug, in the article mentioned above, pointed out that the Elegy also appeared in Poems on Moral and Divine Subjects, by Several Celebrated English Poets (Glasgow, 1751); and confirmed that, as had been suspected but not established, it had been published in the Grand Magazine of Magazines in April 1751. Apart from these two publications, the frequent appearances of the Elegy in G.'s lifetime are described in detail by F. G. Stokes in his edn of the Elegy (Oxford, 1929). Stokes, Times Lit. Supp. 1937, p. 92, made an addition to his bibliography of the poem when he noted the inclusion of ll. 1-92 in the 4th edn of a volume of Miscellaneous Pieces, apparently published in 1752 by R. Goadby and W. Owen, the publisher of the Magazine of Magazines. See A. Anderson, The Library, 5th series, xx (1965) 144-8, for a refutation ofStokes's argument for the importance of this text, which was probably not printed in fact until late 1753.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, its popularity, G. rarely mentioned the Elegy after its publication. He made a few comments on it in a letter to Christopher Anstey, who published a Latin translation of the poem in 1762 (Corresp ii 748-9) but otherwise tended to be cynical about its celebrity. During a visit to Scotland in 1765, he spoke to Dr John Gregory of the Elegy: 'which he told me, with a good deal of acrimony, owed its popularity entirely to the subject, and that the public would have received it as well if it had been written in prose' (Sir William Forbes, Life of James Beattie (1806) i 83). Mason also believed this to be G.'s opinion, as he recalled in his 'Memoirs of William Whitehead', in Whitehead's Poems iii (1788) 84: 'It spread, at first, on account of the affecting and pensive cast of its subject, just like Hervey's Meditations on the Tombs. Soon after its publication, I remember that, sitting with Mr. Gray in his College apartment, he expressed to me his surprise at the rapidity of its sale. I replied: ''Sunt Lachrymae rerum, mentem mortalia tangunt.'' He paused awhile, and taking his pen, wrote the line on the title of a printed copy of it lying on his table. ''This,'' said he, ''shall be its future motto.'' ''Pity,'' cryed I, ''that Dr. Young's Night Thoughts have preoccupied it.'' ''So,'' replied he, ''indeed, it is.'' He had still more reason to think I had hinted at the true cause of its popularity, when he found how very different a reception his two odes at first met with.'
Yet if G. at times disliked being a popular author, the 'affecting and pensive' Mr Gray, he was not entirely indifferent to the Elegy's success. A marginal note (apparently added to from time to time) in the transcript of the poem in his Commonplace Book lists, with evident satisfaction, the various edns it passed through, as well as the two Latin translations by Lloyd and Anstey. And he can hardly have been unimpressed by the spate of imitations, parodies and translations into other languages which was already in full flow in his own lifetime; see Northup, Bibliography of G. (1917) pp. 123-45, H. W. Starr's continuation (1953) pp. 33-8, and W. P. Jones, 'Imitations of G.'s Elegy, 1751-1800', Bulletin of Bibliography xxiii (1963) 230-2. This aspect of the Elegy's popularity and influence can be illustrated by John Langhorne's remarks, in his review of An Elegy, Written among the Tombs in Westminster Abbey (Monthly Review xxvi (1762) 356-8), on the number of G.'s imitators: 'An Undertaker was never followed by a more numerous or a more ridiculous tribe of mourners, than he has been; nor is the procession yet over, for, behold, here is another Gentleman in black, with the same funereal face, and mournful ditty; with the same cypress in his hand, and affecting sentence in his mouth, viz. that we must all die! Hark! the Dirge begins.' Langhorne's next review was of Edward Jerningham's The Nunnery, an Elegy, in Imitation of the Elegy in a Churchyard."
Title/Paratext] "The date at which G[ray]. [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The date at which G[ray]. began writing his most celebrated poem has been the subject of frequent discussion and disagreement, and the scanty and unreliable nature of such evidence as there is makes it impossible to reach any definite conclusion. Writers on other aspects of the Elegy have so often adopted a dating merely to suit a particular argument that a full statement of the relevant considerations is perhaps still desirable.
The most precise single item of information that we have for the dating of the Elegy is that on 12 June 1750 G. wrote to Horace Walpole (Corresp i 326-7): 'I have been here at Stoke a few days (where I shall continue good part of the summer); and having put an 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...' At the end of the letter G. added: 'You are desired to tell me your opinion, if you can take the pains, of these lines.' It has never been doubted that these remarks refer to the Elegy, which was therefore completed early in June 1750 at Stoke.
The date at which G. began the Elegy constitutes the real problem. From his letter to Walpole it is clear that there was a considerable interval between his beginning and completing it. Walpole had seen the beginning 'long ago', but whether this had been at the time when G. began writing it or at a later date is not apparent: the distinction is important, as will be seen later. At this point it is as well to consider the evidence offered by what is clearly the earliest extant draft of the Elegy. The Eton MS, entitled 'Stanza's Wrote In A Country Church-Yard' (now in the Memorial Buildings, Eton College) originally belonged to Mason. After various appearances in the sale-room in the nineteenth century it was bequeathed by Sir William Fraser in 1898 to Eton College. The first eighteen stanzas of this MS, in spite of many small variants, appear substantially as in the form eventually published. The four following stanzas, marked by G. in the margin as if for omission, were either abandoned or reworked in the remaining seventeen stanzas which, like the opening eighteen, appear very much as in the final form of the poem.
The Eton MS was first discussed by Mason (Memoirs p. 157) in 1775. Writing of the poems which G. is known to have written in the summer of 1742, he added: 'I am inclined to believe that the Elegy in a Country Church-yard was begun, if not concluded, at this time also: Though I am aware that, as it stands at present, the conclusion is of a later date; how that was originally, I shall shew in my notes on the poem.' Accordingly, in his notes, Mason, Poems pp. 108-09, commented on the Eton MS: 'In the first manuscript copy of this exquisite Poem, I find the conclusion different from that which he afterwards composed'. Then, after quoting the four stanzas which G. eventually rejected, Mason added: 'And here the Poem was originally intended to conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed Swain, &c. suggested itself to him.'
The Eton MS confirms at least part of Mason's account. The four 'rejected' stanzas do provide a perfectly coherent conclusion to the poem. It seems clear, moreover, that, after G. had transcribed the poem to this point, there was a definite interval of time before he added the new ending. In that interval the MS was folded and stained and the paper itself deteriorated slightly. (I was kindly allowed to see an argument to this effect in an unpublished study of 'Gray's handwriting, and its value as evidence in the dating of his Elegy' by M. P. T. Leahy of Pennsylvania State University. That there was an interval cannot be doubted but neither the condition of the MS nor an examination of the handwriting itself throws any conclusive light on its length.)
Mason's tentative opinion that G. began the Elegy in 1742 was accepted by nineteenth-century editors and was also embellished: it was suggested, for example, that G. was inspired to begin the poem by the death of his uncle Jonathan Rogers in Oct. 1742; and this suggestion was balanced by the theory that he was inspired to take it up again after the death of his aunt Mary Antrobus in Nov. 1749. For neither suggestion is there any evidence. Apart from Mason's opinion, the only statement about the dating of the poem which can be thought tohave any authority came in 1773, when Horace Walpole was shown part of the Memoirs of G. on which Mason was then working. On 1 Dec. 1773 Walpole wrote to Mason: 'The Churchyard was, I am persuaded, posterior to West's death 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' (Walpole Correspondence xxviii 117-18). Unfortunately Mason's reply to this letter is not extant, but it contained his reasons for suggesting that the Elegy was begun in 1742. On 14 Dec. 1773 Walpole wrote again to Mason, accepting Mason's decision on another point he had raised about the Memoirs and adding briefly: 'Your account of the Elegy puts an end to my other criticism' (ibid 123).
In the absence of more definite evidence we cannot afford to abandon Walpole's objection as easily as he himself did. Admittedly, to convince Walpole, Mason must have produced a persuasive argument that he was right in believing G. began the Elegy in 1742. But just how persuasive must we assume it to have been? Mason did not meet G. until about 1747, so that his dating of the poem was not based on first-hand knowledge. If G. himself had told him that he began the poem in 1742, Mason would surely have said so. The very tentativeness with which he offers that opinion ('I am inclined to believe') appears to confirm its speculative character. It has not been noted, moreover, that this discussion in 1773 between Mason and Walpole as to the date of the Elegy was only incidental to a matter of much greater interest, at least to Walpole: namely, Mason's treatment in his Memoirs of Walpole's early friendship and eventual quarrel in Italy with G. Walpole was apprehensive about Mason's handling of this subject and undoubtedly offended Mason by some of his comments on it. In his letter of 14 Dec. 1773 he was therefore anxious to placate Mason and his decision in the same letter not to pursue further the matter of the dating should be seen in the context of the larger issue. At the best of times Walpole was given to 'agreeing' with correspondents with whom he obviously did not agree; and in this particular instance he had good reason for allowing himself to be persuaded.
In any case, Walpole retracted only the first part of his original assertion i.e. that G. began writing the Elegy three or four years after West's death, in 1745 or 1746. There is no reason to believe that he had not remembered correctly that G. had shown him twelve or more of the opening lines at that period. This memory fits easily enough with G.'s own statement in June 1750 that Walpole had seen the beginning of the Elegy 'long ago'. G. and Walpole had not become reconciled after their Italian quarrel until Nov. 1745, so that even if G. had begun the Elegy in 1742 he would not have shown it to Walpole any earlier. (This may have been the argument used by Mason against Walpole's objection to his dating.) The most likely period for G. to have shown Walpole the beginning of the poem is in the autumn of 1746, when Walpole was living at Windsor and when G. saw him regularly (Corresp i 239). It was also at this time that G. began showing his other poems to Walpole.
It may therefore be assumed that Walpole first saw the opening 12 ll. of the Elegy in the autumn of 1746. But a question at once arises. Why, if, as Mason and his adherents believe, G. had already written the whole of the first version of the poem, should he have shown Walpole only the 'twelve or more first lines' at this time? Is it not more likely that G. showed him only some twelve lines because he had written no more and more likely, in addition, that he had written them fairly recently? This problem was tackled ingeniously but unconvincingly by H. W. Garrod in 'A note on the composition of Gray's Elegy', in Essays Presented to David Nichol Smith (Oxford, 1945) pp. 111-16. Garrod pointed out that, without the four stanzas later rejected by G., the first version of the Elegy in the Eton MS contains 18 stanzas or 72 ll. Mitford's transcript of Walpole's letter of 1 Dec. 1773 provides the only text and Garrod argued that in making his copy of it Mitford had misread Walpole's '72' for '12'. In other words Walpole in fact told Mason that G. had shown him 'seventy-two or more first lines' of the Elegy some three or four years after West's death: i.e. almost the whole of the first version of the poem.
Garrod's argument is hardly tenable. It seems unlikely that G. in June 1750 would have referred to 72 or more lines as merely a 'beginning', when the whole poem contained only 128; and the manner in which G. asked for Walpole's opinion of 'these lines' does not suggest that Walpole had seen many of them before. As far as Walpole is concerned, it is unlikely that he would use such a phrase as 'seventy-two or more first lines': 72 is a very particular number to be vague about. Similarly, Walpole was always active in pressing G. to publish his poems and in 1747 and 1748 was responsible for the publication of three of them. His enthusiasm for the Elegy when he was shown it in 1750 makes it hard to believe that he had already seen its most memorable stanzas and had been content for some four years not to pester G. to finish and publish it. Finally, it is worth noting the authoritative opinion of the editors of Walpole's letters as to whether he wrote '12' or '72' and as to whether Mitford is likely to have mistranscribed the number: 'We believe [Walpole] wrote 12; HW's 1's and 7's are not at all similar, and it would have been unlike HW to count out the number of lines Gray sent him, or, if he had, to remember the total for a quarter of a century' (Walpole Correspondence xxviii 118 n 4).
The inconclusive nature of the main items of evidence as to the dating of the Elegy will be readily apparent. All that seems likely at this point is that the choice of dates is confined to two: the alternative to accepting Mason's tentative suggestion that G. at least began the poem in 1742 is to believe that when G. showed the twelve or more opening lines to Walpole in the autumn of 1746 he had only recently started it. In support of Mason's date is the fact that he managed to persuade Walpole that he was right, although the circumstances in which he did so must be taken into account. The other main fact in support of 1742 is that that year was by far the most creative of G.'s life: but there must obviously be a limit to this kind of argument, and it may be hard to believe that, in addition to the Ode on Spring, the Sonnet on West, the Eton Ode, the Ode to Adversity and the fragmentary Hymn to Ignorance, G. also found time and creative energy to write very much of the Elegy. It has also seemed natural to some scholars to connect the Elegy with the death of Richard West in June 1742, but once again there is no evidence to confirm such a theory. If West were to be involved in the poem at any point, it could only be in the description of the unhappy poet and in the epitaph at the end of the Elegy. Yet this section of the poem seems certainly to have been written in about 1750. The most elaborate of the theories involving West, Odell Shepard's 'A youth to fortune and to fame unknown', MP, xx (1922-23) 347-73, argued that the 'Epitaph' had originally been a separate poem about West written in 1742, and that G. wrote his second conclusion to the Elegy so as to enable him to work the 'Epitaph' in. In this way the poem as a whole became 'a lament for a friend who died of a broken heart'. Shepard's theory consisted of sheer guesswork at almost every point, attractive as parts of it may seem. There is no evidence that the 'Epitaph' was ever a separate poem and it is noteworthy that in 1773 Walpole (a close friend of both G. and West) clearly saw no connection between the Elegy and West's death, being quite convinced, at least at first, that the poem was written several years later.
The case for dating the beginning of the Elegy in 1742 is not strong and must, in fact, rest almost entirely on whatever one supposes Mason's unknown arguments for that date to have been and on the faith one puts in his judgement. The case for dating the beginning of the poem in the summer or autumn of 1746 is more elaborate but not perhaps much more definite. Walpole's initial conviction that the poem had been started then must perhaps be ruled out in the light of his later withdrawal of it; but there is no reason to doubt that it was at this time that he saw the opening lines, and the question posed above has still not been answered. Why, if G. had already written at least the first version of the poem, did he show Walpole only some twelve lines of it? There are, moreover, two cryptic remarks by G. at this period which suggest that, for the first time since 1742, he was once more writing poetry. On 10 Aug. 1746 he told Wharton that 'the Muse, I doubt, is gone, & has left me in far worse Company: if she returns, you will hear of her' (Corresp i 238). He made a more significant statement in another letter to Wharton on 11 Sept. 1746: after mentioning that he had been reading Aristotle, he added, 'this & a few autumnal Verses are my Entertainments dureing the Fall of the Leaf' (Corresp i 241). There would appear to be no other poem than the Elegy to which G. could have been referring.
One argument on behalf of dating the beginning of the Elegy in 1742 is that it is known to have been, for G., a prolific creative period. But it can be argued on the other hand that the resumption of the friendship with Walpole, which was really re-established in the summer of 1746, marked the beginning of a renewal of G.'s literary activities. Since the death of West he had lacked an audience, but now he began showing what he had already written to Walpole and starting new poems. He wrote for Walpole his Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, considered continuing Agrippina and began Education and Government. It was at least as good a period as any for G. to have started and slowly worked on the Elegy. There are also circumstantial arguments for dating the beginning of the poem at this period, which can be described as at least no worse than some of those for 1742. Apparently the first such argument was a spirited but extravagant article by W. H. Newman, 'When curfew tolled the knell', National Review, cxxvii (1946) 244-8, which attempted to demonstrate that the Elegy was inspired by various events in Aug. 1746. G.'s reflections on the inevitability of death and the dangers of ambition and power are connected with his visits in that month to various royal homes, with a number of recent royal deaths, with the famous trial in Westminster Hall of three Jacobite peers involved in the '45 rebellion, and with the triumphant return of the Duke of Cumberland from quelling that rebellion in the previous July. By combining with these events a quantity of meteorological information, Newman demonstrated to his own satisfaction that he possessed an 'abundance of evidence' for identifying the moment at which G. began writing the Elegy as 8 p.m. on 18 Aug. 1746. A similar, but more restrained and detailed, argument for connecting the Elegy with the trial of the Scottish lords in Aug. 1746 was offered by F. H. Ellis, 'Gray's Elegy: The biographical problem in literary criticism', PMLA, lxvi (1951) 971-1008. The 'biographical problem' is, of course, whether or not such connections between the poet's life and contemporary events on the one hand, and the poem itself on the other, can or need to be made. As far as the poem is concerned, G.'s generalities on rich and poor and on life and death are obviously self-sufficient and in no way need to be related to specific events of Aug. 1746 or of any other particular period; and the very generality of G.'s themes in itself makes it impossible in the end to accept the arguments of Newman and Ellis, however plausible they may appear in parts. Nevertheless, they may be thought to add something to the argument for dating the Elegy in 1746.
There is another kind of internal evidence about the dating which is perhaps slightly more conclusive, although by its nature it can be used only with caution. G.'s use of the quatrain in the Elegy was to be greatly imitated by his contemporaries and later poets, but he was not of course the first English poet to have used it nor was he by any means solely responsible for its vogue in the later eighteenth-century. Very early in his Commonplace Book he transcribed part of Sir John Davies's Nosce Teipsum, a poem in quatrains which he admired. In his 'Observations on English Metre', Works, ed. Gosse, i 344, G. noted its use by Surrey, Spenser, Gascoigne and by Dryden in his Annus Mirabilis. Another notable use of the quatrain in the seventeenth-century was in Davenant's Gondibert; Thomas Hobbes employed it in his translation of Homer; and it occasionally appeared in the works of early eighteenth-century poets, such as William Walsh (The Retirement). G. had therefore no lack of models in the use of the quatrain but it is worth noting that this stanzaic form had been brought into some kind of fashion by a work published several years before the Elegy, James Hammond's Elegies, dated 1743 but published in Dec. 1742. Hammond's poems, largely imitations of Tibullus, were undoubtedly imitated by other poets and did much to establish the quatrain as 'elegiac'. It must of course be remembered that in the Eton MS G.'s poem is entitled 'Stanzas' and that it was Mason, according to his own story (Poems p. 108), who persuaded him to call it an Elegy. (For some discussion of the meaning of 'Elegy' at this period, see Joseph Trapp, Lectures on Poetry ... Translated from the Latin (1742) pp. 163-71; William Shenstone, Works in Verse and Prose (1764) i 3-12: and the Annual Register for 1767, pt ii, pp. 220-2.) In addition, there is little to suggest, apart from the quatrain itself and the occasional echo, that G. was influenced by Hammond's Elegies. The possibility that he was, however, has been explored by J. Fisher, 'James Hammond and the quatrain of Gray's Elegy', MP xxxii (1935) 301-10; and if G. was imitating Hammond, he could not have begun the Elegy in the summer of 1742. In a later article, 'Shenstone, Gray, and the ''Moral Elegy'' ', MP xxxiv (1937) 273-94, Fisher argued that Shenstone's Elegies, which appear to contain many parallels with G.'s Elegy but which were not published until 1764, were in fact written between 1743 and 1749, most of them by 1745. At this period they were circulating in MS and Fisher suggested that they might even have reached G. This theory is unconvincing and it is much more probable that in revising his elegies after 1751 Shenstone imitated G.'s celebrated poem. Fisher's two articles, nevertheless, are of interest in that they show that G. cannot be regarded as the sole pioneer in the use of the quatrain and the popularity of the 'elegy'.
G.'s borrowings or echoes within the Elegy provide more evidence, although the possibility that any particular parallel may be no more than coincidental must always be borne in mind. It is surely significant, however, that consciously or unconsciously G. seems to have remembered phrases and longer passages from a number of poems written in the early 1740s: Blair's The Grave (1743), Akenside's Epistle to Curio and The Pleasures of Imagination (1744) and Odes (1745), the Odes of Collins and Joseph Warton (1746) and Thomas Warton's Five Pastoral Eclogues (1745) and The Pleasures of Melancholy (1747). G. could of course merely have shared common sources of inspiration with these poets and some of the echoes occur in the later part of the Elegy: but, considered as a whole and with the greatest caution, this evidence would certainly suggest that G. began the poem in 1746-47. The same conclusion would have to be reached if the Elegy is considered in relation to the vogue for 'graveyard' poetry and prose which emerged in the early 1740s. The Elegy could have been quite independent, but it must appear more likely that it came after rather than preceded such contemplations as Young's Night Thoughts (1742-45), Blair's The Grave (1743) and James Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs (1746).
Finally it may be noted that there would appear to be some relationship between the Elegy and the unfinished fragment on Education and Government, which G. probably wrote in 1747-48. Both poems deal with the subject of genius which circumstances have prevented from flourishing, and both may be related to Plato's discussion of education and its effect on 'virtue', which G. was reading at this time and commenting on in his Commonplace Book (see headnote to Education and Government, p. 89 above, and Elegy 65-6 n). Once again, this evidence cannot be decisive and, although G.'s treatment of the theme is clearer in the Elegy than in Education and Government, it would be impossible to demonstrate from this fact which poem came first.
This discussion has tried to make clear that all of the evidence is ambiguous and nothing more confident than an assertion of likelihood can be achieved. Even if it may appear that most of the poem was written in 1746 and later, it is still possible that G. began drafting it in 1742. Perhaps, like The Progress of Poesy, it was written 'by fits & starts at very distant intervals', although it may be pointed out here that G.'s method of working on his other poems suggests that he is unlikely to have taken eight years to complete a poem. Usually G. either abandoned a poem without finishing it, or took at most some two or three years, as was the case with his Pindaric Odes."
Title/Paratext] "The first notable criticism of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The first notable criticism of the Elegy did not appear until the 1780s. Johnson's brief but eloquent tribute in the Lives of the Poets (1781) was followed in more senses than one in 1783 by John Young's Criticism of the Elegy (2nd edn, 1810), a detailed discussion of the poem in a manner deliberately imitating Johnson's. There is also a chapter on the Elegy in John Scott's Critical Essays (1785) pp. 185-246. Discussion of the poem in the next century tended to be pre-occupied with such matters as G.'s sources, the location of the churchyard and G.'s relationship to the 'Age of Reason', and to attempt little more critically than general appreciation of G.'s eloquence, along the lines of Johnson's tribute. Some recent discussions of the poem, in addition to those mentioned above, which should be consulted are: Roger Martin, Essai sur Thomas Gray (Paris, 1934) pp. 409-36; William Empson, Some Versions of Pastoral (1935) p. 4; Cleanth Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn (1949) pp. 96-113; F. W. Bateson, English Poetry: A Critical Introduction (1950) pp. 181-93; and three essays by Ian Jack, B. H. Bronson and Frank Brady in From Sensibility to Romanticism, ed. F. W. Hilles and H. Bloom (1965) pp. 139-89. Amy L. Reed's The Background to Gray's Elegy (New York, 1924), investigates melancholy as a subject in earlier eighteenth-century poetry, but does not throw a great deal of light on the poem itself.
The crucial fact about the poem, of which by no means all discussions of the Elegy take account, is that we possess two distinct versions of it: the version which originally ended with the four rejected stanzas in the Eton MS, and the familiar, revised and expanded version. Many of the difficulties in the interpretation of the poem can be clarified if the two versions are examined in turn. As has been stated above, Mason's assertion that the first version of the poem ended with the rejected stanzas appears to be fully justified. In this form the Elegy is a well-constructed poem, in some ways more balanced and lucid than in its final version. The three opening stanzas brilliantly setting the poem and the poet in the churchyard, are followed by four balanced sections each of four stanzas, dealing in turn with the lives of the humble villagers; by contrast, with the lives of the great; with the way in which the villagers are deprived of the opportunities of greatness; and by contrast, with the crimes inextricably involved in success as the 'thoughtless world' knows it, from which the villagers are protected. The last three stanzas, balancing the opening three, return to the poet himself in the churchyard, making clear that the whole poem has been a debate within his mind as he meditates in the darkness, at the end of which he makes his own choice about the preferability of obscure innocence to the dangers of the 'great world'. (It is the personal involvement of the poet and his desire to share the obscure destiny of the villagers in this version of the poem which make Empson's ingenious remarks in Some Versions of Pastoral ultimately irrelevant and misleading.)
Underlying the whole structure of the first version of the Elegy, reinforcing the poet's rejection of the great world and supplying many details of thought and phrasing, are two celebrated classical poems in praise of rural retirement from the corruption of the court and city: the passage beginning O fortunatos nimium in Virgil's Georgics ii 458 ff and Horace's second Epode, (Beatus ille ...). For a study of the pervasive influence of these poems on English poetry in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries, see Maren-Sofie Rostvig, The Happy Man (2 vols, Oslo, 1954-58). In the concluding 'rejected' stanzas of the first version of the Elegy the classical praise of retirement is successfully blended with the Christian consolation that this world is nothing but vanity and that comfort for the afflicted will come in the next, although G.'s handling of the religious theme is very restrained. His tact and unobtrusiveness are all the more marked when his poem is compared with the emotional, even melodramatic, effects to which the other 'graveyard' practitioners - Young, Blair and Hervey - are prepared to resort when handling the same themes. The appendix to the poem (see p. 140), giving some parallels between these final stanzas and Hervey in particular, will suggest G.'s relationship to the religious meditators, but he shares none of their cemetery horrors and emotional over-indulgence. The classical or 'Augustan' restraint and balance which preserved him from such excesses is a strength which is manifested similarly in the balanced structure of the poem as a whole, as well as in the balancing effect of the basic quatrain unit.
The conclusion of the first version of the Elegy ultimately failed to satisfy G., partly perhaps because it was too explicitly personal for publication, but also no doubt because its very symmetry and order represented an over-simplification of his own predicament, of the way he saw his own life and wished it to be seen by society. A simple identification with the innocent but uneducated villagers was mere self-deception. G.'s continuation of the poem may lack some of the clarity, control and authority of the earlier stanzas, but it does represent a genuine attempt to redefine and justify his real relationship with society more accurately by merging it with a dramatisation of the social role played by poetry or the Poet. As G. starts to rewrite the poem, the simple antitheses of rich and poor, of vice and virtue, of life and death, which underlay the first version, are replaced by a preoccupation with the desire to be remembered after death, a concern which draws together both rich and poor, making the splendid monuments and the 'frail memorials' equally pathetic. This theme, which runs counter to the earlier resignation to obscurity and the expectation of 'eternal peace' hereafter, leads G. to contemplate the sort of ways in which he, or the Poet into whom he projects himself, may be remembered after his death, and the assessments he gives in the words of the 'hoary-headed swain' and of the 'Epitaph' (not necessarily meant to be identical) also evaluate the role of poetry in society. The figure of the Poet is no longer the urban, urbane, worldly, rational Augustan man among men, with his own place in society; what G. dramatises is the poet as outsider, with an uneasy consciousness of a sensibility and imagination at once unique and burdensome. The lack of social function so apparent in English poetry of the mid- and late eighteenth-century is constantly betrayed by its search for inspiration in the past. Significantly, G.'s description of the lonely, melancholy poet is riddled with phrases and diction borrowed from Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. The texture of these stanzas is fanciful, consciously 'poetic', archaic in tone.
If the swain's picture of the lonely Poet is respectful but puzzled, emphasising the unique and somehow valuable sensibility which characterises him, the 'Epitaph', from a different standpoint, assesses that sensibility as the source of such social virtues as pity and benevolence (see l. 120n). G.'s Pindaric Odes of the 1750s were to show his continuing preoccupation with the subject of the function of poetry in society: for all his assertions of its value, the deliberate obscurity of the poems themselves betrays G.'s own conviction that poetry could not and perhaps should not any longer attempt to communicate with society as a whole. The central figure of The Bard himself is a not totally unpredictable development of the Poet at the end of the Elegy: more defiant in his belief that poetry and liberty in society are inseparably involved with each other and his awareness of the forces which are hostile to poetry; equally isolated and equally, if more spectacularly, doomed.
Two marginal problems associated with the Elegy may be mentioned in conclusion. The early nineteenth-century tradition that General Wolfe, on the night before the capture of Quebec from the French in 1759, declared, 'I would rather have been the author of that piece than beat the French tomorrow', is examined in detail by F. G. Stokes in an appendix to his edn of the Elegy (Oxford, 1929) pp. 83-8. Stokes also deals in another appendix (pp. 89-92), with the tiresome question of 'The Locality of the Churchyard'. Not surprisingly, no definite identification of the churchyard can be made, in spite of the number of candidates for the honour. (In his own lifetime, G. was already having to deny that he had been describing a churchyard he had never visited.) Anyone versed in the 'graveyard' poetry and prose of the mid-eighteenth-century will be satisfied that G. borrowed the traditional apparatus of his churchyard from no particular location."
Title/Paratext] "Three MSS of the Elegy [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Three MSS of the Elegy have survived. The earliest, the Eton MS, has already been described. (A facsimile of this MS and of the 1st edn of the Elegy, was published with an introduction by George Sherburn by the Augustan Reprint Society, Pub. No. 31, Los Angeles, 1951.) The MS sent to Walpole in June 1750 from which the 1st edn was presumably printed is not extant but it was probably based on the transcript of the poem in G[ray].'s Commonplace Book (ii 617-18). The third MS, sent to Wharton on 18 Dec. 1750, is in the British Museum (Egerton MS 2400). This MS appears from its text to be later than that in the Commonplace Book. The text followed here is that printed in 1753, which contains G.'s final revisions, the proofs of which he evidently corrected (Corresp i 364) and from which he directed the text in 1768 to be printed. Variants are given from the three MSS, the quarto edns printed by Dodsley (of which G. significantly 'corrected' the 3rd and 8th, although changes occur in other edns and G.'s 'correction' did not remove all errata), Dodsley's Collection iv (1755), and the Foulis edn of the 1768 Poems."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 116/117.Title/Paratext] "Whatever the date at which [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Whatever the date at which G. began the Elegy, it is certain that he sent the completed poem to Walpole on 12 June 1750. According to Mason, Memoirs p. 211, Walpole's 'good taste was too much charmed with it to suffer him to withold the sight of it from his acquaintance; accordingly it was shewn about for some time in manuscript ... and received with all the applause it so justly merited'. The rapidity with which the poem had made its way in the fashionable world can be seen from the occasion for which, later in the summer, G. wrote his Long Story (see headnote, p. 142). G. himself described with mixed feelings the success of the MS circulation of the Elegy when he sent a copy to his friend Thomas Wharton on 18 Dec. 1750 (Corresp i 335): 'the Stanza's, wch I now enclose to you, have had the Misfortune by Mr W:s Fault to be made still more publick, for wch they certainly were never meant, but it is too late to complain, they have been so applauded it is quite a Shame to repeat it. I mean not to be modest; but I mean, it is a shame for those, who have said such superlative Things about them, that I can't repeat them. I should have been glad, that you & two or three more People had liked them, wch would have satisfied my ambition on this Head amply.'
Widespread circulation of MS copies of the Elegy could have only one result and G. described it in a letter to Walpole on 11 Feb. 1751 (Corresp i 341-2): 'As you have brought me into a little Sort of Distress, you must assist me, I 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 Hands, they tell me, that an ingenious Poem, call'd, Reflections in a Country-Churchyard, has been communicated to them, wch they are printing forthwith: that they are inform'd, that the excellent Author of it is I by name, & that they beg not only his Indulgence, but the Honor of his Correspondence, &c: 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. & therefore am obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it immediately (wch 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 in his best Paper & Character, he must correct the Press himself, & print it without any Interval between the Stanza's, because the Sense is in some Places continued beyond them; & the Title must be, Elegy, wrote 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.' After suggesting two improvements to the text he had sent Walpole the preceding June, G. continued: 'If you behold the Mag: of Mag:s in the Light that I do, you will not refuse to give yourself this Trouble on my Account, wch you have taken of your own Accord before now.' As a postscript he added: 'If Dodsley don't do this immediately, he may as well let it alone.'
G. was understandably reluctant that his new poem should be first published in The Magazine of Magazines, a recently established and undistinguished periodical edited by William Owen. Both Walpole and Dodsley responded to his demand for immediate publication and the Elegy appeared on 15 Feb. 1751, as a quarto pamphlet, price 6d. Considering the haste with which it had been printed, the first edn. was comparatively well produced, in spite of a number of errata which irritated G. The title-page was embellished by woodcuts of skulls, cross-bones and other symbols of mortality, commonly used for bourgeois funeral elegies since the 16th century. J. W. Draper has some interesting remarks on this matter in The Funeral Elegy and the Rise of English Romanticism (New York, 1929) pp. 309-11, although it may be doubted whether these decorations relate the Elegy very firmly to that particular genre. If G. did not choose them himself, he apparently did not object to them, for Dodsley retained them for the twelve quarto edns of the Elegy published up to 1763.
In accordance with G.'s wishes, Dodsley prefixed to the Elegy a short 'Advertisement' written by Walpole:
'The following POEM came into my hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more.Since the investigation of the relevant dates by R. Straus, Robert Dodsley (1910) p. 341, it has been assumed that Dodsley's edn of the Elegy won the race for publication by only one day. On 16 Feb. 1751 the General Advertiser announced that The Magazine of Magazines was 'This morning published. To be continued on the 16th of Every Month'. Another advertisement three days later listed among its contents 'Stanzas written in a Country Church-Yard. By Mr Gray, of Peter-House, Cambridge'. Whether the Magazine was actually published on 16 Feb. has, however, been questioned by M. Rothkrug in Papers in Honour of Andrew Keogh (New Haven, 1938) pp. 351-2, who pointed out that, although Owen habitually advertised his periodical on the 16th of each month, the last dated entries in each number indicate that it cannot have been published before the end of the month: e.g. in the Feb. number the last item in the Obituary and the 'Last Notice' are dated 28 Feb. Unless there were different issues of the Magazine, some containing later items of news, it must be assumed that the race for publication, whatever Owen's advertisements meant, was not as breathless as has been believed.
The EDITOR.'
The advertisement in the General Advertiser of 19 Feb. meant that G. did [...] not retain the anonymity for which he hoped for long; otherwise he was satisfied that the best had been made of the situation. On 20 Feb. he wrote to thank Walpole for his part in the publication (Corresp i 342-3): '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 expected from so near a relation. 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 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 bien flatteuse pour moi, who should be put to it even to make myself a compliment in good English.' G. informed Walpole of the 'chief errata' in the 1st edn in a letter of 3 March 1751 (Corresp i 344), and a number of corrections were made in the 3rd of Dodsley's quarto edns, published on 14 March. G. also inserted in this edn an additional stanza (usually known as the 'Redbreast' stanza; see l. 116 n) immediately before the 'Epitaph'. It was omitted once more in the 8th edn in 1753, when other corrections were made, and thereafter. G.'s original instructions that there should be no interval between the stanzas was followed in Dodsley's twelve quartos; but G. had decided to separate them as early as 1753 when the Elegy was published with Bentley's Designs and did not change his mind in the 1768 Poems. Mason duly separated the stanzas in 1775 but, oddly enough, in the 2nd edn of this work - having perhaps rediscovered G.'s original directions - printed the lines continuously."The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 110-112.
Title/Paratext] "Completed at Stoke Poges in [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.
"Completed at Stoke Poges in June 1750. First printed as a pamphlet by Horace Walpole in 1751."
Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, p. 77.Title/Paratext] "When first published as a [...]" D. Fairer/C. Gerrard, 1999.
"When first published as a seven-page pamphlet on 15 February 1751, Gray's Elegy achieved immediate fame. It was reprinted in newspapers, magazines and miscellanies, and ran through eight editions by 1753. It is not possible to date Gray's work on the poem with certainty, but Lonsdale (The Poems of Gray, Collins, and Goldsmith (1969), pp. 103-10) has made a cogent case for placing its first writing in 1746-7: it seems to be recalling phrases and passages in the verse of Akenside, Collins, the Wartons and others, published during 1743-7. The similarities to Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening [...] would support a date after 4 December 1746. The surviving Eton College MS represents the earliest known version before a major reworking took place, and it was not until 12 June 1750 that Gray sent a copy of the completed poem to Walpole, 'having put an end to a thing, whose beginning you have seen long ago' (Correspondence, 1:326). Gray made some corrections and further minor revisions to the Elegy for its inclusion in Designs by Mr. R. Bentley (1753) [...]. In extending the Elegy beyond the ending he originally envisaged (see note[s] to line 72), Gray added an extra layer of irony. As in Ode on the Spring he executes a self-scrutinizing turn, which here places the poet in his own grave, with an illiterate rustic remembering him. Gray's poem is intensely allusive. In this respect it can be seen as continuing the tradition of pastoral elegy, a genre which as part of its mourning tribute interweaves earlier voices into a garland of allusion. The text of Gray's Elegy is in itself an 'ample page / Rich with the spoils of time'. Only a limited number of parallel passages and echoed phrases can be noted here. Lonsdale's 1969 Longman edition (see above ) is invaluable in helping the reader appreciate the full tapestry of Gray's poem, and anyone wishing to explore this aspect further should consult his annotations."
Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999, p. 329.Title/Paratext] "Gray's Elegy Written in a [...]" Alexander Huber, 2000.
"Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is probably the best-known example of 'graveyard-poetry', the common term applied to the melancholy, meditative lyric poems of 18th c. writers, often set in graveyards, exploring the theme of human mortality and bereavement. Examples of this form of sensibility include Thomas Parnell, 'Night-Piece on Death' (publ. 1721), Elizabeth Carter, 'Ode to Melancholy' (1739), Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-46), Robert Blair, The Grave (1743), James Hervey, Meditations among the Tombs (1746-47), Thomas Warton, The Pleasures of Melancholy (1747), and James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence (1748)."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Sep 17 20:08:14 2000 GMT.Title/Paratext] "There are six stanzas altogether [...]" Alexander Huber, 2013.
"There are six stanzas altogether which have not commonly been printed as part of the "Elegy". The first omitted stanza, commonly referred to as "the redbreast stanza" (after l. 116), appears in the Eton and Pembroke MSS of the poem. It appeared in print from the third edition of the "Elegy", but was removed by Gray in the 1753 Designs, according to Mason, "because he thought (and in my own opinion very justly) that it was too long a parenthesis in this place. The lines however are, in themselves, exquisitely fine, and demand preservation.":
There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the Year,The Eton MS of the "Elegy" has another omitted stanza after l. 100:
By Hands unseen, are show'rs of Violets found;
The Red-breast loves to build and warble there,
And little Footsteps lightly print the Ground.
Him have we seen the Green-wood Side along,on which Mason commented, "I rather wonder that he rejected this stanza, as it not only has the same sort of Doric delicacy which charms us peculiarly in this part of the poem, but also completes the account of his whole day: whereas, this evening scene being omitted, we have only his morning walk, and his noontide repose."
While o'er the Heath we hied, our Labours done,
Oft as the Woodlark piped her farewell Song
With whistful Eyes pursue the setting Sun.
Finally, after l. 72, the Eton MS has these four omitted stanzas:
The thoughtless World to Majesty may bowMason states about these: "And here the Poem was originally intended to conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed Swain, &c., suggested itself to him. I cannot help hinting to the reader, that I think the third of these rejected stanzas equal to any in the whole Elegy."
Exalt the brave, & idolize Success
But more to Innocence their Safety owe
Than Power & Genius e'er conspired to bless
And thou, who mindful of the unhonour'd Dead
Dost in these Notes thy [corr to their] artless Tale relate
By Night & lonely Contemplation led
To linger in the gloomy Walks of Fate
Hark how the sacred Calm, that broods around
Bids ev'ry fierce tumultuous Passion cease
In still small Accents whisp'ring from the Ground
A grateful Earnest of eternal Peace
No more with Reason & thyself at strife;
Give anxious Cares & endless Wishes room
But thro' the cool sequester'd Vale of Life
Pursue the silent Tenour of thy Doom.
Information about the MSS mentioned above and their locations can be found in the Archive's finding aid."Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Mon Feb 4 16:01:35 2013 GMT.
1.1-3 The ... tolls] "The passage from Dante quoted [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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 feu 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.)"
1.1 - 4.9 The ... me.] "Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening, which contains a number of passages strikingly similar to the Elegy, although - so far as I 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,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:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves.''
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;For Gray's remarks on Warton's and Collins's Odes, see p. 81. Cf. also Ambrose Philips, Pastoral ii, end:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
The dewy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil.''
''And now behold the sun's departing raySelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 137/138.
O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day.
With songs the jovial hinds return from plow,
And unyok'd heifers, pacing homeward, low.'' "
1.1-2 The curfew] "The curfew was a bell, [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The curfew was a bell, or the ringing of a bell, rung at eight o'clock in the evening for putting out fires (Fr. couvre, cover, and feu, fire), a custom introduced by William the Conqueror. The word continued to be applied to an evening bell long after the law for putting out fires ceased, but it is not now so used, and the word would have become obsolete but for Gray's use of it here, and when one speaks of the curfew one thinks of the first line of the ''Elegy.'' It occurs frequently in Shakespeare, and Milton uses it twice, - ''Comus,'' 435, and in the well-known lines in ''Il Penseroso'': - ''I hear the far-off curfew sound / Over some wide-watered shore.'' - 74, 75. Gray quotes in original the lines from Dante which suggested this line. Cary's translation is as follows: -
''And pilgrim, newly on his road with love,The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 214/215.
Thrills if he hear the vesper bell from far,
That seems to mourn for the expiring day.''"
1.1-2 The curfew] "The evening bell still conventionally [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"The evening bell still conventionally called curfew, though the law of the Conqueror, which gave it the name, had long been a dead letter. In Shakespeare the sound of the Curfew is the signal to the spirit-world to be at large. Edgar in Lear feigns to recognize 'the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew and walks till the first cock' (III. 4. 103); and in The Tempest, V. i. 40, the elves 'rejoice to hear the solemn curfew.' The mood of the Elegy is that of Il Penseroso and the scene in both poems is viewed in the evening twilight:
''Oft on a plat of rising groundMilton's 'far-off curfew' reminds us of the squilla di lontano of Dante, which Gray quotes for the first line of the Elegy. I supply in brackets the rest of the passage; Purgatorio, VIII. 1-6.
I hear the far-off curfew sound,
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar.''
Milton, Il Penseroso, 72-75.
[Era gia l' ora, che volge 'l disioThe curfew tolls from Great S. Mary's, at Cambridge, at 9, from the Curfew Tower of Windsor Castle (nearer the scene of the Elegy) at 8, in the evening.
A' naviganti, e 'ntenerisce 'l cuore
Lo di ch' han detto a' dolci amici addio:
E che lo nuovo peregrin d' amore
Punge, se ode] squilla di lontano
Che paia 'l giorno pianger, che si muore.
[Now was the hour that wakens fond desire
In men at sea, and melts their thoughtful heart
Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell,
And pilgrim, newly on the road, with love
Thrills, if he hear] the vesper bell from far
That seems to mourn for the expiring day. Cary.
Warton, Notes on Pope, vol. i. p. 82, reads:
''The curfew tolls! - the knell of parting day.''But we know exactly what Gray wrote, and what he meant us to read."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 134/135.
1.1-8 The ... day,] "In a letter to Bedingfield [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"In a letter to Bedingfield in Aug. 1756 (Corresp ii 477) and in 1768 G[ray]. acknowledged his debt to Dante, Purgatorio viii 5-6: se ode squilla di lontano, / che paia il giorno pianger che si muore (from afar he hears the chimes which seem to mourn for the dying day). He may have felt obliged to do so publicly as a result of Norton Nicholls's discovery of the debt: see Corresp iii 1297. Nicholls added: 'He acknowledged the imitation & said he had at first written ''tolls the knell of dying day'' but changed it to parting to avoid the concetto.' G.'s opening quatrain is also reminiscent of Inferno ii 1-3: Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno / toglieve gli animai, che sono in terra, / dalle fatiche loro; ed io sol uno (The day was departing, and the brown air taking the animals, that are on earth, from their toils; and I, one alone ....); and see Petrarch, Canzone 50 (Ne lastagion che 'l ciel rapido inclina)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117.1.1-2 The curfew] "Johnson (citing Cowel) described it [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Johnson (citing Cowel) described it as: 'An evening-peal, by which [William] the conqueror willed, that every man should rake up his fire, and put out his light; so that in many places, at this day, where a bell is customarily rung towards bed time, it is said to ring curfew.' Such a bell still rang in Cambridge at 9 p.m. G[ray]. probably remembered 'I hear the far-off Curfeu sound', Il Penseroso 73. But Shakespeare has 'To hear the solemn curfew', Tempest V i 40 and uses the word on three other occasions. It also occurs in Thomson, Liberty iv 755 and n; and in T. Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy (1747) 282-3: 'Where ever to the curfew's solemn sound / Listening thou sit'st.' Cp. also Collins's 'simple bell', Ode to Evening 38 (see p. 466). Shakespeare has 'A sullen bell / Remembered tolling a departing friend', 2 Henry IV I i 102-3; Dryden, 'That tolls the knell for their departed sense', Prologue to Troilus and Cressida 22; and Young, 'It is the Knell of my departed Hours', Night Thoughts i 58."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117.1.1-8 The ... day,] "This famous line is imitated [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.
"This famous line is imitated from Dante, Purgatorio, viii."
Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, p. 77.1.1 - 3.7 The ... way,] "a prime example of semantic [...]" Alexander Huber, 2009.
"a prime example of semantic clustering, the repetition of words covering the same semantic ground, for the purpose of reinforcement in establishing the tone of the poem in its opening lines: "curfew", "knell", "parting" (l. 1), "wind slowly" (l. 2), "plods", "weary way" (l. 3), all reinforcing the contemplative mood."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Wed Jan 14 09:24:22 2009 GMT.1.7 parting] "dying Gray's first thought, as [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"dying Gray's first thought, as recorded by Norton Nicholls ('changed ... to avoid the concetto')."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.1.7 parting] "parting was originally dying according [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"parting was originally dying according to Norton Nicholls (see T & W Appendix Z, p. 1297), but changed 'to parting to avoid the concetto'."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.1.1 - 4.9 The ... me.] "Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening, which contains a number of passages strikingly similar to the Elegy, although - so far as I 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,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:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves.''
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;For Gray's remarks on Warton's and Collins's Odes, see p. 81. Cf. also Ambrose Philips, Pastoral ii, end:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
The dewy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil.''
''And now behold the sun's departing raySelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 137/138.
O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day.
With songs the jovial hinds return from plow,
And unyok'd heifers, pacing homeward, low.'' "
1.1 - 3.7 The ... way,] "a prime example of semantic [...]" Alexander Huber, 2009.
"a prime example of semantic clustering, the repetition of words covering the same semantic ground, for the purpose of reinforcement in establishing the tone of the poem in its opening lines: "curfew", "knell", "parting" (l. 1), "wind slowly" (l. 2), "plods", "weary way" (l. 3), all reinforcing the contemplative mood."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Wed Jan 14 09:24:22 2009 GMT.2.2-3 lowing herd] "A common phrase: e.g. Pope, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"A common phrase: e.g. Pope, Odyssey x 485-7: 'As from fresh pastures and the dewy fields ... / The lowing herds return'; Cowley's imitation of Horace, Epode II 15 and of Virgil, Georgic II 20: Prior, Solomon ii 414 and Pope, Spring 86."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117.2.4 wind] "Often incorrectly printed and quoted [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 137.2.4 wind] "This is the correct reading, [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This is the correct reading, as, though winds occur in the first printed edition (1751), wind is what Gray has in the MS. copies and in the first edition of his Poems (1768), as well as in all reprints of the ''Elegy'' approved by him. After 1751 the first edition I find with winds is Stephen Jones' (1799), and though Mitford in his edition of 1814 has wind, in the Aldine edition (1836) he has winds, and is followed - without comment - by almost all subsequent editors of Gray's ''Poems,'' and in popular reprints of the ''Elegy.'' Another false reading is herds for herd."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 215.2.4 wind] "Not winds, as so commonly [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Not winds, as so commonly printed.
'' 'Wind' has a more poetical connotation, for it suggests a long slowly-moving line of cattle rather than a closely packed herd.'' Phelps.
Add that of Gray's cattle some are returning from the pasture, but others from the plough. Of the innumerable passages that might be quoted in illustration of this line, perhaps that given by Mitford from Petrarch [Pte I. Canzone IV.] is nearest to Gray's picture:
''Veggio, la sera, i buoi tornare scioltiwhich, again, is very like Milton's
Dalle campagne e da' solcati colli;''
''what time the labour'd oxCf. also Homer, Odyssey, IX. 58: [Greek line (omitted)] (when the sun was passing over toward the hour of loosing the oxen).
In his loose traces from the furrow came.'' Comus, 291, 2.
And Horace's
''Sol ubi montiumA scholar-poet could scarcely mention the 'lowing herd' and the 'plowman' without some reminiscence of this old-world note of time.
mutaret umbras, et juga demeret
bobus fatigatis... '' (Odes, III. 6. 42.)
(what time the sun shifted the shadows of the hills and took the yoke from off the laboured oxen).
Cf. also, after Phelps, Ambrose Philips, Pastoral II. ad fin. ''And unyoked heifers, pacing homeward, low.'' "Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 135.
2.4 wind] "'herd', as a collective noun, [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st 1926].
"'herd', as a collective noun, may be allowed the plural."
Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], p. 165.2.4 wind] "winds first edition." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"winds first edition."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.2.4 wind] "winds Q[uatro]1, Q[uarto]3." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"winds Q[uatro]1, Q[uarto]3."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.2.4 wind] "winds edd 1-7." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"winds edd 1-7."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117.2.8 lea,] "In 1748 Thomson had felt [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"In 1748 Thomson had felt it necessary to include this word ('a Piece of Land, or Meadow') in the list of 'obsolete Words' at the end of The Castle of Indolence."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117.2.8 lea,] "area of open grassland." Alexander Huber, 2000.
"area of open grassland."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Oct 22 12:41:44 2000 GMT.1.1 - 4.9 The ... me.] "Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening, which contains a number of passages strikingly similar to the Elegy, although - so far as I 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,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:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves.''
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;For Gray's remarks on Warton's and Collins's Odes, see p. 81. Cf. also Ambrose Philips, Pastoral ii, end:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
The dewy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil.''
''And now behold the sun's departing raySelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 137/138.
O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day.
With songs the jovial hinds return from plow,
And unyok'd heifers, pacing homeward, low.'' "
1.1 - 3.7 The ... way,] "a prime example of semantic [...]" Alexander Huber, 2009.
"a prime example of semantic clustering, the repetition of words covering the same semantic ground, for the purpose of reinforcement in establishing the tone of the poem in its opening lines: "curfew", "knell", "parting" (l. 1), "wind slowly" (l. 2), "plods", "weary way" (l. 3), all reinforcing the contemplative mood."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Wed Jan 14 09:24:22 2009 GMT.3.1-7 The ... way,] "Thomas Warton noted in Milton's [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Thomas Warton noted in Milton's Poems on Several Occasions (1785) p. 176 n, of Comus 291-2 ('what time the labour'd Oxe / In his loose traces from the furrow came'): 'This is classical. But the return of oxen or horses from the plough, is not a natural circumstance of an English evening. In England the ploughman always quits his work at noon. Gray, therefore, with Milton, painted from books and not from the life, where in describing the departing day-light he says ...' This statement about the timetable of English ploughmen was challenged in the Gentleman's Mag. lvi (1786) 293-4 and 396-7. The subject was reopened in Notes and Queries (1890) 7th series, ix 468 and x 18-19, 117; and again in 10th series, xii (1909) 309, 389-91. Although the usual conclusion of these discussions was that the habits of ploughmen varied in different parts of England, Warton was no doubt right in suggesting that G. had classical sources in mind: for example, Virgil, Eclogues ii 66-7: aspice, aratra iugo referunt suspensa iuvenci, / et sol crescentis decedens duplicat umbras (See, the bullocks drag home by the yoke the hanging plough, and the retiring sun doubles the lengthening shadows); and Horace, Odes III vi 41-3: Sol ubi montium / mutaret umbras et iuga demeret / bobus fatigatis (When the sun shifted the shadows of the mountain sides and lifted the yoke from the weary steers). Cp. Roscommon's imitation of this Ode 58-60, which G. also seems to echo in ll. 25-8: 'And after the declining sun / Had changed the shadows, and their task was done, / Home with their weary team they took their way ...' Cp. also Horace, Epodes ii 63, and for parallels in earlier English poetry, see Pope, Odyssey xiii 39-42: 'As the tired ploughman, spent with stubborn toil, / Whose oxen long have torn the furrowed soil, / Sees with delight the sun's declining ray, / When home with feeble knees he bends his way'; A. Philips, Pastorals ii 135-8: 'And now behold the sun's departing ray, / O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day: / With songs the jovial hinds return from plough; / And unyok'd heifers, loitering homeward, low'; Gay, Rural Sports i 91-2, 99-100, 105-6: 'Or when the ploughman leaves the task of day, / And trudging homeward whistles on the way ... / Engaged in thought, to Neptune's bounds I stray, / To take my farewell of the parting day ... / Here pensive I behold the fading light, / And o'er the distant billow lose my sight.' See also Gay, Shepherd's Week iii 19-22, 115-18, and J. Warton, Ode to Evening 2-4: 'Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves, / As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes, / He jocund whistles through the twilight groves.' Spenser, Faerie Queene VI vii 39, 1, has 'And now she was uppon the weary way'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 117/118.3.6-7 weary way,] "[T]he epithet 'weary' in the [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.
"[T]he epithet 'weary' in the third line not only defines the daily toil of the ploughman, but points to one of the key ideas of the whole poem - the toil which was the lot of the unremembered dead in the churchyard, and is also, by implication, the lot of mankind as a whole."
Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, p. 12.1.1 - 4.9 The ... me.] "Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Cf. Joseph Warton's Ode to Evening, which contains a number of passages strikingly similar to the Elegy, although - so far as I 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,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:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As, homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes,
He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves.''
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;For Gray's remarks on Warton's and Collins's Odes, see p. 81. Cf. also Ambrose Philips, Pastoral ii, end:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
The dewy fingers draw the gradual dusky veil.''
''And now behold the sun's departing raySelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 137/138.
O'er yonder hill, the sign of ebbing day.
With songs the jovial hinds return from plow,
And unyok'd heifers, pacing homeward, low.'' "
4.1-9 And ... me.] "Cf. after Mitford, Petrarch [Sonetto [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Cf. after Mitford, Petrarch [Sonetto CLXVIII.]
''Quando 'l sol bagna in mar l' aurato carroGray's words are more suggestive. In broad daylight the scene belongs to the toiler; when he withdraws, he resigns it to the solitary poet, and to the shadows congenial to his spirit. Munro renders this line: ''Cunctaque dat tenebris, dat potiunda mihi.''"Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 135/136.
E l' aer nostro e la mia mente imbruna.''
''What time the sun
In ocean bathes his golden car and leaves
Over our air - and on my soul - a shade.''
4.1-9 And ... me.] "Petrarch, Canzoniere 223 1-2: Quando [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Petrarch, Canzoniere 223 1-2: Quando 'l sol in mar l'aurato carro / E l'aer nostro e la mia mente imbruna (When the sun bathes his golden car in the ocean and casts a shadow over our air and my mind)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 118.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "This is a bit of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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 Elegy were by no means original; they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already fast becoming popular."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "And here may be the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"And here may be the best place to note after Dr Phelps that the 'whole atmosphere of Collins's Ode is similar to that of the Elegy. Cf. especially stanza 10,
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires,Dr Phelps notes also that Joseph Warton's verses contain some of Gray's pictures, and something of the same train of thought: e.g.:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.'' '
''Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,add:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes
Jocund he whistles through the twilight groves.''
''Now every Passion sleeps; desponding Love,The latter stanza might well be the form in embryo of the four rejected stanzas quoted infra, n. on l. 72. Dr Phelps remarks that ''the scenery as well as the meditations of the Elegy were by no means original: they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already becoming familiar.''
And pining Envy, ever-restless Pride;
A holy calm creeps o'er my peaceful soul,
Anger and mad Ambition's storms subside.''
And certainly if the opening stanzas of the Elegy as we now have them were written as early as 1742, their composition was in no way affected by the poems of Warton and Collins; the same must be said even if the 'autumnal verses' of the letter of Sept. 11, 1746, were the Elegy. The spirit of gentle melancholy was in the air; and in 1746 and 1747 found in three young poets, Collins, Joseph Warton and Thomas Warton, that voice to the world at large which is found again in Gray in 1750. For in 1747 Thomas Warton published anonymously these lines, which he had written in his 17th year (1745):
''Beneath yon ruin'd abbey's moss-grown pilewhere resemblance to the Elegy is closest of all.
Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve
Where thro' some western window the pale moon
Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light;
While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r:''
Between these three poets communication of ideas was probable; but at this date even Thomas Warton, with whom he afterwards corresponded, was an absolute stranger to Gray. And Gray is so far from feeling that in any of these there were 'kindred spirits' who might 'enquire his fate' that he writes, Dec. 27, 1746:
'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, model'd 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.'
So little are men conscious of that 'stream of tendency' on which they themselves are borne."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136-138.
5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "The most striking parallel with [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The most striking parallel with this stanza occurs in Thomas Warton's Five Pastoral Eclogues (1745) ii 20-3, 28-36: 'Then let me walk the twilight meadows green, / Or breezy up-lands, near thick-branching elms, / While the still landscape sooths my soul to rest, / And every care subsides to calmest peace / ... / The solitude that all around becalms / The peaceful air, conspire[s] to wrap my soul / In musings mild, and nought the solemn scene / And the still silence breaks; but distant sounds / Of bleating flocks, that to their destin'd fold / The shepherd drives; mean-time the shrill-tun'd bell / Of some lone ewe that wanders from the rest, / Tinkles far off, with solitary sound; / The lowing cows ...' In ll. 47-8 a 'weary reaper' appears: 'along the vale, / Whistling he home returns to kiss his babes' (see l. 24 below). The 'silence ... save where' formula , in this stanza and the passage from Warton above, had become relatively common in descriptions of evening by the 1740s: e.g. Akenside, Ode to Sleep (1744) 18-20: 'No wakeful sound the moonlight valley knows, / Save where the brook its liquid murmur pours, / And lulls the waving scene to more profound repose'; Collins, Ode to Evening 9-12; and T. Warton Senior, Poems (1748) p. 117: 'Here what a solemn Silence reigns, / Save the Tinklings of a Rill.' Further examples are given in ll. 9-12n below."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 118/119.5.1-8 Now ... sight,] "Addison, Account of the Greatest [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Addison, Account of the Greatest English Poets 30-1: 'But when we look too near, the shades decay, / And all the pleasing landscape fades away'; and David Mallet, The Excursion (1728) i 235-7: '... th'aerial landscape fades. / Distinction fails: and in the darkening west, / The last light quivering, dimly dies away.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "These lines are very reminiscent [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"These lines are very reminiscent of a stanza in Thomas Warton's second Pastoral Eclogue. Gray's lines are much superior and illustrate the advantages of a common poetic diction."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, p. 112.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "This is a bit of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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 Elegy were by no means original; they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already fast becoming popular."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "And here may be the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"And here may be the best place to note after Dr Phelps that the 'whole atmosphere of Collins's Ode is similar to that of the Elegy. Cf. especially stanza 10,
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires,Dr Phelps notes also that Joseph Warton's verses contain some of Gray's pictures, and something of the same train of thought: e.g.:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.'' '
''Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,add:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes
Jocund he whistles through the twilight groves.''
''Now every Passion sleeps; desponding Love,The latter stanza might well be the form in embryo of the four rejected stanzas quoted infra, n. on l. 72. Dr Phelps remarks that ''the scenery as well as the meditations of the Elegy were by no means original: they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already becoming familiar.''
And pining Envy, ever-restless Pride;
A holy calm creeps o'er my peaceful soul,
Anger and mad Ambition's storms subside.''
And certainly if the opening stanzas of the Elegy as we now have them were written as early as 1742, their composition was in no way affected by the poems of Warton and Collins; the same must be said even if the 'autumnal verses' of the letter of Sept. 11, 1746, were the Elegy. The spirit of gentle melancholy was in the air; and in 1746 and 1747 found in three young poets, Collins, Joseph Warton and Thomas Warton, that voice to the world at large which is found again in Gray in 1750. For in 1747 Thomas Warton published anonymously these lines, which he had written in his 17th year (1745):
''Beneath yon ruin'd abbey's moss-grown pilewhere resemblance to the Elegy is closest of all.
Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve
Where thro' some western window the pale moon
Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light;
While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r:''
Between these three poets communication of ideas was probable; but at this date even Thomas Warton, with whom he afterwards corresponded, was an absolute stranger to Gray. And Gray is so far from feeling that in any of these there were 'kindred spirits' who might 'enquire his fate' that he writes, Dec. 27, 1746:
'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, model'd 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.'
So little are men conscious of that 'stream of tendency' on which they themselves are borne."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136-138.
5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "The most striking parallel with [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The most striking parallel with this stanza occurs in Thomas Warton's Five Pastoral Eclogues (1745) ii 20-3, 28-36: 'Then let me walk the twilight meadows green, / Or breezy up-lands, near thick-branching elms, / While the still landscape sooths my soul to rest, / And every care subsides to calmest peace / ... / The solitude that all around becalms / The peaceful air, conspire[s] to wrap my soul / In musings mild, and nought the solemn scene / And the still silence breaks; but distant sounds / Of bleating flocks, that to their destin'd fold / The shepherd drives; mean-time the shrill-tun'd bell / Of some lone ewe that wanders from the rest, / Tinkles far off, with solitary sound; / The lowing cows ...' In ll. 47-8 a 'weary reaper' appears: 'along the vale, / Whistling he home returns to kiss his babes' (see l. 24 below). The 'silence ... save where' formula , in this stanza and the passage from Warton above, had become relatively common in descriptions of evening by the 1740s: e.g. Akenside, Ode to Sleep (1744) 18-20: 'No wakeful sound the moonlight valley knows, / Save where the brook its liquid murmur pours, / And lulls the waving scene to more profound repose'; Collins, Ode to Evening 9-12; and T. Warton Senior, Poems (1748) p. 117: 'Here what a solemn Silence reigns, / Save the Tinklings of a Rill.' Further examples are given in ll. 9-12n below."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 118/119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "These lines are very reminiscent [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"These lines are very reminiscent of a stanza in Thomas Warton's second Pastoral Eclogue. Gray's lines are much superior and illustrate the advantages of a common poetic diction."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, p. 112.6.1 And] "Now. - Mason MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Now. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 73.6.1-4 And ... air] "''Air'' is subject, not object, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"''Air'' is subject, not object, of ''holds.'' "
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.6.1-2 And all] "And now - Fraser MS." D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"And now - Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136.6.1-8 And ... holds,] "'Stillness' is here the nominative; [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"'Stillness' is here the nominative; 'air' the objective case. ''aeriumque tenent otia dia polum.'' Munro."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136.6.1-8 And ... holds,] "Cp. William Broome, Paraphrase of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. William Broome, Paraphrase of Job 40: 'A solemn stillness reigns o'er land and seas.' The subject of 'holds' is 'stillness', the object 'air'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.6.2 all] "Now. - Original MS. [Mason [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Now. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.6.2 all] "now E[ton College MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"now E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.6.2 all] "now Eton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"now Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "This is a bit of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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 Elegy were by no means original; they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already fast becoming popular."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "And here may be the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"And here may be the best place to note after Dr Phelps that the 'whole atmosphere of Collins's Ode is similar to that of the Elegy. Cf. especially stanza 10,
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires,Dr Phelps notes also that Joseph Warton's verses contain some of Gray's pictures, and something of the same train of thought: e.g.:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.'' '
''Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,add:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes
Jocund he whistles through the twilight groves.''
''Now every Passion sleeps; desponding Love,The latter stanza might well be the form in embryo of the four rejected stanzas quoted infra, n. on l. 72. Dr Phelps remarks that ''the scenery as well as the meditations of the Elegy were by no means original: they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already becoming familiar.''
And pining Envy, ever-restless Pride;
A holy calm creeps o'er my peaceful soul,
Anger and mad Ambition's storms subside.''
And certainly if the opening stanzas of the Elegy as we now have them were written as early as 1742, their composition was in no way affected by the poems of Warton and Collins; the same must be said even if the 'autumnal verses' of the letter of Sept. 11, 1746, were the Elegy. The spirit of gentle melancholy was in the air; and in 1746 and 1747 found in three young poets, Collins, Joseph Warton and Thomas Warton, that voice to the world at large which is found again in Gray in 1750. For in 1747 Thomas Warton published anonymously these lines, which he had written in his 17th year (1745):
''Beneath yon ruin'd abbey's moss-grown pilewhere resemblance to the Elegy is closest of all.
Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve
Where thro' some western window the pale moon
Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light;
While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r:''
Between these three poets communication of ideas was probable; but at this date even Thomas Warton, with whom he afterwards corresponded, was an absolute stranger to Gray. And Gray is so far from feeling that in any of these there were 'kindred spirits' who might 'enquire his fate' that he writes, Dec. 27, 1746:
'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, model'd 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.'
So little are men conscious of that 'stream of tendency' on which they themselves are borne."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136-138.
5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "The most striking parallel with [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The most striking parallel with this stanza occurs in Thomas Warton's Five Pastoral Eclogues (1745) ii 20-3, 28-36: 'Then let me walk the twilight meadows green, / Or breezy up-lands, near thick-branching elms, / While the still landscape sooths my soul to rest, / And every care subsides to calmest peace / ... / The solitude that all around becalms / The peaceful air, conspire[s] to wrap my soul / In musings mild, and nought the solemn scene / And the still silence breaks; but distant sounds / Of bleating flocks, that to their destin'd fold / The shepherd drives; mean-time the shrill-tun'd bell / Of some lone ewe that wanders from the rest, / Tinkles far off, with solitary sound; / The lowing cows ...' In ll. 47-8 a 'weary reaper' appears: 'along the vale, / Whistling he home returns to kiss his babes' (see l. 24 below). The 'silence ... save where' formula , in this stanza and the passage from Warton above, had become relatively common in descriptions of evening by the 1740s: e.g. Akenside, Ode to Sleep (1744) 18-20: 'No wakeful sound the moonlight valley knows, / Save where the brook its liquid murmur pours, / And lulls the waving scene to more profound repose'; Collins, Ode to Evening 9-12; and T. Warton Senior, Poems (1748) p. 117: 'Here what a solemn Silence reigns, / Save the Tinklings of a Rill.' Further examples are given in ll. 9-12n below."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 118/119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "These lines are very reminiscent [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"These lines are very reminiscent of a stanza in Thomas Warton's second Pastoral Eclogue. Gray's lines are much superior and illustrate the advantages of a common poetic diction."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, p. 112.7.1-4 Save ... beetle] "Cf. Macbeth, iii, 2: ''The [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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,Milton's Lycidas, 28: ''What time the grey-fly winds her sultry horn.''"Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in needless hum.''
7.1 - 8.7 Save ... folds;] "Macbeth III ii 41-3: 'ere [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Macbeth III ii 41-3: 'ere to black Hecate's summons / The shardborne beetle with his drowsy hums / Hath rung night's yawning peal ...'; and Dryden, Indian Emperor I i 119: 'Which drowsily like humming beetles rise.' Dryden twice has 'wheeling Flight', Georgics iv 803 and Aeneid xii 699. Thomson, Spring 695-6, has 'the white-winged plover wheels / Her sounding flight'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.7.3-4 the beetle] "A sinister note of approaching [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"A sinister note of approaching darkness in Macbeth, III. 2, 42.
''ere, to black Hecate's summons,Dryden (Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I. ll. 301, 2) employs the beetle to crush
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hum
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.''
''such beetle thingsIn December 1746 Collins published among other poems his Ode to Evening, and Joseph Warton's volume including, I believe, his 'Evening' appeared in the same month and year. Collins writes:
As only buzz to heaven with evening wings.''
''Now air is hushed save [where the weak-eyed batGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136.
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing
Or] where the beetle winds
His small but sullen horn
As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum.'' "
7.7 droning] "drony Foulis edition, 1768." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"drony Foulis edition, 1768."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.7.7 droning] "drony F[oulis ed., 1768]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"drony F[oulis ed., 1768]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.7.7 droning] "drony edd 9-12, Dodsley, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"drony edd 9-12, Dodsley, Foulis."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "This is a bit of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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 Elegy were by no means original; they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already fast becoming popular."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 138.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "And here may be the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"And here may be the best place to note after Dr Phelps that the 'whole atmosphere of Collins's Ode is similar to that of the Elegy. Cf. especially stanza 10,
''And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires,Dr Phelps notes also that Joseph Warton's verses contain some of Gray's pictures, and something of the same train of thought: e.g.:
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.'' '
''Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey,add:
Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves,
As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes
Jocund he whistles through the twilight groves.''
''Now every Passion sleeps; desponding Love,The latter stanza might well be the form in embryo of the four rejected stanzas quoted infra, n. on l. 72. Dr Phelps remarks that ''the scenery as well as the meditations of the Elegy were by no means original: they simply established more firmly literary fashions which were already becoming familiar.''
And pining Envy, ever-restless Pride;
A holy calm creeps o'er my peaceful soul,
Anger and mad Ambition's storms subside.''
And certainly if the opening stanzas of the Elegy as we now have them were written as early as 1742, their composition was in no way affected by the poems of Warton and Collins; the same must be said even if the 'autumnal verses' of the letter of Sept. 11, 1746, were the Elegy. The spirit of gentle melancholy was in the air; and in 1746 and 1747 found in three young poets, Collins, Joseph Warton and Thomas Warton, that voice to the world at large which is found again in Gray in 1750. For in 1747 Thomas Warton published anonymously these lines, which he had written in his 17th year (1745):
''Beneath yon ruin'd abbey's moss-grown pilewhere resemblance to the Elegy is closest of all.
Oft let me sit, at twilight hour of eve
Where thro' some western window the pale moon
Pours her long-levell'd rule of streaming light;
While sullen sacred silence reigns around,
Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bow'r
Amid the mould'ring caverns dark and damp,
Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves
Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green
Invests some wasted tow'r:''
Between these three poets communication of ideas was probable; but at this date even Thomas Warton, with whom he afterwards corresponded, was an absolute stranger to Gray. And Gray is so far from feeling that in any of these there were 'kindred spirits' who might 'enquire his fate' that he writes, Dec. 27, 1746:
'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, model'd 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.'
So little are men conscious of that 'stream of tendency' on which they themselves are borne."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 136-138.
5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "The most striking parallel with [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The most striking parallel with this stanza occurs in Thomas Warton's Five Pastoral Eclogues (1745) ii 20-3, 28-36: 'Then let me walk the twilight meadows green, / Or breezy up-lands, near thick-branching elms, / While the still landscape sooths my soul to rest, / And every care subsides to calmest peace / ... / The solitude that all around becalms / The peaceful air, conspire[s] to wrap my soul / In musings mild, and nought the solemn scene / And the still silence breaks; but distant sounds / Of bleating flocks, that to their destin'd fold / The shepherd drives; mean-time the shrill-tun'd bell / Of some lone ewe that wanders from the rest, / Tinkles far off, with solitary sound; / The lowing cows ...' In ll. 47-8 a 'weary reaper' appears: 'along the vale, / Whistling he home returns to kiss his babes' (see l. 24 below). The 'silence ... save where' formula , in this stanza and the passage from Warton above, had become relatively common in descriptions of evening by the 1740s: e.g. Akenside, Ode to Sleep (1744) 18-20: 'No wakeful sound the moonlight valley knows, / Save where the brook its liquid murmur pours, / And lulls the waving scene to more profound repose'; Collins, Ode to Evening 9-12; and T. Warton Senior, Poems (1748) p. 117: 'Here what a solemn Silence reigns, / Save the Tinklings of a Rill.' Further examples are given in ll. 9-12n below."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 118/119.5.1 - 8.7 Now ... folds;] "These lines are very reminiscent [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"These lines are very reminiscent of a stanza in Thomas Warton's second Pastoral Eclogue. Gray's lines are much superior and illustrate the advantages of a common poetic diction."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, p. 112.7.1 - 8.7 Save ... folds;] "Macbeth III ii 41-3: 'ere [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Macbeth III ii 41-3: 'ere to black Hecate's summons / The shardborne beetle with his drowsy hums / Hath rung night's yawning peal ...'; and Dryden, Indian Emperor I i 119: 'Which drowsily like humming beetles rise.' Dryden twice has 'wheeling Flight', Georgics iv 803 and Aeneid xii 699. Thomson, Spring 695-6, has 'the white-winged plover wheels / Her sounding flight'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.8.1 And] "Or. - Egerton MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Or. - Egerton MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 73.8.1 And] "Or. - Egerton MS." J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Or. - Egerton MS."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.8.1 And] "Or Fraser and Pembroke [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Or Fraser and Pembroke MSS.; perhaps also Egerton MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.8.1 And] "Or Pembroke and Wharton MSS." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"Or Pembroke and Wharton MSS."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.8.1 And] "Or C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Or C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College MS.], Wh[arton MS.], Q[uarto]3."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 37.8.1 And] "Or Eton, Wharton, Commonplace [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Or Eton, Wharton, Commonplace Book, edd 3-7."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.8.1-7 And ... folds;] "Cp. Addison, The Vestal 14: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Addison, The Vestal 14: 'In drowsy murmurs lull'd the gentle maid'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.9.1 - 12.5 Save ... reign.] "Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in a description of a church, 'where ivy twines / Its fatal green around': 'All is dread silence here, and undisturbed, / Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl / Screams solitary to the mournful moon, / Glimmering her western ray through yonder aisle'; T. Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy 32-7: 'While sullen sacred silence reigns around, / Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bower / Amid the mouldering caverns, dark and damp, / Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves / Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green / Invests some wasted tower.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.9.5-6 ivy-mantled tower] "The church at Stoke Pogis [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"The church at Stoke Pogis is undoubtedly most in Gray's mind in the Elegy, but we need not suppose that he reproduces his scene like a photographer. If he needed to see an 'ivy-mantled' tower in order to imagine it he would find one at Upton old church, not far from Stoke, but nearer to Slough and Eton."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.9.5 ivy-mantled] "See T. Warton in previous [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"See T. Warton in previous note and cp. 'the mantling Vine', Par. Lost iv 258; and 'ivy ... / That mantling crept aloft', Mallet, Amynta and Theodora (1747) i 285-6."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.9.1 - 12.5 Save ... reign.] "Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in a description of a church, 'where ivy twines / Its fatal green around': 'All is dread silence here, and undisturbed, / Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl / Screams solitary to the mournful moon, / Glimmering her western ray through yonder aisle'; T. Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy 32-7: 'While sullen sacred silence reigns around, / Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bower / Amid the mouldering caverns, dark and damp, / Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves / Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green / Invests some wasted tower.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.10.1-8 The ... complain] "It seems unnecessary to quote [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"It seems unnecessary to quote from the literature of all ages in illustration of this and like commonplaces of poetry. The skill of Gray lies in the perfect combination of such details; - Thomson and Mallet, almost simultaneously, were enlisting the 'owl'; cf. also Thomas Warton in preceding note. Gray may have remembered the 'ignavus bubo' of Ovid, Metamorphoses, v. 550; but we will credit him with sufficient observation to have discovered independently that the owl 'mopes.'
In this picture it is noteworthy that we have a deeper shade of growing nightfall than in the preceding."
10.1-8 The ... complain] "Virgil, Aeneid iv 462-3: solaque [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Virgil, Aeneid iv 462-3: solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo / saepe queri et longas in fletum ducere voces (And alone on the house-tops will ill-boding song the owl would often complain, drawing out its lingering notes into a wail)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.10.2 moping] "Perhaps in imitation of Ovid, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Perhaps in imitation of Ovid, Metamorphoses v 550: ignavus bubo (slothful owl). G[ray]. may also have remembered Par. Lost xi 485-6: 'moaping Melancholie / And Moon struck madness', and Rowe, Jane Shore II i 6, describing night: 'Care only wakes, and moping pensiveness'. See also T. Warton above ll. 9-12 n, and Gay, Shepherd's Week iii 118: 'And the hoarse owl his woeful dirges sings.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.9.1 - 12.5 Save ... reign.] "Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in a description of a church, 'where ivy twines / Its fatal green around': 'All is dread silence here, and undisturbed, / Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl / Screams solitary to the mournful moon, / Glimmering her western ray through yonder aisle'; T. Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy 32-7: 'While sullen sacred silence reigns around, / Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bower / Amid the mouldering caverns, dark and damp, / Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves / Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green / Invests some wasted tower.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.11.4 wandering] "Over 'wand'ring' Fraser MS. gives [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Over 'wand'ring' Fraser MS. gives 'stray too'."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.11.4 wandering] "stray too is written above [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"stray too is written above in E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.11.4 wandering] "stray too written above [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"stray too written above in Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.11.7 secret] "sacred first edition." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"sacred first edition."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.11.7 secret] "sacred Q[uarto]1, Q[uarto]8 [an erratum [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"sacred Q[uarto]1, Q[uarto]8 [an erratum noted by Gray in T & W no. 159]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.11.7 secret] "sacred edd 1-2, 4b-8 [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"sacred edd 1-2, 4b-8 (noted as erratum by G[ray]., Corresp i 344)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.11.8 bower,] "In the old sense of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"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."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.11.8 bower,] "The proper sense of bower [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"The proper sense of bower is any place to be or dwell in; often used in poetry for 'my lady's chamber.' Gray no doubt used the word in its root-sense, but surely with some connotation of 'arbour'; which again is really 'harbour' and has nothing to do with 'arbor,' tree, although the sense 'a bower made of branches of trees' points to that as the accepted derivation of the word. Similarly the etymologist Junius thought 'bower' was so called from being made of boughs; a fancy which has no doubt affected the sense of the word."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.11.8 bower,] "The owl is often given [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The owl is often given a 'bower' by the poets: e.g. Spenser, Ruines of Time 130: 'For the Shriche-owle to build her balefull bowre'; Pope, Dunciad iv 11: 'the Owl forsook his bow'r'; Winter 143-4: 'Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl / Plies his sad song'; and T. Warton above, ll. 9-12 n. Spenser has 'secret bowre', Faerie Queene IV v 5, 4."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.9.1 - 12.5 Save ... reign.] "Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Mallet, Excursion i 272-5, in a description of a church, 'where ivy twines / Its fatal green around': 'All is dread silence here, and undisturbed, / Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl / Screams solitary to the mournful moon, / Glimmering her western ray through yonder aisle'; T. Warton, Pleasures of Melancholy 32-7: 'While sullen sacred silence reigns around, / Save the lone screech-owl's note, who builds his bower / Amid the mouldering caverns, dark and damp, / Or the calm breeze, that rustles in the leaves / Of flaunting ivy, that with mantle green / Invests some wasted tower.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 119.12.1-3 Molest ... ancient] "& pry into (over) Fraser [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"& pry into (over) Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.12.1-3 Molest ... ancient] "& pry into written above [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"& pry into written above in E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.12.1-3 Molest ... ancient] "& pry into written [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"& pry into written above in Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.13.1 - 16.7 Beneath ... sleep.] "This stanza and the ninth [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza and the ninth form the inscription on the east side of the monument to Gray in Stoke Park."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.13.5-6 that yew-tree's] "The yew-tree under which Gray [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The yew-tree under which Gray often sat in Stoke churchyard still exists there; it is on the south side of the church, its branches spread over a large circumference, and under it as well as under its shade there are several graves."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 215.13.5-7 that ... shade,] "The yew-tree of Gray's time [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"The yew-tree of Gray's time still exists in Stoke Church-yard, according to Dr Bradshaw; 'it is on the south side of the church, its branches spread over a large circumference, and under it, as well as under its shade, there are several graves.'"
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.13.5-7 that ... shade,] "'Or 'gainst the rugged bark [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad Elm', Comus 354. Blair's churchyard also provides a yew, 'Cheerless, unsocial plant'; and 'a row of reverend elms, / ... all ragged show', The Grave 22, 46-7."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.13.1 - 16.7 Beneath ... sleep.] "This stanza and the ninth [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza and the ninth form the inscription on the east side of the monument to Gray in Stoke Park."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.14.1-9 Where ... heap,] "Wakefield quotes from Parnell's ''Night [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Wakefield quotes from Parnell's ''Night Piece on Death'' (1722): - ''Those graves with bending osier bound, / That nameless heave the crumbled ground.'' - 29, 30."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 215.14.1 - 16.7 Where ... sleep.] "Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on Death 29-32: 'Those Graves, with bending Osier bound, / That nameless heave the crumbled Ground, / Quick to the glancing Thought disclose, / Where Toil and Poverty repose.' Parnell's churchyard, l. 53, also has a 'black and fun'ral Yew'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.13.1 - 16.7 Beneath ... sleep.] "This stanza and the ninth [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza and the ninth form the inscription on the east side of the monument to Gray in Stoke Park."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.14.1 - 16.7 Where ... sleep.] "Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on Death 29-32: 'Those Graves, with bending Osier bound, / That nameless heave the crumbled Ground, / Quick to the glancing Thought disclose, / Where Toil and Poverty repose.' Parnell's churchyard, l. 53, also has a 'black and fun'ral Yew'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.13.1 - 16.7 Beneath ... sleep.] "This stanza and the ninth [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza and the ninth form the inscription on the east side of the monument to Gray in Stoke Park."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.14.1 - 16.7 Where ... sleep.] "Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Thomas Parnell, A Night-Piece on Death 29-32: 'Those Graves, with bending Osier bound, / That nameless heave the crumbled Ground, / Quick to the glancing Thought disclose, / Where Toil and Poverty repose.' Parnell's churchyard, l. 53, also has a 'black and fun'ral Yew'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.16.2 rude] "Referring to their rustic simplicity. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Referring to their rustic simplicity. The poor people were always buried in the church-yard; the rich inside the church."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.16.2 rude] "rude here means rustic, simple; [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"rude here means rustic, simple; he applies it to the beach, ''Spring,'' 13. Throughout the ''Elegy'' he refers to the poor, the people of the hamlet, as contrasted with the rich, who were interred and had their monuments inside the church. In the MSS. left by Mitford, now in the British Museum, he has recorded the following line found among Gray's papers, jotted down probably for the ''Elegy,'' cf. lines 57-60; it may be quoted here as an illustration of his use of rude: - ''The rude Columbus of an infant world.''"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.16.2 rude] "Of course in the sense [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Of course in the sense of simple and unlettered. 'The poor people were always buried in the church-yard, the rich inside the church.' Phelps."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.16.6 hamlet] "Village struck through by Gray [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Village struck through by Gray and Hamlet written over it in Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.16.6 hamlet] "Village (del) E[ton College MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Village (del) E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.16.6 hamlet] "Village Eton, deleted." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Village Eton, deleted."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.17.1 - 18.2 The ... swallow] "For ever sleep: the breezy [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"For ever sleep: the breezy call of Morn, / Or swallow, etc. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.17.1 - 18.7 The ... shed,] "For ever sleep; the breezy [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"For ever sleep; the breezy call of Morn, / Or swallow, etc. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.17.1-6 The ... morn,] "Sending forth fragrant smells.''Now whenas [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Sending forth fragrant smells.
''Now whenas sacred light began to dawnThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216.
In Eden on the humid flowers, that breathed
Their morning incense.'' - Par. Lost, ix. 192-194."
17.1 - 18.7 The ... shed,] "For ever sleep: the breezy [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"For ever sleep: the breezy Call of Morn / Or &c. Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.17.1-6 The ... morn,] "''... Whenas sacred light began [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"''... Whenas sacred light began to dawnGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139.
In Eden, on the humid flowers, that breathed
Their morning incense.''
Par. Lost, IX. 193. Wakefield."
17.1-6 The ... morn,] "For ever sleep, the breezy [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"For ever sleep, the breezy Call of Morn, E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.17.1-6 The ... morn,] "Cp. Par. Lost ix 193-4: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Par. Lost ix 193-4: 'the humid Flowrs that breathd / Thir morning Incense'; and Pope, Messiah 24: 'With all the incence of the breathing Spring'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.17.1-6 The ... morn,] "For ever sleep. the breezy [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"For ever sleep. the breezy Call of Morn, Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.17.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "This is the first of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This is the first of several passages which resemble John Dart's poem Westminster Abbey (1721), reprinted in his [2 vol.] Westmonasterium [1723], and again (significantly) in 1742. Cp. Dart's meditations among the tombs ([Westmonasterium vol.] I[, p.] iii), 'Where Musick cheers no more the rising Morn, / The Lark high tow'ring, nor the Winding-Horn; / Nor Thickets ecchoing with the vocal Train, / Who hail the Day, and rouze the sleepy Swain ...'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.17.1 - 18.2 The ... swallow] "For ever sleep: the breezy [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"For ever sleep: the breezy call of Morn, / Or swallow, etc. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.17.1 - 18.7 The ... shed,] "For ever sleep; the breezy [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"For ever sleep; the breezy call of Morn, / Or swallow, etc. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.17.1 - 18.7 The ... shed,] "For ever sleep: the breezy [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"For ever sleep: the breezy Call of Morn / Or &c. Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 138.17.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "This is the first of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This is the first of several passages which resemble John Dart's poem Westminster Abbey (1721), reprinted in his [2 vol.] Westmonasterium [1723], and again (significantly) in 1742. Cp. Dart's meditations among the tombs ([Westmonasterium vol.] I[, p.] iii), 'Where Musick cheers no more the rising Morn, / The Lark high tow'ring, nor the Winding-Horn; / Nor Thickets ecchoing with the vocal Train, / Who hail the Day, and rouze the sleepy Swain ...'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.18.1-2 The swallow] "Or Swallow E[ton College MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Or Swallow E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.18.1-2 The swallow] "Or Swallow Eton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Or Swallow Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.18.1 - 19.8 The ... horn,] "Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess IV iv: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess IV iv: 'Dearer than swallows love the early morn, / Or dogs of chase the sound of merry horn.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.18.3 twittering] "A frequent epithet for the [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"A frequent epithet for the swallow, probably in imitation of Virgil's garrula ... hirundo, Georgics iv 307, translated by Dryden, iv 434: 'Or Swallows twitter on the Chimney Tops'. The swallows 'twitter cheerful' in Thomson, Autumn 846."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.18.6 straw-built] "A compound sanctioned by Milton: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"A compound sanctioned by Milton: 'thir Straw-built Cittadel', Par. Lost i 773. Cp. 'his little Straw-built Home' and 'Sudden he views some Shepherd's straw-built Cell', T. Warton Senior, Poems (1748) pp. 106, 186."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.17.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "This is the first of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This is the first of several passages which resemble John Dart's poem Westminster Abbey (1721), reprinted in his [2 vol.] Westmonasterium [1723], and again (significantly) in 1742. Cp. Dart's meditations among the tombs ([Westmonasterium vol.] I[, p.] iii), 'Where Musick cheers no more the rising Morn, / The Lark high tow'ring, nor the Winding-Horn; / Nor Thickets ecchoing with the vocal Train, / Who hail the Day, and rouze the sleepy Swain ...'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.18.1 - 19.8 The ... horn,] "Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess IV iv: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess IV iv: 'Dearer than swallows love the early morn, / Or dogs of chase the sound of merry horn.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.19.1-8 The ... horn,] "Or chaunticleer so shrill, or [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"Or chaunticleer so shrill, or ecchoing horn. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.19.1-8 The ... horn,] "Or chanticleer so shrill, or [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Or chanticleer so shrill, or echoing horn. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.19.1-4 The ... clarion,] "A clarion is a wind [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"A clarion is a wind instrument, a kind of trumpet, with a shrill sound, from Lat. clarus, clear. It is from Milton that he takes clarion for the sound of the cock's crow: - ''.... the crested cock, whose clarion sounds / The silent hours.'' - Par. Lost, vii. 443. Cf. also: -
''When chanticleer with clarion shrill recallsIn the original MS. the reading is; - ''Or chanticleer so shrill or echoing horn''; the word ''chanticleer'' itself meaning ''clear-singing,'' and the name of the cock in Chaucer's ''Nun's Priest's Tale'' was 'Chauntecleer.'"The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 216/217.
The tardy day.'' - [John ]Philip's Cyder, i. 753 (pub. 1708).
''The cock that is the trumpet to the mourn
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day.'' - Hamlet, i. 1. 150.
19.1-8 The ... horn,] "Or Chaunticleer so shrill or [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Or Chaunticleer so shrill or echoing Horn Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139.19.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "''... The crested cock, whose [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"''... The crested cock, whose clarion soundsCyder was published in 1708, the year of the death of J. Philips. Philips in the Splendid Shilling parodied, and in Cyder imitated, Milton. Gray knew his verse well, and perhaps (Gray and His Friends, p. 298) at an early date attempted to translate a part of the Splendid Shilling into Latin Hexameters.
The silent hours.'' Par. Lost, VII. 442. Wakefield.
''... When chanticleer with clarion shrill recalls
The tardy day.'' J. Philips, Cyder, I. 753. Mitford.
But here again, if there is imitation at all on Gray's part, it is to be found in the same combination of cockcrow and the hunter's horn which Milton had already given in his picture of Morning in L'Allegro, l. 49 sq.
''While the cock, with lively din,Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139.
Scatters the rear of darkness thin.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn.''"
19.1-6 The ... the] "Or Chaunticleer so shrill or [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Or Chaunticleer so shrill or E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.19.1-8 The ... horn,] "Cp. L'Allegro 49-50, 53-6: 'While [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. L'Allegro 49-50, 53-6: 'While the Cock with lively din, / Scatters the rear of darknes thin / ... / Oft list'ning how the Hounds and horn / Chearly rouse the slumbring mom, / From the side of some Hoar Hill, / Through the high wood echoing shrill'; 'the crested Cock whose clarion sounds / The silent hours', Par. Lost vii 443-4; 'Chanticleer with clarion shrill', J. Philips, Cyder i 753; 'the shrill horn's echoing sounds', Gay, Birth of the Squire 17; 'This Midnight Centinel with Clarion shrill', Young, Night Thoughts ii 3 (of the cock); 'The sounding Clarion and the Sprightly Horn', Prior, Colin's Mistakes 13."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.19.1-6 The ... the] "Or Chaunticleer so shrill or [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Or Chaunticleer so shrill or Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.19.5 or] "and Pembroke and Wharton MSS." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"and Pembroke and Wharton MSS."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.19.5 or] "& C[ommonplace] B[ook], Wh[arton MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"& C[ommonplace] B[ook], Wh[arton MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.19.5 or] "& Commonplace Book, Wharton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"& Commonplace Book, Wharton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.19.6-8 the ... horn,] "The huntsman's horn, that wakens [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The huntsman's horn, that wakens echoes. Cf. Milton again: -
''Oft listening how the hounds and hornThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill
Through the high wood echoing shrill.'' - [L]'Allegro, 53."
17.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "This is the first of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This is the first of several passages which resemble John Dart's poem Westminster Abbey (1721), reprinted in his [2 vol.] Westmonasterium [1723], and again (significantly) in 1742. Cp. Dart's meditations among the tombs ([Westmonasterium vol.] I[, p.] iii), 'Where Musick cheers no more the rising Morn, / The Lark high tow'ring, nor the Winding-Horn; / Nor Thickets ecchoing with the vocal Train, / Who hail the Day, and rouze the sleepy Swain ...'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 120.19.1 - 20.9 The ... bed.] "''... The crested cock, whose [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"''... The crested cock, whose clarion soundsCyder was published in 1708, the year of the death of J. Philips. Philips in the Splendid Shilling parodied, and in Cyder imitated, Milton. Gray knew his verse well, and perhaps (Gray and His Friends, p. 298) at an early date attempted to translate a part of the Splendid Shilling into Latin Hexameters.
The silent hours.'' Par. Lost, VII. 442. Wakefield.
''... When chanticleer with clarion shrill recalls
The tardy day.'' J. Philips, Cyder, I. 753. Mitford.
But here again, if there is imitation at all on Gray's part, it is to be found in the same combination of cockcrow and the hunter's horn which Milton had already given in his picture of Morning in L'Allegro, l. 49 sq.
''While the cock, with lively din,Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139.
Scatters the rear of darkness thin.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn.''"
20.4 rouse] "wake first edition." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"wake first edition."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.20.4 rouse] "wake Q[uarto]1." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"wake Q[uarto]1."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.20.4 rouse] "wake edd 1-2, 4b, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"wake edd 1-2, 4b, 6-7."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.20.7-9 their ... bed.] "The humble bed in which [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The humble bed in which they have been sleeping. Lloyd in his Latin translation strangely mistook ''lowly bed'' for the grave."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.20.8-9 lowly bed.] "This probably refers to the [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"This probably refers to the humble couch on which they have spent the night; but it is meant to suggest the grave as well."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.20.8-9 lowly bed.] "''Lloyd,'' says Dr Bradshaw, ''in [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"''Lloyd,'' says Dr Bradshaw, ''in his Latin translation strangely mistook 'lowly bed' for the grave.''
Dr Phelps on the other hand says, 'This probably refers to the humble couch on which they have spent the night; but it is meant to suggest the grave as well.' This seems probable."
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:''At [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:
''At jam non domus accipiet te laeta; neque uxorWakefield also quotes Thomson, Winter, 311, describing the man dying in the snow:
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesSelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
The fire fair-blazing 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.''"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "The following are parallel passages: [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The following are parallel passages: -
''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.'' - Lucretius, iii. 894.
''Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet
Domum atque dulces liberos, ...
Sacrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri.'' - Horace, Epode, ii. 39.
''In vain for him the officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' - Thomson, Winter, 311."
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] " ''Jam jam non domus [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThough Lucretius is only mentioning these common regrets of mankind in order to show their unreasonableness, there is no doubt that Gray had this passage well in his mind here. Feeling this, Munro renders it in quite Lucretian phraseology: e.g.
optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
Lucretius, III. 894-896.
''Now no more shall thy house admit thee with glad welcome, nor a most virtuous wife and sweet children run to be the first to snatch kisses and touch thy heart with a silent joy.'' (Munro.)
''Jam jam non erit his rutilans focus igne:and
non reditum balbe current patris hiscere nati.''But Gray adds also an Horatian touch, as Mitford points out:
''Quodsi pudica mulier in partem juvetThomson in his Winter, 1726, had written of the shepherd overwhelmed in the snow-storm:
domum atque dulces liberos
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
sacrum vetustis excitet lignis focum
lassi sub adventum viri,'' &c. Hor. Epode, II. 39 sq.
[''But if a chaste and pleasing wife
To ease the business of his life
Divides with him his household care
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Will fire for winter nights provide,
And without noise will oversee
His children and his family
And order all things till he come
Weary and over-laboured home'' &c. Dryden.]
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139/140.
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling rack, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' (ll. 311-315.)"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor / optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati / praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent (No longer now will your happy home give you welcome, no longer will your best of wives and sweet children race to win the first kisses, and thrill your heart to its depths with sweetness). Cp. Dryden's translation, Latter Part of the 3rd Book of Lucretius 76-9: 'But to be snatch'd from all thy household joys, / From thy Chast Wife, and thy dear prattling boys, / Whose little arms about thy Legs are cast, / And climbing for a Kiss prevent their Mothers hast'; and Thomson's imitation, Winter 311-6: 'In vain for him the officious wife prepares / The fire fair-blazing 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.' Cp. also Horace, Epodes ii 39-40, 43-4: quod si pudica mulier in partem iuvet / domum atque dulces liberos ... / sacrum vestutis extruat lignis focum / lassi sub adventum viri (But if a modest wife shall do her part in tending home and children dear ... piling the sacred hearth with seasoned firewood against the coming of her weary husband). Cp. also Dryden, Georgics ii 760-1 (translating Virgil, ii 523): 'His little Children climbing for a Kiss, / Welcome their Father's late return at Night'; Thomson adopted the first line of this couplet, Liberty iii 173; and see also J. Warton, Ode to Evening 3 (quoted in l. 3n above)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:''At [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:
''At jam non domus accipiet te laeta; neque uxorWakefield also quotes Thomson, Winter, 311, describing the man dying in the snow:
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesSelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
The fire fair-blazing 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.''"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "The following are parallel passages: [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The following are parallel passages: -
''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.'' - Lucretius, iii. 894.
''Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet
Domum atque dulces liberos, ...
Sacrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri.'' - Horace, Epode, ii. 39.
''In vain for him the officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' - Thomson, Winter, 311."
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] " ''Jam jam non domus [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThough Lucretius is only mentioning these common regrets of mankind in order to show their unreasonableness, there is no doubt that Gray had this passage well in his mind here. Feeling this, Munro renders it in quite Lucretian phraseology: e.g.
optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
Lucretius, III. 894-896.
''Now no more shall thy house admit thee with glad welcome, nor a most virtuous wife and sweet children run to be the first to snatch kisses and touch thy heart with a silent joy.'' (Munro.)
''Jam jam non erit his rutilans focus igne:and
non reditum balbe current patris hiscere nati.''But Gray adds also an Horatian touch, as Mitford points out:
''Quodsi pudica mulier in partem juvetThomson in his Winter, 1726, had written of the shepherd overwhelmed in the snow-storm:
domum atque dulces liberos
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
sacrum vetustis excitet lignis focum
lassi sub adventum viri,'' &c. Hor. Epode, II. 39 sq.
[''But if a chaste and pleasing wife
To ease the business of his life
Divides with him his household care
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Will fire for winter nights provide,
And without noise will oversee
His children and his family
And order all things till he come
Weary and over-laboured home'' &c. Dryden.]
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139/140.
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling rack, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' (ll. 311-315.)"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor / optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati / praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent (No longer now will your happy home give you welcome, no longer will your best of wives and sweet children race to win the first kisses, and thrill your heart to its depths with sweetness). Cp. Dryden's translation, Latter Part of the 3rd Book of Lucretius 76-9: 'But to be snatch'd from all thy household joys, / From thy Chast Wife, and thy dear prattling boys, / Whose little arms about thy Legs are cast, / And climbing for a Kiss prevent their Mothers hast'; and Thomson's imitation, Winter 311-6: 'In vain for him the officious wife prepares / The fire fair-blazing 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.' Cp. also Horace, Epodes ii 39-40, 43-4: quod si pudica mulier in partem iuvet / domum atque dulces liberos ... / sacrum vestutis extruat lignis focum / lassi sub adventum viri (But if a modest wife shall do her part in tending home and children dear ... piling the sacred hearth with seasoned firewood against the coming of her weary husband). Cp. also Dryden, Georgics ii 760-1 (translating Virgil, ii 523): 'His little Children climbing for a Kiss, / Welcome their Father's late return at Night'; Thomson adopted the first line of this couplet, Liberty iii 173; and see also J. Warton, Ode to Evening 3 (quoted in l. 3n above)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.22.3 housewife] "Hus-wife. - Mason MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Hus-wife. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.22.3 housewife] "Huswife Wharton MS." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"Huswife Wharton MS."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.22.4-7 ply ... care:] "Be busied at her household [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Be busied at her household duties. Some annotators take exception to this use of ply; but it is a shortend form of apply similarly used by Milton and old writers: - ''He is ever at his plow, he is ever applying his business.'' - Latimer.
''The birds their choir apply.'' - Par. Lost, iv. 264.And Gray has ''their labours ply'' in the ''Ode on Eton,'' 32. The expression is a good instance of the poetical language against which Wordsworth protested. When he had occasion to refer to a similar scene, he wrote: - ''And she I cherished turned her wheel / Beside an English fire.''"The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217/218.
''Assiduous in his bower the wailing owl
Plies his sad song.'' - Thomson, Winter, 114.
22.4 ply] "Attend diligently to: cp. Milton, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Attend diligently to: cp. Milton, Par. Lost ix 201-2: 'Then commune how that day they best may ply / Their growing work.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.22.7 care:] "Responsibility, (domestic) duties, imitating Latin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Responsibility, (domestic) duties, imitating Latin cura."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:''At [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:
''At jam non domus accipiet te laeta; neque uxorWakefield also quotes Thomson, Winter, 311, describing the man dying in the snow:
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesSelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
The fire fair-blazing 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.''"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "The following are parallel passages: [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The following are parallel passages: -
''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.'' - Lucretius, iii. 894.
''Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet
Domum atque dulces liberos, ...
Sacrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri.'' - Horace, Epode, ii. 39.
''In vain for him the officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' - Thomson, Winter, 311."
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] " ''Jam jam non domus [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThough Lucretius is only mentioning these common regrets of mankind in order to show their unreasonableness, there is no doubt that Gray had this passage well in his mind here. Feeling this, Munro renders it in quite Lucretian phraseology: e.g.
optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
Lucretius, III. 894-896.
''Now no more shall thy house admit thee with glad welcome, nor a most virtuous wife and sweet children run to be the first to snatch kisses and touch thy heart with a silent joy.'' (Munro.)
''Jam jam non erit his rutilans focus igne:and
non reditum balbe current patris hiscere nati.''But Gray adds also an Horatian touch, as Mitford points out:
''Quodsi pudica mulier in partem juvetThomson in his Winter, 1726, had written of the shepherd overwhelmed in the snow-storm:
domum atque dulces liberos
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
sacrum vetustis excitet lignis focum
lassi sub adventum viri,'' &c. Hor. Epode, II. 39 sq.
[''But if a chaste and pleasing wife
To ease the business of his life
Divides with him his household care
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Will fire for winter nights provide,
And without noise will oversee
His children and his family
And order all things till he come
Weary and over-laboured home'' &c. Dryden.]
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139/140.
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling rack, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' (ll. 311-315.)"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor / optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati / praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent (No longer now will your happy home give you welcome, no longer will your best of wives and sweet children race to win the first kisses, and thrill your heart to its depths with sweetness). Cp. Dryden's translation, Latter Part of the 3rd Book of Lucretius 76-9: 'But to be snatch'd from all thy household joys, / From thy Chast Wife, and thy dear prattling boys, / Whose little arms about thy Legs are cast, / And climbing for a Kiss prevent their Mothers hast'; and Thomson's imitation, Winter 311-6: 'In vain for him the officious wife prepares / The fire fair-blazing 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.' Cp. also Horace, Epodes ii 39-40, 43-4: quod si pudica mulier in partem iuvet / domum atque dulces liberos ... / sacrum vestutis extruat lignis focum / lassi sub adventum viri (But if a modest wife shall do her part in tending home and children dear ... piling the sacred hearth with seasoned firewood against the coming of her weary husband). Cp. also Dryden, Georgics ii 760-1 (translating Virgil, ii 523): 'His little Children climbing for a Kiss, / Welcome their Father's late return at Night'; Thomson adopted the first line of this couplet, Liberty iii 173; and see also J. Warton, Ode to Evening 3 (quoted in l. 3n above)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.23.1-8 No ... return,] "'And stammering Babes are taught [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'And stammering Babes are taught to lisp thy Name', Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel 243."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.23.5 lisp] "speak with childlike utterance." Alexander Huber, 2000.
"speak with childlike utterance."
Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Oct 22 13:10:04 2000 GMT.21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:''At [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Lucretius, iv, 907:
''At jam non domus accipiet te laeta; neque uxorWakefield also quotes Thomson, Winter, 311, describing the man dying in the snow:
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesSelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
The fire fair-blazing 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.''"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "The following are parallel passages: [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"The following are parallel passages: -
''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 217.
Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
Praeripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.'' - Lucretius, iii. 894.
''Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet
Domum atque dulces liberos, ...
Sacrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri.'' - Horace, Epode, ii. 39.
''In vain for him the officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' - Thomson, Winter, 311."
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] " ''Jam jam non domus [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxorThough Lucretius is only mentioning these common regrets of mankind in order to show their unreasonableness, there is no doubt that Gray had this passage well in his mind here. Feeling this, Munro renders it in quite Lucretian phraseology: e.g.
optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.''
Lucretius, III. 894-896.
''Now no more shall thy house admit thee with glad welcome, nor a most virtuous wife and sweet children run to be the first to snatch kisses and touch thy heart with a silent joy.'' (Munro.)
''Jam jam non erit his rutilans focus igne:and
non reditum balbe current patris hiscere nati.''But Gray adds also an Horatian touch, as Mitford points out:
''Quodsi pudica mulier in partem juvetThomson in his Winter, 1726, had written of the shepherd overwhelmed in the snow-storm:
domum atque dulces liberos
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
sacrum vetustis excitet lignis focum
lassi sub adventum viri,'' &c. Hor. Epode, II. 39 sq.
[''But if a chaste and pleasing wife
To ease the business of his life
Divides with him his household care
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Will fire for winter nights provide,
And without noise will oversee
His children and his family
And order all things till he come
Weary and over-laboured home'' &c. Dryden.]
''In vain for him the officious wife preparesGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 139/140.
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling rack, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence.'' (ll. 311-315.)"
21.1 - 24.9 For ... share.] "Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius iii 894-6: iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor / optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati / praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent (No longer now will your happy home give you welcome, no longer will your best of wives and sweet children race to win the first kisses, and thrill your heart to its depths with sweetness). Cp. Dryden's translation, Latter Part of the 3rd Book of Lucretius 76-9: 'But to be snatch'd from all thy household joys, / From thy Chast Wife, and thy dear prattling boys, / Whose little arms about thy Legs are cast, / And climbing for a Kiss prevent their Mothers hast'; and Thomson's imitation, Winter 311-6: 'In vain for him the officious wife prepares / The fire fair-blazing 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.' Cp. also Horace, Epodes ii 39-40, 43-4: quod si pudica mulier in partem iuvet / domum atque dulces liberos ... / sacrum vestutis extruat lignis focum / lassi sub adventum viri (But if a modest wife shall do her part in tending home and children dear ... piling the sacred hearth with seasoned firewood against the coming of her weary husband). Cp. also Dryden, Georgics ii 760-1 (translating Virgil, ii 523): 'His little Children climbing for a Kiss, / Welcome their Father's late return at Night'; Thomson adopted the first line of this couplet, Liberty iii 173; and see also J. Warton, Ode to Evening 3 (quoted in l. 3n above)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 121.24.1 Or] "Nor. - Egerton and Mason [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"Nor. - Egerton and Mason MSS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.24.1 Or] "Nor. - Original MS. [Mason [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Nor. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.24.1 Or] "Nor, Fraser MS." D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Nor, Fraser MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 140.24.1 Or] "Nor Pembroke and Wharton MSS." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"Nor Pembroke and Wharton MSS."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.24.1 Or] "Nor C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Nor C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College MS.], Wh[arton MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.24.1 Or] "Nor Eton, Wharton, Commonplace [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Nor Eton, Wharton, Commonplace Book."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.24.6 envied] "Coming. - Mason MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Coming. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.24.6 envied] "Coming. - Original MS. [Mason [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Coming. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.24.6 envied] "Gray happily decided upon 'envied,' [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Gray happily decided upon 'envied,' for 'coming' is a weak word; and 'doubtful' would have been ambiguous to any but a classical reader, - who alone would feel sure that the meaning was, it was uncertain to whom the privilege of the first kiss would fall. Cf. the 'praeripere' of Lucretius supra [footnote: Add Dryden, as quoted by Mitford, (from ed. Warton, vol. ii. p. 565, a futile reference) ''Whose little arms around thy legs are cast, / And climbing for a kiss prevent their mother's haste.''].
Cf. Virgil, Georg. II. 523 (describing the joys of the husbandman):
''Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati.''Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 140.
[Meanwhile sweet children cling round his kisses. Mackail.]"
24.6 envied] "The Fraser MS. has 'coming', [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"The Fraser MS. has 'coming', with 'envied' written above it, and 'doubtful' in the margin."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 140.24.6 envied] "coming but envied written above [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"coming but envied written above and doubtful? in margin, E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.24.6 envied] "coming Eton, with envied [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"coming Eton, with envied written above, and doubtful? in margin."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.25.7 sickle] "Sickles. - Egerton MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Sickles. - Egerton MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.25.7 sickle] "Sickles. - Egerton MS." J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Sickles. - Egerton MS."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 229.25.7 sickle] "Sickles Egerton MS." D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Sickles Egerton MS."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141.25.7 sickle] "Sickles Wharton MS." A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st 1919].
"Sickles Wharton MS."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], p. 174.25.7 sickle] "Sickles Wh[arton MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Sickles Wh[arton MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.25.7 sickle] "sickles Wharton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"sickles Wharton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.26.4-6 the ... glebe] "From Latin glaeba, meaning the [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"From Latin glaeba, meaning the ground."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.26.4-6 the ... glebe] "Luke quotes from Gay's ''Fables'': [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Luke quotes from Gay's ''Fables'': - '''Tis mine to tame the stubborn glebe.'' Glebe is used in its primary sense from Lat. gleba, a sod, the ground: - ''Rastris glebas qui frangit inertes.'' - Georgics, i. 94."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218.26.4-6 the ... glebe] "Luke quotes from Gay's Fables, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Luke quotes from Gay's Fables, Vol. II. Fable xv. l. 89:
'''Tis mine to tame the stubborn glebe.''---What Gay really writes is:
'''Tis mine to tame the stubborn plain,This is a curious example of the way in which a perfectly needless parallel 'may be made when it cannot be found.' "Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141.
Break the stiff soil, and house the grain.''
26.4-6 the ... glebe] "Cp. Virgil, Georgics i 94: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Virgil, Georgics i 94: glaebas qui frangit inertis. The substance of the phrase is common in English poetry: cp. 'Commands / Th' unwilling Soil, and tames the stubborn Lands', Dryden, Georgics i 143-4; 'Or tames the Genius of the stubborn Plain', Pope, Imitations of Horace, Sat. II i 131; ' 'Tis mine to tame the stubborn plain, / Break the stiff soil', Gay, Fables II xv 89-90. See especially the earlier lines of the stanza by Roscommon quoted l. 3n above: 'Rough, hardy, season'd, manly, bold; / Either they dug the stubborn ground, / Or through hewn woods their weighty strokes did sound.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.27.4 they] "they they [a misprint] Q[uarto]1." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"they they [a misprint] Q[uarto]1."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.27.4 they] "they they edd 1-2 [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"they they edd 1-2 (a misprint)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.27.8 afield!] "To the field. Milton's expression, [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"To the field. Milton's expression, ''we drove afield,'' ''Lycidas,'' 27."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218.27.8 afield!] "to the field. 'We drove [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"to the field. 'We drove afield,' Milton, Lycidas, l. 27; this is probably Gray's warrant for the word. Whether we refer the prefix 'a' to 'on' or to 'at' here, the secondary notion of 'motion towards' is easily attached to it; e.g. in Shakespeare 'away' [on way] sometimes means 'hither': and for 'at' in the sense of 'to' cf. 'at him again!' Instances of 'sturdy stroke' are quoted from Spenser, Shepherd's Calendar, February [ll. 201, 202] and, Dryden, Georgics, III. 639."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141.27.8 afield!] "Cp. 'Under the opening eye-lids [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. 'Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, / We drove a field', Lycidas 26-7; and 'With me to drive a-Field the browzing Goats', Dryden, Eclogues ii 38. For 'their team', cp. the passage from Roscommon quoted in l. 3 n above."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.28.1-8 How ... stroke!] "Wakefield quotes from Spenser's ''Shepherd's [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Wakefield quotes from Spenser's ''Shepherd's Kalendar'': - ''But to the root bent his sturdic stroak, / And made many wounds in the wast oak.'' - February. sturdy stoke also occurs in Dryden's translation of the ''Georgics,'' iii. 639."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218.28.1-8 How ... stroke!] "'pines bow low / Their [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'pines bow low / Their heads', Dunciad ii 391-2; 'Low the woods / Bow their hoar head', Thomson, Winter 235-6; and cp. 'But to the roote bent his sturdy stroke', Spenser, Shepheardes Calender, 'Feb.' 201; Dryden, Georgics iii 638-9: 'Take, Shepherd take, a plant of stubborn Oak; / And labour him with many a sturdy stroke'; and 'And stood the sturdy Stroaks of lab'ring Hinds', Dryden, Aeneid ii 847."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "The rimes in this stanza [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact; but the last line is one of the most famous in the Elegy."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "---There was some precision required [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"---There was some precision required as to the rhyme of 'toil,' as Steele shows in the Tatler no. 11, ''Avail and toil'' he says ''will never do for rhymes.'' "
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 291.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] " ''The rimes in this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact'': says Dr Phelps. That they were at one time exact is certain; and they were probably exact to Gray's time. The wearisome frequency of the rhyme 'join' with such words as 'combine,' 'sign,' 'line,' in Dryden, Pope, &c. establishes the pronunciation of 'join' as 'jine' over a long period up to the middle of the 18th century; in Dryden we have 'spoil' rhyming with 'guile' and 'awhile'; 'boil' rhyming with 'pile,' and in Pope, Odyssey, b. 1.:
''Your widow'd heart, apart, with female toilThe very rhyme of the text is doubtless frequent; I find it casually in Johnson's London (1738):
And various labours of the loom beguile.''
''On all thy hours security shall smile,It is on record as an instance of Gray's pronunciation that he would say, 'What naise is that?' instead of 'noise.' The sound here indicated must be approximately that of the last syllable of 'recognize'; and analogously it seems probable that Gray himself said 'tile' for 'toil.'
And bless thine evening walk, and morning toil.''
Now for the rhyme of 'obscure' with 'poor.' If Gray pronounced 'scure' much as we pronounce 'skewer,' the rhyme is not quite exact; but it is more probable, if only from a certain Gallicizing tendency of his, that the sound for him was rather like the French 'obscur.' Dryden's rhyme for 'poor' is most frequently with 'more,' 'store,' &c., from which I infer, doubtfully, that he pronounced poor as 'pore.' Pope, makes 'poor' rhyme with 'door' which of itself determines nothing; but he also makes it rhyme with 'cure,' 'endure' and 'sure'; (which is like Gray); and further with 'store' and 'yore' (which is like Dryden). Thus in the famous story of Sir Balaam, with an interval of only two lines we have:
... ''his gains were sure,and
His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.
''Satan now is wiser than of yore,On the whole we may conclude that Gray pronounced 'poor' much as we do, and 'obscure' so as to rhyme with it.
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.''
When such rhymes as this stanza offers became merely conventional it would be harder to determine."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141/142.
29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious man' at work in the fields, Spring 52-4: 'Nor, ye who live / In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, / Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear.' As Tovey argues, the rhymes in this quatrain were probably exact in G[ray].'s time. Johnson rhymes smile/toil in London 222-3."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.29.6 useful] "Rustic. - Mason MS." E. Gosse, 1884.
"Rustic. - Mason MS."
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, p. 74.29.6 useful] "Homely. - Original MS. [Mason [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Homely. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 230.29.6 useful] "Fraser MS. suggests in margin [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Fraser MS. suggests in margin homely;"
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141.29.6 useful] "underlined with homely in margin, [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"underlined with homely in margin, E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.29.6 useful] "underlined in Eton with homely [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"underlined in Eton with homely in margin."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "The rimes in this stanza [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact; but the last line is one of the most famous in the Elegy."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "---There was some precision required [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"---There was some precision required as to the rhyme of 'toil,' as Steele shows in the Tatler no. 11, ''Avail and toil'' he says ''will never do for rhymes.'' "
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 291.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] " ''The rimes in this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact'': says Dr Phelps. That they were at one time exact is certain; and they were probably exact to Gray's time. The wearisome frequency of the rhyme 'join' with such words as 'combine,' 'sign,' 'line,' in Dryden, Pope, &c. establishes the pronunciation of 'join' as 'jine' over a long period up to the middle of the 18th century; in Dryden we have 'spoil' rhyming with 'guile' and 'awhile'; 'boil' rhyming with 'pile,' and in Pope, Odyssey, b. 1.:
''Your widow'd heart, apart, with female toilThe very rhyme of the text is doubtless frequent; I find it casually in Johnson's London (1738):
And various labours of the loom beguile.''
''On all thy hours security shall smile,It is on record as an instance of Gray's pronunciation that he would say, 'What naise is that?' instead of 'noise.' The sound here indicated must be approximately that of the last syllable of 'recognize'; and analogously it seems probable that Gray himself said 'tile' for 'toil.'
And bless thine evening walk, and morning toil.''
Now for the rhyme of 'obscure' with 'poor.' If Gray pronounced 'scure' much as we pronounce 'skewer,' the rhyme is not quite exact; but it is more probable, if only from a certain Gallicizing tendency of his, that the sound for him was rather like the French 'obscur.' Dryden's rhyme for 'poor' is most frequently with 'more,' 'store,' &c., from which I infer, doubtfully, that he pronounced poor as 'pore.' Pope, makes 'poor' rhyme with 'door' which of itself determines nothing; but he also makes it rhyme with 'cure,' 'endure' and 'sure'; (which is like Gray); and further with 'store' and 'yore' (which is like Dryden). Thus in the famous story of Sir Balaam, with an interval of only two lines we have:
... ''his gains were sure,and
His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.
''Satan now is wiser than of yore,On the whole we may conclude that Gray pronounced 'poor' much as we do, and 'obscure' so as to rhyme with it.
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.''
When such rhymes as this stanza offers became merely conventional it would be harder to determine."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141/142.
29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious man' at work in the fields, Spring 52-4: 'Nor, ye who live / In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, / Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear.' As Tovey argues, the rhymes in this quatrain were probably exact in G[ray].'s time. Johnson rhymes smile/toil in London 222-3."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.30.2 homely] "Rustic. - Original MS. [Mason [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"Rustic. - Original MS. [Mason MS.]"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 230.30.2 homely] "[Fraser MS. gives] for homely [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"[Fraser MS. gives] for homely [...] rustic."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141.30.2 homely] "rustic E[ton College MS.]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"rustic E[ton College MS.]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, p. 38.30.2 homely] "rustic Eton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"rustic Eton."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "The rimes in this stanza [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact; but the last line is one of the most famous in the Elegy."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "---There was some precision required [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"---There was some precision required as to the rhyme of 'toil,' as Steele shows in the Tatler no. 11, ''Avail and toil'' he says ''will never do for rhymes.'' "
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 291.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] " ''The rimes in this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact'': says Dr Phelps. That they were at one time exact is certain; and they were probably exact to Gray's time. The wearisome frequency of the rhyme 'join' with such words as 'combine,' 'sign,' 'line,' in Dryden, Pope, &c. establishes the pronunciation of 'join' as 'jine' over a long period up to the middle of the 18th century; in Dryden we have 'spoil' rhyming with 'guile' and 'awhile'; 'boil' rhyming with 'pile,' and in Pope, Odyssey, b. 1.:
''Your widow'd heart, apart, with female toilThe very rhyme of the text is doubtless frequent; I find it casually in Johnson's London (1738):
And various labours of the loom beguile.''
''On all thy hours security shall smile,It is on record as an instance of Gray's pronunciation that he would say, 'What naise is that?' instead of 'noise.' The sound here indicated must be approximately that of the last syllable of 'recognize'; and analogously it seems probable that Gray himself said 'tile' for 'toil.'
And bless thine evening walk, and morning toil.''
Now for the rhyme of 'obscure' with 'poor.' If Gray pronounced 'scure' much as we pronounce 'skewer,' the rhyme is not quite exact; but it is more probable, if only from a certain Gallicizing tendency of his, that the sound for him was rather like the French 'obscur.' Dryden's rhyme for 'poor' is most frequently with 'more,' 'store,' &c., from which I infer, doubtfully, that he pronounced poor as 'pore.' Pope, makes 'poor' rhyme with 'door' which of itself determines nothing; but he also makes it rhyme with 'cure,' 'endure' and 'sure'; (which is like Gray); and further with 'store' and 'yore' (which is like Dryden). Thus in the famous story of Sir Balaam, with an interval of only two lines we have:
... ''his gains were sure,and
His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.
''Satan now is wiser than of yore,On the whole we may conclude that Gray pronounced 'poor' much as we do, and 'obscure' so as to rhyme with it.
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.''
When such rhymes as this stanza offers became merely conventional it would be harder to determine."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141/142.
29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious man' at work in the fields, Spring 52-4: 'Nor, ye who live / In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, / Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear.' As Tovey argues, the rhymes in this quatrain were probably exact in G[ray].'s time. Johnson rhymes smile/toil in London 222-3."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.31.1 - 32.8 Nor ... poor.] "Cp. Pope's note to Iliad [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Pope's note to Iliad xiii 739, where he discusses 'Similes taken from the Ideas of a rural Life': 'since these Arts are fallen from their ancient Dignity, and become the Drudgery of the lowest People, the Images of them are likewise sunk into Meanness.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 123.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "The rimes in this stanza [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact; but the last line is one of the most famous in the Elegy."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "---There was some precision required [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"---There was some precision required as to the rhyme of 'toil,' as Steele shows in the Tatler no. 11, ''Avail and toil'' he says ''will never do for rhymes.'' "
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 291.29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] " ''The rimes in this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
" ''The rimes in this stanza are scarcely exact'': says Dr Phelps. That they were at one time exact is certain; and they were probably exact to Gray's time. The wearisome frequency of the rhyme 'join' with such words as 'combine,' 'sign,' 'line,' in Dryden, Pope, &c. establishes the pronunciation of 'join' as 'jine' over a long period up to the middle of the 18th century; in Dryden we have 'spoil' rhyming with 'guile' and 'awhile'; 'boil' rhyming with 'pile,' and in Pope, Odyssey, b. 1.:
''Your widow'd heart, apart, with female toilThe very rhyme of the text is doubtless frequent; I find it casually in Johnson's London (1738):
And various labours of the loom beguile.''
''On all thy hours security shall smile,It is on record as an instance of Gray's pronunciation that he would say, 'What naise is that?' instead of 'noise.' The sound here indicated must be approximately that of the last syllable of 'recognize'; and analogously it seems probable that Gray himself said 'tile' for 'toil.'
And bless thine evening walk, and morning toil.''
Now for the rhyme of 'obscure' with 'poor.' If Gray pronounced 'scure' much as we pronounce 'skewer,' the rhyme is not quite exact; but it is more probable, if only from a certain Gallicizing tendency of his, that the sound for him was rather like the French 'obscur.' Dryden's rhyme for 'poor' is most frequently with 'more,' 'store,' &c., from which I infer, doubtfully, that he pronounced poor as 'pore.' Pope, makes 'poor' rhyme with 'door' which of itself determines nothing; but he also makes it rhyme with 'cure,' 'endure' and 'sure'; (which is like Gray); and further with 'store' and 'yore' (which is like Dryden). Thus in the famous story of Sir Balaam, with an interval of only two lines we have:
... ''his gains were sure,and
His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.
''Satan now is wiser than of yore,On the whole we may conclude that Gray pronounced 'poor' much as we do, and 'obscure' so as to rhyme with it.
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.''
When such rhymes as this stanza offers became merely conventional it would be harder to determine."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 141/142.
29.1 - 32.8 Let ... poor.] "Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Thomson, after describing 'laborious man' at work in the fields, Spring 52-4: 'Nor, ye who live / In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, / Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear.' As Tovey argues, the rhymes in this quatrain were probably exact in G[ray].'s time. Johnson rhymes smile/toil in London 222-3."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 122.31.1 - 32.8 Nor ... poor.] "Cp. Pope's note to Iliad [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Pope's note to Iliad xiii 739, where he discusses 'Similes taken from the Ideas of a rural Life': 'since these Arts are fallen from their ancient Dignity, and become the Drudgery of the lowest People, the Images of them are likewise sunk into Meanness.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 123.32.1-8 The ... poor.] "This, like many another line [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This, like many another line in the ''Elegy,'' may be said to be part of the English language; it was ''chiselled for immortality.''"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218.32.5-8 annals ... poor.] "Annals of the Poor, a [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Annals of the Poor, a pretty book by Leigh Richmond [(1772-1827)], author also of the Dairyman's Daughter, takes its title and motto from this line and stanza, as Dr Bradshaw reminds us."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 142.33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "Mitford compares West's Monody on [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford compares West's Monody on Queen Caroline, Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. ii:
''Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,This Monody directly followed Gray's three odes, Eton, Spring, Cat in Dodsley."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
Our golden treasure, and our purple state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.''
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "This stanza is the second [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza is the second of the two on the east side of the monument, vide note on 13-16.
Hurd refers to these lines in his note on the following passage in Cowley: -
''Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power,But Gray is likely to have had West and his ''Monody on Queen Caroline'' in his mind; not only as the early death of his friend, which occurred a few months before he began to write the ''Elegy,'' was almost always before him, but as West's Ode (which Gray refers to in a letter in Nov. 1747 as, ''in spite of the subject, excellent'') had been published a few months before he finished the ''Elegy,'' in Vol. II. of Dodsley's ''Collection,'' immediately after Gray's three Odes. The lines are: -
Have their short flourishing hour;
And love to see themselves, and smile,
And joy in their pre-eminence a while;
E'en so in the same land
Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand.
Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand.''
''These are thy glorious deeds, almighty Death!The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218/219.
These are thy triumphs o'er the sons of men,
That now receive the miserable breath,
Which the next moment they resign again!
Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,
Our golden treasure, and our purple state;
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.'' - 73-80."
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "Cowley had written: ''Beauty and [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Cowley had written:
''Beauty and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power,A passage no doubt known to West, when he wrote, Dec. 1737, in his Monody on the death of Queen Caroline [Gray and His Friends, pp. 108, 110-114],
Have their short flourishing hour;
And love to see themselves, and smile
And joy in their pre-eminence awhile:
E'en so in the same land
Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand.
Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand.''
''Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,lines which Gray undoubtedly remembers and improves upon here."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 142.
Our golden treasure, and our purpled state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of Fate.''
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "This quatrain seems to have [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This quatrain seems to have been inspired by four lines in a Monody on the Death of Queen Caroline by G.'s friend Richard West (reprinted in Dodsley's Collection (1748) ii 269 ff.): 'Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power, / Our golden treasure, and our purpled state, / They cannot ward th'inevitable hour, / Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.' But the sentiment occurs frequently in Horace, e.g. Odes I iv 13-4: pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas / regumque turres (Pale Death with foot impartial knocks at the poor man's cottage and at princes' palaces); I xxviii 15-6: sed omnes una manet nox, / et calcanda semel via leti (But a common night awaiteth every man, and Death's path must be trodden once for all); and II xvii 32-4: aequa tellus / pauperi recluditur / regumque pueris (For all alike doth Earth unlock her bosom - for the poor man and for princes' sons). Cp. also Cowley, translation of Horace, Odes III i 15-16, 21: 'Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and pow'r, / Have their short flourishing hour / ... / Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand'; Mallet, Excursion i 290-2 'Proud greatness, too, the tyranny of power, / The grace of beauty, and the force of youth, / And name and place, are here-for ever lost!'; and Dart, Westminster Abbey I xviii (see ll. 17-20 n above): 'To prove that nor the Beauteous, nor the Great, / Nor Form, nor Pow'r, are Wards secure from Fate.' G.'s lines have also been compared to Edward Phillips's Preface to Theatrum Poetarum (1675), in J. E. Spingarn, Critical Essays of the 17th Century (1908-9) ii 258 (and cp. l. 59n below): 'no wonder if the memories of such Persons as these sink with their Bodys into the earth, and lie buried in profound obscurity and oblivion, when even among those that tread the paths of Glory and Honour, those who have signaliz'd themselves either by great actions in the field or by Noble Arts of Peace or by the Monuments of their written Works more lasting sometimes than Brass or Marble, very many ... have fallen short of their deserved immortality of Name, and lie under a total eclipse.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 123.33.1-8 The ... power,] "Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination ii [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination ii 729-30: 'the pomp / Of public pow'r, the majesty of rule'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 123.33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "Mitford compares West's Monody on [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford compares West's Monody on Queen Caroline, Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. ii:
''Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,This Monody directly followed Gray's three odes, Eton, Spring, Cat in Dodsley."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, p. 139.
Our golden treasure, and our purple state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.''
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "This stanza is the second [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st 1891].
"This stanza is the second of the two on the east side of the monument, vide note on 13-16.
Hurd refers to these lines in his note on the following passage in Cowley: -
''Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power,But Gray is likely to have had West and his ''Monody on Queen Caroline'' in his mind; not only as the early death of his friend, which occurred a few months before he began to write the ''Elegy,'' was almost always before him, but as West's Ode (which Gray refers to in a letter in Nov. 1747 as, ''in spite of the subject, excellent'') had been published a few months before he finished the ''Elegy,'' in Vol. II. of Dodsley's ''Collection,'' immediately after Gray's three Odes. The lines are: -
Have their short flourishing hour;
And love to see themselves, and smile,
And joy in their pre-eminence a while;
E'en so in the same land
Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand.
Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand.''
''These are thy glorious deeds, almighty Death!The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], p. 218/219.
These are thy triumphs o'er the sons of men,
That now receive the miserable breath,
Which the next moment they resign again!
Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,
Our golden treasure, and our purple state;
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.'' - 73-80."
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "Cowley had written: ''Beauty and [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st 1898].
"Cowley had written:
''Beauty and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power,A passage no doubt known to West, when he wrote, Dec. 1737, in his Monody on the death of Queen Caroline [Gray and His Friends, pp. 108, 110-114],
Have their short flourishing hour;
And love to see themselves, and smile
And joy in their pre-eminence awhile:
E'en so in the same land
Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand.
Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand.''
''Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,lines which Gray undoubtedly remembers and improves upon here."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], p. 142.
Our golden treasure, and our purpled state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of Fate.''
33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "This quatrain seems to have [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This quatrain seems to have been inspired by four lines in a Monody on the Death of Queen Caroline by G.'s friend Richard West (reprinted in Dodsley's Collection (1748) ii 269 ff.): 'Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power, / Our golden treasure, and our purpled state, / They cannot ward th'inevitable hour, / Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.' But the sentiment occurs frequently in Horace, e.g. Odes I iv 13-4: pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas / regumque turres (Pale Death with foot impartial knocks at the poor man's cottage and at princes' palaces); I xxviii 15-6: sed omnes una manet nox, / et calcanda semel via leti (But a common night awaiteth every man, and Death's path must be trodden once for all); and II xvii 32-4: aequa tellus / pauperi recluditur / regumque pueris (For all alike doth Earth unlock her bosom - for the poor man and for princes' sons). Cp. also Cowley, translation of Horace, Odes III i 15-16, 21: 'Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and pow'r, / Have their short flourishing hour / ... / Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand'; Mallet, Excursion i 290-2 'Proud greatness, too, the tyranny of power, / The grace of beauty, and the force of youth, / And name and place, are here-for ever lost!'; and Dart, Westminster Abbey I xviii (see ll. 17-20 n above): 'To prove that nor the Beauteous, nor the Great, / Nor Form, nor Pow'r, are Wards secure from Fate.' G.'s lines have also been compared to Edward Phillips's Preface to Theatrum Poetarum (1675), in J. E. Spingarn, Critical Essays of the 17th Century (1908-9) ii 258 (and cp. l. 59n below): 'no wonder if the memories of such Persons as these sink with their Bodys into the earth, and lie buried in profound obscurity and oblivion, when even among those that tread the paths of Glory and Honour, those who have signaliz'd themselves either by great actions in the field or by Noble Arts of Peace or by the Monuments of their written Works more lasting sometimes than Brass or Marble, very many ... have fallen short of their deserved immortality of Name, and lie under a total eclipse.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, p. 123.33.1 - 36.9 The ... grave.] "Mitford compares West's Monody on [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford compares West's Monody on Queen Caroline, Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. ii:
''Ah me! what boots us all our boasted power,This Monody directly followed Gray's three odes, Eton, Spring, Cat in Dodsley."Selections from the Poetry
Our golden treasure, and our purple state?
They cannot ward th' inevitable hour,
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.''