"A Long Story"

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Go	Notes			Line	Text
	T	E	T/E		"A Long Story"
		E		1	In Britain's isle, no matter where,
	T	E	T/E	2	An ancient pile of building stands:
	T	E	T/E	3	The Huntingdons and Hattons there
		E		4	Employed the power of fairy hands
	T	E	T/E	5	To raise the ceiling's fretted height,
	T	E	T/E	6	Each panel in achievements clothing,
	T	E	T/E	7	Rich windows that exclude the light,
	T			8	And passages that lead to nothing.
				9	Full oft within the spacious walls,
	T	E	T/E	10	When he had fifty winters o'er him,
	T	E	T/E	11	My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls;
		E		12	The Seal and Maces danced before him.
		E		13	His bushy beard and shoe-strings green,
				14	His high-crowned hat and satin-doublet,
				15	Moved the stout heart of England's Queen,
		E		16	Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it.
				17	"What, in the very first beginning!
				18	Shame of the versifying tribe!
				19	Your history whither are you spinning?
	T			20	Can you do nothing but describe?"
				21	A house there is (and that's enough)
				22	From whence one fatal morning issues
		E		23	A brace of warriors, not in buff,
				24	But rustling in their silks and tissues.
		E		25	The first came cap-a-pee from France
				26	Her conquering destiny fulfilling,
		E		27	Whom meaner beauties eye askance,
				28	And vainly ape her art of killing.
		E		29	The other Amazon kind heaven
		E		30	Had armed with spirit, wit, and satire:
		E		31	But Cobham had the polish given,
				32	And tipped her arrows with good-nature.
	T			33	To celebrate her eyes, her air--
				34	Coarse panegyrics would but tease her.
	T	E	T/E	35	Melissa is her nom de guerre.
				36	Alas, who would not wish to please her!
		E		37	With bonnet blue and capucine,
				38	And aprons long they hid their armour,
				39	And veiled their weapons bright and keen
				40	In pity to the country-farmer.
	T	E	T/E	41	Fame in the shape of Mr. P[ur]t
				42	(By this time all the parish know it)
				43	Had told that thereabouts there lurked
		E		44	A wicked imp they call a poet,
		E		45	Who prowled the country far and near,
		E		46	Bewitched the children of the peasants,
		E		47	Dried up the cows and lamed the deer,
		E		48	And sucked the eggs and killed the pheasants.
				49	My lady heard their joint petition,
				50	Swore by her coronet and ermine,
		E		51	She'd issue out her high commission
		E		52	To rid the manor of such vermin.
				53	The heroines undertook the task;
		E		54	Through lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventured,
		E		55	Rapped at the door nor stayed to ask,
		E		56	But bounce into the parlour entered.
		E		57	The trembling family they daunt,
		E		58	They flirt, they sing, they laugh, they tattle,
		E		59	Rummage his mother, pinch his aunt,
		E		60	And up stairs in a whirlwind rattle.
		E		61	Each hole and cupboard they explore,
		E		62	Each creek and cranny of his chamber,
		E		63	Run hurry-skurry round the floor,
		E		64	And o'er the bed and tester clamber,
		E		65	Into the drawers and china pry,
		E		66	Papers and books, a huge imbroglio!
		E		67	Under a tea-cup he might lie,
		E		68	Or creased, like dogs-ears, in a folio.
				69	On the first marching of the troops
				70	The Muses, hopeless of his pardon,
				71	Conveyed him underneath their hoops
	T	E	T/E	72	To a small closet in the garden.
	T			73	So Rumour says (who will, believe)
				74	But that they left the door ajar,
		E		75	Where, safe and laughing in his sleeve,
		E		76	He heard the distant din of war.
		E		77	Short was his joy. He little knew
				78	The power of magic was no fable.
		E		79	Out of the window, whisk, they flew,
		E		80	But left a spell upon the table.
		E		81	The words too eager to unriddle,
		E		82	The poet felt a strange disorder:
		E		83	Transparent birdlime formed the middle,
		E		84	And chains invisible the border.
		E		85	So cunning was the apparatus,
		E		86	The powerful pothooks did so move him,
	T	E	T/E	87	That, will he, nill he, to the Great-House
		E		88	He went, as if the Devil drove him.
		E		89	Yet no his way (no sign of grace,
				90	For folks in fear are apt to pray)
	T	E	T/E	91	To Phoebus he preferred his case,
				92	And begged his aid that dreadful day.
		E		93	The godhead would have backed his quarrel,
		E		94	But, with a blush on recollection,
	T	E	T/E	95	Owned that his quiver and his laurel
		E		96	'Gainst four such eyes were no protection.
	T	E	T/E	97	The court was sate, the culprit there,
		E		98	Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping
		E		99	The Lady Janes and Joans repair,
	T	E	T/E	100	And from the gallery stand peeping:
				101	Such as in silence of the night
				102	Come (sweep) along some winding entry
	T	E	T/E	103	(Styack has often seen the sight)
				104	Or at the chapel-door stand sentry;
				105	In peaked hoods and mantles tarnished,
				106	Sour visages, enough to scare ye,
				107	High dames of honour once, that garnished
				108	The drawing-room of fierce Queen Mary!
				109	The peeress comes. The audience stare,
				110	And doff their hats with due submission:
				111	She curtsies, as she takes her chair,
				112	To all the people of condition.
				113	The bard with many an artful fib
				114	Had in imagination fenced him,
	T	E	T/E	115	Disproved the arguments of Squib,
	T	E	T/E	116	And all that Groom could urge against him.
				117	But soon his rhetoric forsook him,
				118	When he the solemn hall had seen;
				119	A sudden fit of ague shook him,
	T	E	T/E	120	He stood as mute as poor Macleane.
				121	Yet something he was heard to mutter,
				122	"How in the park beneath an old-tree
	T			123	(Without design to hurt the butter,
				124	Or any malice to the poultry,)
				125	"He once or twice had penned a sonnet;
	T			126	Yet hoped that he might save his bacon:
				127	Numbers would give their oaths upon it,
		E		128	He ne'er was for a conjurer taken."
		E		129	The ghostly prudes with hagged face
				130	Already had condemned the sinner.
				131	My lady rose and with a grace--
		E		132	She smiled, and bid him come to dinner.
		E		133	"Jesu-Maria! Madam Bridget,
		E		134	Why, what can the Viscountess mean?"
		E		135	(Cried the square hoods in woeful fidget)
		E		136	"The times are altered quite and clean!
	T	E	T/E	137	"Decorum's turned to mere civility;
		E		138	Her air and all her manners show it.
		E		139	Commend me to her affability!
	T	E	T/E	140	Speak to a commoner and poet!"
					[Here 500 Stanzas are lost.]
				141	And so God save our noble King,
		E		142	And guard us from long-winded lubbers,
	T			143	That to eternity would sing,
		E		144	And keep my lady from her rubbers.

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• [BrJ_1903] 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].
• [EpW_1959] Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
• [GoE_1884] The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1912 [1st ed. 1884], vol. i.
• [LoR_1969] The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
• [P/W_1950] 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].
• [PhW_1894] 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.
• [ReJ_1973] 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.
• [S/H_1966] The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].