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Julian
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This letter is part of the correspondence calendar of the complete correspondence of Thomas Gray. The calendar contains detailed bibliographic records for all known original, copied, or published letters written by or to the poet as well as the full-text, where available. Each record is accompanied by digitised images of the manuscript, where available, or digitised images of the first printed edition.
I had been absent from this Place a few Days, & at my Return found Cibber's Book upon my Table: I return you my Thanks for it, & have already run over a considerable Part, for who could resist Mrs Lætitia Pilkington's Recommendation? (by the Way is there any such Gentlewoman, or has somebody put on the Style of a scribbleing Woman's Panegyric to deceive & laugh at Colley?) he seems to me full as pert & as dull as usual. there are whole Pages of Common-Place Stuff, that for Stupidity might have been wrote by Dr Waterland or any other grave Divine, did not the flirting saucy Phrase give them at a Distance an Air of Youth & Gayety. it is very true, he is often in the right with regard to Tully's Weaknesses; but was there any one that did not see them? those, I imagine, that would find a Man after God's own Heart, are no more likely to trust the Doctor's Recommendation, than the Player's. & as to Reason & Truth: would they know their own Faces, do you think? if they look'd in the Glass, & saw themselves so bedizen'd in tatter'd Fringe & tarnish'd Lace, in French Jewels, & dirty Furbelows, the frippery of a Stroller's Wardrobe?
Litterature (to take it in its most comprehensive Sense, & include every Thing, that requires Invention, or Judgement, or barely
Application & Industry) seems indeed drawing apace to its Dissolution; & remarkably since the Beginning of the War. I should be
glad to know why, if any one will tell me. for I believe there may be natural Reasons discoverable enough without haveing Recourse to
St John, or St Alexander's Revelations. I remember to have read Mr Spence's pretty Book, tho' (as he then had not been at Rome for the last Time) it must have increased greatly since that in Bulk.
if you ask me what I read; I protest I don't remember one Syllable; but only in general, that they were the best-bred Sort of Men in
the World, just the Kind of Frinds one would wish to meet in a fine Summer's Evening, if one wish'd to meet any
at all. the Heads & Tails of the Dialogues, publish'd separate in 16mo, would make the sweetest Reading in Natiur for young
Gentlemen of Family & Fortune, that are learning to dance: I am told, he has put his little Picture before it. I rejoyce to hear, there is such a Crowd of dramatical Performances comeing upon the Stage.
Agripp:na can stay very well, she thanks you; & be damn'd at Leisure: I hope in God you have not
mention'd, or shew'd to any Body that Scene (for trusting in it's Badness, I forgot to caution you concerning it) but I heard the other
Day, that I was writeing a Play, & was told the Name of it, wch no body here could know, I'm sure. the Employment you propose to
me, much better suits my Inclination. but I much fear our Joynt-Stock would hardly compose a small Volume: what I have, is less considerable than you would imagine; & of that little we should not be willing to
publish all. there is an Epistle, ad Amicos (that is, to us all at Cambridge) in English, of above
fourscore Lines: the Thoughts are taken from Tibullus, & from a Letter of Mr Pope's in Prose. it begins
While You, where Camus rolls his sedgy Tide &c:
2. An Imitation of Horace, Trojani belli scriptorem &c: about 120 Lines, wrote to me. begins
While haply You (or haply not at all)
Hear the grave Pleadings in the Lawyer's Hall &c:
3. A Translation from Propertius. L: 3. El. 15 ... 50 Lines. begins .. (sent to me at Rheims)
Now prostrate, Bacchus, at thy Shrine I bend &c:
4. An Elegy, Latin. 34 Lines. begins, Quod mihi tam gratæ &c:
5. Another, sent to Florence. 36 Lines.–Ergo desidiæ videor &c:
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Translation from Posidippus, an Epigram .. Some Lines; on the hard Winter: long Verse .. on himself, a little before his Death. long Verse. 2 Imitations of Catullus' Basia. English. a little Ode of 5 Stanza's, to the Spring.
This is all I can any where find. You, I imagine, may have a good deal more. I should not care, how unwise the ordinary Sort of Readers might think my Affection for him provided those few, that ever loved any Body, or judged of any thing rightly, might from such little Remains be moved to consider, what he would have been; & to wish, that Heaven had granted him a longer Life, & a Mind more at Ease. I can't help fancying, that if you could find out Mrs West, & ask her for his Papers of that kind (Ashton might do it in your Name) she would be ready enough to part with them, & we might find something more: at least it would be worth while to try; for she had 'em in a great Box altogether, I well know.
I send you a few Lines, tho' Latin (wch you don't like) for the sake of the Subject. it makes Part of a large Design, & is the Beginning of the fourth Book, wch was intended to treat of the Passions. excuse the 3 first Verses: you know Vanity (with the Romans) is a poetical License.
Hactenus haud segnis Naturæ arcana retexi
Musarum interpres, primusqb Britanna per arva
Romano liquidum deduxi flumine rivum.
Cum Tu opere in medio, spes tanti & causa laboris,
Linquis, & æternam fati te condis in umbram!
Vidi egomet duro graviter concussa dolore
Pectora, in alterius non unquám lenta dolorem;
Et languere oculos vidi & pallescere amantem
Vultum, quo nunquam Pietas nisi rara, Fidesqb
Altus amor Veri, & purum spirabat Honestum.
Visa tamen tardi demúm inclementia morbi
Cessare est, reducemqb iterúm roseo ore Salutem
Speravi, atqb uná tecum, dilecte Favonî,
Credulus heu longos, ut quondam, fallere Soles.
Heu spes nequicquam dulces, atqb irrita vota,
Heu mæstos Soles, sine te quos ducere flendo
Per desideria, & questus jam cogor inanes!
At tu, sancta anima, & nostri non indiga luctûs
Stellanti templo, sinceriqb ætheris igne
Unde orta es, fruere. atqb oh si secura, nec ultrá
Mortalis, notos olím miserata labores
Respectes, tenuesqb vacet cognoscere curas:
Humanam si forté altâ de sede procellam
Contemplere, metus, stimulosqb cupidinis acres,
Gaudiaqb & gemitus, parvoqb in corde tumultum
Irarum ingentem, & sævos sub pectore fluctus:
Respice & has lachrymas, memori quas ictus amore
Fundo; quod possum, proptér lugere sepulchrum
Dum juvat, & mutæ vana hæc jactare favillæ.
P: S: My Love to the Chutheds. pray tell 'em I am learning Whisk, & have sent one of my old Gowns to be made up into full-bottom'd Hoods ... Compliments to Mrs Tr–cy ...