Poems, [ca. 1725]-1771

• "The Candidate"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.cand
  • Uniform Title: "The Candidate" [e-text]
  • First Line: When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugged up his face
  • Language: English
  • First Published: [1774?] or 1777
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 78-79; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 243-252
  • Summary: Written between January and March 1764 when Lord Sandwich's campaign for the post of High Steward at Cambridge was at its height. First(?) printed, ll. 1-32, entitled "The Candidate: By Mr. Gray" in [1774?] by Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press. Published, ll. 1-32, untitled, in the London Evening Post, February 1777.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0241 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "The University Courtship"
    • Date: [later eighteenth century]
    • Physical Description: 2 pages; transcript in an unidentified hand
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS Lt 11, 272-273, Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse, Special Collections, Leeds University Library, Leeds, UK <https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections>
    • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 19 March 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=6139>
    • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand, beginning "When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his face" and attributed "by Gray & not in his works", in a commonplace book, "apparently compiled by members of the Smyth family of Heath, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire" and "written c.1710 - c.1820 by six main hands here designated A-F (in this case E, later 18th cent.)".
    • Surrogates: Digital facsimile of p. 272 from original MS available online.
    
    
  
  

• "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.elcc
  • Uniform Title: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" [e-text]
  • First Line: The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1751
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 37-43; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 103-141
  • Summary: Begun c. 1745 and completed early in June 1750 at Stoke Poges. Gray sent the poem in a letter to Horace Walpole dated 12 June 1750. First published, as "An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard" and printed by Dodsley, in 1751.

  2 Manuscripts:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0239 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "An Elegy written in a Country Church Yard"
    • Date: [between c. 1760 and 1790]
    • Physical Description: 7 pages; transcript in an unidentified hand
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS Lt 99, ff. 20r-23r, Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse, Special Collections, Leeds University Library, Leeds, UK <https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections>
    • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 19 March 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=4660>
    • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand, beginning "The curfeu tolls the knell of parting day", in a commonplace book, entitled "Old songs & other poems", "in two hands, c.1760-90, containing transcribed verse and prose of the 17th and 18th centuries".
    • Surrogates: Digital facsimile of f. 23r from original MS available online.
    
    
  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0240 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"
    • Date: [1750s?]
    • Physical Description: 3 pages; transcript in an unidentified hand, partial [ll. 1-92], in a manuscript volume "bound in dark brown leather which is gilt embossed with decorations and gilt tooling. There is marbling on both inside covers and endpapers. The back board is detached"
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS Lt 109, ff. 67r-68r, Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse, Special Collections, Leeds University Library, Leeds, UK <https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections>
    • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 19 March 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=4659>
    • Contents: Transcript of ll. 1-92 in an unidentified hand, beginning "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day", in a Commonplace-book owned by the Lewis family. It is "in two hands, containing prose and poetry on diverse topics (written partly in the first half of the eighteenth century, partly in the mid eighteenth century); the signatures of Kath Lewis and Johana Lewis are visible on the flyleaf".
    
    
  
  

• "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.odfc
  • Uniform Title: "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes" [e-text]
  • First Line: 'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1748
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 5-6; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 78-85
  • Summary: Written at Cambridge between 22 February and 1 March 1747 and sent in a letter of that date to Horace Walpole. Mason is the only source for this letter, the poem sent in it has not survived. First published in Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands, 3 vols, vol. II. (London, 1748), 267-269, reprinted in 6 vols, vol. II. (London, 1758 and later edns.), 328-330.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0238 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "On a favourite Cat called Selima that fell into a China Cistern that had Gold Fish in it, and was Drown'd"
    • Date: [before 1758?]
    • Physical Description: 2 pages; transcript in the hand of Mary Capell, "bound in contemporary calf, but with the spine broken, gatherings loose, worn, and with light spotting or dust-staining"
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS Lt 119, ff. 111-112 (rectos only), Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse, Special Collections, Leeds University Library, Leeds, UK <https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections>
    • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 19 March 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=5594>
    • Contents: Transcript in the hand of Mary Capell, beginning "T'was on a lofty Vase's side", in an autograph manuscript volume "signed by 'Mary Capell' on the first folio. Comprises an anthology of over eighty manuscript poems, of which some are dated from 1740 to 1751, with a six-page index at the end."
    
    
  
  

• "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.oxst
  • Uniform Title: "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t" [e-text]
  • First Line: Old and abandoned by each venal friend,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1769
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 53; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 259-264
  • Summary: Written while on a visit to William Robinson in Denton, Kent, in June 1768. First published, anonymously without Gray's consent, as "Inscription for the Villa of a decay'd Satesman [sic] on the Sea-Coast", in The New Foundling Hospital for Wit (London, 1769) iii. 34-35.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0237 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "Inscription for a villa of a decayed statesman on the sea coast"
    • Date: [after 1805]
    • Physical Description: 2 pages; transcript in an unidentified hand on a "leaf watermarked 1805"
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS Lt q 49, f. 39, Brotherton Collection Manuscript Verse, Special Collections, Leeds University Library, Leeds, UK <https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections>
    • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 19 March 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=3707>
    • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand, beginning "Old and abandon'd by each venal friend", on a "leaf watermarked 1805 inserted in a scrapbook of miscellaneous original and transcribed poems written out from c.1750 to the twentieth century".