Agrippina, a Tragedy

• Archive Work ID: poems.agtr
• Uniform Title: Agrippina, a Tragedy [e-text]
• First Line: 'Tis well, begone! your errand is performed.
• Language: English
• First Published: 1775
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 84-92; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 27-43
• Summary: Written at London, after returning from the Grand Tour, during the winter of 1741-42 and abandoned by 23 April 1742. First published in Mason's Memoirs (1775), 125-135. Mason is the only source for the two letters (one not extant and one dated [1?] April 1742) in which Gray originally sent the prefatory matter and scene I (ll. 1-182) of the fragmented drama to West. Scene II (ll. 183-194) was probably also finished before 23 April 1742, although it has been suggested that it might have been composed as late as the winter of 1746-47.

1 Manuscript:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0198 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: [untitled]
  • Date: [17??]
  • Physical Description: [1?] page, 250 mm x 200 mm; transcript in the hand of James Beattie, partial [dramatis personae and ll. 1-20]
  • Language: English
  • Location: MS 30/44 ("Copies of the poems of Thomas Gray"), Historic Collections, Special Libraries and Archives, King's College, University of Aberdeen Library, Aberdeen, UK <https://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 169, 96; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414; Ellner, June, "Re: MS 30/44, James Beattie papers". E-mail to the editor, 20 December 2006
  • Contents: Transcript of the dramatis personae and ll. 1-20, here untitled, in the hand of James Beattie, together with Beattie's comments.