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[The Alliance of Education and Government. A Fragment]

    • Archive Work ID: poems.aleg
    • Uniform Title: [The Alliance of Education and Government. A Fragment] [e-text]
    • First Line: As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1775
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 93-97; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 85-100
    • Summary: Written in 1748-49 and probably abandoned by March 1749. Gray sent ll. 1-57 of the fragment in a letter, dated 19 August 1748, to Thomas Wharton. First published, entitled "Essay I", in Mason's Memoirs (1775), 193-200.

    2 Manuscripts:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0012 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Essay 1st"
      • Date: [1749?]
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; autograph
      • Language: English
      • Location: Commonplace Book, Vol. II, 619-620, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>
      • Alternate Form: Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel one
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 9, 79; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 27; Martin, Chronologie (1931), 144
      • Contents: Autograph, headed "Essay 1st", with numbered lines (5, 10, etc.), followed by a quotation in Greek from Theocritus in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. II, 619-620.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0010 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: 19 August [1748]
      • Physical Description: 2 pages, 238 mm x 180 mm; autograph fair copy, partial [ll. 1-57] and revised
      • Language: English
      • Location: MS Egerton 2400 (Wharton MS), ff. 29v-30r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 7, 79; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), letter no. 146, vol. i, 308-312 (subscription required); Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, revised, of ll. 1-57, here untitled, followed by MS 0011, in a letter to Thomas Wharton, 19 August [1748]. Beneath the poem is written "I desire your Judgement upon so far, before I proceed any farther", and "Pray shew it to no one (as it is a Fragment) except it be St:r who has seen most of it already, I think".

Contents

Manuscripts