"[Epitaph on Sir William Williams]"
- Archive Work ID: poems.epww
- Uniform Title: "[Epitaph on Sir William Williams]" [e-text]
- First Line: Here, foremost in the dangerous paths of fame,
- Language: English
- First Published: 1775
- References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 104-105; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 238-240
- Summary: Written between May and August 1761 at the request of one of the executors of Sir William Williams, a politician and soldier Gray briefly met early in October 1760, who died 27 April 1761 on an expedition against Belle Ile. First published, as "Epitaph II. On Sir William Williams", in Mason's Poems (1775), 62.
1 Manuscript:
- Archive MS ID: mss.0229 (Source: EAD/XML)
- Title: "Epitaph on Sir Willm. Williams"
- Date: 1780[?]
- Physical Description: 4 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
- Language: English
- Location: MS Add. 439, "Poems" section, 113-116, The Archives, York Minster Library & Archives,
York, UK <https://yorkminster.org/treasures-and-collections.html>
- Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Epitaph on Sir Willm. Williams" (p. 113) ("Epitaph II." [p. 115]). The poem, which is annotated "This Epitaph (hitherto unpublished) was written at the request of Mr. Fred. Montagu, who intended to have inscribed it on a Monument at Bellisle, at the siege of which this accomplished youth was kill'd, 1761; but for some difficulty attending the erection of it, the design was not executed" on the title page, is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.