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"Ad C: Favonium Aristium"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.lt01
    • Uniform Title: "Ad C: Favonium Aristium" [e-text]
    • First Line: Barbaras aedes aditure mecum,
    • Language: Latin
    • First Published: 1775
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 138-140 (with English prose translation); Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 306-308 (with English prose translation)
    • Summary: Written at Cambridge when Gray was about to join Richard West (Favonius) at the Inner Temple, where they intended to study law together. First published, untitled but referred to in a footnote as a "Sapphic Ode", in Mason's Memoirs (1775), section I, letter no. XIV. Mason is the only source for this letter, dated June 1738, in which Gray originally sent the poem to West. MS translation into English by Thomas Wharton.

    2 Manuscripts:

      • [MS image]Archive MS ID: mss.0001 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ad C: Favonium Aristium"
      • Date: June 1738
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; autograph fair copy
      • Language: Latin
      • Location: GBR/1058/GRA/1, Commonplace Book, Vol. I, 53, 90, 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 1, 79; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 21; Martin, Chronologie (1931), 136
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, annotated "Cambridge. June, 1738" in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. I, split over two pages: p. 53 (ll. 1-40) and p. 90 (ll. 41-52).
      • Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0233 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ode on Mr. West's leaving the University"
      • Date: 1780[?]
      • Physical Description: 6 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
      • Language: Latin
      • Location: MS Add. 439, "Latin Pieces" section, 1-6, 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 "Ode on Mr. West's leaving the University" (p. 1) ("Ode. I." [p. 3]). The poem is part of a section called "Latin Pieces", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 24), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.

Contents

Manuscripts