"[Paraphrase of Psalm LXXXIV]"

• Archive Work ID: poems.lt22
• Uniform Title: "[Paraphrase of Psalm LXXXIV]" [e-text]
• First Line: Oh! Tecta, mentis dulcis amor meae!
• Language: Latin
• First Published: 1849 and 1890
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 112-114 (with English prose translation); Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 285-287 (with English prose translation)
• Summary: Written probably as a school exercise at Eton between 1725 and 1734, possibly Gray's earliest complete composition. First published, ll. 1-20 only, in The Gentleman's Magazine N.S. 32 (October 1849), 343, published in full, as "Early Alcaics of Gray", in Tovey (ed.), Gray and his Friends (1890), 300-301.

1 Manuscript:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0134 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: [untitled]
  • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
  • Physical Description: 2 pages, 180 mm x 115 mm; transcript in the hand of John Mitford
  • Language: Latin
  • Location: Add. MS 32561, ff. 67-68, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 111, 90
  • Contents: Transcript in the hand of John Mitford, untitled, subscribed "The above is the 84th Psalm" and "[N.B. The above Ode is written in Mr Grays Hand: but evidently when young, the hand being unformed, & like a Schoolboys, tho' very plain & careful. The Leaf on which it is written, apparently torn from a Copy-book. Some of the Expressions resemble those in the Gr. Chartreuse Ode.]", in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. III "Mitford. Extracts from Mr Grays Common-place books", ff. 67-68.