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"[Hymn to Ignorance. A Fragment]"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.hyig
    • Uniform Title: "[Hymn to Ignorance. A Fragment]" [e-text]
    • First Line: Hail, horrors, hail! ye ever-gloomy bowers,
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1775
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 73-74; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 74-77
    • Summary: Written between March and October 1742 after Gray's arrival in England from the Grand Tour and before his return to Peterhouse, Cambridge. First published, untitled but referred to as a "Hymn or Address to Ignorance", in Mason's Memoirs (1775), 176-177.

    2 Manuscripts:

      • [MS image]Archive MS ID: mss.0075 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Fragment of an address or Hymn to Ignorance"
      • Date: [after 1771]
      • Physical Description: 3 pages; transcript in the hand of William Mason
      • Language: English
      • Location: GBR/1058/GRA/1, Commonplace Book, Vol. III, 1103-1105, 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 61, 85; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 30
      • Contents: Transcript in the hand of William Mason, here entitled "Fragment of an address or Hymn to Ignorance", annotated "...about the year 1743", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. III, 1103-1105.
      • Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0231 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ode to Ignorance. A Fragment"
      • Date: 1780[?]
      • Physical Description: 5 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
      • Language: English
      • Location: MS Add. 439, "Fragments" section, 1-5, 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 to Ignorance. A Fragment" (p. 1) ("Ode. I." [p. 3]). The poem, which is marked with a line of asterisks after l. 38, followed by "caetera desunt", is part of a section called "Fragments", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 19), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.

Contents

Manuscripts