"[Sophonisba Masinissae. Epistola]"

• Archive Work ID: poems.lt23
• Uniform Title: "[Sophonisba Masinissae. Epistola]" [e-text]
• First Line: Egregium accipio promissi Munus amoris,
• Language: Latin
• First Published: 1775
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 153-156 (with English prose translation); Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 318-321 (with English prose translation)
• Summary: Written before mid-May 1742. First published in Mason's Memoirs (1775), section III, letter X. Mason is the only source for this (probably conflated) letter, dated [27 May 1742], in which Gray originally sent the poem to Richard West.

1 Manuscript:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0236 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "Sophonisba Massinissae. Epistola"
  • 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, 17-22, 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 "Sophonisba Massinissae. Epistola" (p. 17) ("Epistola." [p. 19]). The poem, which contains three variant readings ("fata" for "fama" [l. 15], "Consideramque" for "Credideramque" [l. 44] and "resurgat" for "recursat" [l. 51]), 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.