Richard West to Thomas Gray, [9 May 1737]
Letter ID:
letters.0024
Correspondents
Writer's age: 21[?]
Addressee's age: 20
Dates
Calendar: Julian
Places
Physical description
Addressed: To / Mr Thomas Gray / at Peter-house College in / Cambridge
Content
Languages: English, Latin
Incipit: [not extant]
Contents: "[Among the Walpole MSS. formerly in the Waller Collection was the cover of a letter addressed by West 'To Mr Thomas Gray at Peter-house College in Cambridge', bearing the postmark, 10 May, on the inside of which there was jotted down the following epigram of Martial (iii. 61), with the translation by West, which the latter sent to Ashton in July 1736 (see [Gray-Walpole Correspondence, No. 38):
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, 41.
'Esse nihil dicis quicquid petis, Improbe Cinna,It is possible that this cover belonged to a letter (no longer extant) in which West (who was then at Oxford) sent the epigram to Gray, and that the cover on which some one had copied the epigram was sent to Walpole.]"
Si nil, Cinna petis, nil tibi, Cinna, nego.'
'Whenever Cinna asks a Favour,
Oh! Tis but Nothing, Sr, he'll say;
Cinna, you are too Modest rather;
Is't really Nothing? take it, Pray.'
Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], vol. i, 41.
Mentioned: [Translation from Statius, Thebaid IX 319-26]
[Translation from Statius, Thebaid VI 646-88, 704-24]
[Translation from Statius, Thebaid VI 646-88, 704-24]
Holding Institution
Availability: The original letter is not extant, no copy, transcription, or published version survives