William Mason to Thomas Gray, 25 December 1755
You desird me to write you news, but tho there are a great many promotions they seem to me as far as I can judge all such dirty ones, that you may spare me the trouble of naming them & pick them out of a news paper if you think it worth While. There is a Bon mot of Mr Pitts handed about out of the late debate about the treaties. some Body had compard the Russians to a Star rising out of the north &c. Pit replyd he was glad the place of the Star was thus fixd for he was certain it was not that Star wch once appeard in the East & wch the wise Men worshipt, tho it was like it in one particular for it made its Worshipers bring Gifts. Charles Townshend in the same debate calld Lord H an unthinking unparliamentary Minister, for wch he was severely mumbled by Mr Fox wch I am glad of because he is certainly a most unprincipled Patriot. But perhaps all this is old to you, Im tird of the subject and will drop it—
There is a sweet Song in Demofoonte called Ogni Amante sung by Riccarelli. Pray look at it. Tis almost Notatim/verbatim the Air in Ariadne, but I think better. I am told tis a very old one of Scarlattis wch if true Handel is almost a musical Lauder.
Voltaires Mock Poem calld La Pucelle is to be met with, tho not sold publickly, in town, I had a short sight of it the other day. If you have any curiosity to see it I can send it you with Frasers assistance in a couple of Covers.
I have been here ever since I left Cambridge except one Opera night. My Absence from my Piano forte almost makes me peevish enough to write a Bolinbrokian Essay upon exile. Why will you not send me my inscription? and with it be sure add a dissertation upon Sigmas, and tell me with all Dr Taylors accuracy whether a Σ or a C or a ∊ is the most classical. You can write dissertations upon the Pelasgi, & why not upon this when it is for the use of a learned friend? Allways twitting you (you say) with the Pelasgi. why, tis all I can twit you with.
I wish you good success at Brag as well as sweet Temper. May the Latter be ΠΟΛΥ ΠΑΚΤΙΔΟϹ ΑΔΥΜΕΛΕΣΤΕΡΑ and the former make your purse ΧΡΥΣΩ ΧΡΥΣΟΤΕΡΑ.
I see in the papers Dodsley has publishd An Ode on the Earthquake at Lisbon with some Thoughts on a Church yard. I suppose You are the Author and that you have taggd your Elegy to the tail of it. However if I dont suppose so I hope the world will, in order that people may lay out their sixpences on that, rather than on Duncombs flattery to Fobus, & the Old Horse.
What a scribbling Humor am I in! Ill releive you however by adding only my Love to Mr Brown Tuthill & all friends & assuring you that I am yours with the greatest sincerity
Shall I trouble you Dear Sr to wish Dr Long & Old Cardale a merry Xt.mas in my Name. Lady Rotchford assures me that Lady Coventry "has a mole on one of her Ladyship's Necks" Pray tell Dr Gascarth, that the Neck has descended some inches in the Human frame & deviding itself into two Hemispherical excrescences forms those parts wch Sally erroneously calls her Bubbies, & wch he feels for such.
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Content
Thoughts in a Churchyard
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, 1st Viscount
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764
Duncombe, John
Lauder, William
Metastasio
Voltaire
Holding Institution
(confirmed)
Henry W. And Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library , New York, NY, USA <https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/berg-collection-english-and-american-literature>
Print Versions
- The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason, with Letters to the Rev. James Brown, D.D. Ed. by the Rev. John Mitford. London: Richard Bentley, 1853, letter XII, 42-45
- The Letters of Thomas Gray, including the correspondence of Gray and Mason, 3 vols. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. London: George Bell and Sons, 1900-12, letter no. CXXVII, vol. i, 284-288
- 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], letter no. 212, vol. i, 450-453