Inscription for a Wood in a Park
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Inscription for a Wood in a Park
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Title/Paratext] "The poem appears in a [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"The poem appears in a letter to West which Mason dated 27 May 1742 (T & W no. 110); Toynbee and Whibley suspect that this is one of Mason's conflations and that it combines two or three letters written between 15 May and 27 May. In any case, the present poem must have been composed some time in May 1742.
The language of the poem is a strange mixture of Epic, Doric, and Attic Greek. Probably Gray would urge in its defence that Pindar combined Epic, Doric, and Aeolic to form the purely literary dialect of his Odes."
Title/Paratext] "G[ray]. sent this epigram to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. sent this epigram to West in a letter first printed by Mason, Memoirs p. 152, although Whibley and Toynbee suspect that his date of 27 May 1742 covers a conflation of two or more letters between 15 and 27 May (see Corresp i 209 n). G. introduces the epigram as follows: 'I send you an inscription for a wood joining to a park of mine; (it is on the confines of Mount Cithaeron, on the left hand as you go to Thebes) you know I am no friend to hunters, and hate to be disturbed by their noise.' G. transcribed it into his Commonplace Book (i 278), where it is dated at the end 'May: 1742'.
[Translation:] In reverence, huntsman, leave the game-filled grove of the far-darting Lady, the precinct of the awe-inspiring Goddess; for there only the baying of the sacred hounds re-echoes, answering the cry of the huntress nymphs."
1.3-5 ἑκηβόλου ... Ἀνάσσας,] "Artemis, here represented as Goddess [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Artemis, here represented as Goddess of the Chase. ἑκηβόλος is a frequently employed epithet of her brother Apollo also, particularly when he is conceived as the god who sends plagues (see, e.g., Iliad, i. 14)."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 273.3.6 κλαγγεῦσιν] "Possibly a form coined by [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Possibly a form coined by Gray, on the analogy of Epic and Ionic forms [...]; Goodwin, Greek Grammar, section 785. 1, states that all such forms are of doubtful authenticity."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 273.4.2 Νυμϕᾶν] "A Doric genitive plural, as [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"A Doric genitive plural, as is ἀγροτερᾶν."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 273.Works cited
- The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
- The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
The text is presented as it appeared in manuscript. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.