Ode to Adversity
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Ode to Adversity
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Ode to Adversity Skip to next line
Metrical foot type: iambic (-+)
Metrical foot number: tetrameter (4 feet), hexameter (6 feet)
Rhyme scheme: ababccdd
Syllable pattern: 8.8.8.8.8.8.8.12
Stanza: octet (8 lines)
Genre(s): Miltonic ode, Spenserian stanza, ode
Theme(s): hopelessness, vanity of life, grief, sadness, melancholy
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Expanding the poem lines () shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 31 textual and 71 explanatory notes/queries.
Ode to Adversity 6 Explanatory, 13 Textual Skip to next line
Title/Paratext] "[Motto:] [This is the old [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"[Motto:] [This is the old text, and I prefer to keep it. Paley reads: - [Greek motto, first version, omitted] Ed.]"
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, 23.Title/Paratext] "[At the close of the [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"[At the close of the MS. of this poem, then called an Ode, at Pembroke College, Gray has written ''At Stoke, Aug. 1742.'' It was first printed in Dodsley's Collection, iv. 7, as ''Hymn to Adversity,'' and again as the fifth of the Six Poems of 1753. It continued to hold this name during Gray's life, but in the first posthumous edition Mason restored the title ''Ode to Adversity.'' The motto from Aeschylus first appears in the edition of 1768. - Ed.]"
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, 24.Title/Paratext] "The summer of 1742 was [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The summer of 1742 was a prolific season for Gray. The two preceding Odes ['Ode on the Spring', 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College'], the following Sonnet ['on the Death of Richard West'], and the present [...] [poem] were all written then. This poem he wrote at Stoke in August, as we learn from his MS. note. It appeared in print for the first time as No. 5 in the Six Poems of 1753; and in 1755 it was printed in Vol. IV of Dodsley's Collection of Poems. Gray was never in a hurry to publish."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.Title/Paratext] "In the MS. of this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In the MS. of this poem at Pembroke College the heading is: - ''Ode. To Adversity,'' and at the foot Gray has written ''At Stoke, Aug. 1742.''
It was first printed in the edition of 1753 as the fifth of the ''Six Poems,'' and next appeared in 1755 in Vol. IV. of Dodsley's ''Collection of Poems by Several Hands.'' In both places, and in Gray's edition of 1768, it is called ''Hymn to Adversity,'' ''which title'' Mason ''dropped for the sake of uniformity in the page;'' as he numbers the first eleven pieces in his edition of 1775 Ode I., II., etc.; and several editors have followed him in calling it ''Ode to Adversity.'' Mason and others after him are also wrong in stating that the poem first appeared in Dodsley's ''Collection''; - only three volumes were published at first (1748), and in 1755 a second edition of these was issued, with a fourth volume, which opened with the ''Elegy,'' and the ''Hymn to Adversity,'' ''by the Same,'' was the next in the ''Collection;'' in 1758 the four volumes were reprinted, with a fifth and sixth, Gray's ''Pindaric Odes'' being the last two pieces in Vol. VI. [footnote: ''From Mitford's reference to the pages of the edition of 1755, and other allusions in his notes, it would seem that he was not aware that the first three volumes were published in 1748, and he misplaces Gray's letter criticising some of the poems when the 'Collection' first appeared.'']"
Title/Paratext] "The motto from Aeschylus first [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"The motto from Aeschylus first appeared in the edition of 1768. In the Pembroke MS. Gray adds a second (printed only in Lackington's edition, 1788): - [Greek motto (omitted)] - Id. Eumenid. 523. (It profits to learn discretion through suffering.)"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.Title/Paratext] "In the Pembroke MS. this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"In the Pembroke MS. this is called 'Ode' &c. When it was first published by Dodsley in 1753, among the 'Six Poems' with Bentley's designs, it was called 'Hymn,' and as Gray took a particular interest in this edition, we may conclude that he preferred this title; probably as befitting the praise of a goddess. Mason changed 'Hymn' to 'Ode' in his edition ''for the sake of uniformity in the page'' - adding ''it is unquestionably as truly lyrical as any of his Odes.'' This we may admit, though it is not much to the purpose. It appeared again as 'Hymn' in the 4th volume of Dodsley's Miscellany, which was published in 1755; and again in 1758."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 97/98.Title/Paratext] "The motto from Aeschylus was [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"The motto from Aeschylus was first printed in the edition of 1768 (in which the Poem is still a 'Hymn'); but is given also in the Pembroke MS. with the additional quotation
[Greek lines (omitted)]Gray has further added the note ''At Stoke, Aug. 1742.''
Id. Eumenid. 523.
The motto from the Agamemnon may be rendered 'Zeus who leads mortals in ways of wisdom by appointing to Suffering Instruction for her very own.' And that from the Eumenides 'It profiteth through sorrow to get discretion.' "Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 98.
Title/Paratext] "Mitford says that this Ode [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Mitford says that this Ode was suggested by Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis. Of this I know nothing; but there is little reason to question Johnson's opinion that ''the hint was at first taken from 'O Diva gratum quae regis Antium' '' - if we bear in mind also, what Johnson did not much concern himself with, that it owes its more vital origin to the poet's own experience (cf. Introduction to preceding Ode). Horace's 'Diva' (Carm. I. 35) is Fortune; but he attributes to her terrors not unlike Gray's ''iron scourge and torturing hour''; makes her feared by ''purple tyrants''; and anticipates Gray's lesson of the uses of Adversity when he writes
Te Spes et albo rara Fides colitJohnson says ''Gray has excelled his original by the variety of his sentiments, and by their moral application. Of this piece, at once poetical and rational, I will not by slight objections violate the dignity.'' Himself schooled in adversity, the old critic was too sincere, spite of prejudice, to withhold a tribute, which his life's experience told him was deserved; and it should be remembered that Gray was but twenty-six when he wrote the poem which extorted this praise. Cento as it is (to some extent) it is such a cento as only a true poet could have made; and whether Johnson could have raised some 'slight objections' to it or not, it is perhaps the most faultless piece of work which Gray ever produced, though it does not give us the measure of his genius."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 98/99.
Velata panno, nec comitem abnegat
Utcunque mutata potentes
Veste domos inimica linquis.
At volgus infidum et meretrix retro
Perjura cedit; diffugiunt cadis
Cum faece siccatis amici
Ferre jugum pariter dolosi.
Thee Hope, and white-robed Faith so seldom found
Attend to cheer; nor from thy presence fly,
When those proud halls, for splendour long-renowned
Thou leavest in angry haste and garb of poverty.
But that false crew which flatters to betray--
The perjured partner of Love's wanton bower--
Will drain the lowest dregs; then shrink away,
Nor bear the equal yoke in Friendship's trying hour.
(T. Bourne.)
Title/Paratext] "Written in 1742, published in [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
"Written in 1742, published in 1753."
Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], 160.Title/Paratext] "[There is one MS. in [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
"[There is one MS. in the Commonplace Book, dated 'at Stoke, Aug. 1742'. This has two variants. There is another MS. in Gray's letter to Walpole of 8 September, 1751 (Letter 161).]"
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 38.Title/Paratext] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
"Variations in Pembroke MS : Gray added a second motto : [Greek motto, trans. 'It profiteth through sorrow to get discretion.'] Id. Eumenid : 523. So in Foulis edition, 1768, but with misprint [misprinted Greek word]."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.Title/Paratext] "First appeared in Dodsley's Collection [...]" W.C. Eppstein, 1959.
"First appeared in Dodsley's Collection with the Elegy; suggested by Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis. The poem in its stateliness and wealth of allegory gives an indication of Gray's mature style; with the exception perhaps of Milton and Shelley no English poet has maintained the same severe purity in a long lyrical poem. ''Teach me to love, and to forgive'' - in the last stanza - many refer to his quarrel with Walpole."
Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959, xx-xxi.Title/Paratext] "First published in B[entley's Designs]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"First published in B[entley's Designs]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 10.Title/Paratext] "The poem was completed at [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"The poem was completed at Stoke Poges in Aug. 1742. For the Greek mottoes which Gray attached to it, see the textual notes. The most important sources appear to be Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis and Horace's O Diva (Odes, i. 35)."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 204.Title/Paratext] "Title: Hymn to Adversity in [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Title: Hymn to Adversity in B[entley], [Letter to] Wal[pole, 8 Sept. 1751], and even P[oems, 1768], although in his letter to Dodsley (T & W no. 465, c. 1 Feb. 1768) Gray directed that it should be Ode. . . . Foulis (Glasgow, 1768). C[ommonplace] B[ook], and M[ason] read Ode. In the margin of C[ommonplace] B[ook] (p. 284), and after the title in P[oems, 1768] and M[ason] appears the motto
—— Ζῆνα . . .[Zeus ... who put mortals in the way of learning wisdom, who has fixed it as a law that wisdom comes through suffering. - Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 173, 176-8]. In C[ommonplace] B[ook] a second motto is added (as in Foulis, which has the misprint [Greek word omitted]):
τὸν ϕρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ—
σαντα, τῷ πάθει μαθάν
Θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
Title/Paratext] "G[ray].'s transcript in his Commonplace [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray].'s transcript in his Commonplace Book (i 284-5) is dated 'at Stoke, Aug. 1742' and entitled 'Ode to Adversity'. He sent a copy of it (differing only in spelling and punctuation) to Walpole in a letter dated 8 Sept. 1751 (but redated 8 Oct. by the editors of Walpole Correspondence xiv 52), for inclusion in the collection of his poems illustrated by Richard Bentley, which Walpole was arranging. G. wrote (Corresp i 348): 'I send you this (as you desire) merely to make up half a dozen; tho' it will hardly answer your End in furnishing out either a Head or Tail-piece.' The poem was duly appeared for the first time in 1753 in Designs by Mr R. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr T. Gray. In 1755 Dodsley included it in the fourth volume of his Collection pp. 7-8.
In the Commonplace Book G. transcribed two quotations from Aeschylus as epigraphs: Agamemnon 176-7 (given here as the epigraph), 'Zeus, who leadeth mortals in the way of understanding, Zeus, who hath established as a fixed ordinance that wisdom comes by suffering'; and Eumenides 523: [Greek motto omitted] (It profiteth through sorrow to get discretion). The first of these quotations was prefixed to the poem in 1753 and retained for the Dodsley edn of 1768. But G. gave James Beattie, who was superintending the simultaneous Glasgow edn of 1768, a choice of the two and Beattie printed the quotation from the Eumenides (Corresp iii 1004 n).
Entitled an 'Ode' in the Commonplace Book, the poem was called 'Hymn' in the letter to Walpole in 1751, in 1753 and in Dodsley's Collection in 1755. But in his letters to Dodsley and Beattie in Feb. 1768, giving them instructions for the London and Glasgow edns of the Poems (Corresp iii 1000, 1004), G. twice lists the poem as 'Ode, to Adversity'. Beattie gave the poem this title, but Dodsley retained 'Hymn'. In 1775, Mason, Poems p. 77, changed the title back to Ode to Adversity, 'for the sake of uniformity in the page', adding that 'It is unquestionably as truly lyrical as any of his other Odes'. In making this change Mason seems to have been unaware that he was fulfilling G.'s own final wishes. Though Hymn was more appropriate for a poem addressed to a goddess, G. must have later decided that the distinction was immaterial."
Title/Paratext] "The poem has been placed [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"The poem has been placed later than the Eton Ode here on the ground that it appears to have been intended as to some extent a reply to it. It was placed in this position in 1768, the first collection which G[ray]. planned himself. To assume that Adversity was written first (as in Morris Golden, Thomas Gray (New York, 1964) pp. 57-61) entails a strained reading of the Eton Ode, which can hardly be shown to embody the attitudes adopted in Adversity. It is more natural to read Adversity as a mature and positive confrontation of the evils of adult life that are described with such unrelieved gloom in the Eton Ode. If the conclusion of the earlier poem is that man is doomed to suffer, the mottoes from Aeschylus which G. adopted for Adversity emphasize that suffering may lead to wisdom and various social virtues. In particular, adversity can lead to a deeper understanding of the suffering of others. The characteristic sense of alienation in G.'s poetry is here, intellectually at least, overcome by a willed self-dedication to that benevolence which his age accepted as the root of all virtue. The resolution undoubtedly represents an advance in G.'s thinking from the Eton Ode. The change of heart remains only an abstract proposition, but the stern discipline, both spiritual and technical, which it involves demands respect. G. was to repeat part of the content of the poem in a letter to John Chute, 12 Oct. 1746 (Corresp i 248): 'our Imperfections may at least excuse, & perhaps recommend us to one another: methinks I can readily pardon Sickness & Age & Vexation for all the Depredations they make within & without, when I think they make us better Friends & better Men, wch I am persuaded is often the Case. I am very sure, I have seen the best-temper'd generous tender young Creatures in the World, that would have been very glad to be sorry for People they liked, when under any Pain, and could not; merely for Want of knowing rightly, what it was, themselves.'
It is perhaps significant that Johnson much preferred this poem to the Eton Ode, the content of which he found obvious and the diction affected. The Ode to Adversity he praised as excelling Horace's Ode I xxxv, which Johnson took to be its source (see l. 7 n), 'by the variety of his sentiments, and by their moral application. Of this piece, at once poetical and rational, I will not by slight objections violate the dignity.' Its moral strenuousness has made it appear less personal than many of G.'s poems of this period, but it is not difficult to detect a strong personal feeling in the final stanza, where G. may have had his own broken friendship with Walpole in mind. If this is the case, then the fact that G. did not show the poem to Walpole until 1751 (several years after he had showed him the other early poems) can be understood."
Title/Paratext] "The epigraph to this poem [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"The epigraph to this poem is taken from Aeschylus and may be translated: 'Zeus, who leadeth mortals in the way of understanding, Zeus, who hath established as a fixed ordinance that wisdom comes by suffering.'"
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 111.Title/Paratext] "Composed in 1742. First published [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.
"Composed in 1742. First published by Walpole in Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, 1753. Dodsley included it in his selection of 1755 under the title 'Hymn to Adversity'. The poem is based, to some extent, on Horace's 'Ode to Fortune' (1. xxxv)."
Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, 81/82.1.1-3 Daughter ... Jove,] "Homer, Iliad, xix, 91, makes [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Homer, Iliad, xix, 91, makes Ate [Greek transcription omitted] the daughter of Zeus, but Mitford goes too far in suggesting that Ate (Infatuation) ''may be called the goddess of Adversity.'' The alternative suggestion is doubtless right: God sends adversity to men with some wise purpose; Daughter of Jove alludes to the Greek motto of the poem, Agamem. 167-171, which means ''Zeus it is who has led mortals to wisdom by establishing it as a fixed law that knowledge comes by suffering.'' The readings of this passage from Aeschylus vary in details in different editions; [...] [two examples of misprints omitted]."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
1.1-3 Daughter ... Jove,] "Mitford seems inclined to identify [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Mitford seems inclined to identify Gray's Adversity with Ate, whom Homer calls (Il. XIX. 91 sq.)
[Greek line (omitted)]But [Greek word: Ate] is better represented by Infatuation, Blind Folly, or even Sin, than by Adversity. She is an absolutely mischievous or vindictive Power, and in Homer's story, deceived Zeus himself; who therefore hurled her from Heaven, by no means as the 'nurse' of Virtue. But Mitford adds ''Perhaps however Gray only alluded to the passage of AEschylus which he quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by Jupiter for the benefit of man.'' Here second thoughts were best."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 99.
'Eldest of Zeus' daughters, Ate, who blindeth all.' (Way.)
1.1-3 Daughter ... Jove,] "Adversity has been identified by [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Adversity has been identified by Mitford as Ate (Blind Folly) or, more probably, merely Affliction. However, the 'Daughter of Jove' par excellence is Athena, who bears the head of Medusa on her shield - hence 'Gorgon-terrors' of l. 35. Athena, daughter of Metis (wisest of gods) and Zeus (most powerful), represented the perfect blend of wisdom and power. The 'vengeful Band' (l. 36) must be the Eumenides (Erinyes, Furies), whose worship Athena instituted at Athens. Tovey (p. 99) also questions the identification with Ate. Perhaps, as Mitford suggests in his alternative, Gray was simply stressing that Adversity is sent by God to chasten and harden men, and here used a variety of appropriate attributes without having any one goddess in mind."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 204.1.1-3 Daughter ... Jove,] "Mitford suggests that Adversity should [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Mitford suggests that Adversity should be identified as Ate, 'blind Folly' in early Greek mythology and, in the tragedians, a curse avenging unrighteousness. See Pope, Iliad xix 92-8: 'Not by myself, but vengeful Ate driven; / She, Jove's dread daughter, fated to infest / The race of mortals, enter'd in my breast. / Not on the ground that haughty fury treads, / But prints her lofty footsteps on the heads / Of mighty men; inflicting as she goes / Long-festering wounds, inextricable woes!' But G[ray]. was not identifying Adversity with any particular goddess, although she has also some of the attributes of Athena. See also Pindar, Olympics xii 1 ff., where Fortune is personified as a daughter of Jove; and P. Fletcher, Purple Island VI xiii 1-2 (see also l. 38 n below): 'the just Dicaea full of rage / (The first born daughter of th'Almighty King)'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 70.1.3 Jove,] "alternatively Zeus, chief of the [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"alternatively Zeus, chief of the gods."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 111.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
2.1-6 Thou ... breast,] "'Great Tamer of all human [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Great Tamer of all human art!', Pope, Dunciad i 163."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 70.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
3.1-6 Whose ... hour,] "''Affliction's iron flail.'' Fletcher, Purple [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"''Affliction's iron flail.'' Fletcher, Purple Island IX. 28. Mitford.
''... when the scourgeGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 99.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour
Calls us to penance.''
Par. Lost, II. 90 sq. Mitford."
3.1-6 Whose ... hour,] "'Affliction's iron flail', Fletcher, Purple [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Affliction's iron flail', Fletcher, Purple Island IX xxviii 5; 'To ease the anguish of a torturing hour', Midsummer Night's Dream V i 37; 'when the Scourge / Inexorably, and the torturing houre / Calls us to Penance', Par. Lost ii 90-2."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 70.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
4.1-6 The ... best!] "'Heaven punishes the bad, and [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Heaven punishes the bad, and proves the best', Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel 44."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 70.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
5.4-5 adamantine chain] "[Greek line (omitted)] [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"[Greek line (omitted)]And Milton, Par. Lost, I. 48
Aesch. Prom. Vinct. l. 6.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.''Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 99.
Mitford."
5.4-5 adamantine chain] "'In Adamantine Chains', Par. Lost [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'In Adamantine Chains', Par. Lost i 48; Pope, Messiah 47-8: 'In adamantine Chains shall Death be bound, / And Hell's grim Tyrant feel th'eternal Wound.' The original source may be Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 6: 'shackles of binding adamant that cannot be broken'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 70.5.4 adamantine] "made of adamant, i.e. unbreakable." J. Reeves, 1973.
"made of adamant, i.e. unbreakable."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 111.1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
7.2-3 purple tyrants] "Wakefield quotes Horace, Od. i, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Horace, Od. i, 35, 12: ''Purpurei metuunt tyranni.''"
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.7.2-3 purple tyrants] "''Purpurei metuunt tyranni.'' Hor. Carm. [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"''Purpurei metuunt tyranni.'' Hor. Carm. I. 35. 12. Pope, too boldly, in the first of his two choruses to the tragedy of Brutus:
''Till some new tyrant lifts his purple handLuke also refers to Tasso, Ger. Lib. Canto VII. 52, who has ''purpurei tiranni'' after Horace, but in a passage which suggested nothing to Gray, but much to Milton, for it is the source of Par. Lost I. 598 (''with fear of change perplexes monarchs'') and P. L. 12. 634."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 99/100.
And civil madness tears them from the land.''
7.2-5 purple ... groan] "Johnson observed that 'the hint' [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Johnson observed that 'the hint' of this poem 'was at first taken' from Horace, Odes I xxxv, addressed to Fortuna. G[ray].'s first stanza certainly resembles Horace's Ode 17-20: te semper anteit saeva Necessitas, / clavos trabales et cuneos manu / gestans aena, nec severus / uncus abest liquidumque plumbum (Before thee ever stalks Necessity, grim goddess, with spikes and wedges in her brazen hands; the stout clamp and molten lead are there also).
In this line G. also echoes Horace, l. 12: purpurei metuunt tyranni (purple tyrants fear thee). (See also ll. 21-4 n.) 'Purple', the emblem of imperial power, is often linked with tyrants in eighteenth-century poetry: e.g. 'Till some new Tyrant lift his purple hand'. Pope, Chorus from Brutus 23; 'the purple tyranny of Rome', Thomson, Summer 758; 'What purple tyrants quelled, and nations freed', Thomson, Liberty iii 256."
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "Mitford points out three passages [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Mitford points out three passages in this stanza apparently suggested by Paradise Lost:
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeBut adamantine chains is very common among poets."Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour.'' - ii, 90, 91.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i, 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii, 703.
1.1 - 8.7 Daughter ... alone.] "In three places in this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In three places in this stanza Gray borrows from ''Paradise Lost'': -
''The vassals of his anger, when the scourgeAdamantine chains occurs in Aeschylus, Horace, and several English poets."The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.
Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance.'' - ii. 90-92.
''In adamantine chains and penal fire.'' - i. 48.
''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' - ii. 703.
8.1-7 With ... alone.] "In the Pembroke MS.: - [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.
"In the Pembroke MS.: - ''and Misery not thine own.''"
The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, 25.8.1-7 With ... alone.] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
"Variations in Pembroke MS : With Pangs unfelt before & Misery not their own. The second part of this line is struck out in MS. and the reading of the text is inserted above the line."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.8.1-7 With ... alone.] "Cp. 'pangs unfelt before', Par. [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. 'pangs unfelt before', Par. Lost ii 703; and ibid 182-5: '... for ever sunk / Under yon boyling Ocean, wrapt in Chains; / There to converse with everlasting groans, / Unrespited, unpitied, unrepreev'd'. Cp. also 'What pangs I feel, unpity'd and unheard', Dryden, 3rd Idyll of Theocritus 53; 'Alike unheard, unpity'd, and forlorn', Pope, Autumn 22."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.8.5-7 unpitied ... alone.] "In the Pembroke MS. he [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In the Pembroke MS. he first wrote ''and Misery not their own;'' a line is drawn through these words and ''unpitied and alone'' written above."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.8.5-7 unpitied ... alone.] "''Strange horror seize thee, and [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"''Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.'' Par. Lost, II. 703. Mitford. ''In Pembroke MS. he first wrote 'and misery not their own'; a line is drawn through these words and 'unpitied and alone' written above'' (Dr Bradshaw)."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.8.5-7 unpitied ... alone.] "& Misery not their own [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"& Misery not their own (del) C[ommonplace] B[ook]."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 10.8.5-7 unpitied ... alone.] "written above & Misery not [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"written above & Misery not their own deleted, Commonplace Book."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.10.1 - 12.7 Virtue, ... mind.] "The common thought that virtue [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The common thought that virtue springs from adversity, as vice from luxury - as false as common."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.10.1 - 12.7 Virtue, ... mind.] "The common thought that virtue [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The common thought that virtue springs from adversity, as vice from luxury - as false as common."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.10.1 - 12.7 Virtue, ... mind.] "The common thought that virtue [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The common thought that virtue springs from adversity, as vice from luxury - as false as common."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.15.1 - 16.11 What ... woe.] "Virgil, Aeneid i 630: non [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Virgil, Aeneid i 630: non ignara mali miseris succurere disco (Not ignorant of ill, do I learn to befriend the unhappy), and Dryden's translation, i 891: 'I learn to pity Woes, so like my own.' See also Pope, Elegy to an Unfortunate Lady 45-6: 'So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow / For others' good, or melt at others' woe.' G[ray]. cites the line from Virgil in an entry entitled Affectus in his Commonplace Book (i 3): 'Grief inclines, & softens us to commiserate, & redress, if we be able, the Misfortunes of others in the like unhappy Circumstances; indeed we should be insensible to their Woes, [here G. quotes Virgil] had we not felt, what it was to be wretched; nor could we from any Idea of them, but by comparison of them with our own. ... Compassion then, the Mother of so many generous actions, arises from this.' Earlier G. had written: 'Benevolence to our friends, & Charity to our Fellow-creatures, these are the very Links of Society, & foundations of the principal Virtues.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.15.1 - 16.11 What ... woe.] "Virgil, Aeneid i 630: non [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Virgil, Aeneid i 630: non ignara mali miseris succurere disco (Not ignorant of ill, do I learn to befriend the unhappy), and Dryden's translation, i 891: 'I learn to pity Woes, so like my own.' See also Pope, Elegy to an Unfortunate Lady 45-6: 'So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow / For others' good, or melt at others' woe.' G[ray]. cites the line from Virgil in an entry entitled Affectus in his Commonplace Book (i 3): 'Grief inclines, & softens us to commiserate, & redress, if we be able, the Misfortunes of others in the like unhappy Circumstances; indeed we should be insensible to their Woes, [here G. quotes Virgil] had we not felt, what it was to be wretched; nor could we from any Idea of them, but by comparison of them with our own. ... Compassion then, the Mother of so many generous actions, arises from this.' Earlier G. had written: 'Benevolence to our friends, & Charity to our Fellow-creatures, these are the very Links of Society, & foundations of the principal Virtues.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.16.1-11 And ... woe.] "It is obvious, with Luke, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"It is obvious, with Luke, to compare Dido's ''non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco'' (Aeneid I. 630). Bradshaw compares Pope's Elegy [to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, ll. 45, 46],
''So perish all, whose breasts ne'er learn'd to glowGray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.
For others' good, or melt at others' woe.'' "
16.1-11 And ... woe.] "at end of n. on [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"at end of n. on l. 16, add:---
Cf. also Odyssey XVIII. (Pope's), where Telemachus says
''Yet taught by time, my heart has learn'd to glow(This 18th book was Broome's, and he borrows this of Pope.)"Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 291.
For others' good, and melt at others' woe.''
18.1-4 Self-pleasing ... brood,] "Cf. Il Penseroso, 1-2." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Cf. Il Penseroso, 1-2."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.18.1-4 Self-pleasing ... brood,] "Milton, Il Penseroso, 1, 2, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Milton, Il Penseroso, 1, 2,
''Hence, vain deluding joys,Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.
The brood of Folly without father bred.'' "
18.1 - 19.6 Self-pleasing ... Joy,] "'Hence vain deluding joyes, / [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Hence vain deluding joyes, / The brood of folly without father bred', Milton, Il Penseroso 1-2."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.18.1 - 19.6 Self-pleasing ... Joy,] "'Hence vain deluding joyes, / [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Hence vain deluding joyes, / The brood of folly without father bred', Milton, Il Penseroso 1-2."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.20.1-7 And ... good.] "Mitford quotes from Cowley ''If [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Mitford quotes from Cowley ''If we for happiness could leisure find,'' and still more appositely from Oldham ''And know I have not yet the leisure to be good'' (but with inadequate references.)"
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.20.1-7 And ... good.] "Oldham, The Satyr against Vertue [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Oldham, The Satyr against Vertue st. v: 'And know, I have not yet the leisure to be good.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71.21.1 - 24.10 Light ... believed.] "Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro / periura cedit, diffugiunt cadis / cum faece siccatis amici, / ferre iugum pariter dolosi (But the faithless rabble and the perjured harlot turn away; friends scatter so soon as they have drained our winejars to the dregs, too treacherous to help us bear the yoke of trouble). Cp. also Troilus and Cressida III iii 76-9: '... what the declined is, / He shall as soon read in the eyes of others / As feel in his own fall: for men like butterflies, / Show not their mealy wings but to the summer'; Timon of Athens III vi 34: 'such summer-birds are men'; Herbert, The Answer 4-5: 'like summer friends, / Flies of estates and sunshine'; Quarles, Sion's Elegies I xix 4: 'Ah! summer friendship with the summer ends'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71/72.21.1 - 24.10 Light ... believed.] "Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro / periura cedit, diffugiunt cadis / cum faece siccatis amici, / ferre iugum pariter dolosi (But the faithless rabble and the perjured harlot turn away; friends scatter so soon as they have drained our winejars to the dregs, too treacherous to help us bear the yoke of trouble). Cp. also Troilus and Cressida III iii 76-9: '... what the declined is, / He shall as soon read in the eyes of others / As feel in his own fall: for men like butterflies, / Show not their mealy wings but to the summer'; Timon of Athens III vi 34: 'such summer-birds are men'; Herbert, The Answer 4-5: 'like summer friends, / Flies of estates and sunshine'; Quarles, Sion's Elegies I xix 4: 'Ah! summer friendship with the summer ends'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71/72.22.1-3 The ... friend,] "Referring to summer's days of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Referring to summer's days of ease. Cf. Hamlet, iii, 2, 217 ff. Mitford quotes George Herbert:
''... fall and flowSelections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 132.
Like leaves about me, or like summer friends,
Flies of estates and sunshine.''
The Temple, short poem The Answer."
22.1-3 The ... friend,] "Whether Gray had read Herbert [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Whether Gray had read Herbert may be questioned. But the exact expression is traced to Herbert's 'The Answer,'
''...all the thoughts and endsThis is only coincidence. Gray was influenced by Shakespeare,
Which my fierce youth did bandie, fall and flow
Like leaves about me, or like summer friends,
Flies of estates and sunshine.''
''For men, like butterflies,Cf. ''summer flies,'' 3 Henry VI. II. 6. 17; ''such summer-birds are men,'' Timon of Athens, III. 6. 34."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.
Shew not their mealy wings, but to the summer.''
Troilus and Cressida, III. 3. 79, 80.
21.1 - 24.10 Light ... believed.] "Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro / periura cedit, diffugiunt cadis / cum faece siccatis amici, / ferre iugum pariter dolosi (But the faithless rabble and the perjured harlot turn away; friends scatter so soon as they have drained our winejars to the dregs, too treacherous to help us bear the yoke of trouble). Cp. also Troilus and Cressida III iii 76-9: '... what the declined is, / He shall as soon read in the eyes of others / As feel in his own fall: for men like butterflies, / Show not their mealy wings but to the summer'; Timon of Athens III vi 34: 'such summer-birds are men'; Herbert, The Answer 4-5: 'like summer friends, / Flies of estates and sunshine'; Quarles, Sion's Elegies I xix 4: 'Ah! summer friendship with the summer ends'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71/72.21.1 - 24.10 Light ... believed.] "Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Horace, Odes I xxxv 25-8: At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro / periura cedit, diffugiunt cadis / cum faece siccatis amici, / ferre iugum pariter dolosi (But the faithless rabble and the perjured harlot turn away; friends scatter so soon as they have drained our winejars to the dregs, too treacherous to help us bear the yoke of trouble). Cp. also Troilus and Cressida III iii 76-9: '... what the declined is, / He shall as soon read in the eyes of others / As feel in his own fall: for men like butterflies, / Show not their mealy wings but to the summer'; Timon of Athens III vi 34: 'such summer-birds are men'; Herbert, The Answer 4-5: 'like summer friends, / Flies of estates and sunshine'; Quarles, Sion's Elegies I xix 4: 'Ah! summer friendship with the summer ends'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 71/72.25.1-5 Wisdom ... arrayed,] "Wakefield comp. Il Penseroso 16 [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Wakefield comp. Il Penseroso 16 (of Melancholy's 'saintly visage'): ''O'erlaid with black, staid wisdom's hue.''"
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100.25.1-5 Wisdom ... arrayed,] "'Ore laid with black staid [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Ore laid with black staid Wisdoms hue', Milton, Il Penseroso 16; 'And sable stole of Cipres Lawn', ibid 35; and 'Come, blissful Mourner, wisely sad, / In sorrow's Garb, in Sable clad', William Broome, Melancholy: An Ode 9-10, in Poems (1727) p. 44."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
27.1 - 29.6 And ... attend:] "G[ray]. is again indebted to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. is again indebted to Milton's description of Melancholy, Il Penseroso 37-44: 'Come, but keep thy wonted state, / With ee'vn step, and musing gate, / And looks commercing with the skies, / Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: / There held in holy passion still, / Forget thyself to Marble, till / With a sad Leaden downward cast, / Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.27.4 maid] "Almost all editors have a [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"Almost all editors have a comma after maid, but there is none in any of the editions of this Ode printed in Gray's lifetime."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188.26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
27.1 - 29.6 And ... attend:] "G[ray]. is again indebted to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. is again indebted to Milton's description of Melancholy, Il Penseroso 37-44: 'Come, but keep thy wonted state, / With ee'vn step, and musing gate, / And looks commercing with the skies, / Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: / There held in holy passion still, / Forget thyself to Marble, till / With a sad Leaden downward cast, / Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.28.1-7 With ... ground,] "Ib. [Il Penseroso] (l. 43) [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Ib. [Il Penseroso] (l. 43) of the eyes of Melancholy,
''tillThe form of Gray's phrase is after Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia, l. 57, ''And stupid eyes that ever loved the ground.'' Both in Dryden and Gray there is a reminiscence of the use of 'amare,' for to cling to, to be constantly fastened to, as in Horace's ''amatque Janua limen.'' "Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 100/101.
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.''
28.5 loves] "Used in the sense of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Used in the sense of Latin amare, 'to cling to, to be fastened to' (cp. Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia 57: 'Eyes that ever lov'd the Ground')."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
27.1 - 29.6 And ... attend:] "G[ray]. is again indebted to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. is again indebted to Milton's description of Melancholy, Il Penseroso 37-44: 'Come, but keep thy wonted state, / With ee'vn step, and musing gate, / And looks commercing with the skies, / Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: / There held in holy passion still, / Forget thyself to Marble, till / With a sad Leaden downward cast, / Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
31.1-5 With ... severe,] "Prior, Solomon iii 870: 'Perform, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Prior, Solomon iii 870: 'Perform, and Suffer: To Thy self severe.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.26.1 - 32.7 Immersed ... tear.] "Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Wakefield quotes Milton, Il Penseroso, 38-44:
''With even step, and musing gait,Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There, held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.'' "
32.1-7 And ... tear.] "In the margin of the [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"In the margin of the Pembroke MS. Gray has written opposite to this line, ''[Greek (omitted), trans. ''she who causes sweet tears''].'' ''I imagine'' (writes Mr. Tovey to me) ''he has transferred this epithet to Pity from Meleager's [Greek (omitted)], where the line descriptive of Love runs - [Greek (omitted)].''"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 188/189.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "Gray has written opposite this [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Gray has written opposite this line in Pembroke MS. [Greek words omitted] (sic), transferring, I think, to Pity, the epithet from Meleager's [Greek words omitted] (Lost! a boy called Love), [Greek line omitted] ''Sweet in his tears is the boy, ever prattling, nimble and fearless.'' "
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 101.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
"Variations in Pembroke MS : In margin [Greek line, trans. 'she who causes sweet tears']"
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "Written in margin of C[ommonplace] [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Written in margin of C[ommonplace] B[ook] appears [Greek line omitted] [she who causes sweet tears]. See explanatory notes."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 11.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "[Greek (omitted), trans. 'she who [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"[Greek (omitted), trans. 'she who causes sweet tears']. Apparently Gray's indication of the precedent for 'sadly-pleasing'. The editors have not been able to identify the source of this phrase. We have found only three examples of the use of [second Greek word] (Pal. Anth. v. 177; vii. 419; xii. 167); all passages are in poems by Meleager and in each the adjective modifies Eros. Since [first Greek word] is feminine, Gray presumably had some other passage in mind."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 204.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "Opposite this line in the [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Opposite this line in the Commonplace Book G[ray]. wrote [Greek line omitted] (she who causes sweet tears), evidently as a parallel for his conception of Pity."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.32.1-7 And ... tear.] "Tovey pointed out that this [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Tovey pointed out that this word [written by Gray opposite this line in the Commonplace Book] is found in Meleager, who in fact uses it three times, the only examples of it. In making the phrase feminine G[ray]. was no doubt merely adapting it to his female Pity. But see also Dryden, 'a sadly pleasing theam', Hind and the Panther iii 35, and 'a sadly pleasing Thought', Aeneid x 1167; Pope, 'sadly-pleasing Strain', Ode on St Cecilia's Day 5, and 'With ev'ry bead I drop too soft a tear', Eloisa to Abelard 270."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 72.35.1 - 37.7 Not ... seen)] "Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant violenti signa furoris, / ingratos animos atque impia pectora volgi / conterrere metu quae possint numini' divae (Martial arms show a front of violent fury, that they may amaze the ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the vulgar with fear of the goddess's majesty)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.35.4-5 Gorgon terrors] "The snaky head of Medusa." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The snaky head of Medusa."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.35.1-6 Not ... clad,] "Milton, Par. Lost, II. 611, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Milton, Par. Lost, II. 611,
''Medusa with Gorgonian terror guardsAccording to Gray, Adversity is seen by the Impious, as the Eumenides (or Furies) were seen by Orestes after the murder of his mother,
The ford.''
[Three Greek lines (omitted)]Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 101.
(Aeschylus, Choephoroe 1048 sq.)
''---like Gorgons,
In robes of black, with serpents in their hair
Coiling abundant.'' "
35.4-5 Gorgon terrors] "Compare Milton (P.L. ii. 611), [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
"Compare Milton (P.L. ii. 611), 'Medusa with Gorgonian terror': allusions to the myth of the snake-haired Medusa, whose appearance had power to turn the spectator to stone. Perseus, who slew her, escaped this fate by looking only at her reflection in his shield."
Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], 160.35.4-5 Gorgon terrors] "This attribute is one of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"This attribute is one of Athena's: e.g. Valerius Flaccus, Argonautics vi 173-6: ipsaque Pallas / aegide terrifica ... / ... horrentem colubris vultuque tremendam / Gorgoneo (Pallas herself with terrifying aegis, bristling with snakes and fearful with Gorgon visage). See also Aeschylus, Choephoroe 1048-58; Ovid, Metamorphoses iv 801-2; and Comus 447-9: 'that snaky-headed Gorgon sheild / That wise Minerva wore, unconquer'd Virgin, / Wherwith she freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone'; and Par. Lost ii 611: 'Medusa with Gorgonian terror'. For the phrasing see Pope, Iliad xviii 236: 'But, though unarm'd, yet, clad in terrors, go.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.35.4 Gorgon] "a face circled with snakes [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.
"a face circled with snakes like the Gorgon's."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 111.35.1 - 37.7 Not ... seen)] "Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant violenti signa furoris, / ingratos animos atque impia pectora volgi / conterrere metu quae possint numini' divae (Martial arms show a front of violent fury, that they may amaze the ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the vulgar with fear of the goddess's majesty)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.36.1 Nor] "Mitford, Palgrave, Gosse, Ward, Rolfe [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"Mitford, Palgrave, Gosse, Ward, Rolfe and others wrongly read ''Not'' for ''Nor,'' and have a full stop at end of line 44."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.36.5-6 vengeful band] "The Furies." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"The Furies."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.36.5-6 vengeful band] "Perhaps Gray imagines Adversity as [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"Perhaps Gray imagines Adversity as leader or directress of the Furies or Eumenides. These, as they were conceived of by the Greek Tragedians, were not limited in number (the three, Tisiphone, Alecto and Megaera, belong to a later poetry); Gray therefore names them at his pleasure Horror, Despair &c."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 101.36.5-6 vengeful band] "Presumably the Furies or Eumenides." R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Presumably the Furies or Eumenides."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.36.5-6 vengeful band] "presumably the Furies." J. Reeves, 1973.
"presumably the Furies."
The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 111.35.1 - 37.7 Not ... seen)] "Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius ii 621-3: Telaque praeportant violenti signa furoris, / ingratos animos atque impia pectora volgi / conterrere metu quae possint numini' divae (Martial arms show a front of violent fury, that they may amaze the ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the vulgar with fear of the goddess's majesty)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.38.1-6 With ... mien,] "Lucretius i 64-5: quae caput [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Lucretius i 64-5: quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat / horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans (displayed her head in the regions of heaven, threatening mortals from on high with horrible aspect). Cp. also P. Fletcher, Purple Island VI xiii 3-4: 'Ah, sacred maid! thy kindled ire assuage; / Who dare abide thy dreadful thundering?'; and 'his dreadful voice no more / Would Thunder in my ears', Par. Lost x 779-80."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.39.4 funeral] "Ill-boding. Cp. Spenser, Muiopotmos 12: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Ill-boding. Cp. Spenser, Muiopotmos 12: 'funeral complaints'. Cp. also the description of Horror, in Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 23, accompanied by 'The hateful messengers of heauy things, / Of death and dolour telling sad tidings'."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.40.1-7 Despair, ... Poverty.] "'perhaps in poverty / With [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'perhaps in poverty / With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down, / Painful diseases and deform'd', Milton, Samson Agonistes 697-9. Cp. Eton Ode 69, 85-90 (pp. 61-2)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.40.6-7 ghastly Poverty.] "Poverty always seemed terrible to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Poverty always seemed terrible to Gray. Cf. Progress of Poesy, 43: ''Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,'' and Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, 88, where Poverty ''fills the band'' of disease, and ''numbs the soul with icy hand.'' "
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.41.1 - 44.7 Thy ... heart,] "To some people Adversity is [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"To some people Adversity is not a curse; it brings only a ''sweet melancholy,'' stimulating reflection."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.41.1 - 44.7 Thy ... heart,] "To some people Adversity is [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"To some people Adversity is not a curse; it brings only a ''sweet melancholy,'' stimulating reflection."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.42.1-4 Thy ... impart,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
"Variations in Pembroke MS : Thy milder influence deign to impart."
The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.42.1-4 Thy ... impart,] "Thy milder Influence deign to [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"Thy milder Influence deign to impart C[ommonplace] B[ook], a variant which avoids the present unnatural stress on the last syllable of Influence."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 11.42.1-4 Thy ... impart,] "Thy milder Influence deign to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Thy milder Influence deign to impart, Commonplace Book."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.41.1 - 44.7 Thy ... heart,] "To some people Adversity is [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"To some people Adversity is not a curse; it brings only a ''sweet melancholy,'' stimulating reflection."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.43.2-3 philosophic train] "Your followers who are of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"Your followers who are of a ''philosophic mind,'' and have learned that ''sweet are the uses of adversity.'' See the train named in [Milton's] ''Il Penseroso,'' 45-55."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.43.2-3 philosophic train] "in contrast to the 'vengeful [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"in contrast to the 'vengeful band' (l. 36). Therefore perhaps he has in mind Abstractions; such as Milton makes attendant on Melancholy (Il Penseroso 45-55); especially
''...calm Peace, and Quiet,and 'chiefest'---
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet'';
''The Cherub Contemplation.''Gray may have felt that he had neither space nor inclination to personify further, where he has personified so much. Or we may suppose that by the 'philosophic train' he means the many philosophers, especially of the Stoic school, who have treated of the uses of Adversity."Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 101.
43.2 philosophic] "'Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy', Romeo [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy', Romeo and Juliet III iii 55."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.43.2-3 philosophic train] "Tovey suggests G[ray]. may mean [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Tovey suggests G[ray]. may mean ancient philosophers but he is surely contrasting with the 'vengeful band' (l. 36) the personified virtues described as resulting from Adversity in ll. 25-32."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 73.41.1 - 44.7 Thy ... heart,] "To some people Adversity is [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"To some people Adversity is not a curse; it brings only a ''sweet melancholy,'' stimulating reflection."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.44.7 heart,] "Mitford, Palgrave, Gosse, Ward, Rolfe [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"Mitford, Palgrave, Gosse, Ward, Rolfe and others wrongly [...] have a full stop at end of line 44."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.45.1 - 47.6 The ... scan,] "There is probably an allusion [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"There is probably an allusion here to Walpole's disagreement with Gray, on their travels a year previously, and Gray's regret for it."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.45.1-3 The ... spark] "See Introduction to preceding Ode." D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
"See Introduction to preceding Ode."
Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 101.45.1 - 46.7 The ... forgive,] "G[ray]. may have had in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. may have had in mind his recent quarrel with Horace Walpole (see headnote)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 74.45.1 - 47.6 The ... scan,] "There is probably an allusion [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"There is probably an allusion here to Walpole's disagreement with Gray, on their travels a year previously, and Gray's regret for it."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.45.1 - 46.7 The ... forgive,] "G[ray]. may have had in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"G[ray]. may have had in mind his recent quarrel with Horace Walpole (see headnote)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 74.45.1 - 47.6 The ... scan,] "There is probably an allusion [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].
"There is probably an allusion here to Walpole's disagreement with Gray, on their travels a year previously, and Gray's regret for it."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 189.47.1-6 Exact ... scan,] "Gray was proud, fastidious, and [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.
"Gray was proud, fastidious, and over-sensitive, and he knew it."
Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 133.47.1-6 Exact ... scan,] "'Know then thyself, presume not [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'Know then thyself, presume not God to scan', Pope, Essay on Man ii 1."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 74.47.1-6 Exact ... scan,] "'The many hard consonants, which [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"'The many hard consonants, which occur in this line, hurt the ear; Mr. Gray perceived it himself, but did not alter it, as the words themselves were those which best conveyed his idea, and therefore he did not chuse to sacrifice sense to sound' (Mason, Poems p. 78)."
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 74.48.1-10 What ... man.] "At the end of the [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"At the end of the poem there appears in C[ommonplace] B[ook]: at Stoke. Aug: 1742."
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 11.48.1-10 What ... man.] "Cp. Eton Ode 60, 91 [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.
"Cp. Eton Ode 60, 91 (pp. 60, 63); also Terence, Heautontimorumenos 77: Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto (I am a man, I count nothing human indifferent to me); Sir John Davies, Nosce Teipsum 179-80: 'And, to conclude, I know myself a Man, / Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing'; Otway, Venice Preserved I i: 'To see the sufferings of my fellow-creatures, / And own myself a man.'"
The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 74.Works cited
- The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
- Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
- Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
- The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i.
- Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
- The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
- The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
- Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894.
- The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
- The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
- Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].
Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been lightly modernized. 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.