.... "Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster [1455-85]."-G. ¶87, 88. "Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, etc., believed to be murthered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar."-G. 189. his consort's: "Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown."-G. Her husband, Henry VI, was deposed in 1461. his father's: "Henry the Fifth."-G. ¶90. the meek usurper's holy head: "Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown."-G. ¶91. Above, below: i. e., on the loom. ¶ 91, 92. rose o snow.... her blushing foc. "The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster."-G. 193. The bristled Boar: "The silver boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of the Boar.'"-G. in infant gore: in 1483 Richard murdered the two young princes (sons of Edward IV), who stood between him and the throne. 97-99. to sudden fate half of thy Heart we consecrate. "Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places."-G. When Edward I had been wounded by a poisoned dagger, his queen saved his life, at peril of her own, by sucking the wound. 101. Stay: addressed by the living bard to the spirits of the dead bards, who are now leaving him. ¶ 109. "It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy Land. and should return again to reign over Britain."-G. ¶ 110. ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue: "Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor."— G. Henry VII, the first Tudor king, was grandson of Owen Tudor, a descendant of Welsh princes. "Britannia" is used in its strict sense, and refers to the Britons, who inhabited the island before the English; the Welsh are descended from the Britons. ¶ 112. Sublime-lifted up. starry fronts: cf. Milton's "Passion," l. 18, "His starry front low-roofed beneath the skies." (249) 117. "Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, Ambassador of Poland, says, 'And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately port and majestical deporture than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes.'"-G. ¶119. strings symphonious: the Elizabethan poetry. 121. Taliessin: "Taliessin, chief of the bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen."-G. ¶ 125, 126. 'Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralise my song' (Spenser, Proeme to The Fairy Queen).”—G. ¶ 127. An allusion to the allegory in The Faerie Queene. ¶ 128-30. "Shakespeare."-G. buskined: the buskin, or high-heeled shoe, stands for tragedy, because the Greek actors wore such a shoe when acting tragedy, to increase their height. ¶ 131. A voice: "Milton."-G. ¶ 133. distant warblings: "The succession of poets after Milton's time."—G. 134. "The meaning is only that it was lost to his ear from the immense distance. I cannot give up 'lost' for it begins with an 'l.'"-G., in a letter to Mason. 135. Fond-foolish. impious man: Edward I. 142. To triumph: i. e., ultimately, in the way indicated in ll. 109-38; the bard speaks for the Welsh people, not merely for himself. (249) Ode on THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE. "Vicissitude" is used in its correct sense of "change from one state to another." The poem was found, after Gray's death, in his notebook of the year 1754. It was unfinished: the third stanza is incomplete; and some fragmentary lines follow the last complete stanza. "I have heard Mr. Gray say that M. Gresset's 'Epître à ma Sour' [1748] gave him the first idea of this ode."-Mason, Poems of Mr. Gray. The following lines are from Gresset's poem: O jours de la convalescence! .... Les plus simples objets, le chant d'une fauvette, La fraîcheur d'une violette; Mille spectacles, qu'autrefois On voyoit avec nonchalance, Transportent aujourd'hui, presentent des appas Et que la foule ne voit pas. "O days of convalescence! days of pure delight! It is a new birth, a gleam of immortality. The simplest objects, the warbler's song, the morning of a fine day, the green of the woods, the freshness of a violet, a thousand sights which were before viewed carelessly, to-day transport, present charms which are unknown to indifference, and which the crowd fails to see." (249) 3. vermeil-vermilion, bright red. (250) 17-20. These lines were inserted in their present position by Mason; in Gray's notebook they were not with the other lines. ¶ 37. Still always. (251) 42. Chastised chastened, subdued. (251) THE FATAL SISTERS. "From the Norse tongue. In the Orcades of Thormodus Torfaeus, Hafniae, 1697, folio; and also in Bartholinus."-G. It is probable, however, that Gray had only a smattering of Norse (see Professor Kittredge's discussion of the point in Phelps's edition of Gray) and that his ode is based chiefly upon the Latin translation which accompanied the Norse text in the editions that he refers to above. (The Latin is printed by Phelps; and also by Tovey, with an English translation, in his edition of Gray.) "In the eleventh century, Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney Islands, went with a fleet of ships and a considerable body of troops into Ireland, to the assistance of Sictryg with the silken beard, who was then making war on his father-in-law Brian, King of Dublin: the Earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sictryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of Brian, their king, who fell in action. On Christmas-day (the day of the battle), a native of Caithness in Scotland saw at a distance a number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them, till, looking through an opening in the rocks, he saw twelve gigantic figures resembling women: they were all employed about a loom; and as they wove, they sung the following dreadful song; which when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and (each taking her portion) galloped six to the north and as many to the south."-G. "The Valkyriur were female divinities, servants of Odin (or Woden) in the Gothic mythology. Their name signifies 'choosers of the slain.' They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn swords in their hands; and in the throng of battle selected such as were destined to slaughter, and conducted them to Valhalla, the hall of Odin, or paradise of the brave; where they attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with horns of mead and ale.”—G. (251) 3. Gray compares Paradise Regained, III. 323, 324: How quick they wheeled, and, flying, behind them shot (252) 32. the youthful king: Sictryg; see Gray's prefatory statement above. ¶44a king: Brian; see Gray's prefatory statement. 45. Eirin-Erin, Ireland. (253) THE DESCENT OF ODIN. "From the Norse tongue. In Bartholinus, De causis contemnendae mortis, Hafniae, 1689, quarto."-G. The Norse poem is from the Poetic Edda, or collection of Old Norse poetry, and probably belongs to the thirteenth century. Gray seems to have based his ode chiefly upon the Latin translation which Bartholin appended to his edition of the Norse text (Phelps and Tovey, in their editions of Gray, give the Latin, and Tovey translates it.) Balder, the favorite son of Odin, had dreams that his life was in danger. Frigga, his mother, thereupon made all things swear not to hurt Balder; but she omitted the mistletoe, as too weak to be dangerous. Odin meanwhile descended to the lower world, to learn of an ancient prophetess what danger threatened his son. (253) 4. Hela's: "Niflheimr, the hell of the Gothic nations, consisted of nine worlds to which were devoted all such as died of sickness, old age, or by any other means than in battle. Over it presided Hela, the Goddess of Death."-G. ¶17. Taken from Milton's "L'Allegro," 1. 59. 22. traced: Phelps says that the original is equally vague, but that Gray probably meant that Odin wrote spells on the tomb of the prophetess; the Latin version has "Literas tumulo imposuit," "He placed letters on the tomb." runic magic. The ancient alphabets of the peoples of northern Europe were called runes, and magical power was often ascribed to them. (254) 44. bev'rage of the bee: mead, a fermented drink made of honey. ¶55. Hoder's: Hoder was Balder's blind brother; the evil being Loki caused him to slay Balder, unwittingly, with the mistletoe; see Matthew Arnold's "Balder Dead." (255) 75. What virgins: "Probably the Nornir [Norns, or Fates]. . . . . As their names signify Time past, present, and future, it is probable they were always invisible to mortals; therefore when Odin asks this question on seeing them, he betrays himself to be a god."-Mason. ¶86. mother of the giant brood: "In the Latin, 'mater trium gigantum.' He means, therefore, probably Angerbode, who, from her name, seems to be 'no prophetess of good,' and who bore to Loki, as the Edda says, three children, Wolf Fenris, the great Serpent of Midgard, and Hela, all of them called giants in that mythology."-Mason. Phelps thinks that the prophetess may be Hela herself. 90. Lok: "Lok is the Evil Being, who continues in chains till the Twilight of the Gods approaches, when he shall break his bonds; the human race, the stars, and sun shall disappear, the earth sink in the seas, and fire consume the skies; even Odin himself and his kindred deities shall perish."-G. (255) SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER. The lines were written in 1761, and were found, after the poet's death, in one of his notebooks. ¶6. Townshend: Charles Townshend, a brilliant parliamentary orator, and secretary of war in the year when these lines were written; for his fickleness he was nicknamed "the weathercock." Squire: Samuel Squire, an English bishop, for whom Gray seems to have had some contempt (see his letter to Mason, No. 131 in Gosse's edition of Gray, and to Wharton, May 9, 1761). CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM "This excellent little piece [the "Elegy"] is so much read, and so much admired by everybody, that to say more of it would be superfluous."-The Monthly Review, February, 1751. "The 'Church-Yard Elegy' of Mr. Gray and the 'Elfrida' of Mr. Mason are pieces which show a power and height of genius equal to anything, if properly, that is if judiciously as well as warmly, cultivated."-Ibid., August, 1752. "I do not know why you should thank me for what you had a right and title to, but attribute it to the excess of your politeness, and the more so because almost no one else has made me the same compliment. As your acquaintance in the university (you say) do me the honour to admire, it would be ungenerous in me not to give them notice that they are doing a very unfashionable thing, for all people of condition are agreed not to admire, nor even to understand. . . . . Even my friends tell me they do not succeed, and write me moving topics of consolation on that head; in short, I have heard of nobody but a player [Garrick] and a doctor of divinity [Warburton] that profess their esteem for them. Oh yes! a lady of quality, a friend of Mason's, who is a great reader. She knew there was a compliment to Dryden, but never suspected there was anything said about Shakespeare or Milton, till it was explained to her; and wishes that there had been titles prefixed to tell what they were about."-G.. in a letter to Bishop Hurd, August 25, 1757, referring to " The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard." "We with particular pleasure seize every opportunity of congratulating our country on the productions of real taste and genius. Mr. Gray has already entertained the public with some pieces of lyric poetry which in our opinion would not have disgraced the purest ages of antiquity; and we think the two odes now before us ["The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard"] fully answer the expectation which the world had a right to form from the more early .... specimens of his poetical talent. Here we not only find the charming variety and sweetness of versification, . . . . but also the fire, the wildness, and enthusiasm of Pindar. Perhaps he has imitated him too closely in affecting an obscurity of transition, though even this obscurity affords a kind of mysterious veil which gives a venerable and classical air to the performance. The first of these odes is addressed to the Eolian lyre, which it emulates in the enchanting softness, ravishing flow, and solemn tones of melody. . . . . A severe critic would likewise censure the sentiment in the next strophe or epode, which represents the Loves dancing to the sound of this lyre. Such an instrument as the Æolian harp, which is altogether uncertain and irregular, must be very ill adapted to the dance, which is one continued regular movement. . . . . The second ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales that Edward I, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. The subject is exquisitely chosen, and the piece executed by the hand of a master. What follows is all enthusiasm, ecstasy, and prophetic fury, that alarms, amazes, and transports the reader. . . . . The woes that attend Edward's descendants are introduced in such a manner as to excite surprise, terror, and admiration, and seem to be written in the true strain of an inspired sybil. . . . . The conclusion of this ode is wildly great and interesting. The bard, scorning to survive the slaughter of his friends and the ruin of his country, after having enjoyed his vision of revenge, throws himself from the rock on which he stood."—The Critical Review, August, 1757. .... "As this publication ["The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard"] seems designed for those who have formed their taste by the models of antiquity, the generality of readers cannot be supposed adequate judges of its merit; nor will the poet, it is presumed, be greatly disappointed if he finds them backward in commending a performance not entirely suited to their apprehensions. . . . . It is by no means our design to detract from the merit of our author's present attempt: we would only intimate that an English poet, 'one whom the Muse has marked for her own,' could produce a more luxuriant bloom of flowers by cultivating such as are natives of the soil than by endeavoring to force the exotics of another climate; or, to speak without a metaphor, such a genius as Mr. Gray might give greater pleasure and acquire a larger portion of fame, if, instead of being an imitator, he did justice to his talents, and ventured to be more an original. These two odes, it must be confessed, breathe much of the spirit of Pindar; but, then, they have caught the seeming obscurity, the sudden transition, and hazardous epithet of his mighty master; all which, though evidently intended for beauties, will probably be regarded as blemishes by the generality of his readers. The first of these poems celebrates the Lyric Muse. It seems the most labored performance of the two; but yet we think its merit is not equal to that of the second. It seems to want that regularity of plan upon which the second is founded; and though it abounds with images that strike, yet, unlike the second, it contains none that are affecting. . . . . The circumstances of grief and horror in which the Bard is represented, those of terror in the preparation of the votive web, and the mystic obscurity with which the prophecies are delivered, will give as much pleasure to those who relish this species of composition as anything that has hitherto appeared in our language, the odes of Dryden himself not excepted."-Oliver Goldsmith, in The Monthly Review, September, 1757. "We agree with him [Goldsmith] that the 'Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard' is overloaded with epithet."-The Critical Review, June, 1767. "I have been reading Gray's works, and think him the only poet since Shakspeare entitled to the character of sublime. Perhaps you will remember that I once had a different opinion of him. I was prejudiced."-William Cowper, in a letter to Hill, April, 1777. "The 'Prospect of Eton College' suggests nothing to Gray which every beholder does not equally think and feel. His supplication to father Thames to tell him who drives the hoop or tosses the ball, is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no better means of knowing than himself. To select a singular event, and swell it to a giant's bulk by fabulous appendages of sceptres and predictions, has little difficulty; for he that forsakes the probable may always find the marvellous. And it has little use: we are affected only as we believe; we are improved only as we find something to be imitated or declined. I do not see that "The Bard' promotes any truth, moral or political. . . . . In the second stanza the bard is well described; but in the third we have the puerilities of obsolete mythology. When we are told that 'Cadwallo hushed the stormy main,' and that 'Modred made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topped head,' attention recoils from the repetition of a tale that, even when it was first heard, was heard with scorn. . . . . The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. 'Double, double toil and trouble.' He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature. . . . . His translations of Northern and Welsh poetry deserve praise; the imagery is preserved, perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other poets. The 'Church-Yard' abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas beginning, 'Yet even these bones,' are to me original: I have never seen the notions in any other place; yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them. Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain to blame and useless to praise him."-Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the English Poets (1779-81). .... .... MARK AKENSIDE (256) THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. Book I. 151-221. ¶1-33. The lines are based upon a passage in Longinus, On Sublimity, § 24. ¶4. Cf. Hamlet, I. iv. 56, "With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls." (257) 47. devious out of the path, wandering. ¶51-53. Akenside prints in a note a parallel passage from Leibnitz, Théodicée, Part I, § 19. ¶ 52. empyreal waste: the upper heaven, far above the sky that bends over the earth (Greek év, in, up, fire; the ancients believed that pure fire was the element in the empyrean). CHRISTOPHER SMART (258) A SONG TO DAVID. Lines 427-516. (259) 20. glede -hawk. ¶ 24. Xiphias-the swordfish (Greek §idos, a sword). ¶ 26. bastion's mole: a bastion is a projecting part of a fortification; a mole is a heavy mass of earthwork or masonry. 28. gier-eagle: the vulture. (260) 59. alba's the pearl's (Latin "alba," white). THOMAS WARTON (261) THE PLEAsures of MELANCHOLY. Lines 28-69, 153-65, 196-210. Cf. Milton's "Il Penseroso" as a whole. ¶4. Cf. Milton's Comus, l. 340, “With thy long levelled rule of streaming light." ¶ 19, 20. airy voices talk Along the glimm'ring walls: cf. Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard," l. 306, "And more than echoes talk along the walls." ¶36. as Spenser saw: see The Faerie Queene, III. xi, xii. 42. The line is taken 48-50. See The Faerie (262) 41. All heav'n in tumult: see Paradise Lost, Book VI. from Paradise Lost, VI. 110, with a change of "came" to "come." Queene, I. iii, vi. ¶ 50-53. See Pope's "Rape of the Lock," II. 1 ff. (p. 93). ¶56-61. Cf. Milton's "Il Penseroso," ll. 155, 156, 161-66. 169. Cf. Milton's "Il Penseroso," 1. 76, "Swinging slow with sullen roar." (262) THE FIRST OF APRIL. Lines 5-34, 95-106. (263) 27. devious-winding. (264) TO THE RIVER LODON. The Lodon is a small river near Basingstoke, Warton's native place, in the south of England. ¶2. with alders crowned: cf. Pope's "Windsor Forest," 1. 342, "The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crowned." |