Chapter 4

10Very likely the latter, as we have seen thatwindsappears in the unauthorized version of theLondon Magazine(March, 1751), where it may be a misprint, like the others noted above.

We may remark here that the edition of 1768—theeditio princepsof thecollectedPoems—was issued under Gray's own supervision, and is printed with remarkable accuracy. We have detected only one indubitable error of the type in the entire volume. Certain peculiarities of spelling were probably intentional, as we find the like in the fac-similes of the poet's manuscripts. The many quotations from Greek, Latin, and Italian are correctly given (according to the received texts of the time), and the references to authorities, so far as we have verified them, are equally exact. The book throughout bears the marks of Gray's scholarly and critical habits, and we may be sure that the poems appear in precisely the form which he meant they should retain. In doubtful cases, therefore, we have generally followed this edition. Mason's (thesecondedition: York, 1778) is also carefully edited and printed, and its readings seldom vary from Gray's. All of Mitford's that we have examined swarm with errors, especially in the notes. Pickering's (1835), edited by Mitford, is perhaps the worst of all. The Boston ed. (Little, Brown, & Co., 1853) is a pretty careful reproduction of Pickering's, with all its inaccuracies.

3.The critic of theN. A. Reviewpoints out that this line "is quite peculiar in its possible transformations. We have made," he adds, "twenty different versions preserving the rhythm, the general sentiment and the rhyming word. Any one of these variations might be, not inappropriately, substituted for the original reading."

Luke quotes Spenser,F. Q.vi. 7, 39: "And now she was uppon the weary way."

6.Airis of course the object, not the subject of the verb.

7.Save where the beetle, etc. Cf. Collins,Ode to Evening:

andMacbeth, iii. 2:

10.The moping owl. Mitford quotes Ovid,Met.v. 550: "Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen;" Thomson,Winter, 114:

and Mallet,Excursion:

"the wailing owlScreams solitary to the mournful moon."

12.Her ancient solitary reign. Cf. Virgil,Geo.iii. 476: "desertaque regna pastorum." A MS. variation of this line mentioned by Mitford is, "Molest and pry into her ancient reign."

13."As he stands in the churchyard, he thinks only of the poorer people, because the better-to-do lay interred inside the church. Tennyson (In Mem.x.) speaks of resting

In Gray's time, and long before, and some time after it, the former resting-place was for the poor, the latter for the rich. It was so in the first instance, for two reasons: (i.) the interior of the church was regarded as of great sanctity, and all who could sought a place in it, the most dearly coveted spot being near the high altar; (ii.) when elaborate tombs were the fashion, they were built inside the church for the sake of security, 'gay tombs' being liable to be 'robb'd' (see the funeral dirge in Webster'sWhite Devil). As these two considerations gradually ceased to have power, and other considerations of an opposite tendency began to prevail, the inside of the church became comparatively deserted, except when ancestral reasons gave no choice" (Hales).

17.Cf. Milton,Arcades, 56: "the odorous breath of morn;"P. L.ix. 192:

18.Hesiod ([Greek: Erg.] 568) calls the swallow [Greek: orthogoê chelidôn.] Cf. Virgil,Æn.viii. 455:

19.The cock's shrill clarion. Cf. Philips,Cyder, i. 753:

Milton,P. L.vii. 443:

Hamlet, i. 1:

"The cock that is the trumpet to the morn;"

Quarles,Argalus and Parthenia:

and Thomas Kyd,England's Parnassus:

20.Their lowly bed. Wakefield remarks: "Some readers, keeping in mind the 'narrow cell' above, have mistaken the 'lowly bed' in this verse for the grave—a most puerile and ridiculous blunder;" and Mitford says: "Here the epithet 'lowly,' as applied to 'bed,' occasions some ambiguity as to whether the poet meant the bed on which they sleep, or the grave in which they are laid, which in poetry is called a 'lowly bed.' Of course the former is designed; but Mr. Lloyd, in his Latin translation, mistook it for the latter."

21.Cf. Lucretius, iii. 894:

and Horace,Epod.ii. 39:

Mitford quotes Thomson,Winter, 311:

Wakefield citesThe Idler, 103: "There are few things, not purely evil, of which we can say without some emotion of uneasiness,this is the last."

22.Ply her evening care. Mitford says, "Toply a careis an expression that is not proper to our language, and was probably formed for the rhymeshare." Hales remarks: "This is probably the kind of phrase which led Wordsworth to pronounce the language of theElegyunintelligible. Compare his own

23.No children run, etc. Hales quotes Burns,Cotter's Saturday Night, 21:

24.Among Mitford's MS. variations we find "coming kiss." Wakefield compares Virgil,Geo.ii. 523:

"Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati;"

and Mitford adds from Dryden,

Cf. Thomson,Liberty, iii. 171:

"His little children climbing for a kiss."

26.The stubborn glebe. Cf. Gay,Fables, ii. 15:

"'Tis mine to tame the stubborn glebe."

Broke=broken, as often in poetry, especially in the Elizabethan writers. See Abbott,Shakes. Gr.343.

27.Drive their team afield. Cf.Lycidas, 27: "We drove afield;" and Dryden,Virgil's Ecl.ii. 38: "With me to drive afield."

28.Their sturdy stroke. Cf. Spenser,Shep. Kal.Feb.:

and Dryden,Geo.iii. 639:

"Labour him with many a sturdy stroke."

30.As Mitford remarks,obscureandpoormake "a very imperfect rhyme;" and the same might be said oftoilandsmile.

33.Mitford suggests that Gray had in mind these verses from his friend West'sMonody on Queen Caroline:

Hurd compares Cowley:

35.Awaits. The reading of the ed. of 1768, as of the Pembroke (and probably the other) MS.Houris the subject, not the object, of the verb.

36.Hayley, in the Life of Crashaw,Biographia Britannica, says that this line is "literally translated from the Latin prose of Bartholinus in his Danish Antiquities."

39.Fretted. Thefretis, strictly, an ornament used in classical architecture, formed by small fillets intersecting each other at right angles. Parker (Glossary of Architecture) derives the word from the Latinfretum, a strait; and Hales fromferrum, iron, through the Italianferrata, an iron grating. It is more likely (see Stratmann and Wb.) from the A. S.frætu, an ornament.

Cf.Hamlet, ii. 2:

"This majestical roof fretted with golden fire;"

andCymbeline, ii. 4:

40.The pealing anthem. Cf.Il Penseroso, 161:

41.Storied urn. Cf.Il Pens.159: "storied windows richly dight." Onanimated bust, cf. Pope,Temple of Fame, 73: "Heroes in animated marble frown;" and Virgil,Æn.vi. 847: "spirantia aera."

43.Provoke. Mitford considers this use of the word "unusually bold, to say the least." It is simply the etymological meaning,to call forth(Latin,provocare). See Wb. Cf. Pope,Ode:

"But when our country's cause provokes to arms."

44.Dull cold ear. Cf. Shakes.Hen. VIII.iii. 2: "And sleep in dull, cold marble."

46.Pregnant with celestial fire. This phrase has been copied by Cowper in hisBoadicea, which is said (see notes of "Globe" ed.) to have been written after reading Hume's History, in 1780:

47.Mitford quotes Ovid,Ep.v. 86:

"Sunt mihi quas possint sceptra decere manus."

48.Living lyre. Cf. Cowley:

"Begin the song, and strike the living lyre;"

and Pope,Windsor Forest, 281:

50.Cf. Browne,Religio Medici:"Rich with the spoils of nature."

51."Rageis often used in the post-Elizabethan writers of the 17th century, and in the 18th century writers, for inspiration, enthusiasm" (Hales). Cf. Cowley:

and Tickell,Prol.:

"How hard the task! How rare the godlike rage!"

Cf. also the use of the Latinrabiesfor the "divine afflatus," as inÆneid, vi. 49.

53.Full many a gem, etc. Cf. Bishop Hall,Contemplations:"There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowells of the earth, many a fair pearle in the bosome of the sea, that never was seene, nor never shall bee."

Purest ray serene. As Hales remarks, this is a favourite arrangement of epithets with Milton. Cf.Hymn on Nativity:"flower-inwoven tresses torn;"Comus:"beckoning shadows dire;" "every alley green," etc.;L'Allegro:"native wood-notes wild;"Lycidas:"sad occasion dear;" "blest kingdoms meek," etc.

55.Full many a flower, etc. Cf. Pope,Rape of the Lock, iv. 158:

"Like roses that in deserts bloom and die."

Mitford cites Chamberlayne,Pharonida, ii. 4:

and Young,Univ. Pass.sat. v.:

and Philip,Thule:

Hales quotes Waller's

Ondesert air, cf.Macbeth, iv. 3: "That would be howl'd out in the desert air."

57.It was in 1636 that John Hampden, of Buckinghamshire (a cousin of Oliver Cromwell), refused to pay the ship-money tax which Charles I. was levying without the authority of Parliament.

58.Little tyrant. Cf. Thomson,Winter:

"With open freedom little tyrants raged."

The artists who have illustrated this passage (see, for instance,Favourite English Poems, p. 305, andHarper's Monthly, vol. vii. p. 3) appear to understand "little" as equivalent tojuvenile. If that had been the meaning, the poet would have used some other phrase than "of his fields," or "his lands," as he first wrote it.

59.Some mute inglorious Milton. Cf. Phillips, preface toTheatrum Poetarum:"Even the very names of some who having perhaps been comparable to Homer for heroic poesy, or to Euripides for tragedy, yet nevertheless sleep inglorious in the crowd of the forgotten vulgar."

60.Some Cromwell, etc. Hales remarks: "The prejudice against Cromwell was extremely strong throughout the 18th century, even amongst the more liberal-minded. That cloud of 'detractions rude,' of which Milton speaks in his noble sonnet to our 'chief of men' as in his own day enveloping the great republican leader, still lay thick and heavy over him. His wise statesmanship, his unceasing earnestness, his high-minded purpose, were not yet seen."

After this stanza Thomas Edwards, the author of theCanons of Criticism, would add the following, to supply what he deemed a defect in the poem:

Edwards was an able critic, but it is evident that he was no poet.

63.Mitford quotes Tickell:

"To scatter blessings o'er the British land;"

and Mrs. Behn:

"Is scattering plenty over all the land."

66.Their growing virtues. That is, the growth of their virtues.

67.To wade through slaughter, etc. Cf. Pope,Temp. of Fame, 347:

"And swam to empire through the purple flood."

68.Cf. Shakes.Hen. V.iii. 3:

"The gates of mercy shall be all shut up."

70.To quench the blushes, etc. Cf. Shakes.W. T.iv. 3:

"Come, quench your blushes, and present yourself."

73.Far from the madding crowd's, etc. Rogers quotes Drummond:

"Far from the madding worldling's hoarse discords."

Mitford points out "the ambiguity of this couplet, which indeed gives a sense exactly contrary to that intended; to avoid which one must break the grammatical construction." The poet's meaning is, however, clear enough.

75.Wakefield quotes Pope,Epitaph on Fenton:

77.These bones. "The bones of these. Soisis often used in Latin, especially by Livy, as in v. 22: 'Easola pecunia,' the money derived from that sale, etc." (Hales).

84.That teach. Mitford censuresteachas ungrammatical; but it may be justified as a "construction according to sense."

85.Hales remarks: "At the first glance it might seem thatto dumb Forgetfulness a preywas in apposition towho, and the meaning was, 'Who that now lies forgotten,' etc.; in which case the second line of the stanza must be closely connected with the fourth; for the question of the passage is not 'Who ever died?' but 'Who ever died without wishing to be remembered?' But in this way of interpreting this difficult stanza (i.) there is comparatively little force in the appositional phrase, and (ii.) there is a certain awkwardness in deferring so long the clause (virtually adverbal though apparently coördinate) in which, as has just been noticed, the point of the question really lies. Perhaps therefore it is better to take the phraseto dumb Forgetfulness a preyas in fact the completion of the predicateresign'd, and interpret thus: Who ever resigned this life of his with all its pleasures and all its pains to be utterly ignored and forgotten?=who ever, when resigning it, reconciled himself to its being forgotten? In this case the second half of the stanza echoes the thought of the first half."

We give the note in full, and leave the reader to take his choice of the two interpretations. For ourself, we incline to the first rather than the second. We prefer to taketo dumb Forgetfulness a preyas appositional and proleptic, and not as the grammatical complement ofresigned:Who, yielding himself up a prey to dumb Forgetfulness, ever resigned this life without casting a longing, lingering look behind?

90.Piousis used in the sense of the Latinpius. Ovid has "piae lacrimae." Mitford quotes Pope,Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady, 49:

"In this stanza," says Hales, "he answers in an exquisite manner the two questions, or rather the one question twice repeated, of the preceding stanza.... What he would say is that every one while a spark of life yet remains in him yearns for some kindly loving remembrance; nay, even after the spark is quenched, even when all is dust and ashes, that yearning must still be felt."

91, 92.Mitford paraphrases the couplet thus: "The voice of Nature still cries from the tomb in the language of the epitaph inscribed upon it, which still endeavours to connect us with the living; the fires of former affection are still alive beneath our ashes."

Cf. Chaucer,C. T.3880:

"Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken."

Gray himself quotes Petrarch,Sonnet169:

translated by Nott as follows:

the "these" meaning his love and his songs concerning it. Gray translated this sonnet into Latin elegiacs, the last line being rendered,

"Ardebitque urna multa favilla mea."

93.On a MS. variation of this stanza given by Mitford, seeabove, footnote.

95.Chanceis virtually an adverb here = perchance.

98.The peep of dawn. Mitford quotesComus, 138:

99.Cf. Milton,P. L.v. 428:

andArcades, 50:

"And from the boughs brush off the evil dew."

Wakefield quotes Thomson,Spring, 103:

100.Upland lawn. Cf. Milton,Lycidas, 25:

InL'Allegro, 92, we have "upland hamlets," where Hales thinks "upland=country, as opposed to town." He adds, "Gray in hisElegyseems to use the word loosely for 'on the higher ground;' perhaps he took it from Milton, without quite understanding in what sense Milton uses it." We doubt whether Hales understands Milton here. It is true thatuplandused to mean country, asuplandersmeant countrymen, anduplandishcountrified (see Nares and Wb.), but the other meaning is older than Milton (see Halliwell'sDict. of Archaic Words), and Johnson, Keightley, and others are probably right in considering "upland hamlets" an instance of it. Masson, in his recent edition of Milton (1875), explains the "upland hamlets" as "little villages among the slopes, away from the river-meadows and the hay-making."

101.As Mitford remarks,beechandstretchform an imperfect rhyme.

102.Luke quotes Spenser,Ruines of Rome, st. 28:

"Shewing her wreathed rootes and naked armes."

103.His listless length. Hales comparesKing Lear, i. 4: "If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry." Cf. alsoBrittain's Ida(formerly ascribed to Spenser, but rejected by the best editors), iii. 2:

"Her goodly length stretcht on a lilly-bed."

104.Cf. Thomson,Spring, 644: "divided by a babbling brook;" and Horace,Od.iii. 13, 15:

Wakefield quotesAs You Like It, ii. 1:

105.Smiling as in scorn. Cf. Shakes.Pass. Pilgrim, 14:

and Skelton,Prol. to B. of C.:

107.Woeful-wan. Mitford says: "Woeful-wanis not a legitimate compound, and must be divided into two separate words, for such they are, when released from thehandcuffsof the hyphen." The hyphen is not in the edition of 1768, and we should omit it if it were not found in the Pembroke MS.

Wakefield quotes Spenser,Shep. Kal.Jan.:

108."Hopelessis here used in a proleptic or anticipatory way" (Hales).

109.Custom'dis Gray's word, not'custom'd, as usually printed. See either Wb. or Worc. s. v. Cf. Milton,Ep. Damonis:"Simul assueta seditque sub ulmo."

114.Churchway path. Cf. Shakes.M. N. D.v. 2:

115.For thou canst read. The "hoary-headed swain" of course couldnotread.

116.Grav'd. The old form of the participle isgraven, butgravedis also in good use. The old preteritegroveis obsolete.

117.The lap of earth. Cf. Spenser,F. Q.v. 7, 9:

and Milton,P. L.x. 777:

Lucretius (i. 291) has "gremium matris terrai." Mitford adds the pathetic sentence of Pliny,Hist. Nat.ii. 63: "Nam terra novissime complexa gremio jam a reliqua natura abnegatos, tum maxime, ut mater, operit."

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