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Hark! how the sacred calm, that breathes around,
Bids every
fierce tumultuous passion cease;
In still small accents whispering from the ground,
A grateful earnest of eternal peace.

No more, with reason and thyself at strife,
Give anxious cares and endless wishes room;
But through the cool sequester'd vale of life
Pursue the silent tenor of thy doom.

And here the poem was originally intended to conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed swain, &c. suggested itself to him. I cannot help hinting to the reader, that I think the third of these rejected stanzas equal to any in the whole Elegy.

4. Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires. L. 92.

IMITATION,

Ch'i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco,

Fredda una lingua, et due begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville.

Petrarch. Son. 169. G.

VARIATION.

Awake and faithful to her wonted fires.

Thus it stood in the first and some following editions, and I think rather better; for the authority of Petrarch does not destroy the appearance of quaintness in the other the thought, however, is rather obscurely expressed in both readings. He means to say, in plain prose, that we wish to be remembered by our friends after our death in the same manner as when alive we wished to be remembered by them in our absence: this would be expressed clearer, if the metaphorical term fires was rejected, and the line run thus:

Awake and faithful to her first desires.

I do not put this alteration down for the idle vanity of aiming to amend the passage, but purely to explain it.

5. To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

VARIATION.

L. 100.

On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn.

After which, in his first manuscript, followed this stanza ;

Him have we seen the greenwood side along,
While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done,
Oft as the woodlark pip'd her farewell song,
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun.

I rather wonder that he rejected this stanza, as it not only has the same sort of Doric delicacy, which charms us peculiarly in this part of the poem, but also completes the account of his whole day: whereas, this evening scene being omitted, we have only his morning walk, and his noon-tide repose.

6. Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn. L. 116. Between this line and the Epitaph, Mr. Gray originally inserted a very beautiful stanza, which was printed in some of the first editions, but afterward omitted; because he thought (and in my opinion very justly) that it was too long a parenthesis in this place. The lines however are, in themselves, exquisitely fine, and demand preservation.

There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen are show'rs of violets found;
The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground.
7. There they alike in trembling hope repose.

IMITATION.

-paventosa speme.

L. 127.

Petrarch. Son. 114. G.

NOT IN MR. MASON'S EDITION.

VERSES

ON THE MARRIAGE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE OF WALES.

IGNARE nostrum mentes, et inertia corda,
Dum curas regum, et sortem miseramur iniquam,
Quæ solio affixit, vetuitque calescere flammâ
Dulci, quæ dono divum, gratissima serpit
Viscera per, mollesque animis lene implicat æstus;
Nec teneros sensus, Veneris nec præmia nôrunt,
Eloquiumve oculi, aut facunda silentia linguæ :
Scilicet ignorant lacrymas, sævosque dolores,
Dura rudimenta, et violentæ exordia flammæ ;
Scilicet ignorant, quæ flumine tinxit amaro
Tela Venus, cæcique armamentaria Divi,
Irasque, insidiasque, et tacitum sub pectore vulnus;
Namque sub ingressu, primoque in limine Amoris
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curæ ;
Intus habent dulces Risus, et Gratiæ sedem,
Et roseis resupina toris, roseo ore Voluptas:
Regibus huc faciles aditus; communia spernunt
Ostia, jamque expers duris custodibus istis
Panditur accessus, penetraliaque intima Templi.
Tuque Oh! Angliacis, Princeps, spes optima regnis,
Ne tantum, ne finge metum ; quid imagine captus
Hæres, et mentem pictura pascis inani?
Umbram miraris: nec longum tempus, et ipsa
Ibit in amplexus, thalamosque ornabit ovantes.
Ille tamen tabulis inhians longum haurit amorem,
Affatu fruitur tacito, auscultatque tacentem
Immemor artificis calami, risumque, ruboremque
Aspicit in fucis, pictæque in virginis ore :

Tanta Venus potuit; tantus tenet error amantes.
Nascere, magna Dies, qua sese Augusta Britanno
Committat Pelago, patriamque relinquat amœnam

Cujus in adventum jam nunc tria regna secundos
Attolli in plausus, dulcique accensa furore
Incipiunt agitare modos, et carmina dicunt:
Ipse animo sedenim juvenis comitatur euntem
Explorat ventos, atque auribus aëra captat,
Atque auras, atque astra vocat crudelia; pectus
Intentum exultat, surgitque arrecta cupido :
Incusat spes ægra fretum, solitoque videtur
Latior effundi pontus, fructusque morantes.
Nascere, Lux major, qua sese Augusta Britanno
Committat juveni totam, propriamque dicabit;
At citius (precor) Oh! cedas melioribus astris :
Nox finem pompæ, finemque imponere curis
Possit, et in thalamos furtim deducere nuptam ;
Sufficiat requiemque viris, et amantibus umbras;
Adsit Hymen, et subridens cum matre Cupido
Accedant, sternantque toros, ignemque ministrent;
Ilicet haud pictæ incandescit imaginæ formæ
Ulterius juvenis, verumque agnoscit amorem.
Sculptile sicut ebur, faciemque arsisse venustam
Pygmaliona canunt; ante hanc suspiria ducit,
Alloquiturque amens, flammamque et vulnera narrat;
Implorata Venus jussit cum vivere signum,
Fœminæam inspirans animam ; quæ gaudia surgunt,
Audiit ut primæ nascentia murmura linguæ,
Luctari in vitam, et paulatim volvere ocellos
Sedulus, aspexitque novâ splendescere flammâ ;
Corripit amplexu vivam, jamque oscula jungit
Acria confestim, recipitque rapitque; prioris

Immemor ardoris, Nymphæque oblitus eburnæ.

SONG.*

THO. GRAY, Pett. Coll.

THYRSIS, when he left me, swore
In the Spring he would return-
Ah! what means the op'ning flower?
And the bud that decks the thorn?
"Twas the nightingale that sung!
"Twas the lark that upward sprung!

* This was written, at the request of Miss Speed, to an old air
of Geminiani: the thought from the French.

Idle notes! untimely green!

Why such unavailing haste?
Gentle gales and sky serene

Prove not always winter past.

Cease my doubts, my fears to move—

Spare the honour of my love.

THE INQUIRY.*

WITH Beauty, with Pleasure surrounded, to languish—
To weep without knowing the cause of my anguish ;
To start from short slumbers, and wish for the morning-
To close my dull eyes when I see it returning ;

Sighs sudden and frequent, looks ever dejected—

Words that steal from my tongue, by no meaning connected!
Ah, say, fellow swains, how these symptoms befel me?
They smile, but reply not-Sure Delia can tell me!

TOPHET:

AN EPIGRAM.

[Mr. Etough,t of Cambridge University, was a person as remarkable for the eccentricities of his character, as for his personal appearance. A Mr. Tyson, of Bene't College, made an etching of his head, and presented it to Mr. Gray, who wrote under it the following lines.]

THUS Tophet looked; so grinned the brawling fiend,
Whilst frighted prelates bow'd, and call'd him friend.
Our mother-church, with half-averted sight,
Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte;"
Hosannas rung through Hell's tremendous borders,
And Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders.

IMPROMPTU,

Suggested by a View, in 1766, of the Seat and Ruins of a deceased
Nobleman, at Kingsgate, Kent.

OLD, and abandon'd by each venal friend,

Hd form'd the pious resolution
To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend

A broken character and constitution.

These amatory lines having been found among the MSS. of Gray, but bearing no title, we have ventured, for the sake of uniformity in this volume, to prefix the above. The lines themselves will be found in a note in the second volume of Warton's Edition of Pope's Works.

+ Some information respecting this gentleman (who was Rector of Therfield, Herts, and of Colmworth, Bedfordshire) will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. LVI. p. 25. 281.

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