Was airy light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland." Ver. 51. Alas! regardless of their doom] "E'en now, regardless of his doom, Applauding honour haunts his tomb." 4th stanza of Collins's Ode on the Death of Col. Ross, from his first manuscript. Ver 55. Yet see, how all around 'em wait The ministers of human fate] These two lines seem to be taken from Broome's Ode on Melancholy, p. 28: "While round, stern ministers of fate, Pain, and Disease, and Sorrow wait." And so Otway's Alcibiades, act v. sc. 2. p. 84: "Then enter, ye grim ministers of fate." -Ver. 57. And black Misfortune's baleful train] This resembles a stanza in a poem but little known, published in 1752; viz. A Translation of the Eighth Isthmian Ode of Pindar, by Thomas Tyrwhitt : "The past, or future, wherefore should we heed? The present hour alone belongs to man. What if thro' all the various maze of life Black fates in ambush hover o'er our heads With loads of bitter woe ?" Ver. 61. These shall the fury Passions tear] "The fury Passions from that flood began." See Pope's Essay on Man, Ess. iii. 167. Ver. 63. Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear] Statius, Theb. vii. 49: "Exsanguisque Metus." And from him Milton. Quint. Novemb. 148: "Exsanguisque Horror." Ver. 60. Or Jealousy, with rankling tooth] "But gnawing Jealousy out of their sight, Spenser's F. Q. vi. 23. Ver. 68. And Envy wan, and faded Care] "With praise enough for Envy to look wan." Milton's Sonnet to H. Lawes, xiii. 6. W. Ver. 69. Grim-visag'd comfortless Despair] Gray has here imitated Shakspeare. See Richard III. act i. sc. 1: "Grim-visag'd War." And Comedy of Errors, act v. sc. 1: "A moody and dull melancholy kinsman to grim and comfortless Despair." Ver. 76. And hard Unkindness' alter'd eye] " Affected Kindness with an alter'd face," Dryden's Hind and Panth. part iii. VOL. I. D Ver. 79. And moody Madness laughing wild]" Madness laughing in his ireful mood :" Dryden's Palam. and Arc. (book ii. p. 43. ed. Aik.) GRAY. And so Shakspeare, K. Hen. VI. 1. act iv. sc. 2: "But rather moody mad." And act iii. sc. 1: "Moody fury." Chaucer's Knyghte's Tale, 1152. "And heartless oft like moody madness stare," Collins's Ode on the Sup. of the Highlands, stanz. iv. p. Ver. 81. Lo! in the vale of years beneath] So Othello, act iii. sc. 3: "Declin❜d into the vale of years." Compare also with this passage, Virg. Æn. vi. 275. Ver. 83. The painful family of Death] "Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain," Pope's Essay on Man, Ess. ii. 118. Dryden's State of Innocence, act v. sc. 1: "With all the numerous family of Death." And Garth's Dispens. vi. 138: “And all the faded family of Care." Claudian uses language not dissimilar: Cous. Honor. vi. 323: "Inferno stridentes agmine Morbi." And Juvenal. Sat. x. 218: "Circumsedit agmine facto Morborum omne genus." Ver. 95. Yet, ah! why should they know their fate] We meet with the same thought in Milton's Comus, ver. $59: "Peace, brother; be not over-exquisite To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; And happiness too swiftly flies? NOTES. For grant they be so, while they rest unknown, What need a man forestall his date of grief?" W. Ver. 98. Thought would destroy their paradise] Soph. Ajax, ver. 555: *Ev Tự Bgoveïv γαρ μηδεν, ἥδιστος βίος. W. Ver. 99. No more ;-where ignorance is bliss] Beattie has imitated this line in his Minstrel, ii. 30: "Be ignorance thy choice, when knowledge leads to woe." And the concluding stanza has also been imitated by Tweddell in his Greek Ode: Juvenum Curas,' p. 112. 1 HYMN TO ADVERSITY.* · Ζῆνα Τὸν φρονεῖν Βροτοὺς ὁδώ- Θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν. Eschylus, in Agamemnone, ver. 181. DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless power, NOTES. * This Hymn first appeared in the fourth volume of Dodsley's Collection, together with the Elegy in a Country Churchyard,' p. 7; and not, as Mr. Mason says, with the three foregoing Odes, which were published in the second volume. In Mr. Mason's edition it is called an Ode; but the title is now restored, as it was given by the author. The motto from Eschylus is not in Dodsley. Ver. 1. Daughter of Jove, relentless power] "Arŋ, who may be called the goddess of Adversity, is said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter: Hom. Il. 7. 91. Пgéoba diòs θυγάτηρ Ατη, ἢ πάντας Jvyáτng "Arη, Távтas dära. Perhaps, however, Gray only alluded to the passage of Æschylus which he quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by Jupiter for the benefit of man. Potter in his Translation has had an eye on Gray. See his Transl. p. 19: "Yet often when to Wisdom's seat Jove deigns to guide man's erring feet, His virtues to improve; He to Affliction gives command To form him with her chast'ning hand; The memory of her rigid lore, On the sad heart imprinted deep, Attends him through day's active hour," &c. |