But knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ; 50 Chill penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 55 V. 51. "So just thy skill, so regular my rage." Pope to Jervas. "Be justly warn'd with your own native rage. Pope. Prol. to Cato, 43. W. And, "How hard the task! how rare the godlike rage.” V. 53. "That like to rich and various gems inlay And see Young. "Ocean," st. xxiv. Comus, ver. 22. "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." Bishop Hall. Contemplations, 1. vi. p. 872. See Quart. Rev. No. xxii. p. 314. ad Fr. Barberini Poem, p. 148. Μάργαρα πολλα βαθύς συγκρύπτει kúμaoɩ nóvтoç. and see T. Warton. Milton, p. 234. V. 54. "Apavтa kεvoμāvos Báðη. Lycophr. Cass. 1277. Mathias V. 55. "Like roses that in deserts bloom and die.” Also Chamberlayne. Pharonida, part ii. b. iv. p. 94: "Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste their scent Of odours in unhaunted deserts.” And Young. Univ. Passion, Sat. v. p. 128: "In distant wilds, by human eyes unseen, She rears her flow'rs, and spreads her velvet green; And waste their music on the savage race." Some village-Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, 59 The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. Th' applause of list'ning senates to command, And read their history in a nation's eyes, 65 Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone Var. V. 58. Fields] Lands, erased in мs. M. Add Philip. Thule: "Like woodland flowers, which paint the desert glades, And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades." For the expression "desert air," Wakefield refers to Pindar. 01. i. 10: Ερήμας δι αἰθέρος. Also Fragm. Incert. cxvi. "Howl'd out into the desert air." Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3. Rogers. V. 58. "With open freedom little tyrants rag'd." Thoms. Winter. Luke. "The tyrants of villages." Johnson. Debates, i. 268. V. 59. So Philips, in his animated and eloquent preface to his Theatrum Poetarum, p. xiv. ed. Brydges: "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.' V. 60. Edwards, the author of "The Canons of Criticism," here added the two following stanzas, to supply what he deemed a defect in the poem: "Some lovely fair, whose unaffected charms Shone with attraction to herself unknown; Whose beauty might have bless'd a monarch's arms, Forbade to wade thro' slaughter to a throne, The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 70 Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. Var. V. 68. And] Or. Ms. M. and W. V. 71. Shrine] Shrines. MS. W. V. 72. After this verse, in Gray's first MS. of the poem, were the four following stanzas: "The thoughtless world to majesty may bow, "That humble beauty warm'd an honest heart, That virtue form'd for every decent part, The healthful offspring that adorn'd their house.” V. 61. "Tho' wond'ring senates hung on all he spoke." Pope. Mor. Essays, i. 184. V. 63. "To scatter blessings o'er the British land.” "Is scattering plenty over all the land." Tickell. Behn. Epilogue. 29 V. 64. "For in their eyes I read a soldier's love.' V. 67. "And swam to empire thro' the purple flood." Temple of Fame, 347. W. V. 68. "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up," Hen. V. act iii. sc. 3. Also in Hen. VI. part iii. : "Open thy gate of mercy, gracious Lord." And so says an obscure poet: "His humble eyes, sighs, cries, and bruised breast, Forc'd ope Nath. Richards. Poems, Sacred and Satyrical, 12mo. 1641. p. 145. Lætitiæ janua clausa meæ est," Ovid. Pont. ii. 7.38. V. 70. "Quench your blushes," Wint. Tale, act iv. sc. 3 Rogers.. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, They kept the noiseless tenour of their way. But more to innocence their safety owe, Than pow'r or genius e'er conspired to bless. "And thou who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead, Dost in these notes their artless tale relate, By night and lonely contemplation led To wander in the gloomy walks of fate: "Hark! how the sacred calm, that breathes around, "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 tenour of thy doom.” 75 And here the poem was originally intended to conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed swain, &c. suggested itself to him. Mason thinks the third of these rejected stanzas equal to any in the whole elegy. V. 73. "Far from the madding wordling's hoarse discords.” Drummond. Rogers. V. 75. "Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease, "Mollia per placidam delectant otia vitam." Manil. Astr. iv. 512. V. 87. "Dias in luminis oras," Lucretius, i. 23. W. lascio mesta l'aure soave della vita e i giorni," Tasso G. L. c. ix. st. xxxiii. V. 88. So Petrarch. Tr. l'Amore, iv. ver. ult. • Che 'l piè va innanzi, e l'occhio torna indietro." Wakefield quotes a passage in the Alcestis of Euripides, ver. 201. Yet ev❜n these bones from insult to protect, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 80 Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse, The place of fame and elegy supply: And many a holy text around she strews, For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; 90 Var V. 82. Elegy] Epitaph. Ms. M. V. 89. So Drayton in his " Moses," p. 1564. vol. iv. ed. 1753: "It is some comfort to a wretch to die, (If there be comfort in the way of death) V. 90. "piæ lacrimæ." Ovid. Trist. iv. 3. 41. Pope. Elegy, 81. And, "Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part." v. 80. And so Solon, ver. 5, ed. Brunck.: Μηδ' ἐμοὶ ἀκλᾶυστος θάνατος μόλει, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι H 85 |