At length repair his vigour lost, Humble quiet builds her cell, Near the source whence pleasure flows; She eyes the clear crystalline well, And tastes it as it goes. 'While' far below the madding' crowd 'Rush headlong to the dangerous flood,' Where broad and turbulent it sweeps, And' perish in the boundless deeps. Mark where indolence and pride, 'Sooth'd by flattery's tinkling sound,' Go, softly rolling, side by side, Their dull but daily round: 'To these, if Hebe's self should bring Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois, Milles spectacles, qu'autrefois On voyoit avec nonchalance, Transportent aujourd'hui, présentent des appas 55 60 65 Et que la foule ne voit pas." Gresset. tom. i. p. 145. V. 55. "Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis." Ovid. Met. i. 135. "6 Nec solem proprium natura, nec aëra fecit." Ovid. Met. vi. 350. "Ne lucem, quoque hanc quæ communis est." Cicero. "Sol omnibus lucet." Pet. Arb. c. 100. "Communis cunctis viventibus aura." Prudent. Sym. ii. 86. The common benefit of vital air." Dryden. The purest cup from pleasure's spring, 'Mark ambition's march sublime Up to power's meridian height; And sickens at the sight. 'Happier he, the peasant, far, From the pangs of passion free, That breathes the keen yet wholesome air Of rugged penury. He, when his morning task is done, Can slumber in the noontide sun; 70 75 80 85 V. 56. "Balm from open'd Paradise." v. Fairfax. Tasso, iv. 75. Luke. "And Paradise was open'd in the wild." Pope. And paradise was open'd in his face." Dryden. Absalom, ed. Derrick, vol. i. p. 116. V. 59. So Milton accents the word: "On the crystalline sky, in sapphire thron'd." Par. Lost, b. vi. ver 772. V.65. "Tout s'émousse dans l'habitude; L'amour s'endort sans volupté; Las des mêmes plaisirs, las de leur multitude, He, unconscious whence the bliss, Feels, and owns in carols rude, That all the circling joys are his, Of dear Vicissitude. 90 From toil he wins his spirits light, Rich, from the very want of wealth, 95 In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.' TRANSLATION OF A PASSAGE FROM STATIUS.* THEB. LIB. VI. VER. 704-724. THIRD in the labours of the disc came on, His vigorous arm he tried before he flung, 5 * This translation, written at the age of twenty, which Gray sent to West, consisted of about a hundred and ten lines. Mason selected twenty-seven lines, which he published, as Gray's first attempt at English verse; and to show how much he had imbibed of Dryden's spirited manner at that early period of his life. See the memoirs, vol. ii. P. 12. The orb on high tenacious of its course, 10 15 20 The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving ground, 25 V. 12. v. Milt. P. L. iv. 181, "At one slight bound high overleap'd all bound." Luke. V. 14. v. Milt. P. L. iv. 140," As the ranks ascend shade above shade, a woody theatre of stateliest view." Luke. THE FRAGMENT OF A TRAGEDY, DESIGNED BY MR. GRAY ON THE SUBJECT OF THE DEATH OF AGRIPPINA.* * "THE Britannicus of Racine, I know, was one of Gray's most favourite plays; and the admirable manner in which I have heard him say that he saw it represented at Paris, seems to have led him to choose the death of Agrippina for his first and only effort in the drama. The execution of it also, as far as it goes, is so very much in Racine's taste, that I suspect, if that great poet had been born an Englishman, he would have written precisely in the same style and manner. However, as there is at present in this nation a general prejudice against declamatory plays, I agree with a learned friend, who perused the manuscript, that this fragment will be little relished by the many; yet the admirable strokes of nature and character with which it abounds, and the majesty of its diction, prevent me from withholding from the few, who I expect will relish it, so great a curiosity (to call it nothing more) as part of a tragedy written by Gray. These persons well know, that till style and sentiment be a little more regarded, mere action and passion will never secure reputation to the author, whatever they may do to the actor. It is the business of the one to strut and fret his hour upon the stage;' and if he frets and struts enough, he is sure to find his reward in the plaudit of an upper gallery; but the other ought to have some regard to the cooler judgment of the closet: for I will be bold to say that if Shakespeare himself had not written a multitude of passages which please there as much as they do on the stage, his reputation would not stand so universally high as it does at present. Many of these passages, to the shame of our theatrical taste, are omitted constantly in the representation: but I say not this from conviction that the mode of writing, which Gray pursued, is the best * See Tacitus's Annals, book xiii. xiv. Mason. |