Forbade to wade thro' slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

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,
Exalt the brave, and idolize success;

"That humble beauty warm'd an honest heart,
And cheer'd the labours of a faithful spouse;
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.

V. 64. "For in their eyes I read a soldier's love."
Beau. and Fletch. vi. 135. Rogers.
V. 67. "And swam to empire thro' the purple flood."
Temple of Fame, 347.

W. "Hen. V.

V. 68. "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,' 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
the gates of mercy, gave him rest.”

Nath. Richards. Poems, Sacred and Satyrical, 12mo. 1641. "Lætitiæ janua clausa meæ est," Ovid. Pont. ii.

p. 145. 7.38.

V. 70. "Quench your blushes," Wint. Tale, act iv. sc. 3. Rogers.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

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,
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease;
In still small accents whisp'ring 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 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,
Content with science, in the vale of peace."
Pope. Ep. to Fenton, 6.

"Mollia per placidam delectant otia vitam."

W.

Manil. Astr. iv. 512.

"E

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.

1

Yet ev❜n these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture
deck'd,

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,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?

85

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)
To have some friend, or kind alliance by
To be officious at the parting breath."

V. 90. "piæ lacrimæ." Ovid. Trist. iv. 3. 41.
"No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear
Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier;
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd."

Pope. Elegy, 81.

And, "Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part." v. 80.
And so Solon, ver. 5, ed. Brunck.:

Μηδ' ἐμοὶ ἀκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι
Καλλείποιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς. W.

H

E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,

Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,

“Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn:

95

100

Var. V. 92. E'en, live] And, glow. Ms. M. and W.
V. 92. "Awake and faithful to her wonted fires."
First and second editions.

V. 91. Some lines in the Anthologia Latina, p. 600. Ep. cliii. have a strong resemblance to those in the text:

"Crede mihi vires aliquas natura sepulchris

Adtribuit, tumulos vindicat umbra suos."
So also Auson. (Parentalia), ed. Tollii, p. 109:
"Gaudent compositi cineres sua nomina dici."
V. 92. "Ch' i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco,
Fredda una lingua, e due begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville."

Petr. Son. clxix. Gray.

"Yet in our ashen cold, is fire yreken."

Chaucer. Reve. Prol. ver. 3880. "Quamvis in cinerem corpus mutaverit ignis, Sentiet officium moesta favilla pium."

Ovid. Trist. iii. 3. 83.

"Interea cave, sis nos adspernata sepultos,
Non nihil ad verum conscia terra sapit.'

Propert. ii. 13. 41.

Wakefield cites Pope. Ep. to M. Blount, ver. 72:
"By this e'en now they live, e'en now they charm,
Their wit still sparkling, and their flame still warm.”
V. 98. "The nice morn on the Indian steep

From her cabin'd loophole peep."

Comus, 140. see Todd. note.

"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 104

Var. V. 100.

"On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn." After which, in his first MS., 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 (says Mason) 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."

V. 99.

"From off the ground, each morn, We brush mellifluous dews."

So also Arcades, ver. 50:

Par. Lost, v. 429.

Add Tempest, act i. sc. 4.

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

V. 100. So Petrarch:

"Re degli altri, superbo, altero fiume

Che 'n contril sol, quando e ne mena il giorno."

And Tasso, in his Sonnet to Camoëns:

"Vasco, te cui felicè ardite antenne

Incontro al sol che ne riporta il giorno," &c.

And in another Sonnet:

"Come va innanzi a l' altro sol l'aurora," &c. V. 100." Ere the high lawns appeared

Under the opening eyelids of the morn."
Lycidas, 25. W.

V. 102. Spenser. R. of Rome, s. xxviii.

"Shewing her wreathed rootes and naked armes." V. 103. "His goodly length stretched on a lily bed."

Luke.

Spens. B. Ida, c. 3. s. 2. Luke.

V. 104. "Unde loquaces lymphe desiliunt tuæ."

"He lay along

Hor. Od. iii. 13. 15.

Under an oak, whose antique root peep'd out