! ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. The manuscript variations in this poem, in the Wharton papers, agree generally with those published by Mr. Mathias, vol. i. p. 65, in his edition of Gray's works. THE curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, NOTES. Ver. 1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day] "The curfew tolls!—the knell of parting day." So I read, says Dr. Warton, in his Notes on Pope, vol. i. p. 82. Dryden has a line resembling this: "That tolls the knell of their departed sense." See Prologue to Troilus and Cressida, ver. 22. And not dissimilar is Shaksp. Henry IV. Dante, Purgat. 1. 8. GRAY. The seventh stanza of T. Warton's poem on Vale Royal Abbey is taken from the opening of this Elegy. See his Poems, vol. i. p. 132. The opening of this poem is also transferred into the Lettere di Jacopo Ortis,' p. 70. Ver. 2. The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea] "The lowing herds through living pastures rove." Whitehead's Elegy I. vol. ii. p. 204. The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, VARIATIONS. Ver. 8. And] Or, мs. M. and W. 5 NOTES. In the Diosemeia of Aratus, this picture is drawn similar to that of the English poet, ver. 387: Η δ ̓ ὅτε μυκηθμοῖο περίπλειοι ἀγέρωνται And so Dionysius in his Periegesis, ver. 190: Κείνοις δ ̓ οὔποτε τερπνὸς ἀκούεται ὁλκὸς ἁμάξης Οὐ δὲ βοῶν μυκηθμὸς ἐς αὔλιον ἐρχομενάων. See also Homeri Odyss. xvii. 170, pointed out by Mr. Wakefield. Ver. 4. And leaves the world to darkness and to me] A similar expression occurs in Petrarch, p. 124: "Quando 'l sol bagna in mar l' aurato cerco, E'l aer nostro, e la mia mente imbruna.” Ver. 7. Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight] Ere the bat hath flown His cloyster'd flight; ere to black Hecate's summons Hath rung night's yawning peal." And so Collins, in his Ode to Evening: Macbeth, act iii. sc. 2. "Or where the beetle winds His small, but sullen horn; As oft he rises midst the twilight path, Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." W. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r, The mopeing owl does to the moon complain Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 10 NOTES. Ver. 8. And drowsy tinklings] Warton's Ode on the approach of Summer, 110: "Her sound of distant-tinkling bell.” Ver. 10. The mopeing owl does to the moon complain] The "ignavus bubo" of Ovid, see Metam. v. 550. The two following passages might supply the images in the Elegy: "Assiduous in his bower the wailing owl Compare also T. Warton's Pleasures of Melancholy,' p. 71, ed. Mant; where the learned editor has brought the contrasted passages nearer together, by quoting a line of Gray in the following manner: "Of such as wandering near her sacred bower." Ver. 12. Molest her ancient solitary reign]" Desertaque regna pastorum," Virg. Georg. iii. 476. W. Ver. 13. Beneath those rugged elms] De Lille, in his 'Jardins,' has imitated these stanzas of the Elegy: Voyez sous ses vieux ifs la tombe où vont se rendre Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed, 15 NOTES. Des guerres, des traités n'en marquent point le cours. Naître, souffrir, mourir, c'est toute leur histoire; Mais leur coeur n'est point sourd au bruit de leur mémoire. Quel homme vers la vie, au moment du départ; "Those graves with bending osier bound, That nameless heave the crumbled ground." C. iv. p. 86. Parnell's Night Piece, 29. W. "Here let him rest, in Ver. 15. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid] "The narrow house is pleasant to me, and the grey stone of the dead," Ossian's Oithona, vol. i. p. 119. his narrow house, far from the sound of Lota," ibid. p. 306. And so Horace, Od. I. iv. 17: "Domus exilis Plutonia." The word domus, which answers to our poet's cell, is often in Latin authors put for sepulchrum; as may be seen by referring to Burmann's Petronius, cap. 71; and Markland's Statius, p. 255: the reason of which is given in Barthelemy's Travels in Italy, p. 349. Compare the Lettere di Jacopo Ortis, p. 71, with this stanza. Ver. 17. Incense-breathing morn] "And e'er the odorous breath of morn," Arcades, ver. 56. Also Milton's Par. Lost, b. ix. 192: "In Eden, on the humid flowers that breath'd Their morning incense." W. And so Pope's Messiah, ver. 24: "With all the incense of the breathing spring." Ver. 18. The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed] "Mane jam clarum reserat fenestras, Jam strepit nidis vigilax hirundo." Auson. p. 94, ed. Tollii. The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, VARIATIONS. Ver. 19. Or] And, Ms. M. and W. 20 NOTES. Hesiod gives the swallow a very appropriate epithet: xxdwv óglgoyón Egy. 567. Mr. Wakefield quotes Thomson, Autumn, ver. 835. Ver. 19. The cock's shrill clarion] Philips in Cyder,' i.753 : "When chanticleer with clarion shrill recals Mr. Wakefield cites Milton, Par. Lost, b. vii. 448 : "The crested cock, whose clarion sounds The silent hours." And Hamlet, act i. sc. 1. To which add Quarles in Argalus and Parthenia, p. 22: "I slept not, till the early bugle-horn Of chaunticlere had summon'd in the morn." Thomas Kyd has also joined the two images (England's Parnassus, p. 325): "The cheerful cock, the sad night's trumpeter, Wayting upon the rising of the sunne. The wandering swallow with her broken song." Ibid. Echoing horn] See L'Allegro, ver. 53. W. Ver. 21. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn] Compare Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1062. Lucretius, iv. 907: "At jam non domus accipiet te læta, neque uxor Optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati Præripere." Horace has added to the picture an image copied by Gray: "Quod si pudica mulier, in partem juvet Domum, atque dulces liberos, Sacrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum Lassi sub adventum viri.” |