SONG.* THYRSIS, when we parted, swore Ere the spring he would return And the bud that decks the thorn? Var. V. 1. Thyrsis, when we parted] In Mr. Park's edition, for "when we parted," it is printed "when he left me." And, for "Ere the spring," " In the spring." 5 Var. V. 3. Yon violet flower] In Mr. Park's edition, "the opening flower." V. 5. 'Twas the lark] In Mr. Park's edition, this and the following line are transposed. gloomy The sons of famish'd Ugoline; And after the couplet On which thou lov'st to sit at eve, Add, from the MS. To whom came trooping at thy call Thy spirits from their airy hall, From sea and earth, from heaven and hell, Stern Hecate, and sweet Ariel.' *Written at the request of Miss Speed, to an old air of This and the then Countess Geminiani:- the thought from the French. preceding Poem were presented by Miss Speed, de Viry, to the Rev. Mr. Leman of Suffolk, while on a visit at her castle in Savoy, where she died in 1783. Admiral Sir T. Duckworth, whose father was vicar of Stoke from 1756 to 1794, remembers Gray and Miss Speed at that place. Gray left Stoke about the year 1758, on the death of his aunt Mrs. Rogers when his acquaintance with Miss Speed probably closed. : Idle notes! untimely green! Speak not always winter past. [This Song in this edition printed from the copy as it appears in H. Walpole's Letters to the Countess of Ailesbury. See his Works, vol. v. p. 561.] Var. V. 8. Why this] In Mr. Park's edition, “why such.” V. 9. Western, &c.] In Mr. Park's edition, these lines are printed thus: "Gentle gales and sky serene Prove not always winter past.” TOPHET. AN EPIGRAM. THUS Tophet look'd; so grinn'd the brawling fiend, Whilst frighted prelates bow'd, and call'd him friend. Our mother-church, with half-averted sight, Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte; Hosannas rung thro' hell's tremendous borders, And Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders.* *The Rev. Henry Etough, of Cambridge University, the person satirized, was as remarkable for the eccentricities of his character, as for his personal appearance. Mr. Tyson, of Bene't College, made an etching of his head, and presented it to Gray, who embellished it with the above lines. Information respecting Mr. Etough, (who was rector of Therfield, Herts, and of Colmworth, Bedfordshire, and patronized by Sir Robert Walpole,) may be found in the Gentleman's Magaz. vol. lvi. p. 25. 281; and in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the xviiith Century, vol. viii. p. 261, and Brydges' Restituta, vol. iv. p. 246, and Polwhele's Recollect. i. 212. "Etough was originally a Jew, but renounced his religion for the sake of a valuable living. To understand the second line, it is necessary to inform you, that Tophet kept the conscience of the minister." See Neville. Imit. of Horace, p. 59. "The slanderous pests, the ETOUGHS of the age." See an account of Dr. Etough in Coxe's Life of Sir R. Walpole, vol. i. p. xxvi. "Etough was a man of great research and eager curiosity, replete with prejudice, but idolizing Sir R. Walpole, &c." IMPROMPTU, SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, IN 1766, OF THE SEAT AND RUINS OF A DECEASED NOBLEMAN, AT KINGSGATE, KENT. * [Written at Denton in the spring of 1766. See Nichols' Select Poems, vol. vii. p. 350, and W. S. Landori Poemata, p. 196.] OLD, and abandon'd by each venal friend, On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice; sand; Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice, And mariners, though shipwreck'd, dread to land. Here reign the blustering North and blighting East, No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing; 10 * Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, p. 385, says, that this house was built by Lord Holland as a correct imitation of Cicero's Formian villa, at Baiæ, under the superintendence of Sir Thomas Wynne, Bart. afterwards Lord Newborough. See Gent. Mag. vol. lxxvii. p. 1116. |