air, and how accompanied. The design was, however, not executed; and therefore I shall only (in order to give the reader a taste of Mr. Gray's, musical feelings) insert in this place what his sentiments were concerning the overture. "It should be so contrived as to be a proper introduction to the Ode: it might consist of two movements; the first descriptive of the horror and confusion of battle, the last a march grave and majestic, but expressing the exultation and insolent security of conquest. This movement should be composed entirely of wind-instruments, except the kettle-drum heard at intervals. The da capo of it must be suddenly broke in upon, and put to silence by the clang of the harp in a tumultuous rapid movement, joined with the voice, all at once, and not ushered in by any symphony. The harmony may be strengthened by any other stringed instrument; but the harp should every where prevail, and form the continued running accompaniment, submitting itself to nothing but the voice." 3. Ruin seize thee, ruthless King. Strophe i. l. 1. On this noble exordium the anonymous critic, before-mentioned, thus eloquently expresses his admiration: "This abrupt execration plunges the reader into that sudden fearful perplexity which is designed to predominate through the whole. The irresistible violence of the prophet's passions bears him away, who, as he is unprepared by a formal ushering in of the speaker, is unfortified against the impressions of his poetical frenzy and overpowered by them, as sudden thunders strike the deepest." All readers of taste, I fancy, have felt this effect from the passage; they will be pleased, however, to see their own feelings so well expressed as they are in this note. 4. They mock the air with idle state. Strophe i. l. 4. IMITATION. Mocking the air with colours idly spread. Shaks. King John. G. 5. Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride. IMITATION. Strophe i. l. 9. The crested adder's pride. Dryden's Indian Queen. G. 6. Loose his beard, &c. Antist. i. l. 5. The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel: there are two of these paintings, both believed to be originals; one at Florence, the other in the Duke of Orleans' collection at Paris. G. Mr. Gray never saw the large Cartoon, done by the same divine hand, in the possession of the Duke of Montagu, at his seat at Boughton, in Northamptonshire, else I am persuaded he would have mentioned it in this note. The two finished pictures abroad (which I believe are closet-pieces) can hardly have so much spirit in them as this wonderful drawing; it gave me the sublimest idea I ever received from painting, Moses breaking the tables of the law, by Parmegiano, was a figure which Mr. Gray used to say came still nearer to his meaning than the picture of Raphael. 7. Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes, Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, IMITATION. As dear to me as are the ruddy drops, Ep. i. l. 12, 13. That visit my sad heart. Shaks. Julius Cæsar. G. 8. No more I weep, &c. Ep. i. l. 15. Here, says the anonymous critic, a vision of triumphant revenge is judiciously made to ensue, after the pathetic lamentation which precedes it. Breaks-double rhymes-an appropriated cadence-and an exalted ferocity of language forcibly picture to us the uncontrollable tumultuous workings of the prophet's stimulated bosom. 9. Weave the warp, &c. Strophe ii. l. 1. Can there be an image more just, apposite, and nobly imagined than this tremendous tragical winding-sheet? In the rest of this stanza the wildness of thought, expression, and cadence are admirably adapted to the character and situation of the speaker, and of the bloody spectres his assistants. It is not indeed peculiar to it alone, but a beauty that runs throughout the whole composition, that the historical events are briefly sketched out by a few striking circumstances, in which the Poet's office of rather exciting and directing, than satisfying the reader's imagination, is perfectly observed. Such abrupt hints, resembling the several fragments of a vast ruin, suffer not the mind to be raised to the utmost pitch, by one image of horror, but that instantaneously a second and a third are presented to it, and the affection is still uniformly supported.-Anon. Critic. 10. Fair laughs the Morn, &c. It is always entertaining, and sometimes useful, to be informed how a writer frequently improves on his original thoughts; on this account I have occasionally set down the few variations which Mr. Gray made in his lyrical compositions. The six lines before us convey, perhaps, the most beautiful piece of imagery in the whole Ode, and were a wonderful improvement on those which he first wrote; which, though they would appear fine in an inferior poet, are infinitely below those which supplanted them. I find them in one of his corrected manuscripts as follow: VARIATION. Mirrors of Saxon truth and loyalty, Your helpless old expiring master view! Her mutter'd requiems, and her holy dew. Yet thou, proud boy, from Pomfret's walls shall send 11. Fill high the sparkling bowl. Epode ii, l. 1, &c. This stanza (as an ingenious friend remarks) has exceeding merit. It breathes in a lesser compass, what the Ode breathes at large, the high spirit of lyric enthu siasm. The transitions are sudden and impetuous; the language full of fire and force; and the imagery carried, without impropriety, to the most daring height. The manner of Richard's death by famine exhibits such beauties of personification, as only the richest and most vivid imagination could supply. From thence we are hurried, with the wildest rapidity, into the midst of battle; and the epithet kindred places at once before our eyes all the peculiar horrors of civil war. Immediately, by a transition most striking and unexpected, the Poet falls into a tender and pathetic address; which, from the sentiments, and also from the numbers, has all the melancholy flow, and breathes all the plaintive softness, of elegy. Again the scene changes; again the bard rises into an allegorical description of carnage, to which the metre is admirably adapted: and the concluding sentence of personal punishment on Edward is denounced with a solemnity that chills and terrifies. 12. No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. All hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail! " VARIATION. MS. From Cambria's thousand bills a thousand strains 13. Girt with many a baron bold, Sublime their starry fronts they rear. Ant. iii. l. 1, 2. VARIATION. MS. Youthful knights, and barons bold, 14. Fierce War, and faithful Love. Ep. iii. l. 2. IMITATION. Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song. G. 15, I cannot quit this and the preceding Ode without saying a word or two of my own concerning the obscurity which has been imputed to them, and the preference which, in consequence, has been given to his Elegy. It seems as if the persons, who hold this opinion, suppose that every species of poetry ought to be equally clear and intelligible: than which position nothing can be more repugnant to the several specific natures of composition, and to the practice of ancient art. Not to take Pindar and his Odes for an example (though what I am here defending were written professedly in imitation of him), I would ask, Are all the writings of Horace, his Epistles, Satires, and Odes equally perspicuous? Amongst his Odes, separately considered, are there not remarkable differences of this very kind? Is the spirit and meaning of that which begins, "Descende cœlo, et dic, age, tibia," Ode 4. lib. 3. so readily comprehended as "Persicos odi, puer, apparatus," Ode 38. 1. 1. And is the latter a finer piece of lyrical composition on that account? Is Integer vitæ, scelerisq; purus," Ode 22. 1. 1. superior to "Pindarum quisquis studet æmulari," Ode 2.1. 4. because it may be understood at the first reading, and the latter not without much study and reflection? Now between these Odes, thus compared, there is surely equal difference in point of perspicuity, as between the Progress of Poesy, and the Prospect of Eton; the Ode on the Spring, and the Bards: but, say these objectors, "The end of poetry is universally to please. Obscurity, by taking off from our pleasure, destroys that end." I will grant that, if the obscurity be great, constant, and unsurmountable, this is certainly true; but if it be only found in particular passages, proceeding from the nature of the subject and the very genius of the composition, it does not rob us of our pleasure, but superadds a new one, which arises from conquering a difficulty; and the pleasure which accrues from a difficult passage, when well understood, provided the passage itself be a fine one, is always more permanent than that which we discover at the first glance. The lyric Muse, like other fine ladies, requires to be courted, and retains her admirers the longer for not having yielded too readily to their solicitations. This argument, ending as it does in a sort of simile, will, I am persuaded, not only have its force with the intelligent readers (the EYNETOI), but also with the men of fashion :. as to critics of a lower class, it may be sufficient to transcribe, for their improvement, an unfinished remark, or rather maxim, which I found amongst our Author's papers, and which he probably wrote on occasion of the common preference given to his Elegy. "The Gout de Comparaison (as Bruyere styles it) is the only taste of ordinary minds. They do not know the specific excellency either of an author or a composition: for instance, they do not know that Tibullus spoke the language of nature and love; that Horace saw the vanities and follies of mankind with the most penetrating eye, and touched them to the quick; that Virgil ennobled even the most common images by the graces of a glowing, melodious, and well-adapted expression; but they do know that Virgil was a better poet than Horace; and that Horace's Epistles do not run so well as the Elegies of Tibullus," * * * ODE VII. This Ode, to which, on the title, I have given the epithet of IRREGULAR, is the only one of the kind which Mr. Gray ever wrote; and its being written occasionally, and for music, is a sufficient apology for the defect. Exclusive of this (for a defect it certainly is), it appears to me, in point of lyrical arrangement and expression, to be equal to most of his other odes. It is remarkable that, amongst the many irregular Odes which have been written in our own language, Dryden's and Pope's, on St. Cecilia's Day, are the only ones that may properly be said to have lived. The reason is (as I have hinted in a note, p. 189 of the Memoirs) that the mode of composition is so extremely easy, that it gives the writer an opening to every kind of poetical licentiousness: whereas the regularly-repeated stanza, and still more the regular succession of strophe, antistrophe, and epode, put so strong a curb on the wayward imagination, that when she has once paced in it, she seldom chooses to submit to it a second time. 'Tis therefore greatly to be wished, in order to stifle in their birth a quantity of compositions, which are at the same time wild and jejune, that regular odes, and these only, should be deemed legitimate amongst us. The Cambridge edition (published at the expense of the University) is here followed; but I have added at the bottom of the page a number of explanatory notes, which this Ode seemed to want, still more than that which preceded it, especially when given not to the University only, but the public in general, who may be reasonably supposed to know little of the particular founders of different colleges and their history here alluded to. For the sake of uniformity in the page, I have divided the Ŏde into stanzas, and discarded the musical divisions of recitative, air, and chorus; but shall here insert them in their order, according as the different stanzas were set by Dr. Randal, professor of music. Stanza 1. The first eight lines" air," the four last "chorus." Stanza 2. "Recitative" throughout, but accompanied at the sixth line. Stanza 3. "Air." This stanza being supposed to be sung by Milton, is very judiciously written in the metre which he fixed upon for the stanza of his Christmas Hymn. Stanza 4. 'Twas in the winter wild, &c. "Recitative" throughout the last nine lines accompanied. Stanza 5. "Air Quartetto." The musical reader will easily see and admire how well this stanza is suited to that species of music. Stanza 6. First six lines " recitative:" the rest of the stanza, beginning at thy liberal heart," "air." Stanza 7. "Recitative" throughout. Stanza 8. "Grand chorus," and well suited for that purpose. ODE VIII. 1. The occasion of Mr. Gray's writing (for it may be rather called so than versifying this and the three following odes, however closely he has done them) has been given in the beginning of the fifth Section of the Memoirs, and his reason for first publishing them in the fifty-seventh Letter of the fourth. Their best comment, since it is the best illustration of their excellency, will be to insert here the Latin versions of the originals from whence they were taken; as it is probable that many readers, who have hitherto admired them as compositions, have not compared them with those literal versions for want of having the books (which are not common ones) at hand. Ubi nostri amici Sanguine rorata Scuta Texamus texamus Telam Darradi! Ubi arma concrepant Omnia corruant. Benè canimus De Rege juvene, Victoriæ carmina multa: Qui auscultat, Bellica carmina multa, Et viris referat. Equitemus in equis, Quoniam efferimus gladios strictos In the argument of this Ode, printed at the bottom of the page in this edition, it is said that the battle was fought on Christmas Day; on which Mr. Gray, in his manuscript, remarks, that "the people of the Orkney islands were Christians, yet did not become so till after A. D. 966, probably it happened in 995; but though they, and the other Gothic nations, no longer worshipped their old divinities, yet they never doubted of their existence, or forgot their ancient mythology, as appears from the history of Olaus Tryggueson."-See Bartholinus, lib. viii. c. i. p. 615. 3. Iron sleet of arrowy shower. L. 3. IMITATION. How quick they wheel'd; and flying, behind them shot * So Thormodus interprets it, as though Darradar were the name of the person who saw this vision; but in reality it signifies a range of spears, from Daur Hasta, et Radir Ordo. G. |