Wil

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Il. 7. 91.
Perhaps,
schylus

is said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter:
Πρέσβα διὸς θυγάτηρ "Ατη, ἣ πάντας ἀᾶται.
however, Gray only alluded to the passage of
which he quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by
Jupiter for the benefit of man. Potter in his translation
has had an eye on Gray. See his Transl. p. 19.

V. 3. "Affliction's iron flail." Fletcher. Purp. Isl. ix. 28. Ibid. In Wakefield's note, he remarks an impropriety in the poet joining to a material image, the "torturing hour." If there be an impropriety in this, it must rest with Milton, from whom Gray borrowed the verse:

when the scourge

Par. Lost, ii. 90.

Inexorably, and the torturing hour,
Calls us to penance."

But this mode of speech is authorized by ancient and
modern poets. In Virgil's description of the lightning which
the Cyclopes wrought for Jupiter, Æn. viii. 429.

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosæ
Addiderant, rutili tres ignis, et alitis Austri:
Fulgores nunc horrificos, sonitumque, metumque
Miscebant," &c.

In Par. Lost, x. 297, as the original punctuation stood :
"Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move,
And with Asphaltic slime." I

This punctuation is now altered in most of the editions. The new reading was proposed by Dr. Pearce.

Αδαμαντίνων δεσμῶν ἐν ἀῤῥήκτοις πέδαις· Prom. vi. W., from whom Milton. Par. L. i. 48: mantine chains, and penal fire." And the exprescurs also in the Works of Spenser, Drummond, and Drayton. See Todd's note on Milton.

,

"In

ine chains shall Death be bound," Pope. Messiah, and lastly, Manil. Astron. lib. i. 921. And BoisPhilost. Heroic, p. 405.

"Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand," wo Choruses, ver. 23. Wakefield cites Horace, lib. xv. 12: " Purpurei metuunt tyranni." Add Tasso. b. c. vii. Luke.

"Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt bePar. L. ii. 703.

An expression similar to this occurs in Sidney. vol. iii. p. 100: Ill fortune, my awful gover

By vain Prosperity receiv'd,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.

Wisdom in sable garb array'd,

Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,

And Melancholy, silent maid,

With leaden eye that loves the ground,

Still on thy solemn steps attend :

No

With

TH

Warm Charity, the gen'ral friend,

With Justice, to herself severe,

And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear.

Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head,

Dread goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad,

30

Thy

T

The

Tea

Ex

What

35

Lost

Also, "The common people swarm like summer flies,
And whither fly the gnats, but to the sun.
Henry VI. P. iii. act 2. sc. 9. "Such summer-birds are
men!" Tim. of Ath. act iii. sc. 7. But the exact expression
is George Herbert's: "fall and flow, like leaves, about me,
or like summer-friends, flies of estates and sunshine," Tem-
ple, p. 296. And (The W. Devil) v. Dodsley's Old Plays,
vol. vi. p. 292. One summer she." Quarles. Sion's
Elegies, xix. Ah, summer friendship with the summer
ends." Mr. Rogers quotes Massinger's Maid of Honor,
"O summer friendship." Gray seems to have had Horace
in his mind, lib. I. Od. xxxv. 25.

V. 25.

V. 28.

"O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.'
Il Penser. 16. W.
"With a sad leaden downward cast,
Thou fix them on the earth as fast."

Il Penser. 43. W. "So leaden eyes." Sidney. Astroph.
and Stella, Song 7. "And stupid eyes that ever loved the
ground," Dryden. Cim. and Iphig. v. 57.
"Melancholy
lifts her head," Pope. Ode on St. Cec. v. 30. "The sad
companion, dull-eyed Melancholy," Pericles, act i. sc. 2.
And so we read "leaden Contemplation" in Love's Lab.

Poems, p. 87. And

dge of thyself alone, for none there were ld be so just, or could be so severe.

وو

66

Ode on Ben Jonson, p. 71, vol. ii. Forgiving o himself severe," Dryden. Misc. vi. 322. "The riend unto himself severe," Waller. Poems, p. 149. I to all, but to himself severe," E. Smith. El. on s, v. Lintot. Misc. p. 161.

"Ours be the lenient, not unpleasing tear," ThomRogers quotes Dryden. Virg. Æn. x. "a sadlythought."

Gorgoneum turpes crinem mutavit in hydros. Nunc quoque, ut attonitos formidine terreat hostes." Ovid. Met. iv. 801.