AMATORY LINES. The following lines by Gray first appeared in Warton's* edition of Pope, vol. i. p. 285. WITH beauty, with pleasure surrounded, to languish To weep without knowing the cause of my anguish: To start from short slumbers, and wish for the morning To close my dull eyes when I see it returning; Sighs sudden and frequent, looks ever dejected. Words that steal from my tongue, by no meaning connected! Ah! say, fellow-swains, how these symptoms befell me? They smile, but reply not-Sure Delia will tell me! and that he Dr. Tucker had made trade his religion. See Cradock. Mem. iv. 335. Perhaps these lines of Gray gave a hint to Goldsmith for his character of Burke in the Retaliation : ' "Tho' equal to all things, for all things unfit, *As Dr. Warton has here favoured us with some manuscript lines by Gray, it will be a species of poetical justice to give the reader some lines from a manuscript of Dr. Warton, which he intended to insert in his Ode to Fancy, and which are placed within the inverted commas: In converse while methinks I rove 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.' for "Ere the spring," "And, 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. 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 From sea and earth, from heaven and hell, * Written at the request of Miss Speed, to an old air of Geminiani: the thought from the French. This and the preceding Poem were presented by Miss Speed, then Countess 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. Cease, my doubts, my fears to move, 10 [This Song is 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." |