The painful family of Death, More hideous than their queen: This racks the joints, this fires the veins, Those in the deeper vitals rage: Lo! Poverty, to fill the band, That numbs the soul with icy hand, And slow-consuming Age. To each his suff'rings: all are men, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet, ah! why should they know their fate, 85 90 95 V. 83. "Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain," Pope. Essay on Man, ii. 118. Dryden, State of Innoc. act v. sc. 1: "With all the numerous family of Death." Claudian uses language not dissimilar: Cons. Honor. vi. 323: "Inferno stridentes agmine Morbi." And Juv. Sat. x. 218: "Circumsedit agmine facto Morborum omne genus." Hor. Od. 1. iii. 30, "Nova febrium terris incubuit cohors." V. 84. See T. Warton's Milt. p. 432, 434, 511. V. 90. "His slow-consuming fires.” Honour. Shenstone. Love and V. 95. We meet with the same thought in Milton. Com. ver. 359. "Peace, brother; be not over-exquisite To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; For grant they be so, while they rest unknown, What need a man forestall his date of grief?" W. V. 98. Soph. Αjax, v. 555: *Εν τῷ Φρονεῖν γαρ μηδεν, idiotos Bios. W. See Kidd's note to Hor. Ep. xi. 2. 140. V. 99. See Prior, (Ep. to Hon. C. Montague, st. ix.) "From ignorance our comfort flows, The only wretched are the wise.”— Luke. Add Davenant. Just Italian, p. 32, "Since knowledge is but Since sorrow never comes too late, No more; [This Ode, suggested by Dionysius' Ode to Nemesis. v. Aratus. ed. Oxford, p. 51, translated by S. Meyrick, in Bell's Fug. Poetry, vol. xviii. p. 161.] DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless power, sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know." And Dodsley. Old Plays, xi. p. 119: I then slept happily; if knowledge mend me not, To wake me into judgment." *This Hymn first appeared in Dodsley. Col. vol. iv. together with the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard; and not, as Mason says, with the three foregoing Odes, which were published in the second volume. In Mason's edition it is called an Ode; but the title is now restored, as it was given by the author. The motto from Eschylus is not in Dodsley. V. 1. 'Arŋ, who may be called the goddess of Adversity, is Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour The bad affright, afflict the best! With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. When first thy sire to send on earth Virtue, his darling,child, design'd, 10 said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter: Il. r. 91. Πρέσβα διὸς θυγάτηρ Ατη, ἣ πάντας ἀᾶται. Perhaps, however, Gray only alluded to the passage of Eschylus 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. 2. "Then he, great tamer of all human art," Pope. Dun. i. 163. 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 Inexorably, and the torturing hour, Calls us to penance." Par. Lost, ii. 90. 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 In Par. Lost, x. 297, as the original punctuation stood: And with Asphaltic slime."1 1 This punctuation is now altered in most of the editions. The new reading was proposed by Dr. Pearce. To thee he gave the heav'nly birth, And bade to form her infant mind. Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore With patience many a year she bore: What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, 15 And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe. Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, 20 V. 5. Αδαμαντίνων δεσμῶν ἐν ἀῤῥήκτοις πέδαις· Æsch. Prom. vi. W., from whom Milton. Par. L. i. 48: "In adamantine chains, and penal fire." And the expression occurs also in the Works of Spenser, Drummond, Fletcher, and Drayton. See Todd's note on Milton. "In adamantine chains shall Death be bound," Pope. Messiah, ver. 47; and lastly, Manil. Astron. lib. i. 921. And Boisson. on Philost. Heroic, p. 405. V. 7. Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand," Pope. Two Choruses, ver. 23. Wakefield cites Horace, lib. i. od. xxxv. 12: "Purpurei metuunt tyranni." Add Tasso. Gier. Lib. c. vii. Luke. V. 8. "Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before." Par. L. ii. 703. V. 13. An expression similar to this occurs in Sidney. Arcadia, vol. iii. p. 100: "Ill fortune, my awful governess." V. 16. "Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco." Luke. V. 20. "If we for HAPPINESS COULD LEISURE find," Hurd's Cowley, vol. i. p. 136; and the note of the editor. "And know I have not yet the leisure to be good,” Oldham. Ode, st. v. vol. i. p. 83. V. 22. -For men, like butterflies, 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: 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, Not circled with the vengeful band Also, "The common people swarm like summer flies, 25 30 1 85 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," Temple, 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. "O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue." Il Penser. 16. W. V. 28. "With a sad leaden downward cast, Il Penser. 43. W. "So leaden eyes." Sidney. Astroph. and "Melancholy lifts her head," "The sad companion, dull-eyed sc. 2. And so we read "leaden |