II.* ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT,

DROWNED IN A TUB OF GOLD FISHES.

[On a favourite cat called Selima, that fell into a China Tub with gold fishes in it, and was drowned, MS. Wharton. Walpole, after the death of Gray, placed the China Vase on a pedestal at Strawberry Hill, with a few lines of the Ode for its inscription.]

'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dy'd

The azure flowers, that blow;

Var. V. 4. In the first edition the order of these lines was reversed:

"The pensive Selima reclin❜d,
Demurest of the tabby kind."

hμeis d'ev dvoμaïs Tov ßíov, de Legib. tom. ii. p. 770, ed. Serrani; and Aristotelis Poetica, cap. 35: Kai Tò ynрas 'Еσπéраν Biov. Add Catull. ad Lesb. c. 5. v. 5. "Nobis, cum semel occidet brevis lux." Twining, in his translation of the Poetics, together with this line from Gray, has quoted Com. of Err. (last scene): "Yet hath my night of life some memory," see p. 108. It is a phrase very common among the old English poets. Herrick has,

and "

"Sunk is my sight, set is my sun,

And all the loom of life undone."

My sun begins to set," Rowley's All's lost by Lust, p. 63, 4to. with many others.

*This Ode first appeared in Dodsley. Col. vol. ii. p. 274, with some variations; only one of which is given by Mason. They are all noticed in this edition, as they occur.

V. 3. This expression has been accused of redundance by

Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclin❜d,

Gaz'd on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declar'd;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purr'd applause.

Still had she gaz'd; but 'midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,

The Genii of the stream:

5

10

15

Var. V. 14. First edit. "Two beauteous forms; " a reading that appears to me preferable to the one now in the

text.

Dr. Johnson and Wakefield. See Todd's Ed. of Comus, p. 139. Gray, however, could have defended it by the usage of the ancient poets. See Ovid. Metam. ix. 98: "Hunc tamen ablati domuit jactura decoris." And Statii Silv. II. v. 30: "Unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis." Ovid ad Liv. 185: "Jura silent, mutaque tacent sine vindice leges." In Jortin's Tracts, vol. i. p. 269, some examples of such redundant expressions are collected from the Greek and Latin poets. See on this subject also the notes of Burmann on Propertius, lib. iv El. vii. v. 69; on Ovid. Met. ii. 66, and on Poem. Lotichii, lib. i. el. 8. 27. In the Prog. of Poesy, I. i. 5. "The laughing flowers that round them blow." "Azure flowers," v. Drummond. Mæliades. Luke.

V. 15. Thomson, in his Spring, v. 400, with equal beauty, speaking of fish:

in whose ample wave

The little Naiads love to sport at large."

Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue
Through richest purple to the view
Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw:
A whisker first, and then a claw,

With many an ardent wish,

She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize.
What female heart can gold despise ?
What Cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous maid! with looks intent
Again she stretch'd, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between.
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smil❜d)
The slipp'ry verge her feet beguil❜d,
She tumbled headlong in.

Var. V. 24. "A foe to fish." First edit.
V. 25. Looks] Eyes. Ms.

20

25

80

V. 17. "Aureus ipse; sed in foliis, quæ plurima circum
Funduntur, violæ sublucet purpura nigræ."

Virg. Georg. iv. 274. W.
V. 18. "His shining horns diffus'd a golden gleam," Pope.
Winds. For. 331. "And lucid amber casts a golden gleam,"
Temp. of Fame, 253.

V. 42. This proverbial expression was a favourite among the old English poets:

"But all thing, which that shineth as the gold,
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told."

See Chaucer. Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 16430. Tyrwhitt refers to the Parabola of Alanus de Insulis, quoted by Leyser, Hist. Poet. Med. Ev. 1074: "Non teneas aurum, totum quod splendet ut aurum." Among the poems published with Lord

Eight times emerging from the flood,
She mew'd to ev'ry wat'ry God,

Some speedy aid to send.

No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd:
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard.
A fav'rite has no friend!

From hence, ye beauties, undeceiv'd,
Know, one false step is ne'er retriev❜d,
And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes
And heedless hearts is lawful prize,
Nor all, that glisters, gold.

Var. V. 35.

"nor Harry heard. What favourite has a friend?" First edit V. 40. Strikes. Ms.

35

Surrey's, p. 226, edit. 1717: "Not every glist'ring gives the gold, that greedy folk desire." In the Paradise of Dainty Devises, "No Foe to a Flatterer," p. 60 (reprint), is this line: "But now I see all is not gold, that glittereth in the eye." In England's Helicon, p. 194: "All is not gold, that shineth bright in show." Spenser. F. Queen, ii. 8. 14: "Yet gold all is not, that doth golden seem."

"Not every thinge that gives a gleame and glitt'ring showe, Is to be counted gold indeede, this proverbe well you knowe." Turberville. Answer of a Woman to her Lover, st. iv.

"All as they say, that glitters is not gold."

Dryden. H. and Panther.

This poem was written later than the first, third, and fourth Odes, but was arranged by Gray in this place, in his own edition.

B

III.* ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON

COLLEGE.

*Ανθρωπος, ἱκανὴ πρόφασις εἰς τὸ δυστυχεῖν.

Menander. Incert. Fragm. ver. 382. ed. Cler. p. 245.

[See Musæ Etonenses, vol. i. p. 229, and Brit. Bibliographer, vol. ii. p. 214.] !

YE distant spires, ye antique towers,

That crown the wat❜ry glade,

Where grateful Science still adores

Her Henry's † holy shade;

And

ye,

that from the stately brow

Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below
Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,

5

* This, as Mason informs us, was the first English production of Gray which appeared in print. It was published in folio, in 1747, and appeared again in Dodsley, Col. vol. ii. p. 267, without the name of the author. A Latin poem by him, On the Prince of Wales's Marriage, had appeared in the Cambridge Collection, in 1736, which is inserted in this edition.

King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College. V. 4. So in the Bard, ii. 3: "And spare the meek usurper's holy head." And in Install. Ode, iv. 12: "The murder'd saint." So Rich. III. act v. sc. 1: "Holy King Henry.' And act iv. sc. 4: "When holy Henry died." This epithet has a peculiar propriety; as Henry the Sixth, though never canonized, was regarded as a saint. See Barrington on the Statutes, p. 416, and Douce. Illust. of Shakesp. ii. 38. "Yea and holy Henry lying at Windsor." Barclay. Eclog. p. 4, fol.