ODE III.*

ON

A DISTANT PROSPECT

OF

ETON COLLEGE.

Ανθρωπος, ἱκανὴ πρόφασις, εἰς τὸ δυστυχεῖν.

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

YE distant spires, ye antique towers,
That crown the watʼry glade,
Where grateful Science still adores

Her Henry's holy shade;

NOTES.

* 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's Collection, 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 the year 1736, which is inserted in this edition.

+ King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College.

Ver. 4. Her Henry's holy shade] So in the Bard, ii. 3: "And spare the meek usurper's holy head." And in the Install. Ode, iv. 12: "the murder'd saint." So Shak. 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 Douce's Illust. of Shaksp. ii. 38. Pope, in Winds. For. 313, calls him "the martyr-king;" and T. Warton, " Nor long e'er Henry's holy zeal." See his Poems, by Mr. Mant, ii. 121.

And ye, that from the stately brow

Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,

Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thames along

His silver-winding way:

Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!

Ah, fields belov'd in vain!

Where once my careless childhood stray'd,

Ver. 5. And ye that from the stately brow]

"and now to where

Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow."

Thoms. Sum. 1412. W.

And Mason's Engl. Garden, book i. ver. 146: "Seek it on Richmond, or on Windsor's brow."

Ver. 10. His silver-winding way] Thomson, in his Summer, 1417: "The vale of Thames fair-winding up." In Dart's Westminster Abbey, p. 10: " Where Thames in silver currents winds his way." Fenton, in his Ode to Lord Gower, which was so much praised by Pope and Akenside, had these two lines, iii. 1 :

"Or if invok'd where Thames's fruitful tides

Slow thro' the vale in silver volumes play."

This compound epithet might have been suggested by "the silver-shedding tears" of Shakspeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 3. Or by the following line in Pope's Moral Essays, ep. iv. ver. 85: "With silver-quiv'ring rills meander'd o'er." Homer gives the Πηνειος the appellation of 'Αργυροδίνης, Il. β. ver. 753.

Ver. 15. I feel the gales that from ye blow]

"L'Aura gentil che rasserena i poggi

Destando i fior per questo ombroso bosco

Al soavesuo spirto riconosco."

Petrarca, Son, CLXI.

As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
My weary soul they seem to sooth,
And, redolent of joy and youth,

To breathe a second spring.

Say, father Thames, for thou hast seen

Full many a sprightly race

20

NOTES.

Ver. 19. And, redolent of joy and youth] "And bees their honey redolent of spring," Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System. GRAY.-" And every field is redolent of spring," L. Welsted's Poems, p. 25. Langhorne has copied this expression in his Hymeneal Ode, vol. i. p. 96. ed. Park: "Redolent of youth and joy." It appears also in the Memoirs of Europe towards the Close of the Eighth Century, by Mrs. Manly, 1716, vol. ii. p. 67 : “The lovely Endimion, redolent of youth." Mr. Todd, in a note to Sams. Agonist. (see Milton, vol. iv. p. 410), deduces much earlier authority for this expression :

"O! redolent well of famous poetrye."

And, "Her redolent words of sweetest influence."

S. Hawes's Past. of Pleasure.

Also Skelton's Boke of Philip Sparrowe; "And redolent of ayre." Catullus has an expression somewhat similar: "Queis permulsa domus, jucundo risit odore," Ep. Pel.

et Thet. ver. 285.

Ver. 21. Say, father Thames, for thou hast seen] This invocation is taken from Green's Grotto: see Dodsley's Collect. vol. v. p. 159:

Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view, what beauties grace

Your flowery banks, if you have seen.”

Perhaps both poets thought of Cowley, vol. i. p. 117:

"Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say,

Have you not seen us walking every day."

T. Warton, in the Mons Catharinæ, has imitated this passage, as well as some others which will be noticed: ver. 31: "At Pater Ichinus," &c. It has escaped the learned editor of the late edition of T. Warton's Works, that a remarkable expression in the 'Verses on the Window of New College,' may be traced to Chamberlayne's Pharonida :

In the second volume, p. 45, Mr. Mant observes, that empurpled is used in composition, only by Akenside: but it is found in the Poems of Gilbert Cooper, (the author of the Life of Socrates,) p. 46:

"Where lies the vine-empurpled glade,

By tuneful Chaulieu vocal made."

Ver. 23. Disporting on thy margent green] thy margent green] "By slow Mæander's margent green," Milton's Comus, 232. W.-I believe it has not been observed, that there is a considerable resemblance, in style and subject, between Milton's Comus, and Cowley's play called 'Love's Riddle.' Comus was printed in 1637; Love's Riddle in 1638, though written several years before. Both these plays were probably suggested by the 'Sad Shepherd' of B. Jonson, and the Faithful Shepherdess' of Fletcher.

Ver. 24. The paths

of pleasure trace] So Pope in his Essay on Man, iii. 233:

"To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod.”

Ver. 27. The captive linnet which enthral] This expression has been noticed as tautologous. Thomson, on the same subject, uses somewhat redundant language, Spring, 702: "Inhuman caught; and in the narrow cage

From liberty confined and boundless air."

Ver. 30. Or urge the flying ball] "The senator at cricket urge the ball," Pope's Dunciad, iv. 592.

Ver. 37. And unknown regions dare descry] This line is taken from Cowley's Pindarique Ode to Hobbes, iv. 7. p. 223:

"Till unknown regions it descries."

Ver. 38. These last six lines are translated by T. Warton in his Mons Catharinæ, beginning ver. 41: "Interea licitos colles, atque otia jussa, Illi indignantes," &c. down to "Quicquid erit, cursu pavitanti, oculisque retortis

Fit furtiva via, et suspectis passibus itur."

Ver. 40. And snatch a fearful joy] So Stat. Theb. i. 620:

Magnaque post lachrymas etiamnum gaudia pallent."

For other expressions of this nature, see Mr. Wakefield's note.

Ver. 43. The tear forgot as soon as shed] Thus T. Warton, in Mons Cath. ver. 91: "En! vobis roseo ore salus, curæque fugaces

Et lachrymæ siquando breves.”

Ver. 44. The sunshine of the breast] So Pope's Eloisa, ver. 209: "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind."

Ver. 47. And lively cheer, of vigour born] "In either cheeke depeyncten lively cheere,” Spenser's Hobbinol's Dittie, ver. 33. W.

Ver. 49. The spirits pure, the slumbers light] "The temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air." Pope's Im. of Horace, I. 73; and Milton's Par. Lost, v. 3: