So they send to ask the king of bees to help in their part-song; "Who condescending gladly flew along To beare the base to his well tuned song." 10. The moping owl. See Ovid's Met. v. 550, of Ascalaphus punished by Proserpine for his too keen observation: "Fœdaque fit volucris, venturi nuncia luctus, Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." 12. reign realm; as in Pope's Iliad: = "The wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain." 13. As he stands in the churchyard, he thinks only of the poorer people (comp. below, passim) because the better to do lay interred inside the church. Tennyson (In Mem. x.) speaks of resting "beneath the clover sod That takes the sunshine and the rains, Or where the kneeling hamlet drains In Gray's time, and long before, and some time after it, the former resting-place was for the poor, the latter for the rich. It was so in the first instance, for two reasons: (i) The interior of the church was regarded as of greater sanctity, and all who could, sought a place in it. The most dearly coveted spot was close by the high altar. (ii) When elaborate tombs were the fashion, they were built inside the church for the sake of security, "Gay tombs" being liable to be "robb'd." (See the funeral dirge in Webster's White Devil.) As these two considerations gradually ceased to have power, and other considerations of an opposite tendency began to prevail, the inside of the church became comparatively deserted, except when ances tral reasons gave no choice. 16. [What is the form of rude here?] 17. See Par. Lost, ix. 192: "Now when as sacred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flowers that breathed 18. Comp. Hesiod's epithet of the swallow in Works and Days, 568 (Göttling): See Æn. viii. 455. ἐς φάος ἀνθρώποις.” 19. See Par. Lost, vii. 443. 20. [What is the force of shall here? What would will mean ?] 21. Comp. Lucret. iii. 894-6 (Lachmann) : Hor. Ep. ii. 40. "Jam jam non domus accipiet te læta, neque uxor Optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati Præripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent." Mitford refers to Thomson's Winter, 311. 22. [What is meant by ply her evening care?] This is probably the kind of phrase which led Wordsworth to pronounce the language of the Elegy unintelligible. Compare his own "And she I cherished turned her wheel 23. Comp. Burns' Cotter's Saturday Night, 21, Shelley's Revolt of Islam, viii. 4. 26. [What word-form in this line has now fallen out of use?] [What is meant by furrow here ?] 80. 27. afield. See Lycid. 27. 33. [What exactly is meant by the boast of heraldry?] 38. [Explain trophies.] 39. See note to Il Penser. 157. 39. aile. Fr. aile, Old Fr. aisle, Lat. axilla, which means literally a winglet, or little wing. The French spelling was common in Gray's time. fretted strictly, ornamented with frets or small fillets (or bands) intersecting each other at right angles (see Glossary of Architecture); from the Fr. fréter, to cross, or interlace, as the bars of trellis-work. Etymologically, these interlacing bands or "beads" were of iron (Lat. ferrum). Ferrata in Ital. an iron grating. See Hamlet's fine use of the word, Hamlet, II. ii. 313: "This majestical roof fretted with golden fire." Comp. Cymb. II. iv. 38. Fretful is of quite different origin. vault arched roof. The word is ultimately derived from the Lat. volvo. 40. [What is meant by swells here?] pealing. See Il Pens. 161. 41. storied. See Il Pens. 159. animated bust. Comp. Virgil's "spirantia æra," Æn. vi. 847. Bust is radically the same word with breast, through the Fr. buste, which is a weakened form of the Germ. brust. The Germ. equivalent for our bust is brust-bild. 42. [Is fleeting here an adj. or a part.? What is the difference between an adj. and a part.?] 47. Mitford quotes Ov. Ep. v. 86: "Sunt mihi quas possint sceptra decere manus." 48. [Is there anything at all tautological in this line? Is there in any other line of the Elegy?] 50. unroll Lat. revolvere, as in Hor. Ep. II. i. 223: "Cum loca jam recitata revolvimus irrevocati." So the word volume properly applies only to the old shape of books. 51. rage. See note to The Passions, 111. 53. purest ray serene. A favourite word-order with Milton. See note to Hymn Nat. 187. Mitford quotes from Hall's Contemplations: "There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowells of the earth, many a fair pearle in the bosom of the sea, that never was seene, nor never shall bee." 55. Comp. Waller's Rape of the Lock, 622. "6 Go, lovely rose: Tell her that's young And shuns to have her graces spy'd, That hadst thou sprung In deserts where no men abide Thou must have uncommended died." 57. It was in 1636 that John Hampden of Buckinghamshire (a cousin of the great Cromwell) refused to pay the ship-money tax, which the misguided king was levying without the authority of the Parliament. 58. See Hist. Eng. [What is meant by the little tyrant of his fields?] 59. Could a Milton have ever been mute and inglorious? Or would a genius so vast have in some sort overcome all the circumstances that obstructed it? Would he have grappled with his evil star?" (In Mem. Ixiii.) 60. The prejudice against Cromwell was extremely strong throughout the 18th century, even amongst the more liberal-minded. That cloud of "detractions rude," of which Milton speaks in his noble sonnet to our "chief of men," as in his own day enveloping the great republican leader, still lay thick and heavy over him. His wise statesmanship, his unceasing earnestness, his high-minded purpose, were not yet seen. As to the particular charge against him suggested here, it need only be remembered that it was not till some time after Charles had raised his standard at Nottingham (Aug. 1642) that Cromwell became of importance. It was not till the spring of 1645 that he became the real head of the army. 61. [What is the main predicate of the sentence beginning here?] The great age of Parliamentary oratory was just dawning when the Elegy was published. The elder Pitt was already famous for his eloquence. 63. As Walpole's long, peaceful administration (which ended in 1742) had done. 81 65. Their growing virtues = The growth of their virtues. 69. [What is meant by conscious truth?] 71. This was but too common a fashion with poets in the days of patronage. 71, 72. [Paraphrase and fully explain these two lines.] 72. Here, in Gray's first MS., followed these four stanzas: "The thoughtless world to majesty may bow, Than pow'r or genius e'er conspired to bless. 73. Are ignoble strifes confined to towns? are they impossible in villages? See Johnson's London, 5 and 6. madding. See Van. of H. W. 30. 77. these bones the bones of these. So is is often used in Latin, esp. by Livy, as v. 22: Ea sola pecunia" = only the money derived from that sale, &c. 79. uncouth. See note to L'Alleg. 5. rhimes. This word ought to be spelt rimes. The h was inserted through a mis taken derivation from the Greek rhythmus. [deck'd. Why is the final d here sounded like t? Give similar instances.] 80. Comp. Lycid. 21. 82. This was an age much given to elaborate epitaphs and elegies. See W. Thompson's Epitaph on my Father, Epitaph on my Mother, Smart's Epitaph on the Rev. Mr. Reynolds, Whitehead's Epitaph on a Marble Pyramid of the Monument of John Duke of Argyle, &c., &c. Part of Book iii. of Watts' Poems (died 1748) is "sacred to the memory of the dead," and contains "an Epitaph on King William," "an Elegiac thought on Mrs Anne Warner," &c. Shenstone has an Elegy "on the untimely death of a certain learned acquaintance," &c. Gray himself had contributed to this funereal literature. See also Pope's works, Goldsmith's, &c., and the walls and monuments of Westminster Abbey, passim. This style of writing still survives in country places; but happily even there is growing rarer. 84. [Is the plural verb correct here? Explain rustic moralist.] 85. At the first glance it might seem that to dumb Forgetfulness a prey was in apposition to who, and the meaning was "who that lies now quite forgotten," &c.; in which case the 2nd line of the stanza must be closely connected with the 4th; for the question of the passage is not 66 who ever died?" but "who ever died without wishing to be remembered?" But in this way of interpreting this difficult stanza (i) there is comparatively little force in the appositional phrase, (ii) there is a certain awkwardness in deferring so long the clause (virtually adverbial though apparently coordinate) in which, as has just been noticed, the point of the question really lies. Perhaps therefore it is better to take the phrase to dumb Forgetfulness a prey as in fact the completion of the predicate resign'd, and interpret thus: "Who ever resigned this life of his with all its pleasures and all its pains to be utterly ignored and forgotten?"="who ever, when resigning it, reconciled himself to its being forgotten?" In this case the 2nd half of the stanza echoes the thought of the 1st half. 86. this pleasing anxious being. See in the fine lines to Life by Mrs. Barbauld (given in part in the Golden Treasury): "Life! we've been long together Through pleasant and through cloudy weather." 89. In this stanza he answers in an exquisite manner the two questions, or rather the one question twice repeated, of the preceding stanza. His answers may, as has been suggested to me by a friend, form a climax. The 1st line seems to regard the near approach of death; the 2nd its actual advent; the 3rd the time immediately succeeding that advent; the 4th a still later time. What he would say is that every one while a spark of life yet remains in him yearns for some kindly loving remembrance; nay, even after the spark is quenched, even when all is dust and ashes, that yearning must still be felt. We would never not be loved. The passion for affection and sympathy can never, never die. Comp. Tibullus' beautiful lines to his Delia : "Te spectem, suprema mihi quum venerit hora; Te teneam moriens deficiente manu. Flebis; non tua sunt duro præcordia ferro Mitford quotes from Solon: “ μήδ' ἐμοὶ ἀκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι Strangely different was Sterne's wish about his last moments-a wish which accident gratified. 90. pious in the sense of the Lat. pius. See Ov. Trist. IV. iii. 41. Comp. debitâ lacrimâ in Hor. Od. II. vi. 23. 92. Chaucer's Reeve, saying that old men such as he do not forget the passions of their earlier days, adds, Cant. T. 3880: "Yet in oure aisshen old is fyr ireke [raked]." Gray himself quotes from Petrarch's 169th (170th in some editions) sonnet: "Ch' i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco, thus translated by Nott. "These, my sweet fair, so warns prophetic thought, the "these" meaning his love and his songs concerning it. Gray translated this Sonnet into Latin Elegiacs. His last line is: Comp. The Bard, l. 122. Mitford quotes Ovid's Trist. III. iii. 83, and Propert. II. xiii. 41. one, I think, has yet quoted Propertius' closely pertinent line (V. xi. 74): No "Hæc cura et cineri spirat inusta meo," with which "Broukhusius" and after him Hertzberg (see Paley ad 1. c.) compare Cicero's "Cur hunc dolorem cineri ejus atque ossibus inussisti." Add the well-known lines from Tennyson's Maud, I. (xxii. 11): "She is coming, my own, iny sweet, Were it ever so airy a tread My heart would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead, 95. [What part of speech is chance virtually here ?] 98. at the peep of dawn. See Comus, 138-140: "Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 99. See Par. Lost, v. 429, Arcades, 50. 100. See Notes to L'Alleg. 92, and Hymn Nat. 85. "Him have we seen the greenwood side along, Comp. As you like it, II. 1. 103. His listless length. So: "if you will measure your lubber's length again," &c. King Lear, I. iv. 97. |