Select Poems Of Thomas Gray Part 6

Wb., Webster's Dictionary (last revised quarto edition).

Worc., Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition).

Other abbreviations (names of books in the Bible, plays of Shakespeare, works of Ovid, Virgil, and Horace, etc.) need no explanation.

NOTES.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD.

This poem was begun in the year 1742, but was not finished until 1750, when Gray sent it to Walpole with a letter (dated June 12, 1750) in which he says: "I have been here at Stoke a few days (where I shall continue good part of the summer), and having put an end to a thing, whose beginning you have seen long ago, I immediately send it you. You will, I hope, look upon it in the light of a thing with an end to it: a merit that most of my writings have wanted, and are like to want." It was shown in ma.n.u.script to some of the author's friends, and was published in 1751 only because it was about to be printed surrept.i.tiously.

February 11, 1751, Gray wrote to Walpole that the proprietors of "the Magazine of Magazines" were about to publish his _Elegy_, and added, "I have but one bad way left to escape the honour they would inflict upon me; and therefore am obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it immediately (which may be done in less than a week's time) from your copy, but without my name, in what form is most convenient for him, but on his best paper and character; he must correct the press himself,[1] and print it without any interval between the stanzas, because the sense is in some places continued beyond them; and the t.i.tle must be--'Elegy, written in a Country Churchyard.' If he would add a line or two to say it came into his hands by accident, I should like it better." Walpole did as requested, and wrote an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the effect that accident alone brought the poem before the public, although an apology was unnecessary to any but the author. On which Gray wrote, "I thank you for your advertis.e.m.e.nt, which saves my honour."

[Footnote 1: Dodsley's proof-reading must have been somewhat careless, for there are many errors of the press in this _editio princeps_. Gray writes to Walpole, under date of "Ash-Wednesday, Cambridge, 1751," as follows: "Nurse Dodsley has given it a pinch or two in the cradle, that (I doubt) it will bear the marks of as long as it lives. But no matter: we have ourselves suffered under her hands before now; and besides, it will only look the more careless and by _accident_ as it were." Again, March 3, 1751, he writes: "I do not expect any more editions; as I have appeared in more magazines than one. The chief errata were _sacred_ for _secret_; _hidden_ for _kindred_ (in spite of dukes and cla.s.sics); and '_frowning_ as in scorn' for _smiling_. I humbly propose, for the benefit of Mr.

Dodsley and his matrons, that take _awake_ [in line 92, which at first read "awake and faithful to her wonted fires"] for a verb, that they should read _asleep_, and all will be right." Other errors were, "Their _harrow_ oft the stubborn glebe," "And read their _destiny_ in a nation's eyes," "With uncouth rhymes and shapeless _culture_ decked," "Slow through the churchway _pa.s.s_," and many of minor importance.]

A writer in _Notes and Queries_, June 12, 1875, states that the poem first appeared in the _London Magazine_, March, 1751, p. 134, and that "the Magazine of Magazines" is "a gentle term of scorn used by Gray to indicate" that periodical, and not the name of any actual magazine. But in the next number of _Notes and Queries_ (June 19, 1875) Mr. F. Locker informs us that he has in his possession a t.i.tle-page of the _Grand Magazine of Magazines_, and the page of the number for April, 1751, which contains the _Elegy_. The magazine is said to be "collected and digested by Roger Woodville, Esq.," and "published by Cooper at the Globe, in Pater Noster Row."

Gray says nothing in his letters of the appearance of the _Elegy_ in the _London Magazine_. The full t.i.tle of that periodical was "The London Magazine: or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer." The editor's name was not given; the publisher was "R. Baldwin, jun. at the Rose in Pater-Noster Row." The volume for 1751 was the 20th, and the Preface (written at the close of the year) begins thus: "As the two most formidable Enemies we have ever had, are now extinct, we have great Reason to conclude, that it is only the Merit, and real Usefulness of our COLLECTION, that hath supported its Sale and Reputation for Twenty Years." A foot-note informs us that the "Enemies" are the "_Magazine of Magazines_ and _Grand Magazine of Magazines_;" from which it would appear that there were two periodicals of similar name published in London in 1751.[2]

[Footnote 2: May not the _Elegy_ have been printed in both of these?

We do not know how otherwise to reconcile the conflicting statements concerning the "Magazine of Magazines," as Gray calls it. In the first place, Gray appears (from other portions of his letter to Walpole) to be familiar with this magazine, and would not be likely to confound it with another of similar name. Then, as we have seen, he writes _early in March_ to Walpole that the poem has been printed "in more magazines than one." This cannot refer to the _Grand Magazine of Magazines_, if, as Mr. Locker states, it was the _April_ number of that periodical in which the poem appeared. Nor can it refer to the _London Magazine_, as it is clear from internal evidence that the March number, containing the _Elegy_, was not issued until early in April. It contains a summary of current news down to Sunday, March 31, and the price of stocks in the London market for March 30.

The _February_ number, in its "monthly catalogue" of new books, records the publication of the _Elegy_ by Dodsley thus: "An Elegy wrote in a Church-yard, pr. 6d. Dodsley."

If, then, the _Elegy_ did not appear in either the _London Magazine_ or the _Grand Magazine of Magazines_ until more than a month (in the case of the latter, perhaps two months) after Dodsley had issued it, in what magazine was it that it _did_ appear just before he issued it? The _N. A. Review_ says that "it was a close race between the Magazine and Dodsley; but the former, having a little the start, came out a few days ahead." If so, it must have been the _March_ number; or the _February_ one, if it was published, like the _London_, at the end of the month. Gray calls it "the Magazine of Magazines," and we shall take his word for it until we have reason for doubting it. What else was included in his "more magazines than one" we cannot even guess.

We have not been able to find the _Magazine of Magazines_ or the _Grand Magazine of Magazines_ in the libraries, and know nothing about either "of our own knowledge." The _London Magazine_ is in the Harvard College Library, and the statements concerning that we can personally vouch for.]

The author's name is not given with the _Elegy_ as printed in the _London Magazine_. The poem is sandwiched between an "Epilogue to _Alfred, a Masque_" and some coa.r.s.e rhymes ent.i.tled "Strip-Me-Naked, or Royal Gin for ever." There is not even a printer's "rule" or "dash" to separate the t.i.tle of the latter from the last line of the _Elegy_. The poem is more correctly printed than in Dodsley's authorized edition; though, queerly enough, it has "winds" in the second line and the parenthesis "(all he had)" in the Epitaph. Of Dodsley's misprints noted above it has only "Their _harrow_ oft" and "shapeless _culture_." These four errors, indeed, are the only ones worth noting, except "Or _wake_ to extasy the living lyre."

The "Magazine of Magazines" (as the writer in the _North American Review_ tells us) printed the _Elegy_ with the author's name. The authorized though anonymous edition was thus briefly noticed by _The Monthly Review_, the critical Rhadamanthus of the day: "_An Elegy in a Country Churchyard_. 4to. Dodsley's. Seven pages.--The excellence of this little piece amply compensates for its want of quant.i.ty."

"Soon after its publication," says Mason, "I remember, sitting with Mr. Gray in his College apartment, he expressed to me his surprise at the rapidity of its sale. I replied:

'Sunt lacrymae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.'

He paused awhile, and taking his pen, wrote the line on a printed copy of it lying on his table. 'This,' said he, 'shall be its future motto.' 'Pity,' cried I, 'that Dr. Young's Night Thoughts have preoccupied it.' 'So,' replied he, 'indeed it is.'" Gray himself tells the story of its success on the margin of the ma.n.u.script copy of the _Elegy_ preserved at Cambridge among his papers, and reproduced in _fac-simile_ in Mathias's elegant edition of the poet.

The following is a careful transcript of the memorandum:

"publish'd in Feb:^{ry}, 1751.

by Dodsley: & went thro' four Editions; in two months; and af- terwards a fifth 6^{th} 7^{th} & 8^{th} 9^{th} & 10^{th} & 11^{th} printed also in 1753 with M^r Bentley's Designs, of w^{ch} there is a 2^d Edition & again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, Vol: 4^{th} & in a Scotch Collection call'd _the Union_.

translated into Latin by Chr: Anstey Esq, & the Rev^d M^r Roberts, & publish'd in 1762; & again in the same year by Rob: Lloyd, M: A:"

"One peculiar and remarkable tribute to the merit of the _Elegy_,"

says Professor Henry Reed, "is to be noticed in the great number of translations which have been made of it into various languages, both of ancient and modern Europe. It is the same kind of tribute which has been rendered to _Robinson Crusoe_ and to _The Pilgrim's Progress_, and is proof of the same universality of interest, transcending the limits of language and of race. To no poem in the English language has the same kind of homage been paid so abundantly.

Of what other poem is there a polyglot edition? Italy and England have competed with their polyglot editions of the _Elegy_: Torri's, bearing the t.i.tle, 'Elegia di Tomaso Gray sopra un Cimitero di Campagna, tradotta dall' Inglese in piu lingue: Verona, 1817; Livorno, 1843;' and Van Voorst's London edition." Professor Reed adds a list of the translations (which, however, is incomplete), including one in Hebrew, seven in Greek, twelve in Latin, thirteen in Italian, fifteen in French, six in German, and one in Portuguese.

"Had Gray written nothing but his _Elegy_," remarks Byron, "high as he stands, I am not sure that he would not stand higher; it is the cornerstone of his glory."

The tribute paid the poem by General Wolfe is familiar to all, but we cannot refrain from quoting Lord Mahon's beautiful account of it in his _History of England_. On the night of September 13th, 1759, the night before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe was descending the St. Lawrence with a part of his troops. The historian says: "Swiftly, but silently, did the boats fall down with the tide, un.o.bserved by the enemy's sentinels at their posts along the sh.o.r.e.

Of the soldiers on board, how eagerly must every heart have throbbed at the coming conflict! how intently must every eye have contemplated the dark outline, as it lay pencilled upon the midnight sky, and as every moment it grew closer and clearer, of the hostile heights! Not a word was spoken--not a sound heard beyond the rippling of the stream. Wolfe alone--thus tradition has told us--repeated in a low tone to the other officers in his boat those beautiful stanzas with which a country churchyard inspired the muse of Gray. One n.o.ble line,

'The paths of glory lead but to the grave,'

must have seemed at such a moment fraught with mournful meaning. At the close of the recitation Wolfe added, 'Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec.'"

Hales, in his Introduction to the poem, remarks: "The _Elegy_ is perhaps the most widely known poem in our language. The reason of this extensive popularity is perhaps to be sought in the fact that it expresses in an exquisite manner feelings and thoughts that are universal. In the current of ideas in the _Elegy_ there is perhaps nothing that is rare, or exceptional, or out of the common way. The musings are of the most rational and obvious character possible; it is difficult to conceive of any one musing under similar circ.u.mstances who should not muse so; but they are not the less deep and moving on this account. The mystery of life does not become clearer, or less solemn and awful, for any amount of contemplation.

Such inevitable, such everlasting questions as rise on the mind when one lingers in the precincts of Death can never lose their freshness, never cease to fascinate and to move. It is with such questions, that would have been commonplace long ages since if they could ever be so, that the _Elegy_ deals. It deals with them in no lofty philosophical manner, but in a simple, humble, unpretentious way, always with the truest and the broadest humanity. The poet's thoughts turn to the poor; he forgets the fine tombs inside the church, and thinks only of the 'mouldering heaps' in the churchyard. Hence the problem that especially suggests itself is the potential greatness, when they lived, of the 'rude forefathers' that now lie at his feet. He does not, and cannot solve it, though he finds considerations to mitigate the sadness it must inspire; but he expresses it in all its awfulness in the most effective language and with the deepest feeling; and his expression of it has become a living part of our language."

The writer in the _North American Review_ (vol. 96) from whom we have elsewhere quoted says of the _Elegy_: "It is upon this that Gray's fame as a poet must chiefly rest. By this he will be known forever alike to the lettered and the unlettered. Many, in future ages, who may never have heard of his cla.s.sic Odes, his various learning, or his sparkling letters, will revere him only as the author of the _Elegy_. For this he will be enshrined through all time in the hearts of the myriads who shall speak our English tongue. For this his name will be held in glad remembrance in the far-off summer isles of the Pacific, and amidst the waste of polar snows. If he had written nothing else, his place as a leading poet in our language would still be a.s.sured. Many have a.s.serted, with Johnson, that he was a mere mechanical poet--one who brought from without, but never found within; that the gift of inspiration was not native to him; that his imagination was borrowed finery, his fancy tinsel, and his invention the world's well-worn jewels; that whatever in his verse was poetic was not new, and what was new was not poetic; that he was only an unworldly dyspeptic, living amid many books, and laboriously delving for a lifetime between musty covers, picking out now and then another's gems and bits of ore, and fashioning them into ill-compacted mosaics, which he wrongly called his own. To all this the _Elegy_ is a sufficient answer. It is not old--it is not bookish; it is new and human. Books could not make its maker: he was born of the divine breath alone. Consider all the commentators, the scholiasts, the interpreters, the annotators, and other like book-worms, from Aristarchus down to Doderlein; and may it not be said that, among them all, 'Nec viget quidquam simile aut secundum?'

"Gray wrote but little, yet he wrote that little well. He might have done far more for us; the same is true of most men, even of the greatest. The possibilities of a life are always in advance of its performance. But we cannot say that his life was a wasted one. Even this little _Elegy_ alone should go for much. For, suppose that he had never written this, but instead had done much else in other ways, according to his powers: that he had written many learned treatises; that he had, with keen criticism, expounded and reconstructed Greek cla.s.sics; that he had, perchance, sat upon the woolsack, and laid rich offerings at the feet of blind Justice;--taking the years together, would it have been, on the whole, better for him or for us?

Would he have added so much to the sum of human happiness? He might thus have made himself a power for a time, to be dethroned by some new usurper in the realm of knowledge; now he is a power and a joy forever to countless thousands."

Two ma.n.u.scripts of the _Elegy_, in Gray's handwriting, still exist.

Both were bequeathed by the poet, together with his library, letters, and many miscellaneous papers, to his friends the Rev. William Mason and the Rev. James Browne, as joint literary executors. Mason bequeathed the entire trust to Mr. Stonhewer. The latter, in making his will, divided the legacy into two parts. The larger share went to the Master and Fellows of Pembroke Hall. Among the papers, which are still in the possession of the College, was found a copy of the _Elegy_. An excellent fac-simile of this ma.n.u.script appears in Mathias's edition of Gray, published in 1814. In referring to it hereafter we shall designate it as the "Pembroke" MS.

The remaining portion of Gray's literary bequest, including the other ma.n.u.script of the _Elegy_, was left by Mr. Stonhewer to his friend, Mr. Bright. In 1845 Mr. Bright's sons sold the collection at auction.

The MS. of the _Elegy_ was bought by Mr. Granville John Penn, of Stoke Park, for _one hundred pounds_--the highest sum that had ever been known to be paid for a single sheet of paper. In 1854 this ma.n.u.script came again into the market, and was knocked down to Mr.

Robert Charles Wrightson, of Birmingham, for 131 pounds. On the 29th of May, 1875, it was once more offered for sale in London, and was purchased by Sir William Fraser for 230 pounds, or about $1150. A photographic reproduction of it was published in London in 1862. For convenience we shall refer to it as the "Wrightson" MS.

There can be little doubt that the Wrightson MS. is the original one, and that the Pembroke MS. is a fair copy made from it by the poet.

The former contains a greater number of alterations, and varies more from the printed text. It bears internal evidence of being the rough draft, while the other represents a later stage of the poem. We will give the variations of both from the present version.[3]

[Footnote 3: For the readings of the Wrightson MS. we have had to depend on Mason, Mitford, and other editors of the poem, and on the article in the _North American Review_, already referred to. The readings of the Pembroke MS. are taken from the engraved fac-simile in Mathias's edition.

The two stanzas of which a fac-simile is given on page 73 are from the Pembroke MS., but the wood-cut hardly does justice to the feminine delicacy of the poet's handwriting.]

The Wrightson MS. has in the first stanza, "The lowing herd _wind_ slowly," etc. See our note on this line, below.

In the 2d stanza, it reads, "And _now_ the air," etc.

The 5th stanza is as follows:

"For ever sleep: the breezy call of morn, Or swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed, Or Chanticleer so shrill, or echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."

In 8th stanza, "Their _rustic_ joys," etc.

In 10th stanza, the first two lines read,