309. 810. Nihil quod tetegit, etc. Slightly 317. 1755. Buchanan. George Buchanan misquoted from Johnson's epitaph on (1506-1582), a Scotch scholar, historian, Goldsmith, in Westminster Abbey. "He touched nothing that he did not adorn." and poet, practically all of whose work was written in Latin. 817. The fragrant parterre. The fra- 318. 1759. Johnston. Arthur Johnston (1587 grant garden. 828. Un étourdi. A fellow who talks 1641), a Scotch physician and author of a large amount of Latin verse, including a metrical version of the Psalms and the complimentary epigrams to which Bos well alludes. Johnson knew intimately. Sir John Haw 1769. Formosam resonare, etc. Thou teachest the forest to resound (with the kins (1719-1789). A close friend of John son's, and one of his executors. Boswell 322. 2233. One of the most luminous minds. was jealous of him. 310. 975. Churchill. Charles Churchill (1731 1764); a satirist, and an ardent supporter of John Wilkes and his faction. 312. 1208. Bayle's Dictionary. The Dictionaire Historique et Critique of Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), a French philosopher and man of letters. 313. 1233. Prospects. "Views," scenery. 1319. Canada is taken. Wolfe's victory over Montcalm, on the Plains of Abraham, had taken place in 1759. 314. 1369. His present Majesty. Johnson's pension came from George III, against whom the Pretender, James Stuart, son of the exiled James II, had in 1745 organized an armed rebellion of Highlanders and English Jacobites. Johnson had been for a time a favorer of the Stuarts, a sort of sentimental Jacobite, though he had always been loyal to the existing government. 1399. Victory at Culloden, etc. Charles Stuart, son of the pretender James, was his father's personal representative in England and Scotland during the second Jacobite rebellion, "The Forty-five," which ended in 1746 at Culloden, where the Duke of Cumberland overwhelmed the Stuart forces. my 315. 1455. A negation of all principle. "He used to tell, with great humor, from relation to him, the following little story of my early years, which was literally true: 'Boswell, in the year 1745, was a fine boy, wore a white cockade, and prayed for King James, till one of his 326. Warren Hastings (1732-1818) was the uncles (General Cochran) gave hima shilling on condition that he should pray for King George, which he accordingly did. So you see (says Boswell) that Whigs of all ages are made the same way.'" (Boswell.) 1483. Hume. David Hume (1711-1776), philosopher, historian, and, according to the judgment of his contemporaries, a sceptic. 317. 1720. Those called Methodists. The name of) lovely Amaryllis. Burke. The quotation is from Goldsmith's Retaliation; see p. 286. BURKE TO THE ELECTORS OF BRISTOL 23. I was put in nomination after the poll was opened. The election lasted for nearly a month. 323. 40. The candidate. Four persons were candidates, the two Whigs, Burke and Cruger, being elected. The defeated Tory, Brickdale, is the person here referred to. Brickdale tried unsuccessfully to have Burke's election annulled by the courts. 98. I stood on the hustings. "Hustings" meant both the actual platform from which nominations were made, and the entire election proceedings. "On the hustings" is not very different from the American idiom "on the stump." 324. 184. The former part. Brickdale had formerly urged the qualifications of the electors whom, after his defeat, he sought to have disfranchised. 237. My colleague. Cruger had told the electors that he would at all times vote in accordance with their desires and instructions. Burke's statement of his position on this question makes this address to the electors one of the significant documents in his history. name was first applied contemptuously to Wesley and his friends, when, as students at Oxford, they met together for prayer and worship. By 1763 the sect had become numerous. THE IMPEACHMENT OF HASTINGS first governor-general of India, being appointed in 1773 under the newly passed Regulating Act, and holding office till 1785. He was impeached by the House of Commons in 1786; his trial before the Lords began in 1788, and dragged on till 1795, when he was acquitted. Burke was charged with the prosecution, and although the verdict went against him, the ultimate result was a victory for Burke; for as a result of the disclosures made at the trial came a new and more equitable governmental policy for India. 15. Their Dewan. Financial agent. 328. 4. Our long, long labors. Burke concluded his charge on 19 February, 1788; the peroration did not follow until 16 June, 1794. Burke had been interested in Indian affairs for fifteen years before the trial began. 328. 53. Moral earthquake. The French Revolution. At the time he was speaking, the Reign of Terror was at its height. 329. 106. The Parliament of Paris. The chief court of the old French monarchy, abolished by the Revolution. REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE The French Revolution, during the period 1789-1792, found many supporters in England. Wordsworth and Coleridge, Charles James Fox, and liberal clergymen among whom Priestly and Price were the most prominent, openly gloried in the deeds that were being done in the name of Liberty. From these enthusiasts Burke was separated by a wide gulf. He did not comprehend the need for change in the French social and economic systems; he saw only the overthrow of an established civilization by hungry peasants and doctrinaire philosophers, and with impassioned earnestness he protested. The Reflections appeared in November, 1790. 330. 43. The civil social man. As distinguished from man in his aboriginal "state of nature," before the existence of society. 332. 233. Liceat perire poetis. Poets have the right to die. 236. Ardentem frigidus, etc. In cold blood he leaped into glowing Ætna. Empedocles, a Sicilian philosopher, is said to have died thus. A slipper, cast out in an eruption, was proof of his act. The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest; Some Cæsar, guiltless of his Country's Blood." The changes are significant, in that they witness Gray's transition from the pseudoclassicism of his early poems, to the romanticism of the later. BLAIR THE GRAVE 337. It was in part, at least, from this poem that Bryant drew the inspiration for his Thanatopsis. 338. 34. Night's foul bird. The owl. 93. For thee. For the poet, Gray himself. 345. 119. Fair Science frowned not. "The line means that Knowledge looked favorably upon him at his birth (a quasiastrological figure)." (Phelps.) THE PROGRESS OF POESY 345. A Pindaric Ode. Gray is adopting the ode form of the Greek poet Pindar. Professor Phelps's note explains the structure of the poem succinctly: "As Hales pointed out, this Ode is really divided into 3 stanzas, with 41 lines in each stanza. Again, each stanza is divided into 3 parts -strophe, antistrophe, and epode-the turn, counter-turn, and after-song, Greek theatrical names. The three strophes, antistrophes, and epodes are similar in construction; hence the architecture of the poem is curiously symmetrical, though one could easily read it without any perception of this fact." (Athenæum Press Edition, p. 149.) 1. Awake, Æolian lyre. Gray is invoking the Æolian harp of Pindar. 3, 4. From Helicon's harmonious springs, etc. The different streams of the world's poetry all have their source in the sacred fountain of the Muses on Mount Helicon. 9. Ceres' golden reign. Fields of grain, in the care of Ceres, goddess of the harvest. 15. Enchanting shell. The lyre, to which the first three sections of the poem are addressed. Hermes, according to the legend, made the first lyre from a tortoise shell. 27. Fatal day. The day on which the bards were executed. 28. Hoel, Llewellyn; 29, 31. Cadwallo, Urien. Welsh poets. 33. Modred. Gray uses the name of the 34. Plinlimmon. A Welsh mountain. 49. The whole band of murdered bards 17. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War. 56. An agonizing king. Castle." (Gray.) "Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley "Tri 59. Who o'er thy country hangs. (Gray.) 63. Mighty Victor. Edward III. 65. No pitying heart. "Death of that 70. The rising morn. Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign." (Gray.) 77-82. "Richard the Second was starved to death." (Gray.) 68. Ilissus. A river of Attica. 69. Mæander. A river of Asia Minor. 77. The sad Nine. The Muses. 77-82. Poetry left Greece for Rome, and from Rome sought England. 84. Nature's Darling. Shakespeare. 95. Nor second he, that rode sublime. Milton. race. 105. Two coursers of ethereal Dryden's favorite verse form was the iambic pentameter couplet. 347. 107. His hands. Dryden's. 112. What daring spirit? Gray himself. 115. The Theban Eagle. Gray's own note reads: "Pindar compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight, regardless of their noise." 83-86. The wars of the Roses, between the houses of York and Lancaster, 14551485. 87. Towers of Julius. According to an old legend, Julius Cæsar is supposed to have begun the Tower of London. 89. His Consort's faith. "Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI), a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown." (Gray.) His father. Henry V. 90. The meek usurper. "Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown." (Gray.) 91, 2. The rose of snow, etc. "The white and red roses, devices of York and 349. 37. They, whom once. The Norsemen. Lancaster." (Gray.) 348. 93. The bristled Boar. "The silver boar was the badge of Richard the Third." 350. 56. Younger King. See note on 1. 32. (Gray.) In infant gore. A reference to Richard's murder of the two young princes. 99. Half of thy heart. "Eleanor of Castile (wife of Edward I), died a few years after the conquest of Wales." (Gray.) 109. Long-lost Arthur. "It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-Land, and should return again to reign over Britain." (Gray.) 110. Ye genuine Kings. "Both Merlin 350. 1. We set out. Gray was making "the and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor." (Gray.) 115. A form divine. Queen Elizabeth. 349. 127. Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest. The allusion is to the allegorical nature of Spenser's Faerie Queene. 128. In buskined measures. speare's tragedies. 131. A voice. Milton. Shake 133. Distant warblings. "The succession of Poets after Milton's time." (Gray.) 135. Impious man. Edward I. THE FATAL SISTERS One of Gray's notes, the Preface to the poem as it originally appeared, makes the situation clear: "In the Eleventh Century Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney Islands, went with a fleet of ships and a considerable body of troops into Ireland, to the assistance of Sictryg with the Silken Beard, who was then making war on his father-in-law, Brian, King of Dublin: the Earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sictryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of Brian, their King, who fell in action. On Christmas day, (the day of the battle), a Native of Caithness in Scotland saw at a distance a number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them, till looking king through the rocks he saw twelve gigantic figures resembling women: they were all employed about a loom; and as they wove, they sung the following dreadful Song; which when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and (each taking her portion) galloped six to the North and as many to the South." an 352. Macpherson's "Ossianic" opening in The "Fatal Sisters" are here represented as the goddesses of fate, and as the Valkyrie, or "choosers of the slain," who select heroes destined to die in battle, 353. Burns was so conscious of his literary 41. The Earl. Probably Sigurd. 44. A King. Brian. SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER The poem was found in one of Gray's pocket-books, and was not printed till after his death. 6. Charles Townshend. Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1767. Squire. Dr. Samuel Squire, Bishop of St. David's. LETTERS grand tour" with his college friend, Horace Walpole. His impressions of Alpine scenery may interestingly be compared with those of Addison, who wrote from Geneva, December 6, 1701, to Wortley Montagu: "I am just now arrived at Geneva by a very troublesome journey over the Alps, where I have been for some days together shivering among the eternal snows. My head is still giddy with mountains and precipices, and you cannot imagine how much I am pleased with the sight of a plain, that is as agreeable to me at present as a shore was about a year ago after one tempest at Genoa." 351. 19. St. Bruno. The founder of the Carthusian order of monks. He located the home of the order in the mountains near Grenoble, 1084 A. D. 21. Dodsley. Robert Dodsley (17031764), English bookseller and publisher, best known for his Select Collection of Old Plays, which he edited and published in 1744. 352. 3. Sack and silver. The poet laureate was usually given a money stipend and an annual allowance of wine. Gray had been informally offered the post at the time he wrote this letter to Mason. 24. Rowe. Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), 26. Settle. Elkanah Settle (1648-1723). MACPHERSON CATH-LODA Some poems are important because of the influence they exerted in the development of romanticism during the eighteenth century. ancient Celtic fragments are probably embedded in them, but for the form and tone Macpherson alone is responsible. The poems were published between 1760 and 1765. See Dr. Johnson's letter, page 294. FERGUSSON and conduct them to Valhalla. 32. The youthful king. Sictryg. debt to Fergusson that he erected a tombstone over Fergusson's grave. 367. 66. Black Bonnet. "The elder who 'officiated' at the collecting-plate, which stood at the entrance, was accustomed to wear a black bonnet." (Centenary Burns, i. 331.) 102 ff. Moodie, Smith, Peebles, Miller, and Russell, were all parish ministers of considerable local importance or toriety. no BRISTOWE TRAGEDIE 356. 141. Goddelyke Henrie. Henry VI, whom the Lancastrians held to have been illegally succeeded by Edward IV. 358. 276. Bataunt. The word is a participle meaning hastening; Chatterton misuses it here, and thinks of it as some sort of a musical instrument. COWPER ON THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE 360. The English man-of-war Royal George capsized and sank off Spithead, August 29, 1782, after having been heeled over intentionally in order to expose a leaky section of her bottom. Admiral Kempenfelt was at the time under orders to go to the relief of Gibraltar. THE TASK 362. 390. To hear that ye were fallen at last. The Task was published in 1785, four years before the capture of the Bastille by the revolutionists. MY MOTHER'S PICTURE 364. 97. An incorrect quotation from Garth's Dispensary, iii. 226. 108. My boast is not that I deduce my birth. Cowper traced his descent from Henry III of England; the line means that although his descent is royal, he does not boast of it. SONNET TO MRS. UNWIN Cowper's most intimate friends were the Reverend Morley Unwin, and his wife Mary. Cowper began to live with them as a boarder in 1765; following Mr. Unwin's death in 1767 Cowper and Mrs. Unwin continued together till her death in December, 1796. TO MARY Written to Mrs. Mary Unwin. 368. 226. Clinkumbell. The beadle, or bell man. THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT 370. The editors of the Centenary Burns note 372. 111-113. Dundee's, Martyr's, Elgin. 373. 138. Hope "springs exulting," etc. Slightly misquoted from Pope's Windsor Forest. 166. "An honest man," etc. Slightly misquoted from Pope's Essay on Man, iv. 297. 182. Wallace. William Wallace (c. 12701305), the Scottish patriot. TAM O' SHANTER 375. 102. Kirk Alloway seemed in a bleeze. The editors of the Centenary Burns note (i. 433): "Alloway Kirk was originally |