ODES. ODE I. ON THE SPRING. The original manuscript title given by Gray to this Ode, was 'Noontide.' It appeared for the first time in Dodsley's Collection, vol. ii. p. 271, under the title of Ode.' Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, Disclose the long-expecting flowers, And wake the purple year! NOTES. Ver. 1. Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours] "The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours." Milton's Comus, ver. 984. W. Ver. 2. Fair Venus' train, appear] So Homer in the Hymnus ad Venerem, ii. 5 : τὴν δὲ χρυσάμπυκες ὥραι Δέξαντ' ἀσπασίως περὶ δ' ἄμβροτα εἵματα ἔσσαν. The Hours also are joined with Venus in the Hymnus ad Apollinem, ver 194. And Hesiod places them in her train : ἄμφι δὲ τήνγε Ωραι καλλίκομοι στέφον ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσι. Erg. ver. 75. Ver. 3. Disclose the long-expecting flowers] "At that soft season when descending showers Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers," Pope's Temple of Fame, b. i. ver. 1. W.-In some editions, and even in those of Mr. Park, and of Du Roveray, "expected" is erroneously printed for "expecting." Ver. 4. And wake the purple year] Apuleius in his Nuptiis Cupid. et Psyches, vi. p. 427, ed. Oudendorp: "Hora, rosis, et cæteris floribus purpurabant omnia." Also in the Pervigilium Veneris, ver. 13: "Ipsa gemmis purpurantem pingit annum floribus.” Pope has the same expression in his Past. i. 28: " And lavish Nature paints the purple year." VOL. I. B Ver. 5. The Attic warbler pours her throat] Martial. Epig. i. 54: "Sic ubi multisona fervet sacer Atthide lucus." Also in the Epitaphium Athenaidos apud Fabrettum, p. 703: "Cum te, nate, fleo, planctus dabit Attica Aedon." And "Attica volucris." Propert. II. xvi. 6. "fugit vultus Philomela suos, natumque sonat Flebilis Atthis." Seneca Herc. Œt. v. 200. Add Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 245: "The Attic bird trills her thick-warbled notes." The expression "pours her throat" is taken from Pope's Essay on Man, iii. 33: "Is it for thee the linnet pours her throat?” Ver. 12. A broader browner shade] shade imbrown'd the noontide bowers.' Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 246: "The unpierc'd "And breathes a browner horror o'er the woods," Pope's Eloisa, 170. W.-Thomson's Cast. of Ind. i. 38: "Or Autumn's varied shades imbrown the walls.” Ver. 13. Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech O'er-canopies the glade]. "A bank o'ercanopied with luscicus woodbine." Shaks. Mids. N. Dr. act ii. sc. 2. GRAY.-Mr. Wakefield has cited a passage from Milton's Comus, 543, which bears some resemblance to this passage. Fletcher's Purpl. Island, ch. i. ver. 30: "The beech shall yield a cool safe canopy." So these lines appeared in Dodsley. The variation, as Mr. Mason informs us, was subsequently made, to avoid the point "little and great." NOTES. Ver. 22. The panting herds repose] "Patula pecus omne sub ulmo est," Pers. Sat. iii. 6. W.-But Gray seems to have imitated Pope's Past. ii. 86: "But see the shepherds shun the noonday heat, The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat, which was from Virg. Eclog. ii. 8: "Nunc etiam pecudes umbras et frigora captant;" or Hor. Book III. Ode xxix. 21: "Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido Rivumque fessus quærit." Ver. 23. Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air] Thomson's Autumn, 836: "Warn'd of approaching winter, gather'd, play the swallow-people." And Walton's Complete Angler, p. 260: "Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing." To which may be added, Beaumont's Psyche, st. lxxxviii. p. 46: "Every tree empeopled was with birds of softest throats." Ver. 24. The busy murmur glows] Thus Milton, Par. Reg. iv. 248: "The sound of bees' industrious murmur." Mr. Wakefield quotes Thomson's Spring, 506: "Thro' the soft air the busy nations fly." And, 649: "But restless hurry thro' the busy air." Compare also Pope's T. of Fame, 294. I will add here a few of Pope's imitations, (which have been unnoticed,) in as brief a manner as possible. "The glory of the priesthood and the shame," (Essay on Criticism, 693) is from Oldham's Sat. against Poetry: B 2 The insect-youth are on the wing, And float amid the liquid noon: NOTES. 25 30 "The glory and the scandal of the age.' ." And this line is copied from a poet who has been undeservedly neglected, and in whose work are many very beautiful passages and expressions: "The glory, yet the scandal of the age." Chamberlayne's Pharonida, ii. p. 200. In Eloisa to Abelard, ver. 51: "Heaven first taught letters," is formed upon some lines written by Howel, and prefixed to his Epistles, p. 15. In the beginning of Eloisa, ver. 13: "Oh! write it not, my hand," is from Claudian, Nupt. Hon. et Mar. ver. 7. "quoties incanduit ore Confessus secreta rubor: nomenque beatum Injussæscripsere manus !" ver. 324, of the same poem, is from Seneca, Herc. Et. 1342. Pope has borrowed much from Milton. To give the passages at length would extend this note too far: but compare Pastoral iii. 60, with Comus, 290; Temple of Fame, 91, with Par. Lost, i. 711; Temple of Fame, 94, with Par. Lost, ii. 2. Ver. 25. The insect-youth are on the wing] "Some to the sun their insect-wings. unfold," Pope's Rape of the Lock, ii. 59. W.; but this expression was rather suggested by a line in Green's Hermitage, quoted in Gray's Letter to Walpole: (see note at ver. 31.) "From maggot-youth thro' change of state They feel, like us, the turns of fate." Ver. 26. Eager to taste the honied spring] Part of Dr. Johnson's objection to this word, as formed after a late practice of poets, has been removed by the authority of Milton, as quoted by Mr. Wakefield: I Pens. 142., Lycid. 140., Sams. Agonist. 1066. T. Warton has used it in The Hamlet, 43: "Their humble porch with honied flowers." Ver. 27. And float amid the liquid noon] "Nare per æstatem liquidam," Georg. iv. 59. GRAY.—To which, add Georg. i. 404; and Æn. v. 525; x. 272. Ver. 30. Quick-glancing to the sun] "Sporting with quick glance, shew to the sun their wav'd coats dropp'd with gold," Par. Lost, vii. 410., GRAY.-See also Pope's Homer, ii. 557; and Essay on Man, iii. 55. Whitehead has copied this expression: "Quick-glancing to the sun display'd." See his Works, vol. iii. p. 26; and T. Warton in his ode written at Vale Royal Abbey: "The golden fans, that o'er the turrets strown Quick-glancing to the sun, wild music made.” st. iii. To Contemplation's sober eye And they that creep, and they that fly, Shall end where they began. Alike the Busy and the Gay But flutter thro' life's little day, In Fortune's varying colours drest: They leave, in dust to rest. Methinks I hear, in accents low, The sportive kind reply: Poor moralist! and what art thou? A solitary fly! NOTES. Ver. 31. To Contemplation's sober eye] "While insects from the threshold preach," Green, in the Grotto. Dodsley, Misc. vol. v. p. 161. GRAY.-Gray, in a letter to H. Walpole, says: (see Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 395.) “I send you a bit of a thing for two reasons; first, because it is one of your favorites, Mr. M. Green; and next, because I would do justice: the thought on which my second Ode turns, (The Ode to Spring, afterwards placed first, by Gray,) is manifestly stole from thence. Not that I knew it at the time, but having seen this many years before; to be sure it imprinted itself on my memory, and forgetting the author, I took it for my own." Then follows the quotation from Green's Grotto. Mr. Wakefield seems to have discovered the original of this stanza in some lines in Thomson's Summer, 342: "Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways, A season's glitter! Thus they flutter on From toy to toy, from vanity to vice, Till, blown away by Death, Oblivion comes Behind, and strikes them from the book of life!" 40 36 |