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diff --git a/15409.txt b/15409.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09f4f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/15409.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1139 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard +(1751) and The Eton College Manuscript, by Thomas Gray + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751) and The Eton College Manuscript + +Author: Thomas Gray + +Release Date: March 18, 2005 [EBook #15409] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ELEGY WROTE IN A COUNTRY *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Diane Monico and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + + + +THOMAS GRAY + +_An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_ + +(1751) + +and + +_The Eton College Manuscript_ + + + +With an Introduction by + +George Sherburn + + +Publication Number 31 + + +Los Angeles +Williams Andrews Clark Memorial Library +University of California +1951 + + + + +GENERAL EDITORS + +H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_ +RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ +JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +ASSISTANT EDITOR + +W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + +EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ +BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_ +LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ +CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_ +JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ +ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ +EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_ +SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ +ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ +JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_ +H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +To some the eighteenth-century definition of proper poetic matter is +unacceptable; but to any who believe that true poetry may (if not +"must") consist in "what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed," +Gray's "Churchyard" is a majestic achievement--perhaps (accepting the +definition offered) the supreme achievement of its century. Its +success, so the great critic of its day thought, lay in its appeal to +"the common reader"; and though no friend of Gray's other work, Dr. +Johnson went on to commend the "Elegy" as abounding "with images which +find a mirrour in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom +returns an echo." Universality, clarity, incisive lapidary +diction--these qualities may be somewhat staled in praise of the +"classical" style, yet it is precisely in these traits that the +"Elegy" proves most nobly. The artificial figures of rhetorical +arrangement that are so omnipresent in the antitheses, chiasmuses, +parallelisms, etc., of Pope and his school are in Gray's best +quatrains unobtrusive or even infrequent. + +Often in the art of the period an affectation of simplicity covers and +reveals by turns a great thirst for ingenuity. Swift's prose is a fair +example; in the "Tale of a Tub" and even in "Gulliver" at first sight +there seems to appear only an honest and simple directness; but pry +beneath the surface statements, or allow yourself to be dazzled by +their coruscations of meaning, and you immediately see you are +watching a stylistic prestidigitator. The later, more orderly dignity +of Dr. Johnson's exquisitely chosen diction is likewise ingeniously +studied and self-conscious. When Gray soared into the somewhat turgid +pindaric tradition of his day, he too was slaking a thirst for +rhetorical complexities. But in the "Elegy" we have none of that. Nor +do we have artifices like the "chaste Eve" or the "meek-eyed maiden" +apostrophized in Collins and Joseph Warton. For Gray the hour when the +sky turns from opal to dusk leaves one not "breathless with +adoration," but moved calmly to placid reflection tuned to drowsy +tinklings or to a moping owl. It endures no contortions of image or of +verse. It registers the sensations of the hour and the reflections +appropriate to it--simply. + +It is not difficult to be clear--so we are told by some who habitually +fail of that quality--if you have nothing subtle to say. And it has +been urged on high authority in our day that there is nothing really +"fine" in Gray's "Churchyard." However conscious Gray was in limiting +his address to "the common reader," we may be certain he was not +writing to the obtuse, the illiterate or the insensitive. He was to +create an evocation of evening: the evening of a day and the +approaching night of life. The poem was not to be perplexed by doubt; +it ends on a note of "trembling hope"--but on "hope." There are +perhaps better evocations of similar moods, but not of this precise +mood. Shakespeare's poignant Sonnet LXXIII ("That time of year"), +which suggests no hope, may be one. Blake's "Nurse's Song" is, in +contrast, subtly tinged with modernistic disillusion: + + When the voices of children are heard on the green + And whisp'rings are in the dale, + The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, + My face turns green and pale. + + Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, + And the dews of night arise; + Your spring & your day are wasted in play, + And your winter and night in disguise. + +Here, too, are no tremblings of hope, no sound confidence in the +"average" man, such as Gray surprisingly glimpses. One begins to +suspect that it is more necessary to be subtle in evocations of +despair than in those of hope, even if the hope is tremulous. The mood +Gray sought required no obvious subtlety. The nearest approach to Gray +(found in Catullus) may likewise be said to be deficient in overtones; +but it also comes home to the heart of everyman: + + o quid solutis est beatius curis, + cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino + labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum + desideratoque acquiescimus lecto! + +These simple lines convey what Gray's ploughman is achieving for one +evening, but not what the rude forefathers have achieved for eternity. +From the ploughman and the simple annals of the poor the poem diverges +to reproach the proud and great for their disregard of undistinguished +merit, and moves on to praise of the sequestered life, and to an +epitaph applicable either to a "poeta ignotus" or to Gray himself. The +epitaph with its trembling hope transforms the poem into something +like a personal yet universal requiem; and for one villager--perhaps +for himself--Gray seems to murmur through the gathering darkness: "et +lux perpetua luceat ei." Although in this epitaph we may seem to be +concerned with an individual, we do well to note that the youth to +fortune and fame unknown, whose great "bounty" was only a tear, is as +completely anonymous as the ploughman or the rude forefathers. + +The somber aspects of evening are perhaps more steadily preserved by +Gray than by his contemporaries. From Milton to Joseph Warton all +poets had made their ploughman unwearied as (to quote Warton): + + He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves. + +With Gray all this blithe whistling stopped together. Evening poems by +Dyer, Warton, and Collins had tended to be "pretty," but here again +Gray resisted temptation and regretfully omitted a stanza designed to +precede immediately the epitaph: + + There scatter'd oft, the earliest of ye Year + By hands unseen, are Show'rs of Violets found; + The Red-breast loves to build & warble there, + And little Footsteps lightly print the Ground. + +With similar critical tact Gray realized that one might have too much +of stately moral reflections unmixed with drama. Possibly such an +idea determined him in discarding four noble quatrains with which he +first designed to end his poem. After line 72 in the manuscript now in +Eton College appeared these stanzas: + + The thoughtless World to Majesty may bow + Exalt the brave, & idolize Success + But more to Innocence their Safety owe + Than Power & Genius e'er conspired to bless + + And thou, who mindful of the unhonour'd Dead + Dost in these Notes their artless Tale relate + By Night & lonely Contemplation led + To linger in the gloomy Walks of Fate + + Hark how the sacred Calm, that broods around + Bids ev'ry fierce tumultuous Passion cease + In still small Accents, whisp'ring from the Ground + A grateful Earnest of eternal Peace + + No more with Reason & thyself at Strife + Give anxious Cares & endless Wishes room + But thro the cool sequester'd Vale of Life + Pursue the silent Tenour of thy Doom. + +"And here," comments Mason, "the Poem was originally intended to +conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed Swain, &c. +suggested itself to him." To reconstitute the poem with this original +ending gives an interesting structure. The first three quatrains evoke +the fall of darkness; four stanzas follow presenting the rude +forefathers in their narrow graves; eleven quatrains follow in +reproach of Ambition, Grandeur, Pride, et al., for failure to realize +the high merit of humility. Then after line 72 of the final version +would come these four rejected stanzas, continuing the reproach of +"the thoughtless world," and turning all too briefly to one who could +"their artless tale relate," and to the calm that then breathes around +tumultuous passion and speaks of eternal peace--and "the silent tenor +of thy doom." + +That would give a simpler structure; and one may argue whether turning +back from the thoughtless world to praise again the "cool sequester'd +vale of life" and then appending "the happy idea of the hoary-headed +swain, &c." does really improve the poem structurally. Its method is, +however, more acceptable in that now the reflections are imbedded in +"drama" (or at least in narrative), and the total effect is more +pleasing to present-day readers since we escape, or seem to escape, +from the cool universality of humble life to a focus on an individual +grief. To end on a grim note of generalized "doom," would have given +the poem a temporary success such as it deserved; and it must be +acknowledged that the knell-like sound of "No more ... No more" (lines +20, 21) echoed and re-echoed for decades through the imaginations of +gloom-fed poets. But Gray, although an undoubted "graveyard" poet, is +no mere graveyard poet: he stands above and apart from the lot of +them, and he was not content to end despondently in a descending +gloom. His, as he told West, in a celebrated letter, was a "white +melancholy, or rather leucocholy"; and he wrote of "lachrymae rerum" +rather than of private mordant sorrows. + +The poem is couched in universals: Gray writes in "a" country +churchyard, and the actual Stoke Poges, dear and lovely as it +doubtless was to Gray, clings to the fame of the poem almost by +accident. And yet, by a sort of paradox, this "universal" poem in its +setting and mood is completely English. One could go too far from home +for examples of distinction--for the polar stars of the rude +forefathers--just as one could err by excess of "commonplace" +reflections. Some such idea encouraged Gray to modify his fifteenth +quatrain, which in the Eton MS reads (the first line has partly +perished from folding of the paper): + + Some [Village] Cato [who] with dauntless Breast + The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood; + Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest; + Some Caesar, guiltless of his Country's Blood. + +The substitution of English names is an obvious attempt to bring truth +closer to the souls of his readers by use of "domestica facta" and the +avoidance of school-boy learning. + +All these changes illustrate the quality of Gray's curious felicity. +His assault on the reader's sensibilities was organized and careful: +here is no sign of that contradiction in terms, "unpremeditated art." +He probably did not work on the poem so long as historians have said +he did, but he scanted neither time nor attention. Mason thought the +poem begun and perhaps finished in 1742, and he connected its +somberness with Gray's great sorrow over the death of his close friend +Richard West. All this seems more than doubtful: to Dr. Thomas +Wharton in September 1746 Gray mentioned recently composing "a few +autumnal verses," and there is no real evidence of work on the poem +before this time. Walpole evidently inclined to 1746 as the date of +commencement, and it may be pointed out that Mason himself is not so +sure of 1742 as have been his Victorian successors. All he says is, "I +am inclined to believe that the Elegy ... was begun, if not concluded, +at this time [1742] also." Gray's reputation for extreme leisurely +composition depends largely on the "inclination" to believe that the +"Elegy" was begun in 1742 and on a later remark by Walpole concerning +Gray's project for a History of Poetry. In a letter of 5 May 1761 +Walpole joked to Montagu saying that Gray, "if he rides Pegasus at his +usual foot-pace, will finish the first page two years hence." Not +really so slow as this remark suggests, Gray finally sent his "Elegy" +to Walpole in June of 1750, and in December he sent perhaps an earlier +form of the poem to Dr. Wharton. Naturally delighted with the +perfected utterance of this finely chiseled work, these two friends +passed it about in manuscript, and allowed copies to be taken. + +Publication, normally abhorrent to Gray, thus became inevitable, +though apparently not contemplated by Gray himself. The private +success of the poem was greater than he had anticipated, and in +February of 1751 he was horrified to receive a letter from the editor +of a young and undistinguished periodical, "The Magazine of +Magazines," who planned to print forthwith the "ingenious poem, +call'd Reflections in a Country-Churchyard." Gray hastily wrote to +Walpole (11 February), insisting that he should "make Dodsley print it +immediately" from Walpole's copy, without Gray's name, but with good +paper and letter. He prescribed the titlepage as well as other +details, and within four days Dodsley had the poem in print, and +anticipated the piratical "Magazine" by one day. But the "Magazine" +named Gray as the author, and success without anonymity was the fate +of the "Elegy." Edition followed edition, and the poem was almost from +birth an international classic. + +One of the author's prescriptions for publication concerned the verse +form. He told Walpole that Dodsley must "print it without any Interval +between the Stanza's, because the Sense is in some Places continued +beyond them." In the Egerton MS Gray had written the poem with no +breaks to set off quatrains, but in the earlier MS (Eton College), +where the poem is entitled, "Stanza's, wrote in a Country +Church-Yard," the quatrains are spaced in normal fashion. The +injunction shows Gray's sensitiveness as to metrical form. He had +called the poem an Elegy only after urging by Mason, and he possibly +doubted if his metre was "soft" enough for true elegy. The metre +hitherto had not been common in elegies, though James Hammond's "Love +Elegies" (1743) had used it and won acclaim. But the heroic +(hendecasyllabic) quatrain was regarded in general as too lofty, +stately, cool, for elegy. For the universal aspect of Gray's lament, +however, it was highly apt as compared with the less majestic +octosyllabic line, hitherto normal in this genre. For years after +Gray's great success, however, most elegies, if in quatrain form, +followed Gray's quatrain in manner, whether or not their subjects +demanded the stately line. + +The reasons why Gray is almost a poet of only one poem are not far to +seek. He did not covet applause, and apart from melancholy his own +emotions were too private to be published. In the "Elegy" he is true +to himself and to the spirit of his age--perhaps of most ages. When he +sought for material outside of his own experience, he went curiously +to books, and was captivated by the "recherche." He was also caught by +the rising cult of sublimity in his two great pindaric odes, and by +the cult of the picturesque in his flirtations with Scandinavian +materials. In these later poems he broadened the field of poetic +material notably; but in them he hardly deepened the imaginative or +emotional tone: his manner, rather, became elaborate and theatrical. +The "Elegy" is the language of the heart sincerely perfected. + +The poem has pleased many and pleased long--throughout two centuries. +In part it works through "pleasing melancholy"; in part it appeals to +innumerable humble readers conscious of their own unheralded merit. +Inevitably, since the industrial revolution, modernist critics have +tended to stress its appeal to class consciousness. This appeal, real +though it is, can be overemphasized. The rude forefathers are not +primarily presented as underprivileged. Though poverty-stricken and +ignorant, they are happy in family life and jocund in the field. +"Nature is nature wherever placed," as the intellectuals of Gray's +time loved to say, and the powers of the village fathers, potentially, +equal the greatest; their virtue is contentment. They neither want nor +need "storied urn or animated bust." If they are unappreciated by +Ambition, Grandeur, Pride, et al., the lack of appreciation is due to +a corruption of values. The value commended in the "Elegy" is that of +the simple life, which alone is rational and virtuous--it is the life +according to nature. Sophisticated living, Gray implies in the stanza +that once ended the poem, finds man at war with himself and with +reason; but the cool sequestered path--its goal identical with that of +the paths of Glory--finds man at peace with himself and with reason. +The theme was not new before Gray made it peculiarly his own, and it +has become somewhat hackneyed in the last two hundred years; but the +fact that it is seldom unheard in any decade testifies to its +permanency of appeal, and the fact that it was "ne'er so well +express'd" as in the "Elegy" justifies our love for that poem. + +George Sherburn +Harvard University + + + + +A NOTE ON THE TEXTS + + +The first edition of the "Elegy" is here reproduced from a copy in the +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. + +By permission of the Provost and Fellows of Eton College, the +manuscript preserved in the library of Eton College is also +reproduced. This manuscript once belonged to Gray's friend, +biographer, and editor, William Mason. In spite of its dimness, due to +creases in the paper and to the fact that the ink shows through from +the other side of the paper, this manuscript is chosen for +reproduction because it preserves the quatrains discarded before +printing the poem, and has other interesting variants in text. Two +other MSS of the poem in Gray's hand are known to exist. One is +preserved in the British Museum (Egerton 2400, ff. 45-6) and the other +is the copy made by Gray in Volume II of his Commonplace Books. This, +is appropriately preserved in the library of Pembroke College, +Cambridge. Sir William Fraser bequeathed to Eton College the MS there +found, which in certain editions of the poem is called "the Fraser +manuscript." + + + + +AN + +ELEGY + +WROTE IN A + +Country Church Yard. + + + +_LONDON:_ + +Printed for R. DODSLEY in _Pall-mall_; + +And sold by M. COOPER in _Pater-noster-Row_. 1751. + +[Price Six-pence.] + + + + +Advertisement. + + + _The following_ POEM _came into my Hands by Accident, if the + general Approbation with which this little Piece has been + spread, may be call'd by so slight a Term as Accident. It is + this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make + any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some + Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I + flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that + Pleasure to many more._ + +The _EDITOR_ + + + + +AN + +ELEGY, _&c._ + + + The _Curfeu_ tolls the Knell of parting Day, + The lowing Herd winds slowly o'er the Lea, + The Plow-man homeward plods his weary Way, + And leaves the World to Darkness, and to me. + Now fades the glimmering Landscape on the Sight, + And all the Air a solemn Stillness holds; + Save where the Beetle wheels his droning Flight, + And drowsy Tinklings lull the distant Folds. + Save that from yonder Ivy-mantled Tow'r + The mopeing Owl does to the Moon complain + Of such, as wand'ring near her sacred Bow'r, + Molest her ancient solitary Reign. + Beneath those rugged Elms, that Yew-Tree's Shade, + Where heaves the Turf in many a mould'ring Heap, + Each in his narrow Cell for ever laid, + The rude Forefathers of the Hamlet sleep. + The breezy Call of Incense-breathing Morn, + The Swallow twitt'ring from the Straw-built Shed, + The Cock's shrill Clarion, or the ecchoing Horn, + No more shall wake them from their lowly Bed. + For them no more the blazing Hearth shall burn, + Or busy Houswife ply her Evening Care: + No Children run to lisp their Sire's Return, + Or climb his Knees the envied Kiss to share. + Oft did the Harvest to their Sickle yield, + Their Furrow oft the stubborn Glebe has broke; + How jocund did they they drive their Team afield! + How bow'd the Woods beneath their sturdy Stroke! + Let not Ambition mock their useful Toil, + Their homely Joys and Destiny obscure; + Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful Smile, + The short and simple Annals of the Poor. + The Boast of Heraldry, the Pomp of Pow'r, + And all that Beauty, all that Wealth e'er gave, + Awaits alike th' inevitable Hour. + The Paths of Glory lead but to the Grave. + Forgive, ye Proud, th' involuntary Fault, + If Memory to these no Trophies raise, + Where thro' the long-drawn Isle and fretted Vault + The pealing Anthem swells the Note of Praise. + Can storied Urn or animated Bust + Back to its Mansion call the fleeting Breath? + Can Honour's Voice provoke the silent Dust, + Or Flatt'ry sooth the dull cold Ear of Death! + Perhaps in this neglected Spot is laid + Some Heart once pregnant with celestial Fire, + Hands that the Reins of Empire might have sway'd, + Or wak'd to Extacy the living Lyre. + But Knowledge to their Eyes her ample Page + Rich with the Spoils of Time did ne'er unroll; + Chill Penury repress'd their noble Rage, + And froze the genial Current of the Soul. + Full many a Gem of purest Ray serene, + The dark unfathom'd Caves of Ocean bear: + Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen, + And waste its Sweetness on the desart Air. + Some Village-_Hampden_ that with dauntless Breast + The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood; + Some mute inglorious _Milton_ here may rest, + Some _Cromwell_ guiltless of his Country's Blood. + Th' Applause of list'ning Senates to command, + The Threats of Pain and Ruin to despise, + To scatter Plenty o'er a smiling Land, + And read their Hist'ry in a Nation's Eyes + Their Lot forbad: nor circumscrib'd alone + Their growing Virtues, but their Crimes confin'd; + Forbad to wade through Slaughter to a Throne, + And shut the Gates of Mercy on Mankind, + The struggling Pangs of conscious Truth to hide, + To quench the Blushes of ingenuous Shame, + Or heap the Shrine of Luxury and Pride + With Incense, kindled at the Muse's Flame. + Far from the madding Crowd's ignoble Strife, + Their sober Wishes never learn'd to stray; + Along the cool sequester'd Vale of Life + They kept the noiseless Tenor of their Way. + Yet ev'n these Bones from Insult to protect + Some frail Memorial still erected nigh, + With uncouth Rhimes and shapeless Sculpture deck'd, + Implores the passing Tribute of a Sigh. + Their Name, their Years, spelt by th' unlettered Muse, + The Place of Fame and Elegy supply: + And many a holy Text around she strews, + That teach the rustic Moralist to dye. + For who to dumb Forgetfulness a Prey, + This pleasing anxious Being e'er resign'd, + Left the warm Precincts of the chearful Day, + Nor cast one longing ling'ring Look behind! + On some fond Breast the parting Soul relies, + Some pious Drops the closing Eye requires; + Ev'n from the Tomb the Voice of Nature cries + Awake, and faithful to her wonted Fires. + For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead + Dost in these Lines their artless Tale relate; + If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, + Some hidden Spirit shall inquire thy Fate, + Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say, + 'Oft have we seen him at the Peep of Dawn + 'Brushing with hasty Steps the Dews away + 'To meet the Sun upon the upland Lawn. + 'There at the Foot of yonder nodding Beech + 'That wreathes its old fantastic Roots so high, + 'His listless Length at Noontide wou'd he stretch, + 'And pore upon the Brook that babbles by. + 'Hard by yon Wood, now frowning as in Scorn, + 'Mutt'ring his wayward Fancies he wou'd rove, + 'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, + 'Or craz'd with Care, or cross'd in hopeless Love. + 'One Morn I miss'd him on the custom'd Hill, + 'Along the Heath, and near his fav'rite Tree; + 'Another came; nor yet beside the Rill, + 'Nor up the Lawn, nor at the Wood was he. + 'The next with Dirges due in sad Array + 'Slow thro' the Church-way Path we saw him born. + 'Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the Lay, + 'Grav'd on the Stone beneath yon aged Thorn. + + + The EPITAPH. + + _Here rests his Head upon the Lap of Earth + A Youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown: + Fair Science frown'd not on his humble Birth, + And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. + Large was his Bounty, and his Soul sincere, + Heav'n did a Recompense as largely send: + He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a Tear: + He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a Friend + No farther seek his Merits to disclose, + Or draw his Frailties from their dread Abode, + (There they alike in trembling Hope repose) + The Bosom of his Father and his God._ + + +FINIS. + + + + +PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +FIRST YEAR (1946-47) + +Numbers 1-4 out of print. + +5. Samuel Wesley's _Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry_ (1700) and +_Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (1693). + +6. _Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage_ (1704) and +_Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage_ (1704). + +SECOND YEAR (1947-1948) + +7. John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_ (1711); and a section on Wit from +_The English Theophrastus_ (1702). + +8. Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech (1684). + +9. T. Hanmer's (?) _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ (1736). + +10. Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, +etc._ (1744). + +11. Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_ (1717). + +12. Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph Wood +Krutch. + +THIRD YEAR (1948-1949) + +13. Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), _The Theatre_ (1720). + +14. Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ (1753). + +15. John Oldmixon's _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley_ +(1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's _The British Academy_ (1712). + +16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). + +17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespeare_ +(1709). + +18. "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719); +and Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). + +FOURTH YEAR (1949-1950) + +19. Susanna Centlivre's _The Busie Body_ (1709). + +20. Lewis Theobold's _Preface to The Works of Shakespeare_ (1734). + +21. _Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, and Pamela_ +(1754). + +22. Samuel Johnson's _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749) and Two _Rambler_ +papers (1750). + +23. John Dryden's _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). + +24. Pierre Nicole's _An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which +from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and +Rejecting Epigrams_, translated by J.V. Cunningham. + +FIFTH YEAR (1950-51) + +25. Thomas Baker's _The Fine Lady's Airs_ (1709). + +26. Charles Macklin's _The Man of the World_ (1792). + +27. Frances Reynolds' _An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, +and of the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty, etc._ (1785). + +28. John Evelyn's _An Apologie for the Royal Party_ (1659); and _A +Panegyric to Charles the Second_ (1661). + +29. Daniel Defoe's _A Vindication of the Press_ (1718). + +30. Essays on Taste from John Gilbert Cooper's _Letters Concerning +Taste_, 3rd edition (1757), & John Armstrong's _Miscellanies_ (1770). + + + + +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +_General Editors_ + +H. RICHARD ARCHER + William Andrews Clark Memorial Library + +R.C. BOYS + University of Michigan + +E.N. HOOKER + University of California, Los Angeles + +JOHN LOFTIS + University of California, Los Angeles + +The Society exists to make available inexpensive reprints (usually +facsimile reproductions) of rare seventeenth and eighteenth century +works. The editorial policy of the Society continues unchanged. As in +the past, the editors welcome suggestions concerning publications. All +income of the Society is devoted to defraying cost of publication and +mailing. + +All correspondence concerning subscriptions in the United States and +Canada should be addressed to the William Andrews Clark Memorial +Library, 2205 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles 18, California. +Correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to any of +the general editors. The membership fee is $3.00 a year for +subscribers in the United States and Canada and 15/-for subscribers in +Great Britain and Europe. British and European subscribers should +address B.H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. + + * * * * * + +Publications for the sixth year [1951-1952], + +(At least six items, most of them from the following list, will be +reprinted.) + + +THOMAS GRAY: _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_ (1751). +Introduction by George Sherburn. + +JAMES BOSWELL, ANDREW ERSKINE, and GEORGE DEMPSTER: _Critical +Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira_ (1763). Introduction by +Frederick A. Pottle. + +_An Essay on the New Species of Writing Founded by Mr. Fielding_ +(1751). Introduction by James A. Work. + +HENRY GALLY: _A Critical Essay on Characteristic Writing_ (1725). +Introduction by Alexander Chorney. + +[JOHN PHILLIPS]: _Satyr Against Hypocrits_ (1655). Introduction by +Leon Howard. + +_Prefaces to Fiction._ Selected and with an Introduction by Benjamin +Boyce. + +THOMAS TYERS: _A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson_ ([1785]). +Introduction by Gerald Dennis Meyer. + + +Publications for the first five years (with the exception of NOS. 1-4, +which are out of print) are available at the rate of $3.00 a year. +Prices for individual numbers may be obtained by writing to the +Society. + + * * * * * + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY +_WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY_ +2205 WEST ADAMS BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES 18, CALIFORNIA + +Make check or money order payable to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF +CALIFORNIA. + + + + +[Illustration: The Eton College Manuscript, Page 1] + +[Illustration: The Eton College Manuscript, Page 2] + +[Illustration: The Eton College Manuscript, Page 3] + +[Illustration: The Eton College Manuscript, Page 4] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church +Yard (1751) and The Eton College Manuscript, by Thomas Gray + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ELEGY WROTE IN A COUNTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 15409.txt or 15409.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/0/15409/ + +Produced by David Starner, Diane Monico and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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