con h to excufe the whole hyper-critical memory. In the mean a few tolerable while, RECENT have been had a Gly And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold, is exactly Statius-Summos auro manfueverat ungues. I never knew before that the golden fangs on hammer-cloths were fo old a fashion. Your Hymeneal + I - told was the best in the Cambridge ion before I faw it, and, indeed, it at compliment to tell you I when I had feen it, but finme beft. Methinks the ve run into a trange taste Such foft unmeaning we I given to my place, ufal of them wodd here here, but I have had his innocent; and 1 wwe amufement in my ferved them, if it were à fcribe my larger those which I thai pecte a fhall I pafs it ther's. Why he thould a during the or them so very litle weight as 90 2 ave each confult me with regard to them, can uncuftomary to return them to the 167.1% no means conceive. I lappove itÞAN ing friend. I had no aniwer to the koř which I wrote Mr. J. W-, I reconoď ing from him; but as I thought it an quate memorial of the friend is brother had for me, I gave it ant the moment I received it; ime I have a neat flandith, the lines Mr. W-left bed, and which appore agreeable re duction with gins with , that you . oody wall fall, Lon. Venus and Cupid, and Peleus etis, and Zephyrs and Dryads, never read. As for my poor little logue, it has been condemned and beheaded by our Weftminfter judges; an exordium of about fixteen lines abfolutely cut off, and its other limbs quartered in a moft barbarous manner. I will fend it you in my next as my true and lawful heir, in exclufion of the pretender, who has the impudence to appear under my n the cleaving ground, ts beneath the dashing oar, fhining border round the margin roll'd, And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold, &c. I LETTER XXX. Mr. Weft to Mr. Gray. name. Christ Church, May 24, 1736. AGREE with you that you have broke Statius's head, but it is in like manner as Apollo broke Hyacinth's, you have foiled him infinitely at his own weapon: I must infift on feeing the rest of your tranflation, and then I will examine it entire, and compare it with the Latin, and be very wife and fevere, and put on an inflexible face, such as becomes the character of a true fon of Aristarchus, of This confifted of about 110 lines, which were fent feparately, and as it was Mr. Gray's first attempt in English verfe, it is a curiofity not to be entirely withheld from the reader. Published in the Cambridge Collection of Verfes on the Prince of Wales's Marriage. moft γου LETTER XXVIII. Mr. We to Mr. Gray. Christ Church, Nov. 14, 1735ufe me very cruelly: you have fent me but one letter fince I have been at Oxford, and that too agreeable not to make me fenfible how great my lofs is in not having more. Next to fee ing you is the pleature of feeing your handwriting; next to hearing you is the pleature of hearing from you. Really and sincerely I wonder at you, that you thought it not worth while to answer my lait letter. I hope this will have better fuccefs in behalf of your quondam fchool-fellow; in behalf of one who has walked hand in hand with you, like the two children in the wood, Thro' many a flowery path and shelly grot, The very thought, you fee, tips my pen with poetry, and brings Eton to my view. Confider me very feriously here in a ftrange country, inhabited by thir gs that call themfelves Doctors and Mafters of Arts; a country flowing with fyllogifms and ale, where Horace and Virgil are equally unknown; confider me, I fay, in this melancholy light, and then think if fomething be not due to your's, &c. P. S. I defire you will fend me foon, and truly and politively, a hiftory of your own time. Alluding to his grandfather's history. LETTER XXIX. ERMIT PERM Mr. Gray to Mr. We?. Cambridge, May 8, 1*55, me again to write to you, though I have fo long neglected my duty, and forgive my brevity, whel tell you it is occafioned wholly by the hurry I am in to get to a place wheel expect to meet with no other patien thar the fight of you; for I am prepung for London in a few days at further. do not wonder in the least at your freque blaming my indolence, it ought ret to be cailed ingratitude, and I am bags. to your goodneis for feftening fo t an appellation. When we meet its however, be my greatest of pleasures know what you do, what you read, wri how vou spend your time, &c. &c, så to tell you what I do not read, and hol do not, &c. for almost all the empir ment of my hours may be beit explaini by negatives; take my word and exper ence upon it, doing nothing amuting bufinefs; and yet neither se thing nor nothing gives me any pleads When you have feen one of my days, võl have feen a whole year of my life; the go round and round like the blind bo in the mill, only he has the fatisfim of fancying he makes a progress, 2 gets feme ground; my eyes are Enough to fee the fame dull profpett, to know that having made four-de twenty fteps more, I thall be just when I was; I may, better than moit per fay my life is but a fpan, were I not af let you thould not believe that a per fo hort-lived could write even fo le letter as this; in fhort, I believe I a not fend you the history of my own tim till I can fend you that alfo of the reformation. However, as the moft m ferving people in the world mufi fure ta the vanity to with fomebody had a reggi for them, fo I need not wonder at = own, in being pleafed that you care abou me. You need not doubt, therefore, having a art row in the front box of little heart, and I believe you are not a danger of being crowded there; it is ad ing you to an old play, indeed, but you Carrying on the allusion to the other killery written by Mr. Weit's grandfather. will be candid enough to excufe the whole piece for the fake of a few tolerable lines. For this little while paft I have been playing with Statius; we yefterday had a game at quoits together; you will eafily forgive me for having broke his head, as you have a little pique to him. I fend you my tranflation, which I did not engage in becaufe I liked that part of the poem, nor do I now fend it to you becaufe I think it deferves it, but merely to fhew you how I mifpend my days. Third in the labours of the Dife came on, The ponderous mafs finks in the cleaving ground, And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold, is exactly Statius-Summos auro manfueverat ungues. I never knew before that the golden fangs on hammer-cloths were fo old a fashion. Your Hymeneal + I was told was the best in the Cambridge Collection before I faw it, and, indeed, it is no great compliment to tell you I thought it fo when I had feen it, but fincerely it pleased me beft. Methinks the college bards have run into a strange taste on this occafion. Such foft unmeaning ftuff about Venus and Cupid, and Peleus and Thetis, and Zephyrs and Dryads, was never read. As for my poor little Eclogue, it has been condemned and beheaded by our Westminster judges; an exordium of about fixteen lines abfolutely cut off, and its other limbs quartered in a most barbarous manner. I will fend it you in my next as my true and lawful heir, in exclufion of the pretender, who has the impudence to appear under my Mr. Gray to Mr. Weft. Peterhouse, Dec. 1736. ou must know that I do not take de γου grees, and, after this term, fhall have nothing more of college impertinenfome pleasure to you, as it is a great one cies to undergo, which I truft will be to me. I have endured lectures daily and hourly fince I came laft, fupported by the hopes of being fhortly at full liberty to give myself up to my friends and claffical companions, who, poor fouls! though I fee them fallen into great contempt with Published in the Cambridge Collection of Verfes on the Prince of Wales's Marriage. moft moft people here, yet I cannot help flick- nished me with the optics of a cat. Muft If the default of your fpirits and nerves be nothing but the effect of the hyp, I have no more to fay. We all mult fubmit to that wayward queen; I too in no fall degree own her fway, Iller influence while I fpeak her power. But if it be a real distemper, pray take more care of your health, if not for your own, at leaft fer our fakes, and do not be fo foon weary of this little world; I do not know what refined friendships you may have contracted in the other, but pray do not he in a hurry to fee your acquaintance above; among your terreftrial familiars, however, though I fay it that should not fay it, there pofitively is not one that has a greater efteem for you than your's molt fincerely, &c. I Mr. Weft to Mr. Gray. Christ Church, Dec. 22, 1136. CONGRATULATE you on your being about to leave college, and rejoice For I would not have you dignified, and much you carry no degrees with you. I not, for the world, you would have infulted me fo. My eyes, fuch as they are, like your's, are neither metaphysical nor mathematical; I have, nevertheless, a great refpect for your connoiffeurs that way, but am always contented to be their humble admirer. Your collection of defolate animais pleased me much; but Oxford, I can ailure you, has her owls that match your's, and the prophecy has certainly a fquint that way. Well, you are leaving this difmal land of bondage, and which way are you turning your face? Your friends, indeed, may be happy in you, but what will you do with your chi fic companions? An inn of court is as horrid a place as a college, and a most cafe is as dear to gentle dulnefs as a fvllogifm. But wherever you go, let me beg you not to throw poetry like a naufeous weed away :" cherish its fweers in your bofom, they will ferve you now and then to correct the disgusting fobar follies of the common law: mifce flukuus conciliis brevem, dulce eft delitere in bas fo faid Horace to Virgil, thefe two fosa of Anac in poetry, and fo fay I to you, in this degenerate land of pigmies, Mix with your grave defigns a little pleafere, In one of thefe hours I hope, dear Sir, 'kļaùda, μå nîvde vóg, inz Bidouia Eμfe• that is, write freely to me and openly, as I do to you; and to give you a prof of it I have fent you an elegy of Tibulles tranflated. Tibullus, you must know, is my favourite elegiac poet; for his language is more elegant and his thoughts more natural than Ovid's. Ovid excels him only in wit, of which no poet had more in my opinion. The reafon I choose fo melancholy a kind of poefie, is becaule my low fpirits and conftant ill health (things in me not imaginary, as you furmife, but too real, alas! and, I fear, conflitutional) "have tun'd my heart to elegics "elegies of woe;"and this likewife is the reafon why I am the most irregular thing alive at college, for you may depend upon it I value my health above what they call difcipline. As for this poor unlicked thing of an elegy, pray criticife it unmercifully, for I fend it with that intent. Indeed your late tranflation of Statius might have deterred me, but I know you are not more able to excel others, than you are apt to forgive the want of excellence, especially when it is found in the productions of your moft fincere friend. LETTER XXXIII. Peterhouse, Dec. 23, 1736. i. e. A man who deals only in coarfe and or dinary wares. derftand; the fecond is fo tiny, fo tirefome, that you fhall hear no more of it than that it is ever your's. I Mr. Weft to Mr. Gray. Christ Church, July 4, 1737HAVE been very ill, and am fill hard ly recovered. Do you remember Elegy 5th, Book the 3d, of Tibullus, Vas tenet, &c. and do you remember a letter of Mr. Pope's, in fickness, to Mr. Steele? This melancholy elegy and this melancholy letter I turned into a more melancholy epiftle of my own, during my fickness, in the way of imitation; and this I fend to you and my friends at Cambridge, not to divert them, for it cannot, but merely to fhew them how fincere I was when fick: I hope my fending it to them now may convince them I am no lefs fincere, though perhaps more finple, when well †. LETTER XXXV. Mr. Gray to Mr. Weft. London, Aug. 22, 1737. A See the poem [Ad Amicos] in Elegant Extracts in Verfe. that |