Complete Works of Thomas Gray Read online

  Thomas Gray

  (1716-1771)

  Contents

  The Life and Poetry of Gray

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: THOMAS GRAY

  TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE POETRY

  The Poems

  LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Prose

  LIST OF PROSE TEXTS

  The Biographies

  THE LIFE AND POEMS OF THOMAS GRAY by George Gilfillan

  GRAY by Samuel Johnson

  THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF GRAY by John Bradshaw

  © Delphi Classics 2015

  Version 1

  Thomas Gray

  By Delphi Classics, 2015

  NOTE

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  The Life and Poetry of Gray

  Cornhill, London — Gray’s birthplace. The poet’s father, Philip Gray, was a scrivener and his mother, Dorothy Antrobus, was a milliner.

  Cornhill in the 1830’s, with The Royal Exchange depicted on the left.

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: THOMAS GRAY

  by Leslie Stephen

  THOMAS GRAY (1716–1771), poet, son of Philip Gray, ‘money scrivener,’ born 27 July 1676, by his wife Dorothy Antrobus, was born in his father’s house in Cornhill, London, 26 Dec. 1716. The mother belonged to a Buckinghamshire family, but at the time of her marriage kept a milliner’s shop in the city with an elder sister, Mary. Another sister, Anna, was married to a retired attorney, Jonathan Rogers, who lived in Burnham parish. She had two brothers, Robert and William. Robert, who was at Peterhouse, Cambridge (B.A. 1702, M.A. 1705), and elected a fellow of his college in 1704, lived at Burnham, Buckinghamshire, and vacated his fellowship, probably by death, in January 1730; William was at King’s College, Cambridge (B.A. 1713, M.A. 1717), a master at Eton, and afterwards rector of Everton, Northamptonshire, where he died in 1742 (Harwood, Alumni, ii. 290). Philip Gray was a brutal husband. A curious paper, written by Mrs. Gray in 1735, to be submitted to a lawyer, was discovered by Haslewood, and published by Mitford. She states that Gray had ‘kicked, punched,’ and abused his wife, with no excuse but an insane jealousy. The shop had been continued by the two sisters, in accordance with an ante-nuptial agreement, and Mrs. Gray had found her own clothes and supported her son at school and college. Gray now threatened to close the shop. No legal remedy could be suggested, and Mrs. Gray continued to live with her husband. She had borne twelve children, all of whom, except Thomas, the fifth, died in infancy. His life was saved on one occasion by his mother’s bleeding him with her own hand. He was sent to his uncle Robert Antrobus at Burnham. About 1727 he was sent to Eton as an oppidan and a pupil of his uncle William. Here he formed a ‘quadruple alliance’ with Horace Walpole (born 24 Sept. 1717), Richard West, and Thomas Ashton [q. v.] This intimacy was cemented by common intellectual tastes. Walpole, West, and Gray were all delicate lads, who probably preferred books to sport. Less intimate friends were Jacob Bryant [q. v.] and Richard Stonehewer, who maintained friendly relations with Gray till the last, and died in 1809, ‘auditor of the excise.’ On 4 July 1734 Gray was entered as a pensioner at Peterhouse, and admitted 9 Oct. in the same year. Walpole entered King’s College in March 1735; while West was sent to Christ Church, Oxford. Ashton, who entered Trinity College in 1733, was less intimate than the others with Gray. Walpole and Gray kept up a correspondence with West, communicating poems, and occasionally writing in French and Latin. All three contributed to a volume of ‘Hymeneals’ on the marriage of Frederick, prince of Wales, in 1736. Gray also wrote at college a Latin poem, ‘Luna Habitabilis,’ published in the ‘Musæ Etonenses,’ ii. 107. The regular studies of the place were entirely uncongenial to Gray. He cared nothing for mathematics, and little for the philosophy, such as it was, though he apparently dipped into Locke. He was probably despised as a fop by the ordinary student of the time. His uncle Rogers, whom he visited at Burnham in 1737, despised him for reading instead of hunting, and preferring walking to riding. The ‘walking’ meant strolls in Burnham Beeches, where he managed to discover ‘mountains and precipices.’ His opinion of Cambridge is indicated by the fragmentary ‘Hymn to Ignorance,’ composed on his return. He left the university without a degree in September 1738, and passed some months at his father’s, probably intending to study law. Walpole, who had already been appointed to some sinecure office, invited Gray to accompany him on the grand tour. They crossed from Dover 29 March 1739, spent two months in Paris, then went to Rheims, where they stayed for three months, and in September proceeded to Lyons. At the end of the month they made an excursion to Geneva, and visited the ‘Grande Chartreuse,’ when both travellers were duly affected by the romantic scenery, which it was then thought proper to compare to Salvator Rosa. In the beginning of November they crossed and shuddered at Mont Cenis, Walpole’s lapdog being carried off by a wolf on the road. After a short stay at Turin they visited Genoa and Bologna, and reached Florence in December. In April they started for Rome, and after a short excursion to Naples returned to Florence 14 July 1740. Here they lived chiefly with Mann, the English minister, afterwards Walpole’s well-known correspondent. Gray apparently found it dull, and was detained by Walpole’s convenience. They left Florence 24 April, intending to go to Venice. At Reggio a quarrel took place, the precise circumstances of which are unknown. One story, preserved by Isaac Reed, and first published by Mitford (Gray, Works, ii. 174), is that Walpole suspected Gray of abusing him, and opened one of his letters to England. Walpole’s own account, given to Mason, is a candid confession that his own supercilious treatment of a companion socially inferior and singularly proud, shy and sensitive, was the cause of the difference. Walpole had made a will on starting, leaving whatever he possessed to Gray (Walpole, Letters, v. 443); but the tie between the fellow-travellers has become irksome to more congenial companions. Gray went to Venice alone, and returned through Verona, Milan, Turin, and Lyons, which he reached on 25 Aug. On his way he again visited the ‘Grande Chartreuse,’ and wrote his famous Latin ode. Johnson (Piozzi, Anecdotes, ) also wished to leave some Latin verses at the ‘Grande Chartreuse.’ Gray was at London in the beginning of September. He had been a careful sightseer, made notes in picture-galleries, visited churches, and brushed up his classical associations. He observed, and afterwards advised, the judicious custom of always recording his impressions on the spot.

  Gray’s father died on 6 Nov. 1741. Several letters addressed to him by his son during the foreign tour show no signs of domestic alienation. Mrs. Gray retired with her sister, Mary Antrobus, to live with the third sister, Mrs. Rogers, whose husband died on 31 Oct. 1742. The three sisters now took a house together at West End, Stoke Poges. Gray had found West in declining health. They renewed their literary intercourse, and Gray submitted to his friend the fragment of a tragedy, ‘Agrippina.’ West’s criticism appears to have put a stop to it. On 1 June 1742 West died, to the great sorrow of his friend, whose constitutional melancholy was deepened by his friendlessness and want of prospects. He thought himself, it is said, too poor to follow the legal profession. Unwilling to hurt his mother’s feelings by openly abandoning it, he went to Cambridge to take a degree in civil law, and settled in rooms at Peterhouse as a fellow-commoner in October 1742. He never became a fellow of any college. He proceeded LL.B. in the winter of 1743. He preferred the study of Greek literature to that of either civil or common law, and during six years went through a severe course of study, making careful notes upon all the principal Greek authors. He always disliked the society of Cambridge and ridiculed the system of education. The place was reco
mmended to him by its libraries, by the cheapness of living, and, perhaps, by an indolence which made any change in the plan of his life intolerable.

  Cambridge was Gray’s headquarters for the rest of his life. The university was very barren of distinguished men. He felt the loss of Conyers Middleton (d. 28 July 1750), whose house, he says, was ‘the only easy place he could find to converse in.’ He took a contemptuous interest in the petty intrigues of the master and fellows of Pembroke, where were most of his friends; but he had few acquaintances, though he knew something of William Cole, also a friend of Walpole, and a few residents, such as Keene, master of Peterhouse from 1748 to 1756, and James Browne, master of Pembroke from 1770 to 1784. Among his Cambridge contemporaries was Thomas Wharton (B.A. 1737, M.D. 1741; see also Munk, Roll, ii. 197), who was a resident and fellow of Pembroke till his marriage in 1747. He afterwards lived in London, and in 1758 settled in his paternal house at Old Park, Durham, where he died, aged 78, 15 Dec. 1794 (Gray, Works, iv. 143). A later friend, William Mason (b. 1725), was at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he attracted Gray’s notice by some early poems, and partly through Gray’s influence was elected a fellow of Pembroke in 1749. He became a warm admirer and a humble disciple and imitator. About 1754 he obtained the living of Aston in Yorkshire. Gray occasionally visited Wharton and Mason at their homes, and maintained a steady correspondence with both. In the summer he generally spent some time with his mother at Stoke Poges. His aunt, Mary Antrobus, died there on 6 Nov. 1749. His mother died on 11 March 1753, aged 62. He was most tenderly attached to her, and placed upon her tomb an inscription to the ‘careful tender mother of many children, one of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her.’

  The friendship with Horace Walpole had been renewed in 1744, at first with more courtesy than cordiality, although they afterwards corresponded upon very friendly terms. Gray was often at Strawberry Hill, and made acquaintance with some of Walpole’s friends, though impeded by his shyness in society. Walpole admired Gray’s poetry and did much to urge the timid author to publicity. His first publication was the ‘Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College,’ written in 1742, which, at Walpole’s desire, was published anonymously by Dodsley in the summer of 1747. It made no impression. In the following year he began his poem on the ‘Alliance of Education and Government,’ but was deterred from pursuing it by the appearance of Montesquieu’s ‘Esprit des Lois,’ containing some of his best thoughts. In 1748 appeared the first three volumes of Dodsley’s collection, the second of which contained Gray’s Eton ode, the ‘Ode to Spring,’ and the poem ‘On the Death of a Favourite Cat’ (sent to Walpole in a letter dated 1 March 1747). The ‘Elegy in a Country Churchyard’ had been begun in 1742 (Works, i. xx), and was probably taken up again in the winter of 1749, upon the death of his aunt Mary (see Gosse, ). It was certainly concluded at Stoke Poges, whence it was sent to Walpole in a letter dated 12 June 1750. Walpole admired it greatly, and showed it to various friends, among others to Lady Cobham (widow of Sir Richard Temple, afterwards Viscount Cobham), who lived at Stoke Manor House. She persuaded Miss Speed, her niece, and a Mrs. Schaub, who was staying with her, to pay a visit to Gray at his mother’s house. Not finding him at home they left a note, and the visit led to an acquaintance and to Gray’s poem of the ‘Long Story’ (written in August 1750, Gosse, ). In February 1751 the publisher of the ‘Magazine of Magazines’ wrote to Gray that he was about to publish the ‘Elegy.’ Gray instantly wrote to Walpole to get the poem published by Dodsley, and it appeared accordingly on 16 Feb. 1751. It went through four editions in two months, and eleven in a short time, besides being constantly pirated (see Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vii. 142, 252, 439, 469, viii. 212 for the first appearance. Many parodies are noticed in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vols. i. and ii.) Gray left all the profits to Dodsley, declining on principle to accept payment for his poems. At this time Richard Bentley (1708–1782) [q. v.] was on very intimate terms with Walpole. He made drawings or illustrations of Gray’s poems, by which Gray himself was delighted. In March 1753 appeared ‘designs by Mr. R. Bentley for six poems by Mr. T. Gray.’ The poems included those already published, ‘Spring,’ on Walpole’s cat, the Eton ode, the ‘Elegy,’ and, for the first time, the ‘Long Story’ and the ‘Hymn to Adversity.’ A portrait of Gray is introduced in the frontispiece and in the design for the ‘Long Story,’ where are also Miss Speed and Lady Schaub. Gray withdrew the ‘Long Story’ from later editions of his works.

  By the end of 1754 Gray was beginning his ‘Pindaric Odes.’ On 26 Dec. 1754 he sent the ‘Progress of Poesy’ to Dr. Wharton. Walpole was setting up his printing-press at Strawberry Hill, and begged Gray to let him begin with the two odes. They were accordingly printed and were published by Dodsley in August 1757, Dodsley paying forty guineas to Gray, the only sum he ever made by writing. The book contained only the ‘Progress of Poesy’ and the ‘Bard.’ The ‘Bard’ was partly written in the first three months of 1755, and finished in May 1757, when Gray was stimulated by some concerts given at Cambridge by John Parry, the blind harper. The odes were warmly praised and much discussed. Goldsmith reviewed them in the ‘Monthly Review,’ and Warburton and Garrick were enthusiastic. Gray was rather vexed, however, by the general complaints of their obscurity, although he took very good-naturedly the parody published in 1760 by Colman and Lloyd, called ‘Two Odes addressed to Obscurity and Oblivion.’ ‘Obscurity’ was not yet a virtue, and is not very perceptible in Gray’s ‘Bard.’ According to Mason, Gray meant his bard to declare that poets should never be wanting to denounce vice in spite of tyrants. He laid the poem aside for a year because he could not find facts to confirm his theory. Ultimately the bard had to content himself with the somewhat irrelevant consolation that Elizabeth’s great-grandfather was to be a Welshman. The poem is thus so far incoherent, but the ‘obscurity’ meant rather that some fine gentlemen could not understand the historical allusions and confounded Edward I with Cromwell and Elizabeth with the witch of Endor.

  Gray was now in possession of the small fortune left by his father, which was sufficient for his wants. His health, however, was weakening. After a visit in 1755 to his and Walpole’s friend, Chute, in Hampshire, he was taken ill and remained for many weeks laid up at Stoke. In January 1756 he ordered a rope-ladder from London. He was always morbidly afraid of fire and more than once in some risk. His house in Cornhill had been burnt in 1748, causing him some embarrassment, and his state of health increased his nervousness. Some noisy young gentlemen at Peterhouse placed a tub of water under his windows and raised an alarm of fire. Gray descended his ladder and found himself in the tub. (Archibald Campbell (fl. 1767) [q. v.] tells this story in his Sale of Authors, 1767, .) The authorities at Peterhouse treated the perpetrators of this ingenious practical joke more leniently than Gray desired. He thereupon moved to Pembroke, where he occupied rooms ‘at the western end of the Hitcham building.’

  In December 1757 Lord John Cavendish, an admirer of the ‘Odes,’ induced his brother, the Duke of Devonshire, who was lord chamberlain, to offer the laureateship, vacated by Cibber’s death, to Gray. Gray, however, at once declined it, though the obligation to write birthday odes was to be omitted. In September 1758 his aunt, Mrs. Rogers, with whom his paternal aunt, Mrs. Olliffe, had resided since his mother’s death, died, leaving Gray and Mrs. Olliffe executors. Stoke Poges now ceased to be in any sense a home. In the beginning of 1759 the British Museum first opened. Gray settled in London in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, to study in the reading-room. He did not return to Cambridge except for flying visits until the summer of 1761. His friend Lady Cobham died in April 1760, leaving 20l. for a mourning-ring to Gray and 30,000l. to Miss Speed. Some vague rumours, which, however, Gray mentions with indifference, pointed to a match between the poet and the heiress. They were together at Park Place, Henley (Conway’s house), in the summer, where Gray’s spirits were worn by the company of ‘a pack of women.’ According to Lady Ailesbury, his only words at one party were: ‘Yes, my lady
, I believe so’ (Walpole, Letters, iii. 324). Miss Speed in January 1761 married the Baron de la Peyrière, son of the Sardinian minister, and went to live with her husband on the family estate of Viry in Savoy, on the Lake of Geneva. This sole suggestion of a romance in Gray’s life is of the most shadowy kind.

  After his return to Cambridge Gray became attached to Norton Nicholls, an undergraduate at Trinity Hall. Nicholls afterwards became rector of Lound and Bradwell, Suffolk, and died in his house at Blundeston, near Lowestoft, 22 Nov. 1809, in his sixty-eighth year. He was an accomplished youth, and attracted Gray’s attention by his knowledge of Dante. During Gray’s later years Nicholls was among his best friends, and left some valuable reminiscences of Gray, and an interesting correspondence with him. Gray resided henceforward at Cambridge, taking occasional summer tours. In July 1764 he underwent a surgical operation, and in August was able to visit Glasgow and make a tour in the Scottish lowlands. In October he travelled in the south of England. In 1765 he made a tour in Scotland, visiting Killiecrankie and Blair Athol. He stayed for some time at Glamis, where Beattie came to pay him homage, and was very kindly received. He declined the degree of doctor of laws from Aberdeen, on the ground that he had not taken it at Cambridge. In 1769 he paid a visit to the Lakes. His journal was fully published by Mason, and contains remarkable descriptions of the scenery, then beginning to be visited by painters and men of taste, but not yet generally appreciated. In other summers he visited Hampshire and Wiltshire (1764), Kent (1766), and Worcestershire and Gloucestershire (1770).