Oct. 4. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



253 



" on the other side, 

 Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood 

 Uiiterrified ; and like a comet burned. 

 That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge. 

 In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 

 Shakes pestilence and war." 



Or as Virgil before him, JEneid, lib. x. 270. : 



" Ardet apex capiti, cristisque a vertici flamma 

 Funditur, et vastos umbo vomit aureus ignes: 

 Non secus, ac liquida si quando nocti cometm 

 Sanguine! lugubre rubent, aut Sirius ardor," &c. 



One of the meanings of ko/xtj is, " the luminous 

 tail of a comet ; " and Suidas mentions from the 



LXX, Kol iiyirepou rhv atTrepa eiri Ko/xrjs ahrov &^ets 



avTov (Job xxxviii. 32.). See Scott and Liddell's 

 Lexicon, at the words Ko/xr;, and Xldymv and Yldiyauias, 

 which latter words are used in reference to the 

 beard of a comet. 



Gray must now speak for himself. He says in 

 a note : 



" The image was taken from a well-known picture 

 of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the 

 Vision of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, 

 both believed originals, one at Florence, the other at 

 Paris." 



And Mr. Mason adds, in a note to his edition of 

 Gray, vol. i. p. 75. Lond. 1807 : 



" Moses breaking the Tables of the Law, by Par- 

 megiano, was a figure which I\Ir. Gray used to say 

 came still nearer to his meaning than the picture of 

 liaphael." 



I cannot help thinking that Cowley too was not 

 forgotten. Speaking of the angel Gabriel, he says : 

 " An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire. 

 And fell adown his shoulders with loose care." 



Indeed, I must give the entire passage, however 

 fantastic or unconnected with my purpose; for the 

 last four lines, which describe the angel's wings, 

 appear beyond measure dreamy and beautiful : 



" When Gabriel (no blest spirit more kind or fair) 

 Bodies and cloathes himself with thicken'd air. 

 All like a comely youth in life's fresh bloom ; 

 Rare workmanship, and wrought by heavenly loom ! 

 He look for skin a cloud most soft and bright, 

 That ere the mid day sun pierc'd througli with light : 

 Upon liis checks a lively blush he spread, 

 Wash't from the morning's beauties deepest red. 

 An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire. 

 And fell adown liis shoulders with loose care. 

 He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies, 

 \yhere the most sprightly azure pleas'd the eyes. 

 This lie with starry vapours spangles all. 

 Took in tlieir prime ere they grow ripe and full. 

 Of a new rainbow ere it fret or fade. 

 The choicest piece took out, a scarf is made. 

 S?iiaU strenmiiiij clouds he does for wia;/s ilixpJay, 

 Not virtuous lovers s!r/hs more soft than thcij. 

 TItesi: he i/ilds o'er with the sun's richest rays. 

 Caught (jlidiny o'er pure streams on which he plai/s." 

 Baoidein, lib. ii. ad finem. 



Again, in a verse which was inserted in the 

 Elegy as it originally stood (and the subsequent 

 rejection of which we must ever grieve over, as it 

 almost surpasses any verse of the entire poem ; and 

 besides would have saved it from the imputation 

 of having been written as a heathen jDoet would 

 have written it), the words " sacred calm " occur, 

 which are not unfrequent in Cowley : 



" Hark how the sacred calm that breathes around 

 Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease; 

 In still small accents whispering from the ground, 

 A grateful earnest of eternal peace." — Gray. 



" They came, but a new spirit their hearts posscst, 

 Scattering a sacred calm through every breast." 

 Davideis, lib. i. ad fincm. 



"All earth-bred fears and sorrows take their flight; 

 In rushes joy divine, and hope, and rest; 

 A sacred calm shines through his peaceful breast." 

 Davideis, lib. ii. ad finem. 



Again, does not Mr. Gray's Ode to Spring — 



" Methinks I hear," &c. 



remind one a little of Cowley's " Anacreontic to 

 the Grasshopper ? " 



" To thee of all things upon earth, 

 Life is no longer than thy mirth. 

 Happy insect, happy thou, ' ''^' ' 



Dost neither ai/e nor ivinter hnoiv. 

 But when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung 

 Thy fill, the flowery leaves among 

 (Voluptuous and wise withal. 



Epicurean animal ! ) 

 Sated with thy summer feast 

 Thou retir'st to endless rest," 

 or the following lines ? 



" Their raptures now that wildly flow, 

 No yesterday nor morrow know ; 

 'Tis man alone that joy descries 

 With forward, and reverted eyes." 

 Gray's Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. 



In his notes to " Spring," Wakefield gets quite 

 pathetic at the words — 



" Poor moralist, and what art thou ? 

 A solitary fly," &c. 



I have always believed that Gray was imitating 

 Bishop Jeremy Taylor : 



" Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves 

 kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. 

 Celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dv/ells in a 

 perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and 

 dies in singularity." — Sermon XVII. The Marriaya 

 Ring, Part I. 



If these random notes be interesting to any of 

 your readers, they are only a portion out of many 

 I could send ; and any one who doubts Gray's 

 partiality for Cowley may compare his second 

 verse of the " Ode to Spring" with Cowley's lines 

 on " Solitude," found amongst his Bssaijs, espe- 

 cially verses 4. and 5.: 



