466 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 111. 



" Torturinn; houi-" is used by Campbell in his 

 Pleasures of Hope, Part I. : 



" The martyr smiled beneath avenging power, 

 And braved the tyrant in his torturing hour." 

 And, indeed, " sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child," 

 had used it belbre any of ihem : 

 " Is there no play, to ease the anguish of a torturing 

 hour." 



Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V. Sc. 1. 



Ai^ain, Gray writes in his truly sublime ode, 

 " Th^'e Bard : " 



" On a rock, whose haughty brow 



Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, 

 llohed in the sable garb of woe, 



With haggard eyes the poet stood, 

 (Loose his beard, and hoary hair 

 Streaui'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air), 

 And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, 

 Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre." 



Ordinary readers would have innocently sup- 

 posed the above "pictured" passage beyond all 

 praise or criticism. "At non infelix" Wakelield : 



" A flilcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, 



Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd." 



Macheth. 



I must give liis note as it stands, for I question 

 whether the whole range of verbal criticism could 

 produce anything more ludicrous : 



" I wish Mr. Gray could have introduced a more 

 poetical expression, than the inactive term stood, into 

 this fine passage : as Shakspeare has, for instance, in 

 his description of Dover cliff: 



' Half way down 



Hangs one, that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade I' 

 King Lear, Act IV. Sc. 6. 



" Which is the same happy picture as that of Virgil : 

 ' Dumosa peHc/ere procul de rupe videbo.' 



Ed. I. 77." 



He niiijht, when his hand was in, have adduced 

 other passages also from Virgil, e. g. : 



" Imminet in rlvi pr;vstantis imaglnis undam." 



Ciile.v, 66. 



However, with all due respect for i\Ir. Wake- 

 field's "happy pictures," I do not see anything 

 left, but his eyebrows, for the luckless bard to 

 hang by ! lie could not have hutig by his hair, 

 which "stream'd like a meteor to the troubled 

 air;" nor yet by his haiids, which "swept the 

 deep sorrows of his lyre." Besides, there can 

 scarcely be more opposite pictures tlian that of a 

 man gathering samphire, or kids browsing, amongst 

 beetling rocks ; and the commanding and awe- 

 inspiring position in which Gray ingeniously places 

 liis bard. The expressions chosen by Virgil, Shak- 

 speare, and Gray were cacli peculiarly suitable to 

 tlie ])articidar objects in view. If Gray was 

 thinking of Milton, ns I intimated in a former 

 letter, he may have still kept him in mind : 



" Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood 

 Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd, 

 Thut fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 

 In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 

 Shakes pestilence and war." 



Far. Lost, lib. ii. 705. 



Or again : 



" On th' other side, Satan, alarm'd. 

 Collecting nil his might dilated stood, 

 IJke Teneriff or Atlas unremov'd : 

 His stature reach'd the sky, and on liis crest 

 Sat Horror plum'd ; nor wanted in his grasp 

 What sceni'd both spear and shield." 



Par. Lost, lib. iv. 985. 



It would be easy to adduce similar instances 

 from the ancient sources, but I will only mention 

 from Milton an illustration of the o-ucrTpe^'n s of 

 Demosthenes, and of the passionate abruptness 

 with which Gray commences " The Bard:" 



"As when of old some orator renown'd 

 In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence 

 Flourish'd. since mute, to some great cause addressed 

 Stood in himself collected, while each part. 

 Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue, 

 Sometimes in hight began, ns no delay 

 Of preface brooking through his zecd of right." 



Par. Lost, lib. ix. 670. 



Wakefield's hypercritical fastidiousness woidd 

 have c(unpletely defeated the intentions of Gray. 

 Ilis " Bard" had a mission to fulfil which could 

 not have been fulfilled by one suspended like 

 king Solomon, in the ancient Jewish traditions, or 

 like Mahomet's coffin, mid-way between heaven 

 and earth. His cry was 5os irov arta, and the 

 poet hoard him. And thus, fi'om his majestic 

 position, was not — 



" Every burning word he spoke 

 Full of rage and full of grief?" 



In the full blaze of poetic phrensy, he flashes 

 out at once with the awfully grand and terrible 

 e.\.ordium : 



" Ruin seize thee, ruthless king ! 



Confusion on tliy banners wait I 

 Tho' fann'd by conquest's crimson wing, 



They mock the air with idle state. 

 Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail. 



Nor e'en thy virtues, 'I'yrant. shall avail 

 To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, 

 From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears." 



Collins thus describes the passion o^ anger : 



" Next Anger rush'd ; — his eyes on fire. 

 In lightnings own'd his secret stings: 

 In one rude clash he struck the lyre. 



And swept with hurried hand the strings." 



Word-painting can go no farther. When, how- 

 ever, he comes to meJunchobj, in lines which con- 

 tain more suggestive beauty, as well as more 

 poetic inspiration, than perhaps any others of the 



