PROGRESS OP AN EPITAPH. 



03 



when some police-officers, whose ap- 

 proach none of us had noticed, and 

 who were within a second of being 

 too late, rushed out from a hedge 

 behind Jeffrey ; and one of them, 

 striking at Jeffrey's pistol with his 

 staff, knocked it to some distance 

 into the field, while another running 

 over to me, took possession also of 

 mine. "We were then replaced in 

 our respective carriages, and con- 

 veyed crest-fallen to Bow Street." 

 It is known that Moore and Jeffrey 

 afterwards became cordial friends. 



TASSO AND ARIOSTO. 



Menzine, in his Poetics, gives the 

 truest idea of Ariosto's and Tasso's 

 rival poems of any of our writers. 

 The poem of the former, says he, is 

 like a vast palace, very richly fur- 

 nished, but built without the rules 

 of architecture; whereas, that of 

 Tasso is like a neat palace, very 

 regular and beautiful. (Crudeli.) 



GEAT AND MASON PROGRESS OF AN 

 EPITAni. 



The poet of the English Garden 

 and the Heroic Epistle was proud 

 to obtain the critical judgment of 

 the author of the Elegy ; and 

 Gray, it must be said, was a fasti- 

 dious critic, who dwelt on words 

 and expressions with a fine sense 

 of the delicacy and strength of the 

 English language. Gray composed 

 slowly weighing every word in a 

 sovereign scale. Mason, on the 

 other hand, was a rapid writer 

 seldom attending to the subtle dis- 

 tinctions to bo met with in words. 

 Words, indeed to use his own ex- 

 pression to the contrary about Gray 

 digested easily with him. Gray 

 has hit off this defect in his friend 

 in one of his letters: "Why, you 

 make no more, dear Mason," he 

 says, "of writing an ode, and throw- 

 ing it into the fire, than of buckling 

 and unbuckling your shoe." To 

 which the other replies, as we now 

 learn for the first time "Pray, 



Mr. Gray, why won't you make your 

 muse do now and then a friendly 

 turn ? An idle slut as she is ! if 

 she was to throw out her ideas 

 never so carelessly, it would satisfy 

 some folks that I know, but I won't 

 name names." Yet Mason was 

 afraid of what, after Pope, he calls 

 "the desperate hook" of Gray: 

 and Gray, when he heard that 

 Mason was concocting An Elegy 

 in the Garden of a Friend, writes 

 byway of postscript " Send me the 

 Elegy, my hoe is sharp." 



Another instance in which we 

 obtain the critical judgment of 

 Gray relates to Mason's Epitaph 

 on the daughter of Archbishop 

 Drummond : 



" I dined lately at Bishopthorpe, 

 when the archbishop took me into- 

 his closet, and, with many tears, 

 begged me to write an epitaph on 

 his daughter. In our conversation 

 he touched so many unison strings 

 of my heart (for \ve both of us wept 

 like children), that I could not help 

 promising him that I would try, if 

 possible, to oblige him. The result 

 you have on the opposite page. If 

 it either is or can be made a decent 

 thing, assist me with your judgment 

 immediately, for what I do about 

 it I would do quickly, and I can do 

 nothing neither, if this will not do- 

 with correction. It cannot be ex- 

 pected, neither would I wish it, to- 

 be equal to what I have written 

 from my heart upon my heart's 

 heart. Give me, I beg, your own sen- 

 timents upon it as soon as possible. 

 To conclude, I wish heartily to be 

 with you, but cannot fix a time, for 

 I was obliged to invite Mr. Robin- 

 son and the Wadsworths hither, 

 and I have not received their an- 

 swer. In my next perhaps I can 

 speak more determinately. My 

 best compliments to Dr. and Mrs. 

 Wharton, and best wishes for the 

 continuance of Mr. Brown's beati- 

 fications. Yours cordially, 



W. MASON." 



