"The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"

• Archive Work ID: poems.bapo
• Uniform Title: "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode" [e-text]
• First Line: 'Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
• Language: English
• First Published: 1757
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 18-24; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 177-200
• Summary: Begun late in 1754 and initially abandoned by August 1755, then taken up again, completed and revised, between May and August 1757. Gray sent the earlier parts of the poem in letters to Thomas Wharton, dated 6 August 1755 (ll. 1-56), and to Richard Stonhewer, dated 21 August 1755 (ll. 63-100), the latter part (ll. 111-144) to William Mason, dated [24 or 31] May 1757. First published, as "Ode II." in Odes by Mr. Gray (1757), 12-21.

7 Manuscripts:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0013 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "The Bard"
  • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
  • Physical Description: 1 page, 180 mm x 115 mm; transcript of variant lines in the hand of John Mitford, partial [ll. 142, 128, 130]
  • Language: English
  • Location: Add. MS 32561, f. 182r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 80
  • Contents: Transcript of variant versions of ll. 142, 128, and 130, in the hand of John Mitford, in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. III "Mitford. Extracts from Mr Grays Common-place books", f. 182r.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0203 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "Bard"
  • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
  • Physical Description: 1 page, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript of variant lines in the hand of John Mitford, partial [ll. 142, 128, 130] and crossed out
  • Language: English
  • Location: Add. MS 32562, f. 33r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 80
  • Contents: Transcript of variant versions of ll. 142, 128, and 130 (crossed out), in the hand of John Mitford, in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. IV, f. 33r.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0204 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "Bard"
  • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
  • Physical Description: 1 page, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript of variant lines in the hand of John Mitford, partial [ll. 111-112, 114, 116]
  • Language: English
  • Location: Add. MS 32562, f. 85v, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
  • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 80
  • Contents: Transcript of variant versions of ll. 111-112, 114, and 116, in the hand of John Mitford, in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. IV, f. 85v.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0201 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: [untitled]
  • Date: 17 June 1786
  • Physical Description: 74 folios, 230 mm x 300 mm; transcript, in form of a full score with four voices, in the hand of J. W. Callcott
  • Language: English
  • Location: Add. MS 27637, Music Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
  • References: Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 413; Northup, Bibliography (1917), item 1997
  • Contents: Transcript, untitled, in form of a full score with four voices, by J. W. Callcott.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0221 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"
  • Date: 1780[?]
  • Physical Description: 16 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
  • Language: English
  • Location: MS Add. 439, "Poems" section, 47-62, The Archives, York Minster Library & Archives, York, UK <https://yorkminster.org/treasures-and-collections.html>
  • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode" (p. 47) ("Ode. VI." [p. 49]). The poem, which has numbered stanzas and includes the "Argument" and the "Advertisement" as a footnote to the half-title as well as Gray's notes to ll. 5, 11, 13, 14, 35, 38, 47, 54, 57, 59, 64, 67, 71, 77, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 93, 99, 109, 110, 117, 121, 128, 131, 133, and additional annotations to ll. 70 ("Richard II.") and 75 ("Henry IV."), is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0275 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "The bard; a Pindaric ode, by...founded on a tradition current in Wales that Edward the 1st ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death"
  • Date: [after 1773]
  • Physical Description: [?] pages, 190mm x 120mm (volume); transcript in the hand of John Freeman Milward Dovaston
  • Language: English
  • Location: c.481, 36, Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
  • References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 661, item R0238; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 16 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10631>
  • Contents: Transcript in the hand of John Freeman Milward Dovaston, entitled "The bard; a Pindaric ode, by...founded on a tradition current in Wales that Edward the 1st ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death", in his autograph Select, and Miscellaneous Poems, Scraps, Mottos &c, 1773 and later, a Commonplace book of verse by Dovaston and others.
  
  
• • Archive MS ID: mss.0289 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "Bard"
  • Date: 3rd August 1824
  • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript (ll. 128-130) in the hand of R. Barneby
  • Language: English
  • Location: PR2752 1823e copy 2 v.1 Sh.Col., front endleaf 2v (b), Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., USA <http://www.folger.edu/>
  • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Dec. 2012. Folger Shakespeare Library. 15 February 2013. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=295130>
  • Contents: Transcript of three lines (ll. 128-130) in the hand of R. Barneby, beginning "In buskinn'd measures move" and signed "R. Barneby Aug.t 3rd. 1824."