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Richard West to Thomas Gray, [24 May 1736]

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I agree with you that you have broke Statius's head, but it is in like manner as Apollo broke Hyacinth's, you have foiled him infinitely at his own weapon; I must insist on seeing the rest of your translation, and then I will examine it entire, and compare it with the latin, and be very wise and severe, and put on an inflexible face, such as becomes the character of a true son of Aristarchus, of hyper-critical memory. In the mean while,

And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold,

is exactly Statius–Summos auro mansueverat ungues. I never knew before that the golden fangs on hammer-cloths were so old a fashion. Your Hymenêal I was told was the best in the Cambridge Collection before I saw it, and indeed, it is no great compliment to tell you I thought it so when I had seen it, but sincerely it pleased me best. Methinks the college bards have run into a strange taste on this occasion. Such soft unmeaning stuff about Venus and Cupid, and Peleus and Thetis, and Zephyrs and Dryads, was never read. As for my poor little Eclogue, it has been condemned and beheaded by our Westminster judges; an exordium of about sixteen lines absolutely cut off, and its other limbs quartered in a most barbarous manner. I will send it you in my next as my true and lawful heir, in exclusion of the pretender, who has the impudence to appear under my name.

As yet I have not looked into Sir Isaac. Public disputations I hate; mathematics I reverence; history, morality, and natural philosophy have the greatest charms in my eye; but who can forget poetry? they call it idleness, but it is surely the most enchanting thing in the world, 'ac dulce otium & pœne omni negotio pulchrius.'

I am, dear Sir, yours while I am
R. W.
Letter ID: letters.0026 (Source: TEI/XML)

Correspondents

Writer: West, Richard, 1716-1742
Writer's age: 20[?]
Addressee: Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771
Addressee's age: 19

Dates

Date of composition: [24 May 1736]
Date (on letter): [May 24, 1736]
Calendar: Julian

Places

Place of composition: [Oxford, United Kingdom]
Address (on letter): [Christ Church]

Content

Language: English
Incipit: I agree with you that you have broke Statius's head...
Mentioned: Gratulatio Academiae Cantab.
Statius
[Hymeneal]
[Translation from Statius, Thebaid IX 319-26]
[Translation from Statius, Thebaid VI 646-88, 704-24]

Holding Institution

Availability: The original letter is unlocated, a copy, transcription, or published version survives

Print Versions

  • The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York: printed by A. Ward; and sold by J. Dodsley, London; and J. Todd, York, 1775, letter iii, section i, 10-11
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by Thomas James Mathias. London: William Bulmer, 1814, section I, letter III, vol. i, 141-142
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section I, letter III, vol. ii, 4-5
  • The Letters of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. in one. London: J. Sharpe, 1819, letter III, vol. i, 8-9
  • The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section I, letter III, vol. ii, 4-7
  • Gray and his Friends: Letters and Relics, in great part hitherto unpublished. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1890, section II, letter no. 4, 70-71
  • The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West and Ashton (1734-1771), 2 vols. Chronologically arranged and edited with introduction, notes, and index by Paget Toynbee. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915, letter no. 31, vol. i, 74-75
  • Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], letter no. 23, vol. i, 42-43