Richard West to Thomas Gray, [April 1740]
ELEGIA.
Ergo desidiæ videor tibi crimine dignus;
Et meritò: victas do tibi sponte manus.
Arguor & veteres nimium contemnere Musas,
Irata et nobis est Medicæa Venus.
Mene igitur statuas & inania saxa vereri!
Stultule! marmoreâ quid mihi cum Venere?
Hìc veræ, hìc vivæ Veneres, & mille per urbem,
Quarum nulla queat non placuisse Jovi.
Cedite Romanæ formosæ et cedite Graiæ,
Sintque oblita Helenæ nomen et Hermionæ!
Et, quascunque refert ætas vetus, Heroinæ:
Unus honor nostris jam venit Angliasin.
Oh quales vultus, Oh quantum numen ocellis!
I nunc & Tuscas improbe confer opes.
Ne tamen hæc obtusa nimis præcordia credas,
Neu me adeo nullâ Pallade progenitum:
Testor Pieridumque umbras & flumina Pindi
Me quoque Calliopes semper amasse choros;
Et dudum Ausonias urbes, & visere Graias
Cura est, ingenio si licet ire meo:
Sive est Phidiacum marmor, seu Mentoris æra,
Seu paries Coo nobilis e calamo;
Nec minus artificum magna argumenta recentûm
Romanique decus nominis & Veneti:
Quà Furor & Mavors & sævo in Marmore vultus,
Quàque et formoso mollior ære Venus.
Quàque loquax spirat fucus, vivique labores,
Et quicquid calamo dulciùs ausa manus:
Hìc nemora, et solâ mærens Melibœus in umbrâ,
Lymphaque muscoso prosiliens lapide;
Illìc majus opus, faciesque in pariete major
Exurgens, Divûm & numina Cœlicolûm;
O vos fælices, quibus hæc cognoscere fas est,
Et totâ Italiâ, quà patet usque, frui!
Nulla dies vobis eat injucunda, nec usquam
Norîtis quid sit tempora amara pati.
Correspondents
Dates
Places
Content
Holding Institution
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 xvi, section ii, 76-77
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by Thomas James Mathias. London: William Bulmer, 1814, section II, letter XVI, vol. i, 201-202
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: J. Mawman, 1816, section II, letter XVI, vol. ii, 69-70
- The Letters of Thomas Gray, 2 vols. in one. London: J. Sharpe, 1819, letter XXXIV, vol. i, 71-72
- The Works of Thomas Gray, 5 vols. Ed. by John Mitford. London: W. Pickering, 1835-1843, section II, letter XVI, vol. ii, 82-83
- 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. 115, vol. i, 288-289
- 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. 84, vol. i, 151-152