[The Alliance of Education and Government. A Fragment]
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[The Alliance of Education and Government.
A Fragment]
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[The Alliance of Education and Government.Metrical foot type: iambic (-+)
Metrical foot number: pentameter (5 feet)
Rhyme scheme: aa
Rhyme (stanza position): pair (aabb)
Syllable pattern: 10
Stanza: couplet (2 lines)
Genre(s): heroic couplet
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Expanding the poem lines () shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 5 textual and 10 explanatory notes/queries.
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[The Alliance of Education and Government.Title/Paratext] "The first fifty-seven lines of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"The first fifty-seven lines of this poem were sent from Stoke,
in August, 1748, in a letter to
Dr. Wharton, which concludes as follows:—"I
fill up with the beginning of a sort of Essay; what name to give it I know
not, but the subject is the Alliance of Education and Government; I mean to
show that they must necessarily concur to produce great and useful men. I
desire your judgment upon so far before I proceed any further. Pray show it to
no one (as it is a fragment) except it be Stonehewer, who has seen most of it
already, I think." Mason says, "he was busily employed in it at the
time when M. de Montesquieu's book 'L' Esprit des Lois' was first
published. On reading it he found the Baron had forestalled some of his best
thoughts; . . . yet the two writers differ a little in one very material
point, viz., the influence of soil and climate on national manners. Some time
after, he had thoughts of resuming his plan, and of dedicating it, by an
introductory ode, to M. de Montesquieu, but that great man's death, which
happened in 1755, made him drop his design finally."
In a note to his Roman History, Gibbon says: "Instead of
compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the
philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen?"
Vol. iii. p. 248. Would it not have been more philosophical in Gibbon to have
lamented the situation in which Gray was placed; which was not only not
favourable to the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed his
thoughts to those learned inquiries, that formed the amusement or business of
all around him?—Mitford."
2.1-7 Whose ... birth,] "This and the other words [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"This and the other words which Mr. Gosse (in the footnotes to pages 113-115 of vol. i. of his edition of Gray's "Works") attributes to Mason are really Gray's, as may be seen in the Pembroke MSS., where the whole of this poem is in Gray's handwriting and as given by Mason except in line 106."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.9.1-8 So ... airs,] ""Vitales auras carpis."—Virg. Æneid, i. [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
""Vitales auras carpis."—Virg. Æneid, i. 387."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.12.8-9 opening heart.] "See "Ode for Music," 21." J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"See "Ode for Music," 21."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.14.1-6 Of ... stores,] ""And lavish Nature laughs and [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
""And lavish Nature laughs and throws her stores around."—Dryden, Virgil, vii. 76."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.17.2 - 18.5 scatter ... plenty] "Cf. the "Elegy," 63." J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Cf. the "Elegy," 63."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.17.2 - 18.5 scatter ... plenty] "Cf. the "Elegy," 63." J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Cf. the "Elegy," 63."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.19.2 - 21.4 Tyranny ... blooming] "Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy sway have," and for "blooming" he had "vernal.""
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.19.2 - 21.4 Tyranny ... blooming] "Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy sway have," and for "blooming" he had "vernal.""
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.19.2 - 21.4 Tyranny ... blooming] "Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Tyranny has,—he first wrote "gloomy sway have," and for "blooming" he had "vernal.""
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.48.7-8 sweepy sway] "cf. the "Bard," 75, and [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"cf. the "Bard," 75, and note."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.56.1-8 Scent ... rose,] "Cf. "gathered fragrance," "Ode on [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Cf. "gathered fragrance," "Ode on Spring," 10, and Milton, "Arcades," 32:—
"And ye, ye breathing roses of the wood.""The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.
66.1 - 67.8 As ... day?] "Rogers refers to Dryden's "Religio [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Rogers refers to Dryden's "Religio Laici":—
"And as these nightly tapers disappear,The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.
When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere.""
66.6 even] "Eve should be "ev'n," the [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Eve should be "ev'n," the reading in the Pembroke MS."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.66.1 - 67.8 As ... day?] "Rogers refers to Dryden's "Religio [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Rogers refers to Dryden's "Religio Laici":—
"And as these nightly tapers disappear,The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.
When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere.""
102.8 flings,] "cf. the use of "fling," [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"cf. the use of "fling," "Ode on Spring," 10."
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.105.4-7 drive ... gale,] "Cf. "Paradise Lost," iii. 438:— [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Cf. "Paradise Lost," iii. 438:—
"Where Chineses driveThe Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 250.
With sails and wind their cany waggons light.""
106.6 distant] "Mason has 'neighb'ring.'" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"Mason has 'neighb'ring.'"
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 251.107.1-8 That ... tide.] "[Note on the couplet found [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"[Note on the couplet found by Mason: "When love could teach a monarch to be wise, // And gospel-light first dawned from Bullen's eyes."] In the short notice of Gray by Horace Walpole, prefixed to Mitford's "Correspondence of Gray and Mason," he says he began a poem on the reformation of learning, but soon dropped it on finding his plan too much resembling the "Dunciad." It had this admirable line in it—
"When gospel-light," etc.Walpole seems to have quoted from memory; the couplet does not occur in the "Hymn to Ignorance," to which he refers, nor yet in the poem before us, but among the papers in which Mason found the plan in prose of this poem.
Walpole imitated the couplet in an inscription on a Gothic column to Queen Catherine:—
"From Katherine's wrongs a nation's bliss was spread,The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 251.
And Luther's light from Henry's lawless bed.""
Works cited
- The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891.
Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been supplied. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.