halowed, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also the feest of Seynt Mychael ye Archangell, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also the second sonday in Lent, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also good Frydaye, the whiche daye Criste sufferyd his passion, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also Tewisday in the wytson weke, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ And also at euery feeste of our lorde Criste syngulerly by himselfe, from the firste euynsonge to the seconde euynsonge inclusyuely, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also my lorde Cardynall and Chaunceller of Englande hathe gyuen a C. dayes of pardon.

"¶ The summe of the masses that is sayd and songe within the same Parysshe Churche of Seynt George, is a m. and xliiii.

"¶ God Saue the Kynge."

GRAY'S PLAGIARISMS.

Your correspondent VARRO (Vol. iii., p. 206.) rejects as a plagiarism in Gray the instance quoted by me from a note in Byron (Vol. iii., p. 35.), on the ground that Gray has himself expressly stated that the passage was "an imitation" of the one in Dante. I always thought that in literature, as in other things, some thefts were acknowledged and others unacknowledged, and that the only difference between them was, that, while the acknowledgment went to extenuate the offence, it the more completely established the fact of the appropriation. A great many actual borrowings, but for such acknowledgment, might pass for coincidences. "On peut se rencontrer," as the Chevalier Ramsay said on a similar occasion.

The object, however, of this Note is not to shake VARRO'S belief in the impeccability of Gray, for whose genius I entertain the highest admiration and respect, but to show your readers that the imputation of plagiarism against that poet is not wholly unfounded. First, we have the well-known line in his poem of The Bard,—

which is shown to have been appropriated from the following passage in Dryden's tragedy of Don Sebastian:

To this I shall add the famous apothegm at the close of the following stanzas, in his Ode On a Prospect of Eton College:

The same thought is expressed by Sir W. Davenant in the lines:

But the source of Gray's apothegm is still more obviously traceable to these lines in Prior:

A third sample in Gray is borrowed from Milton. The latter, in speaking of the Deity, has this beautiful image:

And Gray, with true poetic feeling, has applied this image to Milton himself in those forceful lines in the Progress of Poesy, in which he alludes to the poet's blindness:

There is a passage in Longinus which appears to me to have furnished Milton with the germ of this thought. The Greek rhetorician is commenting on the use of figurative language, and, after illustrating his views by a quotation from Demosthenes, he adds: "In what has the orator here concealed the figure? plainly in its own lustre." In this passage Longinus elucidates one figure by another,—a not unusual practice with that elegant writer.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, April, 1851.

ON THE APPLICATION OF THE WORD "LITTUS" IN THE SENSE OF RIPA, THE BANK OF A RIVER.

The late Marquis Wellesley, towards the close of his long and glorious life, wrote the beautiful copy of Latin verses upon the theme "Salix Babylonica," which is printed among his Reliquiæ.

In this copy of verses is to be found the line,—

Certain critics object to this word "littoris," used here in the sense of "ripa." The question is, whether such an application can be borne out by ancient authorities. To be sure, the substitution of "marginis" for "littoris" would obviate all controversy; but as the objection has been started, and urged with some pertinacity, it may be worth while to consider it. The ordinary meaning of littus is undoubtedly the sea-shore; but it seems quite certain that it is used occasionally in the sense of "ripa."

In the 2d Ode of Horace, book 1st, we find:

—meaning, as I conceive, that the waters of the Tiber were thrown back from the Etruscan shore, or right bank, which was the steep side, so as to flood the left bank, and do all the mischief. If this interpretation be correct, which Gesner supports by the following note, the question is settled by this single passage:

"Quod fere malim propter ea quæ sequuntur, littus ipsius Tiberis dextrum, quod spectat Etruriam: unde retortis undis sinistrâ ripâ Romam alluente, labitur."

Thus, at all events, I have the authority of Gesner's scholarship for "littus ipsius Tiberis."

There are two other passages in Horace's Odes where "littus" seems to bear a different sense from the sea-shore. The first, book iii. ode 4.:

The next, book iii. ode 17.:

Upon which latter Gesner says, that as Marica was a nymph from whom the river received its name,—

"Hinc patet Lirim atque Maricam fuisse duo unius fluminis nomina."

But I will not insist upon these examples even with the support of Gesner, because Marica may have been a district situate on the sea-shore, and because, in the former passage, "littus Assyrium" may mean the Syrian coast, which is washed by the Mediterranean.

But to go to another author, in book x. of Lucan's Pharsalia will be found (line 244.):