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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 111, December 13, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
diviner inspiration given,
That burns in Shakspeare's or in Milton's page,
The pomp and prodigality of heaven,
As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze,
The meaner gems, that singly charm the sight,
Together dart their intermingled rays,
And dazzle with a luxury of light."
From a memorandum made by Gray himself, it is evident that he once had contemplated placing his "Bard" in a sitting posture; but I cannot but rejoice that he altered his mind, for such breath-taking words could never have been uttered in so composed and contented a posture. I give part of it from Mr. Mason's edition:
"The army of Edward I., as they marched through a deep valley, are suddenly stopped by the appearance of a venerable figure, seated on the summit of an inaccessible rock; who, with a voice more than human, reproaches the king with all the misery and desolation he had brought on his country, &c., &c. His song ended, he precipitates himself from the mountain, and is swallowed up by the river that rolls at its foot."—Vol. i. p. 73. Lond. 1807.
The last two lines of the passage before us—
"And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre"—
remind us in some degree of Cowley:
"Sic cecinit sanctus vates, digitosque volantes
Innumeris per fila modis trepidantia movit,
Intimaque elicuit Medici miracula plectri."
Again:
"Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes."
"Namque oculis plus illa suis, plus lumine cœli
Dilexit."
And—
"The Attick warbler pours her throat."
"Tum magnum tenui cecinerunt gutture Numen."
Also—
"The hues of bliss more brightly glow,
Chastis'd by sabler tints of woe;
And blended form with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of life."
The word chastised is similarly used by Cowley:
"From Saul his growth, and manly strength he took,
Chastised by bright Ahinoam's gentler look."
The idea of the whole passage may be found in Pope:
"Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling train;
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain;
These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind;
The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife,
Gives all the strength and colour of our life."
Again:
"Amazement in his van with Flight combin'd,
And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind."
"Victorious arms thro' Ammon's land it bore,
Ruin behind, and terror march'd before."
Wakefield mentions some parallel passages, but omits the best of all:
"A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; Yea, and nothing shall escape them."—Joel, ii. 3.
In the "Ode on the Installation" Gray says:
"Their tears, their little triumphs o'er
Their human passions now no more."
Wakefield dwells enraptured on the expression human passions. Cowley speaks of "humana quies" (Davideidos, lib. i. p. 3.). Horace says:
"—— Carminibus quæ versant atque venenis
Humanos animos."
Human passions is not, however, a creation of Gray's; for, if not anywhere else, he might have found the words very often in the writings of William Law, as vigorous a prose writer as England can boast of since the days of Dr. South. See his answer to Dr. Trapp's Not Righteous overmuch, p. 62., Lond. 1741; and his Serious Call, cap. xii. p. 137., and cap. xxi. p. 293., Lond. 1816.
To mention its use by modern writers would be endless. I selected these few passages on reading Mr. Wakefield's laudations, for otherwise I should not perhaps have remarked the words as unusual. Wakefield adduces from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard:
"One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven."
"Noble rage," Gray's Elegy. "Noble rage," Cowley's Davideidos, lib. iv. p. 137. Again, in the Elegy:
"Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The mopeing owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign."
Cowley, in describing the palace of Lucifer, has some fine sentences; and amongst them:
"Non hic gemmatis stillantia sidera guttis
Impugnant sævæ jus inviolabile noctis."
And in English:
"No gentle stars with their fair gems of light,
Offend the tyrannous and unquestion'd night."
Akenside constantly used the adjective human in different conjunctions.
RT.
Warmington.
OLD SONG: THE CUCKOLD'S CAP.
The following song I never saw in print. I knew an old lady, who fifty years ago used to sing it. Is it known?
Near Reading there lived a buxom young dame,
The wife of a miller, and Joan was her name;
And she had a hen of a wondrous size,
The like you never beheld with your eyes:
It had a red head, gay wings, yellow legs,
And every year laid her a bushel of eggs,
Which made her resolve for to set it with speed,
Because she'd a mind to have more of the breed.
Now as she was setting her hen on a day,
A shepherd came by, and thus he did say:
"Oh, what are you doing?" She answered him then,
"I'm going to set my miraculous hen."
"O, Joan," said the shepherd, "to keep your eggs warm,
And that they may prosper and come to no harm,
You must set them all in a large cuckold's cap,
And then all your chickens will come to good hap."
"O, I have no cuckold's cap, shepherd," said she,
"But nevertheless I'll be ruled by thee;
For this very moment I'll trudge up and down,
And borrow one, if there be one in the town."
So she went to the baker's, and thus she did say:
"O, lend me a cuckold's cap, neighbour, I pray,
For I'm going to set my miraculous hen,
And when that I've done with't, I'll bring it again."
The baker's wife answered, and thus she replied:
"Had I got such a thing, you should not