On a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Notes by William J. Rolfe, Select Poems of Thomas Gray (1876; Project Gutenberg #30357).

1. Stanza 1, line 2 That crown the watery glade. Cf. Pope, Windsor Forest, 128: "And lonely woodcocks haunt the watery glade."
2. Stanza 1, line 4 Her Henry's holy shade. Henry the Sixth, founder of the college. Cf. The Bard, ii. 3: "the meek usurper's holy head;" Shakes. Rich. III. v. 1: "Holy King Henry;" Id. iv. 4: "When holy Harry died." The king, though never canonized, was regarded as a saint.
3. Stanza 1, line 5 And ye. Ye "towers;" that is, of Windsor Castle. Cf. Thomson, Summer, 1412: "And now to where Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow."
4. Stanza 1, line 8 Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among. "That is, the turf of whose lawn, the shade of whose groves, the flowers of whose mead" (Wakefield). Cf. Hamlet, iii. 1: "The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword." In Anglo-Saxon and Early English prepositions were often placed after their objects. In the Elizabethan period the transposition of the weaker prepositions was not allowed, except in the compounds whereto, herewith, etc. (cf. the Latin quocum, secum), but the longer forms were still, though rarely, transposed (see Shakes. Gr. 203); and in more recent writers this latter license is extremely rare. Even the use of the preposition after the relative, which was very common in Shakespeare's day, is now avoided, except in colloquial style.
5. Stanza 1, line 9 The hoary Thames. The river-god is pictured in the old classic fashion. Cf. Milton, Lycidas, 103: "Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow." See also quotation from Dryden in note on 21 below. [Illustration: THE RIVER-GOD TIBER.]
6. Stanza 1, line 10 His silver-winding way. Cf. Thomson, Summer, 1425: "The matchless vale of Thames, Fair-winding up," etc.
7. Stanza 2, line 2 Ah, fields belov'd in vain! Mitford remarks that this expression has been considered obscure, and adds the following explanation: "The poem is written in the character of one who contemplates this life as a scene of misfortune and sorrow, from whose fatal power the brief sunshine of youth is supposed to be exempt. The fields are beloved as the scene of youthful pleasures, and as affording the promise of happiness to come; but this promise never was fulfilled. Fate, which dooms man to misery, soon overclouded these opening prospects of delight. That is in vain beloved which does not realize the expectations it held out. No fruit but that of disappointment has followed the blossoms of a thoughtless hope."
8. Stanza 2, line 3 Where once my careless childhood stray'd. Wakefield cites Thomson, Winter, 6: "with frequent foot Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful morn of life, When nurs'd by careless Solitude I liv'd, And sung of Nature with unceasing joy, Pleas'd have I wander'd," etc.
9. Stanza 2, line 5 That from ye blow. In Early English ye is nominative, you accusative (objective). This distinction, though observed in our version of the Bible, was disregarded by Elizabethan writers (Shakes. Gr. 236), as it has occasionally been by the poets even to our own day. Cf. Shakes. Hen. VIII. iii. 1: "The more shame for ye; holy men I thought ye;" Milton, Comus, 216: "I see ye visibly," etc. Dryden, in a couplet quoted by Guest, uses both forms in the same line: "What gain you by forbidding it to tease ye? It now can neither trouble you nor please ye."
10. Stanza 2, line 9 Gray quotes Dryden, Fable on Pythag. Syst.: "And bees their honey redolent of spring."
11. Stanza 3, line 1 Say, father Thames, etc. This invocation is taken from Green's Grotto: "Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace Gives leave to view, what beauties grace Your flowery banks, if you have seen." Cf. Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 232: "Old father Thames raised up his reverend head." Dr. Johnson, in his hypercritical comments on this Ode, says: "His supplication to Father Thames, to tell him who drives the hoop or tosses the ball, is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no better means of knowing than himself." To which Mitford replies by asking, "Are we by this rule to judge the following passage in the twentieth chapter of Rasselas? 'As they were sitting together, the princess cast her eyes on the river that flowed before her: "Answer," said she, "great Father of Waters, thou that rollest thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocation of the daughter of thy native king. Tell me, if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint."'"
12. Stanza 3, line 3 Margent green. Cf. Comus, 232: "By slow Mæander's margent green."
13. Stanza 3, line 4 Cf. Pope, Essay on Man, iii. 233: "To Virtue, in the paths of Pleasure, trod."
14. Stanza 3, line 6 Thy glassy wave. Cf. Comus, 861: "Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave."
15. Stanza 3, line 7 The captive linnet. The adjective is redundant and "proleptic," as the bird must be "enthralled" before it can be called "captive."
16. Stanza 3, line 8 In the MS. this line reads, "To chase the hoop's illusive speed," which seems to us better than the revised form in the text.
17. Stanza 3, line 10 Cf. Pope, Dunciad, iv. 592: "The senator at cricket urge the ball."
18. Stanza 4, line 7 Cf. Cowley, Ode to Hobbes, iv. 7: "Till unknown regions it descries."
19. Stanza 4, line 10 A fearful joy. Wakefield quotes Matt. xxviii. 8 and Psalms ii. 11. Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 513: "Obstupuit simul ipse simul perculsus Achates Laetitiaque metuque." See also Lear, v. 3: "'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief."
20. Stanza 5, line 4 Cf. Pope, Eloisa, 209: "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind;" and Essay on Man, iv. 168: "The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy."
21. Stanza 5, line 5 Buxom. Used here in its modern sense. It originally meant pliant, flexible, yielding (from A. S. búgan, to bow); then, gay, frolicsome, lively; and at last it became associated with the "cheerful comeliness" of vigorous health. Chaucer has "buxom to ther lawe," and Spenser (State of Ireland), "more tractable and buxome to his government." Cf. also F. Q. i. 11, 37: "the buxome aire;" an expression which Milton uses twice (P. L. ii. 842, v. 270). In L'Allegro, 24: "So buxom, blithe, and debonaire;" the only other instance in which he uses the word, it means sprightly or "free" (as in "Come thou goddess, fair and free," a few lines before). Cf. Shakes. Pericles, i. prologue: "So buxom, blithe, and full of face, As heaven had lent her all his grace." The word occurs nowhere else in Shakes. except Hen. V. iii. 6: "Of buxom valour;" that is, lively valour. Dr. Johnson appears to have had in mind the original meaning of buxom in his comment on this passage: "His epithet buxom health is not elegant; he seems not to understand the word."
22. Stanza 5, line 7 Lively cheer. Cf. Spenser, Shep. Kal. Apr.: "In either cheeke depeincten lively chere;" Milton, Ps. lxxxiv. 27: "With joy and gladsome cheer."
23. Stanza 5, line 9 Wakefield quotes Milton, P. L. v. 3: "When Adam wak'd, so custom'd; for his sleep Was airy light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland."
24. Stanza 6, line 1 Regardless of their doom. Collins, in the first manuscript of his Ode on the Death of Col. Ross, has "E'en now, regardful of his doom, Applauding Honour haunts his tomb."[2] [Footnote 2: Mitford gives the first line as "E'en now, regardless of his doom;" and just below, on verse 61, he makes the line from Pope read, "The fury Passions from that flood began." We have verified his quotations as far as possible, and have corrected scores of errors in them. Quite likely there are some errors in those we have not been able to verify.]
25. Stanza 6, line 5 Yet see, etc. Mitford cites Broome, Ode on Melancholy: "While round stern ministers of fate, Pain and Disease and Sorrow, wait;" and Otway, Alcibiades, v. 2: "Then enter, ye grim ministers of fate." See also Progress of Poesy, ii. 1: "Man's feeble race," etc.
26. Stanza 6, line 9 Murtherous. The obsolete spelling of murderous, still used in Gray's time.
27. Stanza 7, line 1 The fury Passions. The passions, fierce and cruel as the mythical Furies. Cf. Pope, Essay on Man, iii. 167: "The fury Passions from that blood began."
28. Stanza 7, line 6 Mitford quotes Spenser, F. Q.: "But gnawing Jealousy out of their sight, Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite."
29. Stanza 7, line 8 Wakefield quotes Milton, Sonnet to Mr. Lawes: "With praise enough for Envy to look wan."
30. Stanza 7, line 9 Grim-visag'd, comfortless Despair. Cf. Shakes. Rich. III. i. 1: "Grim-visag'd War;" and C. of E. v. 1: "grim and comfortless Despair."
31. Stanza 8, line 6 Unkindness' altered eye. "An ungraceful elision" of the possessive inflection, as Mason calls it. Cf. Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii.: "Affected Kindness with an alter'd face."
32. Stanza 8, line 9 Gray quotes Dryden, Pal. and Arc.: "Madness laughing in his ireful mood." Cf. Shakes. Hen. VI. iv. 2: "But rather moody mad;" and iii. 1: "Moody discontented fury."
33. Stanza 9, line 1 The vale of years. Cf. Othello, iii. 3: "Declin'd Into the vale of years."
34. Stanza 9, line 2 Grisly. Not to be confounded with grizzly. See Wb.
35. Stanza 9, line 3 The painful family of death. Cf. Pope, Essay on Man, ii. 118: "Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain;" and Dryden, State of Innocence, v. 1: "With all the numerous family of Death." On the whole passage cf. Milton, P. L. xi. 477-493. See also Virgil, Æn. vi. 275.
36. Stanza 9, line 6 That every labouring sinew strains. An example of the "correspondence of sound with sense." As Pope says (Essay on Criticism, 371), "The line too labours, and the words move slow."
37. Stanza 9, line 10 Slow-consuming Age. Cf. Shenstone, Love and Honour: "His slow-consuming fires."
38. Stanza 10, line 5 As Wakefield remarks, we meet with the same thought in Comus, 359: "Peace, brother, be not over-exquisite To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; For grant they be so, while they rest unknown What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid?"
39. Stanza 10, line 7 Happiness too swiftly flies. Perhaps a reminiscence of Virgil, Geo. iii. 66: "Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit."
40. Stanza 10, line 8 Thought would destroy their paradise. Wakefield quotes Sophocles, Ajax, 554: [Greek: En tôi phronein gar mêden hêdistos bios] ("Absence of thought is prime felicity").
41. Stanza 10, line 9 Cf. Prior, Ep. to Montague, st. 9: "From ignorance our comfort flows, The only wretched are the wise." and Davenant, Just Italian: "Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know." [Illustration: WINDSOR CASTLE, FROM THE END OF THE LONG WALK.] [Illustration: HOMER ENTHRONED.]