print it immediately (which may be done in less than a week's time) from your copy, but without my name, in what form is most convenient for him, but on his best paper and character; he must correct the press himself, and print it without any interval between the stanzas, because the sense is in some places continued beyond them; and the title must be,-Elegy, written in a Country Church-yard. If he would add a line or two to say it came into his hands by accident, I should like it better. If you behold the Magazine of Magazines in the light that I do, you will not refuse to give yourself this trouble on my account, which you have taken of your own accord before now. If Dodsley do not do this immediately, he may as well let it alone.

LXXX.-TO HORACE WALPOLE.

Ash-Wednesday, Cambridge, 1751. MY DEAR SIR-You have indeed conducted with great decency my little misfortune: you have taken a paternal care of it, and expressed much more kindness than could have been expressed from so near a relation. But we are all frail; and I hope to do as much for you another time.

Nurse Dodsley has given it a pinch or two in the cradle, that (I doubt) it will bear the marks of as long as it lives. But no matter we have ourselves suffered under her hands before now; and besides, it will only look the more careless and by accident as it I thank you for your advertisement, which

were.

saves my honour, and in a manner bien flatteuse pour moi, who should be put to it even to make myself a compliment in good English.

You will take me for a mere poet, and a fetcher and carrier of sing-song, if I tell you that I intend to send you the beginning of a drama,1 not mine, thank God, as you will believe, when you hear it is finished, but wrote by a person whom I have a very good opinion of. It is (unfortunately) in the manner of the ancient drama, with choruses, which I am to my shame the occasion of; for, as great part of it was at first written in that form, I would not suffer him to change it to a play fit for the stage, and as he intended, because the lyric parts are the best of it, they must have been lost. The story is Saxon, and the language has a tang of Shakespeare, that suits an old-fashioned fable very well. In short I don't do it merely to amuse you, but for the sake of the author, who wants a judge, and so I would lend him mine : yet not without your leave, lest you should have us up to dirty our stockings at the bar of your house, for wasting the time and politics of the nation. -Adieu, Sir! I am ever yours, T. GRAY.

LXXXI. TO HORACE WALPOLE.

Cambridge, March 3, 1751.

ELFRIDA (for that is the fair one's name) and her author are now in town together. He has promised

1 This was the Elfrida of Mason.

me, that he will send a part of it to you some morning while he is there; and (if you shall think it worth while to descend to particulars) I should be glad you would tell me very freely your opinion about it; for he shall know nothing of the matter, that is not fit for the ears of a tender parent-though, by the way, he has ingenuity and merit enough (whatever his drama may have) to bear hearing his faults very patiently.

I must only beg you not to shew it, much less let it be copied; for it will be published, though not as yet.

2

1

I do not expect any more editions; as I have appeared in more magazines than one. The chief errata were sacred bower for secret; hidden for kindred (in spite of dukes and classics); and "frowning as in scorn" for smiling. I humbly propose, for the benefit of Mr. Dodsley and his matrons, that take awake for a verb, that they should read asleep, and all will be right. Gil Blas is the Lying Valet in

1 of the "Elegy in a Country Church-yard."

2 Besides these errors of the text, in the Magazine of Magazines, the following occurred :— "their harrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke."-"And read their destiny in a nation's eyes."-"With uncouth rhymes and shapeless culture decked."- 'Slow through the churchway pass we saw him borne," and many others of less consequence."-[Ed.] 3 "Awake and faithful to her wonted fires."

4 Gil Blas was a comedy by Edward Moore, acted at Drury Lane in 1751. The Lying Valet was a farce Garrick had written in 1740.-[Ed.]

five acts. The Fine Lady1 has half a dozen good lines dispersed in it. Pompey is the hasty production of a Mr. Goventry 2 (cousin to him you knew) a young clergyman; I found it out by three characters, which once made part of a comedy that he shewed me of his own writing. Has that miracle of tenderness and sensibility (as she calls it) "Lady Vane" given you any amusement? Peregrine, whom she uses as a vehicle, is very poor indeed, with a few exceptions. In the last volume is a character of Mr. Lyttleton, under the name of "Gosling Scrag," and a parody of part of his Monody, under the notion of a Pastoral on the death of his grandmother.—I am ever yours, T. GRAY.

3

LXXXII. TO HORACE WALPOLE.

4

Cambridge, October 8, 1751.

I SEND you this (as you desire) merely to make up half a dozen; though it will hardly answer your end in furnishing out either a head or a tail-piece. But your own fable may much better supply the place. You have altered it to its advantage; but there is

5

1 "The Female Rake, or the Modern Fine Lady" was by Soame Jenyns.-[Ed.]

2 Francis Coventry was the anonymous author of a popular jeu-d'esprit entitled The History of Pompey the Little; or the Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog, first published in 1751.— [Ed.]

3 Peregrine Pickle, then just issued.-[Ed.]

4 The "Hymn to Adversity."

دو

5 The "Entail; see Walpole's Works, vol. i. p. 28.

still something a little embarrassed here and there in the expression. I rejoice to find you apply (pardon the use of so odious a word) to the history of your own times. Speak, and spare not. Be as impartial as you can; and after all, the world will not believe you are so, though you should make as many protestations as bishop Burnet. They will feel in their own breast, and find it very possible to hate fourscore persons, yea, ninety and nine: so you must rest satisfied with the testimony of your own conscience. Somebody has laughed at Mr. Dodsley, or at me, when they talked of the bat: I have nothing more either nocturnal or diurnal, to deck his miscellany with. We have a man 1 here that writes a good hand; but he has little failings that hinder my recommending him to you. He is lousy, and he is mad he sets out this week for Bedlam; but if you insist upon it, I don't doubt he will pay his respects to you. I have seen two of Dr. Middleton's unpublished works. One is about 44 pages in 4to. against Dr. Waterland, who wrote a very orthodox book 2 on the Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity, and insisted that Christians ought to have no communion with such as differ from them in fundamentals. Middleton enters no farther into the doctrine itself than to shew that a mere speculative point can never be called a fundamental: and that

1 This was apparently the poet Christopher Smart.-[Ed.] 2 Waterland's Scripture Vindicated was published in 1731. The Miscellaneous Works of Middleton appeared in 1755.—[Ed.]