"Wings he wore
Of many a colour'd plume sprinkled with gold."

[126.] Gray quotes Spenser, F. Q. Proeme, 9:

"Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song."

[128.] "Shakespeare" (Gray). Cf. Il Penseroso, 102: "the buskin'd stage;" that is, the tragic stage.

[129.] Pleasing pain. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 9, 10: "sweet pleasing payne;" and Dryden, Virg. Ecl. iii. 171: "Pleasing pains of love."

[131.] "Milton" (Gray).

[133.] "The succession of poets after Milton's time" (Gray).

[135.] Fond. Foolish. See on Prog. of Poesy, [46.]