"Timon [aside]. Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men;"
and T. and C. iii. 3:
|
"For men, like butterflies, Shew not their mealy wings but to the summer." |
Mitford suggests that Gray had in mind Horace, Od. i. 35, 25:
| "At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro Perjura cedit; diffugiunt cadis Cum faece siccatis amici Ferre jugum pariter dolosi." |
[25.] In sable garb. Cf. Milton, Il Pens. 16: "O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue."
[28.] With leaden eye. Evidently suggested by Milton's description of Melancholy, Il Pens. 43:
| "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes; There, held in holy passion still, Forget thyself to marble, till With a sad leaden downward cast Thou fix them on the earth as fast." |
Mitford cites Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, song 7: "So leaden eyes;" Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia, 57: "And stupid eyes that ever lov'd the ground;" Shakespeare, Pericles, i. 2: "The sad companion, dull-eyed Melancholy;" and L. L. L. iv. 3: "In leaden contemplation." Cf. also The Bard, 69, 70.