Select Poems of Thomas Gray

by Thomas Gray

[37.] Cf. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 191: "For wheresoe'er she turn'd her face, they bow'd."

[39.] Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 405: "Incessu patuit dea." The gods were represented as gliding or sailing along without moving their feet.

[41.] Purple light of love. Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 590: "lumenque juventae Purpureum." Gray quotes Phrynichus, apud Athenæum:

See also Dryden, Brit. Red. 133: "and her own purple light."

[42.] "To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day by its cheerful presence to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night" (Gray).

[43] foll. See on Eton Coll. 83. Cf. Horace, Od. i. 3, 29-33.

[46.] Fond complaint. Foolish complaint. Cf. Shakes. M. of V. iii. 3: