"Our holy Fathers, xii. Cardynallys of Rome chosen by the mercy of Almighty God and by the Auctorite of these appostles Peter and Paule, to all and synguler cristen people of eyther kynde, trewely penytent and confessyd, and deuoutly gyue to the churche of oure lady and Seynt George the martyr in Sowthwerke, protector and defender of this Realme of Englande, any thyng or helpe with any parte of theyr goodes to the Reparacions or maynteyninge of the seruyce of almighty God done in ye same place, as gyuynge any boke, belle, or lyght, or any other churchly Ornamentis, they shall haue of eche of us Cardinallys syngulerly aforesayd a C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also there is founded in the same parysshe churche aforesayd, iii. Chauntre preestis perpetually to praye in the sayd churche for the Bretherne and Systers of the same Fraternyte, and for the soules of them that be departed, and for all cristen soules. And also iiii. tymes by the yere Placebo and Dirige, with xiiii. preestis and clerkes, with iii. solempne Masses, one of our Lady, another of Seynt George, with a Masse of Requiem. ¶ Moreouer our holy Fathers, Cardynallys of Rome aforesayd, hathe graunted the pardons followethe to all theym that be Bretherne and Systers of the same Fraternyte at euery of the dayes followynge, that is to say, the firste sonday after the feest of Seynt Johannes Baptyst, on the whiche the same churche was halowed, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also the feest of Seynt Mychael ye Archangell, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also the second sonday in Lent, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also good Frydaye, the whiche daye Criste sufferyd his passion, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also Tewisday in the wytson weke, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ And also at euery feeste of our lorde Criste syngulerly by himselfe, from the firste euynsonge to the seconde euynsonge inclusyuely, xii. C. dayes of pardon. ¶ Also my lorde Cardynall and Chaunceller of Englande hathe gyuen a C. dayes of pardon.
"¶ The summe of the masses that is sayd and songe within the same Parysshe Churche of Seynt George, is a m. and xliiii.
"¶ God Saue the Kynge."
GRAY'S PLAGIARISMS.
Your correspondent VARRO (Vol. iii., p. 206.) rejects as a plagiarism in Gray the instance quoted by me from a note in Byron (Vol. iii., p. 35.), on the ground that Gray has himself expressly stated that the passage was "an imitation" of the one in Dante. I always thought that in literature, as in other things, some thefts were acknowledged and others unacknowledged, and that the only difference between them was, that, while the acknowledgment went to extenuate the offence, it the more completely established the fact of the appropriation. A great many actual borrowings, but for such acknowledgment, might pass for coincidences. "On peut se rencontrer," as the Chevalier Ramsay said on a similar occasion.
The object, however, of this Note is not to shake VARRO'S belief in the impeccability of Gray, for whose genius I entertain the highest admiration and respect, but to show your readers that the imputation of plagiarism against that poet is not wholly unfounded. First, we have the well-known line in his poem of The Bard,—
"Give ample room and verge enough,"—
which is shown to have been appropriated from the following passage in Dryden's tragedy of Don Sebastian:
"Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me;
I have a soul that, like an ample shield,