J.F.M. (Vol. i., p. 101.) remarks, "I would venture to throw out a hint,
that an edition of this _Elegy_, exhibiting all the known translations,
arranged in double columns, might be made a noble monument to the memory of
Gray." It has been asserted that there is scarcely a thought in this
_Elegy_ that Gray has not borrowed from some writer, ancient or modern and
if this be true, I would take the liberty of adding a hint to that of
J.F.M., namely, that the proposed edition should contain a _third_ column,
exhibiting all the known plagiarisms in this famous _Elegy_. To begin with
the first line--
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."
Lord Byron, in his notes to the third canto of _Don Juan_, says that this
was adopted from the following passage in Dante's _Purgatory_, canto viii.:
---- "si ode squilla di lontano
Che paja 'l giorno pianger che si muore."
And it is worthy of notice that this passage corresponds with the first
line of Giannini's translation of the Elegy, as quoted by J.F.M.:--
"Piange la squilla 'l giorno, che si muore."
I must add, however, that long before Lord Byron thought of writing _Don
Juan_, Mr. Cary, in his excellent translation of the Italian poet, had
noticed this plagiarism in Gray; and what is more, had shown that the
principal thought, the "giorno che si muore," was borrowed by Dante from
Statius's
"Jam moriente die."