Some spirited publisher would confer a serious obligation on the
classical world by bringing out an edition of Gray's _Poems_, with the
parallel passages annexed. "Taking him for all in all," he is one of our
most perfect poets: and though Collins might have rivalled him (under
circumstances equally auspicious), he could have been surpassed by
Milton alone. In 1786, Gilbert Wakefield attempted to do for Gray what
Newton and Warton had done for Milton (and, for one, I thank him for
it); but his illustrations, though almost all good and to the point, are
generally from books which every ordinary reader knows off by heart.
Besides, Wakefield is so very egotistical, and at times so very puerile,
that he is too much for most people. However, his volume, _The Poems of
Mr. Gray, with Notes_, by Gilbert Wakefield, B.A., late Fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge: London, 1786, would furnish a good substratum for
the volume I am now recommending.
Not to speak of Milton's English poems and the great masterpieces of
ancient times, with which so learned a scholar as Gray was, of course,
familiar, he draws largely from the Greek anthology, from Nonnus, from
Milton's Latin poems, from Cowley, and I had almost said from the prose
works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor. His admiration of the great "Shakspeare
of Divinity" is proved from a portion of one of his letters to Mason;
and some other day I may furnish an illustration or two. Indeed, were
any publisher to undertake the generous office I mention, I dare say
that many a secret treasure would be unlocked, and many an "orient pearl
at random strung" be forthcoming for his use. Let me first mention
Gray's opinion of Cowley, and then add in confirmation one or two
passages out of many. He says in a note to his "Ode on the Progress of
Poesy:"
"We have had in our language not other odes of the sublime kind
than that of Dryden 'On St. Cecilia's Day:' for _Cowley (who had
his merit) yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony for such a
task_. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a man."
We must submit to Gray's oracular sentence, for he himself was
pre-eminently gifted in the three great qualities in which he declares
the deficiency of Cowley (at least if we are to judge from his English
poems; for the prosody of his Latin efforts seems sadly deficient). At
times Cowley's "harmony" is not first-rate, and his "style" is deeply
impregnated with the fantastic conceits of the day; but he is still a
poet, and a great one too. And I think that in some of his writings Gray
had Cowley evidently in mind; _e.g._ in the _epitaph_ to his "Elegy in a
Country Churchyard:"
"Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompence as largely send:
He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear;
He gained from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend."
Cowley had previously written:
"Large was his soul; as large a soul as e'er
Submitted to _inform_ a _body_ here.
High as the place 'twas shortly in _Heav'n_ to have,
But low, and humble as his _grave_.
So _high_ that all the _virtues_ there did come,
As to their chiefest seat,
Conspicuous, and great;
So _low_ that for _me_ too it made a room."
_On the Death of Mr. William Hervey._
_Miscellanies_, page 18. London, 1669.