Gray, when alluding to Shakspeare, in his Pindaric ode on "The Progress
of Poesy," had probably Cowley in memory:
"Far from the sun and summer gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd.
To him the mighty mother did unveil
Her awful face: _the dauntless child
Stretch'd forth his little arms and smil'd_."