24. _The terror_. This is the reading of the first ed. and also of
that of 1768. Most of the modern eds. have "terrors."
25. "Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the
body" (Gray).
26. _Temper'd_. Modulated, "set." Cf. _Lycidas_, 33: "Tempered to the
oaten flute;" Fletcher, _Purple Island_: "Tempering their sweetest
notes unto thy lay," etc.
27. _O'er Idalia's velvet-green_. _Idalia_ appears to be used for
_Idalium_, which was a town in Cyprus, and a favourite seat of Venus,
who was sometimes called _Idalia_. Pope likewise uses _Idalia_ for
the place, in his _First Pastoral_, 65: "Celestial Venus haunts
Idalia's groves."
Dr. Johnson finds fault with _velvet-green_, apparently supposing it
to be a compound of Gray's own making. But Young had used it in his
_Love of Fame_: "She rears her flowers, and spreads her
velvet-green." It is also among the expressions of Pope which are
ridiculed in the _Alexandriad_.
29. _Cytherea_ was a name of Venus, derived from _Cythera_, an island
in the Ægean Sea, one of the favourite residences of Aphrodite, or
Venus. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ i. 680: "super alta Cythera Aut super
Idalium, sacrata sede," etc.
30. _With antic Sports_. This is the reading of the 1st ed. and also
of the ed. of 1768. Some eds. have "sport."
_Antic_ is the same word as _antique_. The association between what
is old or old-fashioned and what is odd, fantastic, or grotesque is
obvious enough. Cf. Milton, _Il Pens._ 158: "With antick pillars
massy-proof." In _S. A._ 1325 he uses the word as a noun: "Jugglers
and dancers, anticks, mummers, mimicks." Shakes. makes it a verb in
_A. and C._ ii. 7: "the wild disguise hath almost Antick'd us all."
31. Cf. Thomson, _Spring_, 835: "In friskful glee Their frolics
play."
32, 33. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ v. 580 foll.
35. Gray quotes Homer, _Od._ ix. 265: [Greek: marmarugas thêeito
podôn thaumaze de thumôi]. Cf. Catullus's "fulgentem plantam." See
also Thomson, _Spring_, 158: "the many-twinkling leaves Of aspin
tall."
36. _Slow-melting strains_, etc. Cf. a poem by Barton Booth,
published in 1733:
"Now to a slow and melting air she moves,
So like in air, in shape, in mien,
She passes for the Paphian queen;
The Graces all around her play,
The wondering gazers die away;
Whether her easy body bend,
Or her fair bosom heave with sighs;
Whether her graceful arms extend,
Or gently fall, or slowly rise;
Or returning or advancing,
Swimming round, or sidelong glancing,
Strange force of motion that subdues the soul."
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:
[Greek: lampei d' epi porphureêisi
pareiêisi phôs erôtos.]