Notes and Queries, Number 50, October 12, 1850 | Page 2

Webster's _White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona_, almost the same thought is also clothed in two monosyllabic lines:--
"His wealth is summed, and this is all his store: This poor men get, and great men get no more."
Was Young dull? Listen, for it is indeed a "solemn sound:"--
"The bell strikes one. We take no note of time Save by its loss, to give it then a tongue Was wise in man."
Was Milton tame? Hear the "lost archangel" calling upon Hell to receive its new possessor:--
"One who brings A mind not to be chang'd by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell,--a hell of heav'n. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be; all but less than he Whom thunder hath made _greater_? Here at least We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his _envy_; will not drive us hence: Here we may reign _secure_; and in my choice To reign is worth _ambition_, though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n!"
A great conjunction of little words! Are monosyllables passionless? Listen to the widowed Constance:--
"Thou mayst, thou shalt! I will not go with thee! I will instruct my sorrows to be proud; For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout; To me, and to the state of my great grief, Let kings _assemble_; for my grief's so great, That no supporter but the huge firm earth Can hold it up: here I and sorrow sit; Here is my throne: bid kings come bow to it."
Six polysyllables only in eight lines!
The ingenuity of Pope's line is great, but the criticism false. We applaud it only because we have never taken the trouble to think about the matter, and take it for granted that all monosyllabic lines must "creep" like that which he puts forward as a specimen. The very frequency of monosyllables in the compositions of our language is one grand cause of that frequency passing uncommented upon by the general reader. The investigation prompted by the criticism will serve only to show its unsoundness.
K.I.P.B.T.
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ON GRAY'S ELEGY.
If required to name the most popular English poem of the last century, I should perhaps fix on the Elegy of Gray. According to Mason, it "ran through eleven editions in a very short space of time." If he means separate editions, I can point out six other impressions in the life-time of the poet, besides those in miscellaneous collections viz. In _Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray_, London, 1753. Folio--1765. Folio--and in _Poems by Mr. Gray_, London, 1768. small 8o.--Glasgow 1768. 4o.--London. A new edition, 1768. small 8o. A new edition, 1770. small 8o. So much has been said of translations and imitations, that I shall confine myself to the text.
Of the first separate edition I am so fortunate as to possess a copy. It is thus entitled:--
"_An elegy wrote in a country church-yard_. LONDON: printed for R. Dodsley in Pal-mall; and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-noster-row, 1751. Price six-pense. 4o six leaves.
"Advertisement.
"The following POEM came into my hands by accident, if the general approbation with which this little piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a term as accident. It is this approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any apology but to the author: as he cannot but feel some satisfaction in having pleas'd so many readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that pleasure to many more.
"The EDITOR."
The history of this publication is given by Gray himself, in a letter to Walpole, dated in 1751, and needs no repetition; but I must observe, as a remarkable circumstance, that the poem was reprinted _anonymously_, in its separate form, as late as 1763.
I have collated the editions of 1751 and 1770, and find variations in stanzas 1, 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, 23, 24, and 27. All the amendments, however, were adopted as early as 1753, except the correction of a grammatical peccadillo in the ninth stanza.
I make this communication in the shape of a note, as it may interest men of the world not less than certain hermits.
BOLTON CORNEY.
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GRAY'S ELEGY IN PORTUGUESE.
In several numbers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" mention is made of various translations into foreign languages of GRAY'S _Elegy in a Country Church-yard_. P.C.S.S. begs leave to add to the list a very elegant translation into Portuguese, by the Chevalier Antonio de Aracejo (afterwards Minister of Foreign Affairs at Lisbon and at Rio de Janeiro), to whose friendship he was indebted many years ago for a copy of it. It was privately printed at Lisbon towards the close of the last century, and was subsequently reprinted at Paris in 1802,