Page:Poetical works (IA poeticalworks00grayrich).pdf/134

III.^{[N 1]} ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.

 

Άνθρωπος, ἱκανὴ πρόφασις εἰς τὸ δυστυχεῖν.
Menander. Incert. Fragm. ver. 382. ed. Cler. p. 245.

 

[See Musæ Etonenses, vol. i. p. 229, and Brit. Bibliographer, vol. ii. p. 214.]

 

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
That crown the wat'ry glade,^{[N 2]}
Where grateful Science still adores
Her Henry's^{[N 3]} holy shade;^{[N 4]}
And ye, that from the stately brow 5
Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below
Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,

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Notes

1. This, as Mason informs us, was the first English production of Gray which appeared in print. It was published in folio, in 1747, and appeared again in Dodsley. Col. vol. ii. p. 267, without the name of the author. A Latin poem by him, On the Prince of Wales's Marriage, had appeared in the Cambridge Collection, in 1736, which is inserted in this edition.
2. V. 2. "Haunt the watery glade."—
   Pope. Wind. For. Luke.
3. King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College.
4. V. 4. So in the Bard, ii. 3: "And spare the meek usurper's holy head." And in Install. Ode, iv. 12; "the murder'd saint." So Rich. III. ac. v. sc. 1: "Holy King Henry." And act iv. sc. iv: "When holy Henry died." This epithet has a peculiar propriety, as Henry the Sixth, though never canonized, was regarded as a saint. See Barrington on the Statutes, p. 416, and Douce. Illust. of Shakesp. ii. 38. "Yea and holy Henry lying at Windsor." Barclay. Eclog. p. 4. fol.