Warton wanted to have this line read
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The curfew tolls!--the knell of parting day." It is sufficient to say that Gray, as the manuscript shows, did notwant it to read so, and that we much prefer his way to Warton's. Mitford says that _toll_ is "not the appropriate verb," as the curfewwas rung, not tolled. We presume that depended, to some extent, onthe fancy of the ringer. Milton (_Il Pens._ 76) speaks of the curfewas "Swinging slow with sullen roar." Gray himself quotes here Dante, _Purgat._ 8: --"squilla di lontanoChe paia 'l giorno pianger, che si muore;" and we cannot refrain from adding, for the benefit of thoseunfamiliar with Italian, Longfellow's exquisite translation: --"from far away a bellThat seemeth to deplore the dying day." Mitford quotes (incorrectly, as often) Dryden, _Prol. to Troilus andCressida_, 22: "That tolls the knell for their departed sense." On _parting_=departing, cf. Shakes. _Cor._ v. 6: "When I partedhence;" Goldsmith, _D. V._ 171: "Beside the bed where parting lifewas laid," etc. 2. _The lowing herd wind_, etc. _Wind_, and not _winds_, is thereading of the MS. (see fac-simile of this stanza on p. 73) and of_all_ the early editions--that of 1768, Mason's, Wakefield's,Mathias's, etc.--but we find no note of the fact in Mitford's or anyother of the more recent editions, which have substituted _winds_.Whether the change was made as an amendment or accidentally, we donot know;[10] but the original reading seems to us by far the betterone. The poet does not refer to the herd as an aggregate, but to theanimals that compose it. He sees, not _it_, but "_them_ on theirwinding way." The ordinary reading mars both the meaning and themelody of the line. [Footnote 10: Very likely the latter, as we have seen that _winds_appears in the unauthorized version of the _London Magazine_ (March,1751), where it may be a misprint, like the others noted above. We may remark here that the edition of 1768--the _editio princeps_ ofthe _collected_ Poems--was issued under Gray's own supervision, andis printed with remarkable accuracy. We have detected only oneindubitable error of the type in the entire volume. Certainpeculiarities of spelling were probably intentional, as we find thelike in the fac-similes of the poet's manuscripts. The manyquotations from Greek, Latin, and Italian are correctly given(according to the received texts of the time), and the references toauthorities, so far as we have verified them, are equally exact. Thebook throughout bears the marks of Gray's scholarly and criticalhabits, and we may be sure that the poems appear in precisely theform which he meant they should retain. In doubtful cases, therefore,we have generally followed this edition. Mason's (the _second_edition: York, 1778) is also carefully edited and printed, and itsreadings seldom vary from Gray's. All of Mitford's that we haveexamined swarm with errors, especially in the notes. Pickering's(1835), edited by Mitford, is perhaps the worst of all. The Bostoned. (Little, Brown, & Co., 1853) is a pretty careful reproduction ofPickering's, with all its inaccuracies.] 3. The critic of the _N. A. Review_ points out that this line "isquite peculiar in its possible transformations. We have made," headds, "twenty different versions preserving the rhythm, the generalsentiment and the rhyming word. Any one of these variations might be,not inappropriately, substituted for the original reading." Luke quotes Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 7, 39: "And now she was uppon theweary way." 6. _Air_ is of course the object, not the subject of the verb. 7. _Save where the beetle_, etc. Cf. Collins, _Ode to Evening_: "Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed batWith short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,Or where the beetle windsHis small but sullen horn,As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path,Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." and _Macbeth_, iii. 2: "Ere the bat hath flownHis cloister'd flight; ere to black Hecate's summonsThe shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,Hath rung night's yawning peal," etc. 10. _The moping owl_. Mitford quotes Ovid, _Met._ v. 550: "Ignavusbubo, dirum mortalibus omen;" Thomson, _Winter_, 114: "Assiduous in his bower the wailing owlPlies his sad song;" and Mallet, _Excursion_: "the wailing owlScreams solitary to the mournful moon." 12. _Her ancient solitary reign_. Cf. Virgil, _Geo._ iii. 476:"desertaque regna pastorum." A MS. variation of this line mentionedby Mitford is, "Molest and pry into her ancient reign." 13. "As he stands in the churchyard, he thinks only of the poorerpeople, because the better-to-do lay interred inside the church.Tennyson (_In Mem._ x.) speaks of resting 'beneath the clover sodThat takes the sunshine and the rains,Or where the kneeling hamlet drainsThe chalice of the grapes of God.' In Gray's time, and long before, and some time after it, the formerresting-place was for the poor, the latter for the rich. It was so inthe first instance, for two reasons: (i.) the interior of the churchwas regarded as of great sanctity, and all who could sought a placein it, the most dearly coveted spot being near the high altar; (ii.)when elaborate tombs were the fashion, they were built inside thechurch for the sake of security, 'gay tombs' being liable to be'robb'd' (see the funeral dirge in Webster's _White Devil_). As thesetwo considerations gradually ceased to have power, and otherconsiderations of an opposite tendency began to prevail, the insideof the church became comparatively deserted, except when ancestralreasons gave no choice" (Hales). 17. Cf. Milton, _Arcades_, 56: "the odorous breath of morn;" _P. L._ix. 192: "Now when as sacred light began to dawnIn Eden on the humid flowers that breath'dTheir morning incense," etc. 18. Hesiod ([Greek: Erg.] 568) calls the swallow [Greek: orthogoêchelidôn.] Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ viii. 455: "Evandrum ex humili tecto lux suscitat alma,Et matutini volucrum sub culmine cantus." 19. _The cock's shrill clarion_. Cf. Philips, _Cyder_, i. 753: "When chanticleer with clarion shrill recallsThe tardy day;" Milton, _P. L._ vii. 443: "The crested cock, whose clarion soundsThe silent hours;" _Hamlet_, i. 1: "The cock that is the trumpet to the morn;" Quarles, _Argalus and Parthenia_: "I slept not till the early bugle-hornOf chaunticlere had summon'd in the morn;" and Thomas Kyd, _England's Parnassus_: "The cheerful cock, the sad night's trumpeter,Wayting upon the rising of the sunne;The wandering swallow with her broken song," etc. 20. _Their lowly bed_. Wakefield remarks: "Some readers, keeping inmind the 'narrow cell' above, have mistaken the 'lowly bed' in thisverse for the grave--a most puerile and ridiculous blunder;" andMitford says: "Here the epithet 'lowly,' as applied to 'bed,'occasions some ambiguity as to whether the poet meant the bed onwhich they sleep, or the grave in which they are laid, which inpoetry is called a 'lowly bed.' Of course the former is designed; butMr. Lloyd, in his Latin translation, mistook it for the latter."
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