. 35, etc.

19. _His thirsty lance_. Cf. Spenser, _F. Q._ i. 5, 15: "his thristy
[thirsty] blade."

20. Gray says, "This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in
the same ode;" that is, in "the first Pythian of Pindar," referred to
in the note on 13. The passage is an address to the lyre, and is
translated by Wakefield thus:

"On Jove's imperial rod the king of birds
Drops down his flagging wings; thy thrilling sounds
Soothe his fierce beak, and pour a sable cloud
Of slumber on his eyelids: up he lifts
His flexile back, shot by thy piercing darts.
Mars smooths his rugged brow, and nerveless drops
His lance, relenting at the choral song."

21. _The feather'd king_. Cf. Shakes. _Phoenix and Turtle_:

"Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king."

23. _Dark clouds_. The first reading of MS. was "black clouds."

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 Aegean Sea, one of the favourite residences of Aphrodite, or
Venus. Cf. Virgil, _Aen._ 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, ant