oet.
The following is a careful transcript of the memorandum:
"publish'd in
Feb:^{ry}, 1751.
by Dodsley: &
went thro' four
Editions; in two
months; and af-
terwards a fifth
6^{th} 7^{th} & 8^{th} 9^{th} & 10^{th}
& 11^{th}
printed also in 1753
with M^r Bentley's
Designs, of w^{ch}
there is a 2^d Edition
& again by Dodsley
in his Miscellany,
Vol: 4^{th} & in a
Scotch Collection
call'd _the Union_.
translated into
Latin by Chr: Anstey
Esq, & the Rev^d M^r
Roberts, & publish'd
in 1762; & again
in the same year
by Rob: Lloyd, M: A:"
"One peculiar and remarkable tribute to the merit of the _Elegy_,"
says Professor Henry Reed, "is to be noticed in the great number of
translations which have been made of it into various languages, both
of ancient and modern Europe. It is the same kind of tribute which
has been rendered to _Robinson Crusoe_ and to _The Pilgrim's
Progress_, and is proof of the same universality of interest,
transcending the limits of language and of race. To no poem in the
English language has the same kind of homage been paid so abundantly.
Of what other poem is there a polyglot edition? Italy and England
have competed with their polyglot editions of the _Elegy_: Torri's,
bearing the title, 'Elegia di Tomaso Gray sopra un Cimitero di
Campagna, tradotta dall' Inglese in piu lingue: Verona, 1817;
Livorno, 1843;' and Van Voorst's London edition." Professor Reed adds
a list of the translations (which, however, is incomplete), including
one in Hebrew, seven in Greek, twelve in Latin, thirteen in Italian,
fifteen in French, six in German, and one in Portuguese.
"Had Gray written nothing but his _Elegy_," remarks Byron, "high as
he stands, I am not sure that he would not stand higher; it is the
cornerstone of his glory."
The tribute paid the poem by General Wolfe is familiar to all, but we
cannot refrain from quoting Lord Mahon's beautiful account of it in
his _History of England_. On the night of September 13th, 1759, the
night before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe was
descending the St. Lawrence with a part of his troops. The historian
says: "Swiftly, but silently, did the boats fall down with the tide,
unobserved by the enemy's sentinels at their posts along the shore.
Of the soldiers on board, how eagerly must every heart have throbbed
at the coming conflict! how intently must every eye have contemplated
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