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16
GRAY'S POEMS.
The painful family of Death,
More hideous than their queen:
This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 85
That every labouring sinew strains,
Those in the deeper vitals rage:
Lo! Poverty, to fill the band,
That numbs the soul with icy hand,
And slow-consuming Age. 90

To each his suff'rings: all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan;
The tender for another's pain,
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet, ah! why should they know their fate, 95


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Notes

  1. ↑ V. 83. "Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain," Pope. Essay on Man, ii. 118. Dryden. State of Innoc. act v. sc. i: "With all the numerous family of Death." Claudian uses language not dissimilar: Cons. Honor. vi. 323: "Inferno stridentes agmine Morbi." And Juv. Sat. x. 218: "Circumsedit agmine facto Morborum omne genus." Hor. Od. 1. iii. 30, "Nova febrium terris incubuit cohors."
  2. ↑ V. 84. See T. Warton's Milt. p. 432, 434, 511.
  3. ↑ V. 90. His slow-consuming fires." Shenstone. Love and Honour.
  4. ↑ V. 95. We meet with the same thought in Milton. Com. ver. 359:
    "Peace, brother; be not over-exquisite
    To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
    For grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
    What need a man forestall his date of grief?" W

    .
  5. ↑ V. 98. Soph. Ajax, v. 555: Ἒν τῷ φρονεῖν γαρ μηδεν. ἥζιστος βίος W. See Kidd's note to Hor. Ep. xi. 2. 140.
  6. ↑ V. 99. See Prior, (Ep. to Hon. C. Montague, st. ix.)
    "From ignorance our comfort flows,
    The only wretched are the wise."—Luke.

    Add Davenant. Just Italian, p. 32, "Since knowledge is but
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