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26
GRAY'S POEMS.
O'er Idalia's velvet-green
The rosy-crowned Loves are seen
On Cytherea's day;
With antic Sport[V 1], and blue-eyed Pleasures, 30
Frisking light in frolic measures;
Now pursuing, now retreating,
Now in circling troops they meet:
To brisk notes in cadence[V 2] beating,

[N 1]


[N 2]

[N 3]

[N 4]

[N 5]Variants

  1. ↑ Var. V. 30. Sport] Sports. MS.
  2. ↑ Var.V. 34. In cadence] The cadence, MS.

Notes

    Fletcher, P. Island, c. ix. s. iii. and Lycidas, 32. Luke.

  1. ↑ V. 27. "At length a fair and spacious green he spide,
    Like calmest waters, plain; like velvet, soft."
    Fairfax. Tasso, xiii. 38.
    "She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet-green."
    Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. p. 128.
    This expression, it is well known, has met with reprehension from Dr. Johnson; who appears by his criticism to have supposed it first[C 1] introduced by Gray. It was numbered, however, among the absurd expressions of Pope, by the authors of the Alexandriad, (some of the heroes of the Dunciad,) see p. 288. It occurs in a list of epithets and nouns which Pope had used, and which these authors held up to ridicule.
  2. ↑ V. 30."I'll charm the air to give a sound,
    While you perform your antic round."
    Mach. act iv. sc. 1, W.
  3. ↑ V. 31."In friskful glee, their frolics play,"
    Thoms. Spring. Luke.
  4. ↑ V. 32. Wakefield refers to Callimachi Iyman. Dian. 3. and Hom. Il. Σ. 593.
  5. ↑ V. 35. Μαρμαρυγὰς ἐρεῖτο ποδῶν· θαύμαζε δὲ θυμῷ.
    Hom. Od. O. er. 265. Gray.
    "Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves
    Of aspin tall."Thoms. Spring, 157. W.

Footnotes to footnotes

  1. ↑ Shakespeare has, "Make boot upon the summer's velve buds," Hen, V. act i. sc 2.
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