The Augustan Reprint Society

THOMAS GRAY

_An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_

(1751)

and

_The Eton College Manuscript_

With an Introduction by

George Sherburn

Publication Number 31

Los AngelesWilliams Andrews Clark Memorial LibraryUniversity of California1951

GENERAL EDITORS

H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_

ASSISTANT EDITOR

W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_

ADVISORY EDITORS

EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR. , _University of California, Los Angeles_

INTRODUCTION

To some the eighteenth-century definition of proper poetic matter isunacceptable; but to any who believe that true poetry may (if not"must") consist in "what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed, "Gray's "Churchyard" is a majestic achievement--perhaps (accepting thedefinition offered) the supreme achievement of its century. Itssuccess, so the great critic of its day thought, lay in its appeal to"the common reader"; and though no friend of Gray's other work, Dr. Johnson went on to commend the "Elegy" as abounding "with images whichfind a mirrour in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosomreturns an echo. " Universality, clarity, incisive lapidarydiction--these qualities may be somewhat staled in praise of the"classical" style, yet it is precisely in these traits that the"Elegy" proves most nobly. The artificial figures of rhetoricalarrangement that are so omnipresent in the antitheses, chiasmuses, parallelisms, etc. , of Pope and his school are in Gray's bestquatrains unobtrusive or even infrequent. 

Often in the art of the period an affectation of simplicity covers andreveals by turns a great thirst for ingenuity. Swift's prose is a fairexample; in the "Tale of a Tub" and even in "Gulliver" at first sightthere seems to appear only an honest and simple directness; but prybeneath the surface statements, or allow yourself to be dazzled bytheir coruscations of meaning, and you immediately see you arewatching a stylistic prestidigitator. The later, more orderly dignityof Dr. Johnson's exquisitely chosen diction is likewise ingeniouslystudied and self-conscious. When Gray soared into the somewhat turgidpindaric tradition of his day, he too was slaking a thirst forrhetorical complexities. But in the "Elegy" we have none of that. Nordo we have artifices like the "chaste Eve" or the "meek-eyed maiden"apostrophized in Collins and Joseph Warton. For Gray the hour when thesky turns from opal to dusk leaves one not "breathless withadoration, " but moved calmly to placid reflection tuned to drowsytinklings or to a moping owl. It endures no contortions of image or ofverse. It registers the sensations of the hour and the reflectionsappropriate to it--simply. 

It is not difficult to be clear--so we are told by some who habituallyfail of that quality--if you have nothing subtle to say. And it hasbeen urged on high authority in our day that there is nothing really"fine" in Gray's "Churchyard. " However conscious Gray was in limitinghis address to "the common reader, " we may be certain he was notwriting to the obtuse, the illiterate or the insensitive. He was tocreate an evocation of evening: the evening of a day and theapproaching night of life. The poem was not to be perplexed by doubt;it ends on a note of "trembling hope"--but on "hope. " There areperhaps better evocations of similar moods, but not of this precisemood. Shakespeare's poignant Sonnet LXXIII ("That time of year"), which suggests no hope, may be one. Blake's "Nurse's Song" is, incontrast, subtly tinged with modernistic disillusion:

 When the voices of children are heard on the green And whisp'rings are in the dale, The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, My face turns green and pale. 

 Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of night arise; Your spring & your day are wasted in play, And your winter and night in disguise. 

Here, too, are no tremblings of hope, no sound confidence in the"average" man, such as Gray surprisingly glimpses. One begins tosuspect that it is more necessary to be subtle in evocations ofdespair than in those of hope, even if the hope is tremulous. The moodGray sought required no obvious subtlety. The nearest approach to Gray(found in Catullus) may likewise be said to be deficient in overtones;but it also comes home to the heart of everyman:

 o quid solutis est beatius curis, cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum desideratoque acquiescimus lecto!

These simple lines convey what Gray's ploughman is achieving for oneevening, but not what the rude forefathers have achieved for eternity. From the ploughman and the simple annals of the poor the poem divergesto reproach the proud and great for their disregard of undistinguishedmerit, and moves on to praise of the sequestered life, and to anepitaph applicable either to a "poeta ignotus" or to Gray himself. Theepitaph with its trembling hope transforms the poem into somethinglike a personal yet universal requiem; and for one villager--perhapsfor himself--Gray seems to murmur through the gathering darkness: "etlux perpetua luceat ei. " Although in this epitaph we may seem to beconcerned with an individual, we do well to note that the youth tofortune and fame unknown, whose great "bounty" was only a tear, is ascompletely anonymous as the ploughman or the rude forefathers. 

The somber aspects of evening are perhaps more steadily preserved byGray than by his contemporaries. From Milton to Joseph Warton allpoets had made their ploughman unwearied as (to quote Warton):

 He jocund whistles thro' the twilight groves. 

With Gray all this blithe whistling stopped together. Evening poems byDyer, Warton, and Collins had tended to be "pretty, " but here againGray resisted temptation and regretfully omitted a stanza designed toprecede immediately the epitaph:

 There scatter'd oft, the earliest of ye Year By hands unseen, are Show'rs of Violets found; The Red-breast loves to build & warble there, And little Footsteps lightly print the Ground. 

With similar critical tact Gray realized that one might have too muchof stately moral reflections unmixed with drama. Possibly such anidea determined him in discarding four noble quatrains with which hefirst designed to end his poem. After line 72 in the manuscript now inEton College appeared these stanzas:

 The thoughtless World to Majesty may bow Exalt the brave, & idolize Success But more to Innocence their Safety owe Than Power & Genius e'er conspired to bless

 And thou, who mindful of the unhonour'd Dead Dost in these Notes their artless Tale relate By Night & lonely Contemplation led To linger in the gloomy Walks of Fate

 Hark how the sacred Calm, that broods around Bids ev'ry fierce tumultuous Passion cease In still small Accents, whisp'ring from the Ground A grateful Earnest of eternal Peace

 No more with Reason & thyself at Strife Give anxious Cares & endless Wishes room But thro the cool sequester'd Vale of Life Pursue the silent Tenour of thy Doom. 

"And here, " comments Mason, "the Poem was originally intended toconclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed Swain, &c. Suggested itself to him. " To reconstitute the poem with this originalending gives an interesting structure. The first three quatrains evokethe fall of darkness; four stanzas follow presenting the rudeforefathers in their narrow graves; eleven quatrains follow inreproach of Ambition, Grandeur, Pride, et al. , for failure to realizethe high merit of humility. Then after line 72 of the final versionwould come these four rejected stanzas, continuing the reproach of"the thoughtless world, " and turning all too briefly to one who could"their artless tale relate, " and to the calm that then breathes aroundtumultuous passion and speaks of eternal peace--and "the silent tenorof thy doom. "

That would give a simpler structure; and one may argue whether turningback from the thoughtless world to praise again the "cool sequester'dvale of life" and then appending "the happy idea of the hoary-headedswain, &c. " does really improve the poem structurally. Its method is, however, more acceptable in that now the reflections are imbedded in"drama" (or at least in narrative), and the total effect is morepleasing to present-day readers since we escape, or seem to escape, from the cool universality of humble life to a focus on an individualgrief. To end on a grim note of generalized "doom, " would have giventhe poem a temporary success such as it deserved; and it must beacknowledged that the knell-like sound of "No more . .. No more" (lines20, 21) echoed and re-echoed for decades through the imaginations ofgloom-fed poets. But Gray, although an undoubted "graveyard" poet, isno mere graveyard poet: he stands above and apart from the lot ofthem, and he was not content to end despondently in a descendinggloom. His, as he told West, in a celebrated letter, was a "whitemelancholy, or rather leucocholy"; and he wrote of "lachrymae rerum"rather than of private mordant sorrows. 

The poem is couched in universals: Gray writes in "a" countrychurchyard, and the actual Stoke Poges, dear and lovely as itdoubtless was to Gray, clings to the fame of the poem almost byaccident. And yet, by a sort of paradox, this "universal" poem in itssetting and mood is completely English. One could go too far from homefor examples of distinction--for the polar stars of the rudeforefathers--just as one could err by excess of "commonplace"reflections. Some such idea encouraged Gray to modify his fifteenthquatrain, which in the Eton MS reads (the first line has partlyperished from folding of the paper):

 Some [Village] Cato [who] with dauntless Breast The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Tully here may rest; Some Caesar, guiltless of his Country's Blood. 

The substitution of English names is an obvious attempt to bring truthcloser to the souls of his readers by use of "domestica facta" and theavoidance of school-boy learning. 

All these changes illustrate the quality of Gray's curious felicity. His assault on the reader's sensibilities was organized and careful:here is no sign of that contradiction in terms, "unpremeditated art. "He probably did not work on the poem so long as historians have saidhe did, but he scanted neither time nor attention. Mason thought thepoem begun and perhaps finished in 1742, and he connected itssomberness with Gray's great sorrow over the death of his close friendRichard West. All this seems more than doubtful: to Dr. ThomasWharton in September 1746 Gray mentioned recently composing "a fewautumnal verses, " and there is no real evidence of work on the poembefore this time. Walpole evidently inclined to 1746 as the date ofcommencement, and it may be pointed out that Mason himself is not sosure of 1742 as have been his Victorian successors. All he says is, "Iam inclined to believe that the Elegy . .. Was begun, if not concluded, at this time [1742] also. " Gray's reputation for extreme leisurelycomposition depends largely on the "inclination" to believe that the"Elegy" was begun in 1742 and on a later remark by Walpole concerningGray's project for a History of Poetry. In a letter of 5 May 1761Walpole joked to Montagu saying that Gray, "if he rides Pegasus at hisusual foot-pace, will finish the first page two years hence. " Notreally so slow as this remark suggests, Gray finally sent his "Elegy"to Walpole in June of 1750, and in December he sent perhaps an earlierform of the poem to Dr. Wharton. Naturally delighted with theperfected utterance of this finely chiseled work, these two friendspassed it about in manuscript, and allowed copies to be taken. 

Publication, normally abhorrent to Gray, thus became inevitable, though apparently not contemplated by Gray himself. The privatesuccess of the poem was greater than he had anticipated, and inFebruary of 1751 he was horrified to receive a letter from the editorof a young and undistinguished periodical, "The Magazine ofMagazines, " who planned to print forthwith the "ingenious poem, call'd Reflections in a Country-Churchyard. " Gray hastily wrote toWalpole (11 February), insisting that he should "make Dodsley print itimmediately" from Walpole's copy, without Gray's name, but with goodpaper and letter. He prescribed the titlepage as well as otherdetails, and within four days Dodsley had the poem in print, andanticipated the piratical "Magazine" by one day. But the "Magazine"named Gray as the author, and success without anonymity was the fateof the "Elegy. " Edition followed edition, and the poem was almost frombirth an international classic. 

One of the author's prescriptions for publication concerned the verseform. He told Walpole that Dodsley must "print it without any Intervalbetween the Stanza's, because the Sense is in some Places continuedbeyond them. " In the Egerton MS Gray had written the poem with nobreaks to set off quatrains, but in the earlier MS (Eton College), where the poem is entitled, "Stanza's, wrote in a CountryChurch-Yard, " the quatrains are spaced in normal fashion. Theinjunction shows Gray's sensitiveness as to metrical form. He hadcalled the poem an Elegy only after urging by Mason, and he possiblydoubted if his metre was "soft" enough for true elegy. The metrehitherto had not been common in elegies, though James Hammond's "LoveElegies" (1743) had used it and won acclaim. But the heroic(hendecasyllabic) quatrain was regarded in general as too lofty, stately, cool, for elegy. For the universal aspect of Gray's lament, however, it was highly apt as compared with the less majesticoctosyllabic line, hitherto normal in this genre. For years afterGray's great success, however, most elegies, if in quatrain form, followed Gray's quatrain in manner, whether or not their subjectsdemanded the stately line. 

The reasons why Gray is almost a poet of only one poem are not far toseek. He did not covet applause, and apart from melancholy his ownemotions were too private to be published. In the "Elegy" he is trueto himself and to the spirit of his age--perhaps of most ages. When hesought for material outside of his own experience, he went curiouslyto books, and was captivated by the "récherché. " He was also caught bythe rising cult of sublimity in his two great pindaric odes, and bythe cult of the picturesque in his flirtations with Scandinavianmaterials. In these later poems he broadened the field of poeticmaterial notably; but in them he hardly deepened the imaginative oremotional tone: his manner, rather, became elaborate and theatrical. The "Elegy" is the language of the heart sincerely perfected. 

The poem has pleased many and pleased long--throughout two centuries. In part it works through "pleasing melancholy"; in part it appeals toinnumerable humble readers conscious of their own unheralded merit. Inevitably, since the industrial revolution, modernist critics havetended to stress its appeal to class consciousness. This appeal, realthough it is, can be overemphasized. The rude forefathers are notprimarily presented as underprivileged. Though poverty-stricken andignorant, they are happy in family life and jocund in the field. "Nature is nature wherever placed, " as the intellectuals of Gray'stime loved to say, and the powers of the village fathers, potentially, equal the greatest; their virtue is contentment. They neither want norneed "storied urn or animated bust. " If they are unappreciated byAmbition, Grandeur, Pride, et al. , the lack of appreciation is due toa corruption of values. The value commended in the "Elegy" is that ofthe simple life, which alone is rational and virtuous--it is the lifeaccording to nature. Sophisticated living, Gray implies in the stanzathat once ended the poem, finds man at war with himself and withreason; but the cool sequestered path--its goal identical with that ofthe paths of Glory--finds man at peace with himself and with reason. The theme was not new before Gray made it peculiarly his own, and ithas become somewhat hackneyed in the last two hundred years; but thefact that it is seldom unheard in any decade testifies to itspermanency of appeal, and the fact that it was "ne'er so wellexpress'd" as in the "Elegy" justifies our love for that poem. 

George SherburnHarvard University

A NOTE ON THE TEXTS

The first edition of the "Elegy" is here reproduced from a copy in theWilliam Andrews Clark Memorial Library. 

By permission of the Provost and Fellows of Eton College, themanuscript preserved in the library of Eton College is alsoreproduced. This manuscript once belonged to Gray's friend, biographer, and editor, William Mason. In spite of its dimness, due tocreases in the paper and to the fact that the ink shows through fromthe other side of the paper, this manuscript is chosen forreproduction because it preserves the quatrains discarded beforeprinting the poem, and has other interesting variants in text. Twoother MSS of the poem in Gray's hand are known to exist. One ispreserved in the British Museum (Egerton 2400, ff. 45-6) and the otheris the copy made by Gray in Volume II of his Commonplace Books. This, is appropriately preserved in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Sir William Fraser bequeathed to Eton College the MS therefound, which in certain editions of the poem is called "the Frasermanuscript. "

AN

ELEGY

WROTE IN A

Country Church Yard. 

_LONDON:_

Printed for R. DODSLEY in _Pall-mall_;

And sold by M. COOPER in _Pater-noster-Row_. 1751. 

[Price Six-pence. ]

Advertisement. 

 _The following_ POEM _came into my Hands by Accident, if the general Approbation with which this little Piece has been spread, may be call'd by so slight a Term as Accident. It is this Approbation which makes it unnecessary for me to make any Apology but to the Author: As he cannot but feel some Satisfaction in having pleas'd so many Readers already, I flatter myself he will forgive my communicating that Pleasure to many more. _

The _EDITOR_

AN

ELEGY, _&c. _

 The _Curfeu_ tolls the Knell of parting Day, The lowing Herd winds slowly o'er the Lea, The Plow-man homeward plods his weary Way, And leaves the World to Darkness, and to me. Now fades the glimmering Landscape on the Sight, And all the Air a solemn Stillness holds; Save where the Beetle wheels his droning Flight, And drowsy Tinklings lull the distant Folds. Save that from yonder Ivy-mantled Tow'r The mopeing Owl does to the Moon complain Of such, as wand'ring near her sacred Bow'r, Molest her ancient solitary Reign. Beneath those rugged Elms, that Yew-Tree's Shade, Where heaves the Turf in many a mould'ring Heap, Each in his narrow Cell for ever laid, The rude Forefathers of the Hamlet sleep. The breezy Call of Incense-breathing Morn, The Swallow twitt'ring from the Straw-built Shed, The Cock's shrill Clarion, or the ecchoing Horn, No more shall wake them from their lowly Bed. For them no more the blazing Hearth shall burn, Or busy Houswife ply her Evening Care: No Children run to lisp their Sire's Return, Or climb his Knees the envied Kiss to share. Oft did the Harvest to their Sickle yield, Their Furrow oft the stubborn Glebe has broke; How jocund did they they drive their Team afield! How bow'd the Woods beneath their sturdy Stroke! Let not Ambition mock their useful Toil, Their homely Joys and Destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful Smile, The short and simple Annals of the Poor. The Boast of Heraldry, the Pomp of Pow'r, And all that Beauty, all that Wealth e'er gave, Awaits alike th' inevitable Hour. The Paths of Glory lead but to the Grave. Forgive, ye Proud, th' involuntary Fault, If Memory to these no Trophies raise, Where thro' the long-drawn Isle and fretted Vault The pealing Anthem swells the Note of Praise. Can storied Urn or animated Bust Back to its Mansion call the fleeting Breath? Can Honour's Voice provoke the silent Dust, Or Flatt'ry sooth the dull cold Ear of Death! Perhaps in this neglected Spot is laid Some Heart once pregnant with celestial Fire, Hands that the Reins of Empire might have sway'd, Or wak'd to Extacy the living Lyre. But Knowledge to their Eyes her ample Page Rich with the Spoils of Time did ne'er unroll; Chill Penury repress'd their noble Rage, And froze the genial Current of the Soul. Full many a Gem of purest Ray serene, The dark unfathom'd Caves of Ocean bear: Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its Sweetness on the desart Air. Some Village-_Hampden_ that with dauntless Breast The little Tyrant of his Fields withstood; Some mute inglorious _Milton_ here may rest, Some _Cromwell_ guiltless of his Country's Blood. Th' Applause of list'ning Senates to command, The Threats of Pain and Ruin to despise, To scatter Plenty o'er a smiling Land, And read their Hist'ry in a Nation's Eyes Their Lot forbad: nor circumscrib'd alone Their growing Virtues, but their Crimes confin'd; Forbad to wade through Slaughter to a Throne, And shut the Gates of Mercy on Mankind, The struggling Pangs of conscious Truth to hide, To quench the Blushes of ingenuous Shame, Or heap the Shrine of Luxury and Pride With Incense, kindled at the Muse's Flame. Far from the madding Crowd's ignoble Strife, Their sober Wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd Vale of Life They kept the noiseless Tenor of their Way. Yet ev'n these Bones from Insult to protect Some frail Memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth Rhimes and shapeless Sculpture deck'd, Implores the passing Tribute of a Sigh. Their Name, their Years, spelt by th' unlettered Muse, The Place of Fame and Elegy supply: And many a holy Text around she strews, That teach the rustic Moralist to dye. For who to dumb Forgetfulness a Prey, This pleasing anxious Being e'er resign'd, Left the warm Precincts of the chearful Day, Nor cast one longing ling'ring Look behind! On some fond Breast the parting Soul relies, Some pious Drops the closing Eye requires; Ev'n from the Tomb the Voice of Nature cries Awake, and faithful to her wonted Fires. For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead Dost in these Lines their artless Tale relate; If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, Some hidden Spirit shall inquire thy Fate, Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say, 'Oft have we seen him at the Peep of Dawn 'Brushing with hasty Steps the Dews away 'To meet the Sun upon the upland Lawn. 'There at the Foot of yonder nodding Beech 'That wreathes its old fantastic Roots so high, 'His listless Length at Noontide wou'd he stretch, 'And pore upon the Brook that babbles by. 'Hard by yon Wood, now frowning as in Scorn, 'Mutt'ring his wayward Fancies he wou'd rove, 'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, 'Or craz'd with Care, or cross'd in hopeless Love. 'One Morn I miss'd him on the custom'd Hill, 'Along the Heath, and near his fav'rite Tree; 'Another came; nor yet beside the Rill, 'Nor up the Lawn, nor at the Wood was he. 'The next with Dirges due in sad Array 'Slow thro' the Church-way Path we saw him born. 'Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the Lay, 'Grav'd on the Stone beneath yon aged Thorn. 

 The EPITAPH. 

 _Here rests his Head upon the Lap of Earth A Youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown: Fair Science frown'd not on his humble Birth, And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. Large was his Bounty, and his Soul sincere, Heav'n did a Recompense as largely send: He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a Tear: He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a Friend No farther seek his Merits to disclose, Or draw his Frailties from their dread Abode, (There they alike in trembling Hope repose) The Bosom of his Father and his God. _

FINIS. 

PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

FIRST YEAR (1946-47)

Numbers 1-4 out of print. 

5. Samuel Wesley's _Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry_ (1700) and_Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (1693). 

6. _Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage_ (1704) and_Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage_ (1704). 

SECOND YEAR (1947-1948)

7. John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_ (1711); and a section on Wit from_The English Theophrastus_ (1702). 

8. Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech (1684). 

9. T. Hanmer's (?) _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ (1736). 

10. Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, etc. _ (1744). 

11. Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_ (1717). 

12. Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph WoodKrutch. 

THIRD YEAR (1948-1949)

13. Sir John Falstaff (pseud. ), _The Theatre_ (1720). 

14. Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ (1753). 

15. John Oldmixon's _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley_(1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's _The British Academy_ (1712). 

16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). 

17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespeare_(1709). 

18. "Of Genius, " in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719);and Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). 

FOURTH YEAR (1949-1950)

19. Susanna Centlivre's _The Busie Body_ (1709). 

20. Lewis Theobold's _Preface to The Works of Shakespeare_ (1734). 

21. _Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, and Pamela_(1754). 

22. Samuel Johnson's _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749) and Two _Rambler_papers (1750). 

23. John Dryden's _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). 

24. Pierre Nicole's _An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Whichfrom Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing andRejecting Epigrams_, translated by J. V. Cunningham. 

FIFTH YEAR (1950-51)

25. Thomas Baker's _The Fine Lady's Airs_ (1709). 

26. Charles Macklin's _The Man of the World_ (1792). 

27. Frances Reynolds' _An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and of the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty, etc. _ (1785). 

28. John Evelyn's _An Apologie for the Royal Party_ (1659); and _APanegyric to Charles the Second_ (1661). 

29. Daniel Defoe's _A Vindication of the Press_ (1718). 

30. Essays on Taste from John Gilbert Cooper's _Letters ConcerningTaste_, 3rd edition (1757), & John Armstrong's _Miscellanies_ (1770). 

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California

THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

_General Editors_

H. RICHARD ARCHER William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

R. C. BOYS University of Michigan

E. N. HOOKER University of California, Los Angeles

JOHN LOFTIS University of California, Los Angeles

The Society exists to make available inexpensive reprints (usuallyfacsimile reproductions) of rare seventeenth and eighteenth centuryworks. The editorial policy of the Society continues unchanged. As inthe past, the editors welcome suggestions concerning publications. Allincome of the Society is devoted to defraying cost of publication andmailing. 

All correspondence concerning subscriptions in the United States andCanada should be addressed to the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary, 2205 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles 18, California. Correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to any ofthe general editors. The membership fee is $3. 00 a year forsubscribers in the United States and Canada and 15/-for subscribers inGreat Britain and Europe. British and European subscribers shouldaddress B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. 

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Publications for the sixth year [1951-1952], (At least six items, most of them from the following list, will bereprinted. )

THOMAS GRAY: _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_ (1751). Introduction by George Sherburn. 

JAMES BOSWELL, ANDREW ERSKINE, and GEORGE DEMPSTER: _CriticalStrictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira_ (1763). Introduction byFrederick A. Pottle. 

_An Essay on the New Species of Writing Founded by Mr. Fielding_(1751). Introduction by James A. Work. 

HENRY GALLY: _A Critical Essay on Characteristic Writing_ (1725). Introduction by Alexander Chorney. 

[JOHN PHILLIPS]: _Satyr Against Hypocrits_ (1655). Introduction byLeon Howard. 

_Prefaces to Fiction. _ Selected and with an Introduction by BenjaminBoyce. 

THOMAS TYERS: _A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson_ ([1785]). Introduction by Gerald Dennis Meyer. 

Publications for the first five years (with the exception of NOS. 1-4, which are out of print) are available at the rate of $3. 00 a year. Prices for individual numbers may be obtained by writing to theSociety. 

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THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY_WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY_2205 WEST ADAMS BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES 18, CALIFORNIA

Make check or money order payable to THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OFCALIFORNIA. 

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