Part 24

There the huge sirloin reek'd; hard by Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie;[358-27] Nor fail'd old Scotland to produce, At such high tide, her savory goose. Then came the merry maskers in, And carols roar'd with blithesome din: If unmelodious was the song, It was a hearty note, and strong. Who lists may in their mumming see Traces of ancient mystery;[359-28] White shirts supplied the masquerade, And smutted cheeks the visors made;--[359-29] But, O! what maskers, richly dight, Can boast of bosoms, half so light![359-30] England was merry England, when Old Christmas brought his sports again. 'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half the year.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[356-1] Is there a stove or a fireplace in the room where the poet sees Christmas kept?

[356-2] What is cheer? What is festal cheer?

[356-3] What is a "train"? How could it be called a hospitable train? Whose train was it?

[356-4] What is a rite?

[356-5] What bells were rung?

[356-6] What is a mass?

[356-7] What is a _stoled_ priest? What is a chalice? What did the priest do when he reared the chalice?

[356-8] The kirtle was a dress-skirt or outer petticoat. _Sheen_ means _gay_ or _bright_.

[357-9] What is mistletoe? Is there anything peculiar in its habits of growth? What did they want of it? What custom is still said to follow the use of mistletoe at Christmastime?

[357-10] A vassal was one of the followers of the baron and paid for protection or for lands he held by fighting in the baron's troops or rendering some other service.

[357-11] A tenant held lands or houses, for which he paid some form of rent.

[357-12] A serf was a slave.

[357-13] At Christmastime even the powerful were willing to cease from ruling and join with the common people.

[357-14] Instead of grand ceremonies, everybody joined in simple amusements, without pride or prejudice.

[357-15] Who was the heir? What was he heir to? Why did he have roses in his shoes?

[357-16] Was he permitted to dance with village maidens at any other time?

[357-17] Without losing any of his dignity.

[357-18] An old-fashioned game of cards.

[357-19] Who brought the tidings of Salvation? To whom was it brought? Who was "the crown"?

[358-20] A lord was one who had power and authority, while a squire was merely an attendant upon a lord.

[358-21] Brawn, in England, is a preparation of meat, generally sheep's head, pig's head, hock of beef, or boar's meat, boiled and seasoned, and run into jelly moulds.

[358-22] What are bays? What is rosemary? Why should the boar's head be called _crested_? Where was it? Why was it there? Why does the poet say it _frowned_ on high?

[358-23] Who was a ranger? What did he do? Do you see any reason for his being green-garbed?

[358-24] What is meant by _baiting_? Who tore the dogs? Why did he tear them? What made the monster fall?

[358-25] Wassail (_wossil_): the liquor in which they drank their toasts, and which signified the good cheer of Christmastime.

[358-26] Moves about; that is, the liquor in good brown bowls was merrily passed along the table from hand to hand.

[358-27] What was near the sirloin? How many kinds of meat were there on the table? Is anything mentioned besides meat? Do you suppose they had other things to eat? Did they have bread and vegetables?

[359-28] In the _mumming_ or acting of these maskers could be seen traces of the ancient mystic plays in which religious lessons were given in plays that were acted with the approval of the church.

[359-29] Did the maskers have rich costumes? What did they wear over their faces? How did they conceal their clothing?

[359-30] Does the poet think that rich maskers would enjoy their pleasure as much as the old-fashioned Christmas merrymakers?

ELEGY

WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

_By_ THOMAS GRAY

NOTE.--A mournful song written to express grief at the loss of some friend or relative, and at the same time to praise the dead person, is known as an elegy. Sometimes the word has a wider meaning, and includes a poem which expresses the same ideas but applies them to a class of people rather than to an individual. Such a poem is not so personal, and for that very reason it will be appreciated by a larger number of readers. Gray's _Elegy_ is of the latter class--is perhaps the one great poem of that class; for in all probability more people have loved it and found in its gentle sadness, its exquisite phraseology and its musical lines more genuine charm than in any similar poem in the language.

To one who already loves it, any comments on the poem may at first thought seem like desecration, but, on the other hand, there is so much more in the _Elegy_ than appears at first glance that it is worth while to read it in the light of another's eyes. Not a few persons find some enjoyment in reading, but fall far short of the highest pleasure because of their failure really to comprehend the meaning of certain words and forms of expression. For that reason, notes are appended where they may be needed. A good reader is never troubled by notes at the bottom of the page. If they are of no interest or benefit to him, he knows it with a glance and passes on with his reading. If the note is helpful, he gathers the information and returns to his reading, beginning not at the word from which the reference was made, but at the beginning of the sentence or stanza; then he loses nothing by going to the footnote.

The curfew[361-1] tolls the knell[361-2] of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

[Illustration: HOMEWARD PLODS HIS WEARY WAY]

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;[361-3]

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower[362-4] The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign.[362-5]

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mold'ring heap, Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude[362-6] forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion,[362-7] or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.[362-8]

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care;[362-9] No children run to lisp their sire's return,[363-10] Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe[363-11] has broke; How jocund[363-12] did they drive their team a-field! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition[363-13] 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 power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await[363-14] alike th' inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.[363-15]

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where, through the long-drawn aisle[364-16] and fretted vault, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn or animated bust[364-17] Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke[364-18] the silent dust, Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;[364-19] Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.[364-20]

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;[364-21] Chill Penury repressed their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert 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.[365-22]

Th' applause[365-23] of listening senates to command The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,[365-24] 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.[366-25]

Far from the madding[366-26] crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool, sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial[366-27] still erected nigh, With uncouth[366-28] rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, 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 die.[366-29]

For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind?[367-30]

On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee,[367-31] who, mindful of th' unhonored dead, Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, Some kindred 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 would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, Mutt'ring his wayward fancies, he would rove; Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn, Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

"One morn I missed him from the customed 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,[368-32] in sad array, Slow through the church way path we saw him borne.-- Approach and read, for thou canst read, the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."[368-33]

THE EPITAPH

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown: Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth, And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere; Heaven did a recompense as largely send: He gave to Misery, all he had, a tear, He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) 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.

[Illustration: THE COUNTRY CHURCHYARD]

Thomas Gray was born in London on the twenty-sixth of December, 1716, and received his education at Cambridge, where he lived most of his quiet life and where he died in 1771. He was a small and graceful man with handsome features and rather an effeminate appearance, always dressed with extreme care. The greater part of his life was spent in neatly furnished rooms among his books, for he was a hard student, and became noted as one of the first scholars of his time. Among his friends he was witty and entertaining, but among strangers, quiet and reserved, almost timid. He loved his mother devotedly, and after her death he kept her dress neatly folded in his trunk, always by him. Innocent, well-meaning, gentle and retiring, he drew many warm friends to him, though his great learning and his fondness for giving information made many people think him something of a prig.

It might be considered a weakness in the _Elegy_ that it drifts into an elegy on the writer, who becomes lost in the pathos of his own sad end. Yet, knowing the man as we do, we can understand his motives and forgive the seeming selfishness. He is not the only poet whose own sorrows, real or imaginary, were his greatest inspiration.

The metre of the _Elegy_ had been used, before Gray's time, by Sir John Davies for his _Immortality of the Soul_, Sir William Davenant in his _Gondibert_, and Dryden in his _Annus Mirabilis_, and others; but in no instance so happily as here by Gray. In the _Elegy_ the quatrain has not the somewhat disjunctive and isolating effect that it has in some other works where there is continuous argument or narrative that should run on with as few metrical hindrances as possible. It is well adapted to convey a series of solemn reflections, and that is its work in the _Elegy_.

FOOTNOTES:

[361-1] In some of our American towns and cities a curfew bell is rung as a signal that the children must leave the streets and go to their homes. Many years ago it was the custom in English villages to ring a bell at nightfall as a signal for people to cover their fires with ashes to preserve till morning, and as a signal for bed. The word _curfew_, in fact, is from the French, and means _cover fire_.

[361-2] The word _knell_ suggests death, and gives the first mournful note to the poem.

[361-3] The sheep are shut up for the night in the _folds_ or pens. What are the _tinklings_? Why should they be called _drowsy_?

[362-4] The poem is supposed to have been written in the yard of Stoke-Pogis church, a little building with a square tower, the whole covered with a riotous growth of ivy vines. The church is in the country, not many miles from Windsor Castle; and even to this day the beautiful landscape preserves the rural charms it had in Gray's time. We must not suppose that Gray actually sat in the churchyard and wrote his lines. As a matter of fact, he was a very careful and painstaking writer, and for eight years was at work on this poem, selecting each word so that it should express just the shade of meaning he wanted and give the perfect melody he sought. However, he did begin the poem at Stoke in October or November of 1742 and continued it there in November, 1749; but it was finished in Cambridge in June, 1750.

[362-5] _Reign_ here means _dominion_ or _possessions_. Why is the bird called a _moping_ owl? Why is her reign _solitary_? What word is understood after _such_ in the third line of this stanza?

[362-6] _Rude_ means _uneducated_, _uncultured_, not _ill-mannered_.

[362-7] A clarion is a loud, clear-sounding trumpet.

[362-8] In the church are the tombs of the wealthy and titled of the neighborhood, and in the building and on the walls are monuments that tell the virtues of the lordly dead. It is outside, however, under the sod, in their narrow cells, that the virtuous poor, the real subjects of the poet's thoughts, lie in quiet slumbers.

[362-9] What evening cares has the busy housewife? Was she making the clothes of her children, knitting, mending, darning, after the supper dishes were put away?

[363-10] Where were the children? Were they waiting for their father's return? To whom would they run to tell of his coming?

[363-11] The _glebe_ is the turf. Why should it be called _stubborn_?

[363-12] _Jocund_ means _joyful_.

[363-13] The word _Ambition_ begins with a capital letter because Gray speaks of ambition as though it were a person. The line means, "Let not ambitious persons speak lightly of the work the rude forefathers did."

[363-14] The inevitable hour (death) alike awaits the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave.

[363-15] This is perhaps the most famous stanza in the poem. The following story is told of General Wolfe as he was leading his troops to the daring assault on Quebec in 1759: "At past midnight, when the heavens were hung black with clouds, and the boats were floating silently back with the tide to the intended landing-place at the chosen ascent to the Plains of Abraham, he repeated in low tones to the officers around him this touching stanza of Gray's _Elegy_. 'Now, gentlemen,' said Wolfe, 'I would rather be the author of that poem than the possessor of the glory of beating the French to-morrow!' He fell the next day, and expired just as the shouts of the victory of the English fell upon his almost unconscious ears."

[364-16] Now, an aisle is the passageway between the pews or the seats in a church or other public hall: in the poem it means the passageways running to the sides of the main body of the church.

[364-17] A storied urn is an urn-shaped monument on which are inscribed the virtues of the dead. Why should a _bust_ be called _animated_? What is the _mansion_ of _the fleeting breath_?

[364-18] In this instance _provoke_ means what it originally meant in the Latin language; namely, _call forth_.

[364-19] The line means, "Some heart once filled with the heavenly inspiration."

[364-20] A poet or musician is said to sing, and the lyre is the instrument with which the ancients accompanied their songs. _To wake to ecstasy the living lyre_ is to write the noblest poetry, to sing the most inspired songs.

[364-21] The books of the ancients were rolls of manuscripts. Did any of those persons resting in this neglected spot ever write great poetry, rule empires or sing inspiring songs? If not, what prevented them from doing such things if they had the ability?

[365-22] At first this stanza was written thus:

"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."

It is interesting to notice that at his first writing Gray selected three of the famous men of antiquity, but in his revision he substituted the names of three of his own countrymen. Who were Hampden, Milton and Cromwell?

[365-23] The three stanzas beginning at this point make but one sentence. Turned into prose the sentence would read: "Their lot forbade them to command the applause of listening senates, to despise the threats of pain and ruin, to scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, and read their history in a nation's eyes: their lot not only circumscribed their growing virtues but confined their crimes as well; it forbade them to wade through slaughter to a throne and shut the gates of mercy on mankind, to hide the struggling pangs of conscious truth, to quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, and to heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride with incense kindled at the Muse's flame."

[365-24] This line means that they could not become rulers by fighting and killing their fellowmen as Napoleon did not long afterward.

[366-25] Many of the English poets wrote in praise of the wealthy and titled in order to be paid or favored by the men they flattered. Gray thinks that such conduct is disgraceful, and rejoices that the rude forefathers of the hamlet were prevented from writing poetry for such an end. The Greeks thought poetry was inspired by one of the Muses, and genius is often spoken as a flame.

[366-26] _Madding_ means _excited_ or _raging_.

[366-27] The _frail memorials_ were simple headstones, similar to those one may see in any country graveyard in America. On such headstones may often be seen _shapeless sculpture_ that would almost provoke a smile, were it not for its pathetic meaning. A picture of Stoke-Pogis churchyard shows many stories of the ordinary type.

[366-28] The rhymes were _uncouth_ in the sense that they were unlearned and unpolished.

[366-29] What facts were inscribed on the headstones? _Elegy_ here means _praise_. Where were the texts strewn? Why were the texts called _holy?_ What was the nature of the texts? Can you think of one that might have been used?

[367-30] This is one of the difficult stanzas, and there is some dispute as to its exact meaning, owing to the phrase, _to dumb forgetfulness a prey_. Perhaps the correct meaning is shown in the following prose version: "For who has ever died (resigned this pleasing, anxious being, left the warm precincts of this cheerful day), a prey to dumb forgetfulness, and cast not one longing, lingering look behind?"

[367-31] _Thee_ refers to the poet, Gray himself. The remainder of the poem is personal. Summed up briefly it means that perhaps a sympathetic soul may some day come to inquire as to the poet's fate, and will be told by some hoary-headed swain a few of the poet's habits, and then will have pointed out to him the poet's own grave, on which may be read his epitaph.

[368-32] _Due_ means _appropriate_ or _proper_.

[368-33] As first written, the poem contained the following stanza, placed before the epitaph; but in the final revision Gray rejected it as unworthy. It seems a very critical taste that would reject such lines as these:

"There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year, By hands unseen are show'rs of violets found: The redbreast loves to build and warble there, And little footsteps lightly print the ground."

THE SHIPWRECK[371-1]

_By_ ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

I went down, and drank my fill; and then came up, and got a blink at the moon; and then down again. They say a man sinks the third time for good. I cannot be made like other folk, then, for I would not like to write how often I went down or how often I came up again. All the while, I was being hurled along, and beaten upon and choked, and then swallowed whole; and the thing was so distracting to my wits, that I was neither sorry nor afraid.

Presently, I found I was holding to a spar, which helped me somewhat. And then all of a sudden I was in quiet water, and began to come to myself.

It was the spare yard I had got hold of, and I was amazed to see how far I had traveled from the brig. I hailed her, indeed; but it was plain she was already out of cry. She was still holding together; but whether or not they had yet launched the boat, I was too far off and too low down to see.

[Illustration: I FOUND I WAS HOLDING TO A SPAR]