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Notes . ( a ) Although the above poem is anonymous , yet there can be no juS { doubt of its having- been the production of Mr . Hayley . See Memoirs of Bishop Lowth , 1 / 87 , pp . 9 , 11 , 17 . Nor was this the only Poem of the accomplished author ' s , which came before the world without big name * Soon after the State Trials of 1794 , he addressed some congratulatory lines to " the Scipio and Laeiius of the bar ' [ Erskine and Gibbs ] , on the result ; but from whom they proceeded , did not appear in the title-page . b
() The general poetic merit of the " Elegy on the Ancient Greek Model /' will be clear to every reader of taste , who perhaps will deem it the best of its writer ' s productions , of this class . Time was when Mr . Hayley enjoyed considerable popularity as a poet . A few years afterwards , his fame , in that character , almost totally vanished . In neither instance was justice done to him . He deserved not all the praise which he once received , and , certainly ,
not all the disregard and censure which attended him towards the conclusion of his public life . Had he frequently composed poems like this " Elegy , " or his description of ancient and modern historians , in the € t Essay on History /* he would have been still more favourably known both to his contemporaries and to a succeeding generation . ( c ) That occasion is stated hi the note to 1 . 170 , &c , of the " Elegy . " d
() In the motto to this poem we perceive what is intended by an *• Elegy " on the Ancient Greek MoaeL Our own language presents scarcely any example of the kind . The Elegies of English poets are usually light in point of subject and versification—many plaintive—and only a few distinguished by moral grandeur and lofty measures . Those of Solon , Mimnermus , &c , were
of a higher order than what commonly bear the title . ( e ) The classical reader will instantly acknowledge the happiness , the pertinency , and elegance , of this selection from Bishop Lowth ' s Lectures on Hebrew Poetry [ No . I ., and Gregory ' s Translation , &c . ] . It is really a very fine and delicate compliment to the Prelate , on whom Mr . Hayley felt himself constrained to animadvert .
() This second motto is chosen with scarcely less felicity ; whether we regard the source whence it has been derived [ the elegies of Solon ] or the sentiment which it conveys . It admonishes men of wealth , rank , and influence , to be particularly careful lest they tarnish the lustre of their characters by any unweighed word or ill-considered action . ( ) At first view , it appears singular that the Elegy , &c , was printed at Cambridge . But Mr . Hayley had been an undergraduate of that University . [ See his versesf on the death of his friend , John B . Thornton , Esq . J ) At an early age , to have written with so much spirit and propriety in behalf of
freedom , reflects great honour on his memory . ( h ) The allusion is to Bishop Lowth ' s Translation , &c , of Isaiah , which was published in 1778 . (*) See the motto from Solon , and the note to 1 . 170 , &c . ( k ) By " Liberty ' s Athenian song , " a celebrated poem of Alcseus' is intended . This Bishop Lowth quotes , and justly eulogizes , in his introductory Lecture on Hebrew poetry . See , too , the strophe in Collins' Ode to Liberty .
0 ) Langton , Archbishop of Canterbury , and one of the Cardinals , was mainly instrumental in obtaining the Great Charter of England ; " the latter articles of which , " says Hume , [ II . 88 , ] ' * provide for the equal distribution of justice and free enjoyment of property ; the great objects for which political society was at first founded b y men , which the people have a perpetual and unalienable right to recall , and which no time , nor precedent , nor statute ,
* Memoirs of Hayley , written by Himself , Vol . I . 182 , &c . 1 * Mon . Repos . Vol . V . 455 . t Of Trinity Hall , as was Hayley .
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624 HayUy ' s Elegy on the Ancient Greek Model ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 624, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/24/
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