30. As Mitford remarks, _obscure_ and _poor_ make "a very imperfect rhyme;" and the same might be said of _toil_ and _smile_. 33. Mitford suggests that Gray had in mind these verses from his friend West's _Monody on Queen Caroline_: "Ah, me! what boots us all our boasted power, Our golden treasure, and our purple state; They cannot ward the inevitable hour, Nor stay the fearful violence of fate." Hurd compares Cowley: "Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power, Have their short flourishing hour; And love to see themselves, and smile, And joy in their pre-eminence a while: Even so in the same land Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand; Alas! Death mows down all with an impartial hand." 35. _Awaits_. The reading of the ed. of 1768, as of the Pembroke (and probably the other) MS. _Hour_ is the subject, not the object, of the verb. 36. Hayley, in the Life of Crashaw, _Biographia Britannica_, says that this line is "literally translated from the Latin prose of Bartholinus in his Danish Antiquities." 39. _Fretted_. The _fret_ is, strictly, an ornament used in classical architecture, formed by small fillets intersecting each other at right angles. Parker (_Glossary of Architecture_) derives the word from the Latin _fretum_, a strait; and Hales from _ferrum_, iron, through the Italian _ferrata_, an iron grating. It is more likely (see Stratmann and Wb.) from the A. S. _frætu_, an ornament. Cf. _Hamlet_, ii. 2: "This majestical roof fretted with golden fire;" and _Cymbeline_, ii. 4: "The roof o' the chamber With golden cherubins is fretted." 40. _The pealing anthem_. Cf. _Il Penseroso_, 161: "There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced quire below, In service high, and anthem clear," etc. 41. _Storied urn_. Cf. _Il Pens._ 159: "storied windows richly dight." On _animated bust_, cf. Pope, _Temple of Fame_, 73: "Heroes in animated marble frown;" and Virgil, _Æn._ vi. 847: "spirantia aera." 43. _Provoke_. Mitford considers this use of the word "unusually bold, to say the least." It is simply the etymological meaning, _to call forth_ (Latin, _provocare_). See Wb. Cf. Pope, _Ode_: "But when our country's cause provokes to arms." 44. _Dull cold ear_. Cf. Shakes. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2: "And sleep in dull, cold marble." 46. _Pregnant with celestial fire_. This phrase has been copied by Cowper in his _Boadicea_, which is said (see notes of "Globe" ed.) to have been written after reading Hume's History, in 1780: "Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre." 47. Mitford quotes Ovid, _Ep._ v. 86: "Sunt mihi quas possint sceptra decere manus." 48. _Living lyre_. Cf. Cowley: "Begin the song, and strike the living lyre;" and Pope, _Windsor Forest_, 281: "Who now shall charm the shades where Cowley strung His living harp, and lofty Denham sung?"