107. _Woeful-wan_. Mitford says: "_Woeful-wan_ is not a legitimate compound, and must be divided into two separate words, for such they are, when released from the _handcuffs_ of the hyphen." The hyphen is not in the edition of 1768, and we should omit it if it were not found in the Pembroke MS. Wakefield quotes Spenser, _Shep. Kal._ Jan.: "For pale and wanne he was (alas the while!) May seeme he lovd, or els some care he tooke." 108. "_Hopeless_ is here used in a proleptic or anticipatory way" (Hales). 109. _Custom'd_ is Gray's word, not _'custom'd_, as usually printed. See either Wb. or Worc. s. v. Cf. Milton, _Ep. Damonis_: "Simul assueta seditque sub ulmo." 114. _Churchway path_. Cf. Shakes. _M. N. D._ v. 2: "Now it is the time of night, That the graves all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite In the churchway paths to glide." 115. _For thou canst read_. The "hoary-headed swain" of course could _not_ read. 116. _Grav'd_. The old form of the participle is _graven_, but _graved_ is also in good use. The old preterite _grove_ is obsolete. 117. _The lap of earth_. Cf. Spenser, _F. Q._ v. 7, 9: "For other beds the Priests there used none, But on their mother Earths deare lap did lie;" and Milton, _P. L._ x. 777: "How glad would lay me down, As in my mother's lap!" Lucretius (i. 291) has "gremium matris terrai." Mitford adds the pathetic sentence of Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ ii. 63: "Nam terra novissime complexa gremio jam a reliqua natura abnegatos, tum maxime, ut mater, operit." 123. _He gave to misery all he had, a tear_. This is the pointing of the line in the MSS. and in all the early editions except that of Mathias, who seems to be responsible for the change (adopted by the recent editors, almost without exception) to, "He gave to Misery (all he had) a tear." This alters the meaning, mars the rhythm, and spoils the sentiment. If one does not see the difference at once, it would be useless to try to make him see it. Mitford, who ought to have known better, not only thrusts in the parenthesis, but quotes this from Pope's Homer as an illustration of it: "His fame ('tis all the dead can have) shall live." 126. Mitford says that _Or_ in this line should be _Nor_. Yes, if "draw" is an imperative, like "seek;" no, if it is an infinitive, in the same construction as "to disclose." That the latter was the construction the poet had in mind is evident from the form of the stanza in the Wrightson MS., where "seek" is repeated: "No farther seek his merits to disclose, Nor seek to draw them from their dread abode." 127. _In trembling hope_. Gray quotes Petrarch, _Sonnet_ 104: "paventosa speme." Cf. Lucan, _Pharsalia_, vii. 297: "Spe trepido;" Mallet, _Funeral Hymn_, 473: "With trembling tenderness of hope and fear;" and Beaumont, _Psyche_, xv. 314: "Divided here twixt trembling hope and fear."