Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850 | Page 9

Copia, non virtus; fraus tua, non tua laus."
Any additional information would much oblige.
O. April 15. 1850.

* * * * *
REPLIES.
GRAY'S ALCAIC ODE.
Circumstances enable me to give a reply, which I believe will be found
correct, to the inquiry of "C.B." in p. 382. of your 24th Number,
"Whether Gray's celebrated Latin Ode is actually to be found entered at
the Grande Chartreuse?" The fact is, that the French Revolution--that
whirlwind which swept from the earth all that came within its reach and
seemed elevated enough to offer opposition--spared not the poor monks
of the Chartreuse. A rabble from Grenoble and other places, attacked
the monastery; burnt, plundered, or destroyed their books, papers, and
property, and dispersed the inmates; while the buildings were left
standing, not from motives of respect, but because they would have
been troublesome and laborious to pull down, and were not sufficiently
combustible to burn.
In travelling on the Continent with a friend, during the summer of 1817,
we made a pilgrimage to the Grande Chartreuse, reaching it from the
side of the Echelles. It was an interesting moment; for at that very time
the scattered remains of the society had collected together, and were
just come again to take possession of and reinhabit their old abode.
And being their _jour de spaciment_, the whole society was before us,
as they returned from their little pilgrimage up the mountain, where
they had been visiting St. Bruno's chapel and spring; and it was
impossible not to think with respect of the self-devotion of these men,
who, after having for many years partaken (in a greater or less degree)
of the habits and comforts of a civilised life, had thus voluntarily
withdrawn themselves once more to their stern yet beautiful solitude
(truly, as Gray calls it, a _locus severus_), there to practise the
severities of their order, without, it may be supposed, any possessions
or means, except what they were themselves enabled to throw into a
common stock; for nearly the whole of their property had been seized
by the government during the Revolution, and was still held by it.
Our conversation was almost wholly with two of the fathers (they use
the prefix _Dom_), whose names I forget, and have mislaid my
memorandum of them. One of these had been in England, when driven
out; and was there protected by the Weld family in Dorsetshire, of
whom he spoke in terms of sincere gratitude and respect. The other told

us that he was a native of Chambery, and had done no more than cross
the mountains to get home. On asking him for Gray's Ode, he shook his
head, saying, the Revolution had robbed them of that, and every thing
else; but repeated the first line of it, so that there was no mistake as to
the object of my inquiry. From what occurred afterwards, it appears,
however, to be questionable whether he knew more than the first line;
for I was informed that later English travellers had been attempting,
from a laudable desire of diffusing information, to write out the whole
in the present Album of the Chartreuse, by contributing a line or stanza,
as their recollection served; but that, after all, this pic-nic composition
was not exactly what Gray wrote. Of course, had our friend the Dom
known how to supply the deficiencies, he would have done it.
There is a translation of the Ode by James Hay Beattie, son of the
professor and poet, printed amongst his poems, which is much less
known than its merits deserve. And I would beg to suggest to such of
your readers as may in the course of their travels visit this monastery,
that books (need I say proper ones?) would be a most acceptable
present to the library; also, that there is a regular Album kept, in which
those who, in this age of "talent" and "intelligence," consider
themselves able to write better lines than Gray's, are at liberty to do so
if they please.
A very happy conjecture appeared in the European Magazine some
time between 1804 and 1808, as to the conclusion of the stanzas to Mr.
Beattie. The corner of the paper on which they had been written as torn
off; and Mr. Mason supplies what is deficient in the following manner,
the words added by him being printed in Italics:--
"Enough for me, if to some feeling breast My lines a secret sympathy
_impart_; And as their pleasing influence _flows confest_, A sign of
soft reflection heave the heart." {417}
This, it will be seen, is prosaic enough; but the correspondent of the _E.
Mag._ supposes the lines to have ended differently; and that the poet, in
some peculiar fit of modesty, tore off the name. His version is this:--