MS 401
Vah, tenero quodcunq[ue] potest obsistere amori. manuscript / translated by Thomas Gray.
Eton?, 1730s?.
1 leaf : paper ; 25 x 20 cm.
Title from first line of poem. A Latin translation of an anonymous poem published in David Lewis's anthology 'Misellaneous poems by several hands (1726), with the first line 'Away; let nought to Love displeasing'. The verso bears a single line by Gray: 'The rude Columbus of an infant world'. This line has been associated with the drafting of Gray's Elegy on a Country Church-Yard, but its appearance here suggests it to be of a much earlier origin in Gray's work.
Place and date of production inferred from the juvenile aspects of Gray's hand, suggesting it was executed during his years at Eton.
A single leaf set into a later sheet, which in turned had been tipped into a copy of Boswell's life of Johnson.
Written initially in pencil, and overwritten in ink, possibly by Gray's friend William Mason.
With a sale catalogue note from 2013, including references to associated scholarship.
Stored in a sleeve in black buckram solander box.
England Eton
B49556