In  criticising  the  alliteration  in  "longing  lingering
look,"  the  writer  says : —

"  Of  all  the  elementary  constituents  of  oral  articu-
late sound,  there  is  no  one  which  has  had  more
attention  paid  to  it  by  the  adepts  in  representative
composition,  than  the  semivocal  incomposite  I.  It
is  easy  of  access,  ready  to  grant,  or  even  proffer
its  services,  and  ever  within  call.  To  it,  of  all  the
rest,  Gray  seems  to  have  paid  peculiar  court.  The
kindness  of  Dr.  Curzon,  late  of  Brazenose,  now  resid-
ing in  Italy  for  his  health,  and  to  whom  I  embrace


POETICAL  RONDEAU.  277

this  opportunity  of  recording  my  obligation  for
materials  that  have  been  of  use  to  me  in  the
present  work,  has  put  me  in  possession  of  a  little
relic  of  Gray,  furnishing  a  striking  illustration  of  his
fondness  for  this  letter,  and  how  much,  as  the  Doctor
terms  it,  it  had  insensibly  gained  his  ear.  Of  this
relic  I  do  not  know  that,  in  any  edition  of  Gray's
works,  the  communication  has  yet  been  indulged  to
the  public  ;  not  even  in  that  one  in  which  the  author's
literary  correspondence  and  fragments  of  projected
poems  have  been  printed.  I  am  contented,  therefore,
to  give  it  to  the  world  with  part  of  the  letter  to  the
Doctor,  in  which  it  was  inserted,  as  particularly  con-
nected with  the  present  subject,  and  as  illustrative,
moreover,  of  that  leading  feature  in  the  character  of
Gray,  the  love  of  project ;  hoping  that  I  may  do  so
without  offence ;  as  in  offering  this  gratification  to
rational  literary  curiosity,  for  which  I  have  the
Doctor's  permission,  I  invade  no  property,  nor  violate
any  known  right."

After  some  further  remarks,  there  follows  a  long
letter  (of  8  pp.)  which  the  writer  would  have  us
believe  is  by  Gray,  but  which  I  do  not  think  is
in  Gray's  style,  but  is  rather  of  a  piece  with  the
burlesque  "Criticism"  itself.  The  "Rondeau"  re-
ferred to  in  Sharpe's  edition  of  Gray's  "Poetical
Works,"  quoted  in  my  note  on  the  "Song"  (xxxi),
is,  I  think,  the  "  Amatory  Lines  "  (xxx).
