Item 72 - Poem by George Otto Trevelyan, "A Pastoral for the 26th of December"

1 item

Poem addressed to A[rthur] Sidgwick, telling the tale of Sidgwick's indigestion on Boxing Day in mock-classical style, with allusions to Latin and Ancient Greek poetry pointed out in notes beside the main text. Alluding to Theocritus, "Idyll" 1.66, it asks where the Muses were when 'Rugby's fairest swain / Arthur lay writhing on the bed of pain'. Arthur's brother [Henry], Tom [Saunders?] Evans, [Charles Henry] Tawney and [Henry Weston] Eve are described as coming to his side, as is [Frederick] 'Temple himself', headmaster of Rugby. Sidgwick says that Trevelyan was wise to warn him, as they parted at Cambridge, about 'want of exercise, and Christmas fare'. Ends with a picture of the 'bard' sitting in Rotten Row, lighting a cheroot and smoothing his hat; he lays 'these poor lines' at the feet of Arthur, for whom his love 'grows every hour / Till it be broad as [Arthur?] Monck, and tall as [Henry?] Bower' [both contemporaries of Sidgwick and Trevelyan at Trinity].

• Ancient Greek
• English
• Latin

Envelope [see 20/67] originally labelled 'My Browne's epigrams'; this annotated to indicate that the writer was 'Sir G. O. T.'

Further annotations labelling additional contents as: 'RCT's verses at Harrow'; 'Arthur Sidgwick τοῖς φίλοις'; 'Bobus Smith's lines. Calverley's "Mediterranean Sea"'; "The Kraken"'; ' T [or J?] B M's ode on the Northern Circuit'; 'Judge Coleridge's Murder Story'.