Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard

It is known that Gray wrote the Elegy between 1746 and 1750. Three manuscript drafts are in existence. One manuscript, now at Eton College, is probably the original draft; and the text of this manuscript is printed in the last pages of the present edition. Although the first printing was issues anonymously in 175, an edition issued in 1768 received the poet's final approbation. Therefore the text used in the present edition to company Miss Parker's engravings follows closely the approved edition of 1768.