Skip main navigation

Imitated [from Buondelmonte]


You can add notes or queries to any part of the poetic text by simply clicking on the line in question and filling in the annotations form with your details. All contributions will be submitted to the editor in the first instance for review.

Imitated [from Buondelmonte]


1 Lusit amicitiae interdum velatus amictu,
2     et bene composita veste fefellit Amor.
3 Mox irae assumsit cultus, faciemque minantem,
4     inque odium versus, versus et in lacrymas:
5 Ludentem fuge, nec lacrymanti, aut crede furenti:
6     idem est dissimili semper in ore Deus.

Expanding the poem lines (+) shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 0 textual and 1 explanatory notes/queries.

All notes and queries are shown by default.

0 Imitated [from Buondelmonte] 1 Explanatory

Title/Paratext] "[Prose translation by J. R. [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"[Prose translation by J. R. Hendrickson:]
"Imitated from Buondelmonti"

    Sometimes Cupid sports veiled in the cloak of friendship and disguises his presence under garments all in decent array. Presently he puts on a cloak of anger and assumes a threatening expression; then his look of hatred swiftly melts into tears. Fly from him when he is in a sportive mood, neither put any trust in him, whether he weeps or rages: his face may change, but he is always the same god."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 150.

Add a note or query to this line


1 Lusit amicitiae interdum velatus amictu,
2     et bene composita veste fefellit Amor.
3 Mox irae assumsit cultus, faciemque minantem,
4     inque odium versus, versus et in lacrymas:
5 Ludentem fuge, nec lacrymanti, aut crede furenti:
6     idem est dissimili semper in ore Deus.

Works cited

  • The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.

Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Initial letters of sentences have been capitalized, all accents have been removed. The editor would like to express his gratitude to library staff at Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the British Library, and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their invaluable assistance.

About this text

Editions in the Digital Library

  • 1775: The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York, 1775.
  • 1798: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1798.
  • 1799: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, [1799].
  • 1800: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1800.
  • 1800: The Poems of Gray. A new edition. London, 1800.
  • 1814: The Works of Thomas Gray, Vol. I. Ed. Thomas James Mathias. London, 1814.
  • 1816: The Works of Thomas Gray, Vol. I. Ed. John Mitford. London, 1816.
  • 1826: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1826.
  • 1836: The Works of Thomas Gray, Volume I. Ed. John Mitford. London, 1836.