Perhaps no celebrated writer . . . has so much availed himself of the thoughts and observations of others.

--Rev. of Wakefield's edition of Gray's works in Gentleman's Magazine 56 (1786): 591-3.

[If it is true that] the greater part of [Gray's] sentiments and images are copied, with very little alteration, from the works of others . . . , every endeavour should be used to punish such a violation of literary justice, and to strip the offender of borrowed plumage.

--European Magazine 50 (1806): 292-5.

[We can] trace almost all the ingredients of [Gray's] pathetic and sublime home to their sources . . . . [However, while] the particles [of thought or expression may belong to others,] the combination is his own.

--Egerton Brydges, Censura Literaria (1808) 7: 317-318.