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fome relish of the old way of writing; the connection fhould be loofe, the narrations and defcriptions fhort-“) and the periods concife. Yet it is not fufficient, that the fentences only be brief, the whole Eclogue fhould be fo too. For we cannot fuppofe Poetry in those days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant hours.

But with a refpect to the prefent age, nothing more conduces to make these compofures natural, than when fome Knowledge in rural affairs is difcovered. This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on defign, and fometimes is best fhewn by inference; left by too much study to feem natural, we destroy that eafy fimplicity from whence arifes the delight. For what is inviting in this fort of poetry proceeds not fo much from the Idea of that business, as of the tranquillity of a country life.

We must therefore ufe fome illufion to render a Paftoral delightful; and this confifts in expofing the beft fide only of a fhepherd's life, and in concealing its miferies. Nor is it enough to introduce fhepherds difcourfing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the fubject; that it contain fome particular beauty in itself, and that it be different in every Eclogue. Befides, in each of them a defign'd fcene or profpect is to be prefented to our view, which should likewife have its variety. This variety is obtained in a great degree by frequent comparifons, drawn from the moft agreeable objects of the country; by interrogations to things inanimate ; by beautiful digreffions, but thofe fhort; fometimes by infifting a little on circumstances; and laftly, by

e

Rapin, Reflex. fur l'Art Poet. d'Arift. p. 2. Refl. xxvii.

P.

f Pref. to Virg. Paft. in Dryd. Virg. P.

& Fontenelle's Difc. of Paftorals.

P.

h See the forementioned Preface. P.

elegant turns on the words, which render the numbers extremely sweet and pleasing. As for the numbers themfelves, though they are properly of the heroic meafure, they fhould be the fmootheft, the moft eafy and flowing imaginable.

It is by rules like thefe that we ought to judge of paftoral. And fince the inftructions given for any art are to be delivered as that art is in perfection, they muft of neceffity be derived from those in whom it is acknowledged fo to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undifputed authors of Paftoral) that the Critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

i

Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimplicity. The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely pastoral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers and fishermen as well as fhepherds. He is apt to be too long in his descriptions, of which that of the Cup in the firft paftoral is a remarkable inftance. In the manners he seems a little defective, for his fwains are sometimes abufive and immodest, and perhaps too much inclining to rufticity; for inftance, in his fourth and fifth Idyllia. But 'tis enough that all others learnt their excellencies from him, and that his Dialect alone has a fecret charm in it, which no other could ever attain.

Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines upon his original: and in all points, where judgment is principally concerned, he is much fuperior to his master. Though fome of his fubjects are not paftoral in themselves, but only feem to be fuch; they have a wonderful variety in them, which the Greek was a ftranger to. He exceeds him in regularity and brevity, and falls fhort of him in nothing but fimplicity

1 ΘΕΡΙΣΤΑΙ, Idyl. x. and ΑΛΙΕΙΣ, Idyl. xxi. P. k Rapin Refl. on Arist. part ii. refl. xxvii.-Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg. P.

and propriety of ftyle; the firft of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the laft of his läñguage.

Among the moderns, their fuccefs has been greateft who have most endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The moft confiderable Genius appears in the famous Taffo, and our Spenfer. Taffo in his Aminta has as far excelled all the Paftoral writers, as in his Gierufalemme he has out-done the Epic poets of his country. But as this piece feems to have been the original of a new fort of poem, the Paftoral Comedy, in Italy, it cannot fo well be confidered as a copy of the ancients. Spenfer's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the moft complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever fince the time of Virgil'. Not but that he may be thought imperfect in fome few points. His Eclogues are fomewhat too long, if we compare them with the ancients. He is fometimes too allegorical, and treats of matters of religion in a pastoral style, as Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric meafure, which is contrary to the practice of the old Poets. . His ftanza is not ftill the fame, nor always well chofen. This laft may be the reason his expreffion is fometimes not concife enough for the Tetraftic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length of four lines, which would have been more clofely confined in the Couplet.

In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himfelf; tho', notwithstanding all the care he has taken, he is certainly inferior in his Diale&t: For the Doric had its beauty and propriety in the time of Theocritus; it was used in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greateft perfons: whereas the old English and country phrafes of Spenfer were either

1 Dedication to Virg. Ecl. P.

entirely obfolete, or spoken only by people of the loweft condition. As there is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, fo the expreffion of fimple thoughts fhould be plain, but not clownish. The addition he has made of a Calendar to his Eclogues, is very beautiful; fince by this, befides the general moral of innocence and fimplicity, which is common to other authors of Paftoral, he has one peculiar to himfelf; he compares human Life to the feveral Seafons, and at once expofes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and afpects. Yet the fcrupulous divifion of his Paftorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame defcription, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhaufted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pafs that fome of his Eclogues (as the fixth, eighth, and tenth for example) have nothing but their Titles to diftinguilh them. The reafon is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defcription, as it may every feafon.

Of the following Eclogues I fhall only fay, that thefe four comprehend all the fubjects which the Critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for paftoral: That they have as much variety of defcription, in refpect of the feveral feafons, as Spenfer's that in order to add to this variety, the feveral times of the day are obferv'd, the rural employments in each feafon or time of day, and the rural fcenes or places proper to fuch employments; not without fome regard to the feveral ages of man, and the different paflions proper to each age.

But after all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to fome good old Authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, fo I hope I have not wanted care to imitate.

[9]

SPRING:

THE

FIRST PASTORAL,

O R,

DAM O N. MON.

To Sir WILLIAM TRUMBAL.

IRST in these fields I try the fylvan ftrains,

FIR

Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred spring, While on thy banks Sicilian Muses fing;

REMARKS.

Thefe Paftorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then paft thro' the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lanfdown, Sir. William Trumbal, Dr. Garth, Lord Hallifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring,

IMITATIONS.

VER. 1. Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu,

Noftra nec erubuit fylvas habitare Thalia. This is the general exordium and opening of the Paftorals, in imitation of the fixth of Virgil, which fome have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first. originally. In the beginnings of the other three Paftorals, he imitates exprefly thofe which now ftand first of the three chief Poets in this kind, Spencer, Virgil, Theocritus,

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