fide only of a fhepherd's life, and in concealing its mi. feries*. 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. Besides, in each of them a defigned fcene or profpect is to be prefented to our view, which fhould likewife have its variety t. This variety is obtained, in a great degree, by frequent comparifons, drawn from the most 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 elegant turns on the words, which render the numbers extremely fweet and pleafing. As for the numbers themfelves, tho' 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 thofe in whom it is acknowledged fo to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed au thors of Paftoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimplicity. The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely pattoral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers ‡ and fishermen as well as thepherds. He is apt to be too long in his defcriptions, of which that of the Cup, in the First Pastoral, is a remarkable inftance. In the manners he feems a little defective; for his fwains are fometimes abufive and immodeft, and perhaps too much inclining to rufticity: for inftance, in his Fourth and Fifth Idyllia. But it is enough that ali others learned their excellencies from him, and that his dialect alone has a fecret charm in it, which no other could ever attain. Virgil,

*Fontenelle's Difc. of Paitorais. P.

+ See the forementioned Preface. P.

† ΘΕΡΙΣΤΑΙ, Idyl. x. and ΑΛΙΕΙΣ, Idyl. xxi. P.

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 pastoral in them. felves, but only feem to be fuch, they have a wonderful variety in them, which the Greek was a ftranger tot. He exceeds him in regularity and brevity, and falls fhort of him in nothing but fimplicity and propriety of ftyle; the firft of which, perhaps, was the fault of his age, and the laft of his language.

Among the moderns their success has been greatest who have moft endeavoured to make thefe ancients their pattern. The most considerable genius appears in the famous Taffo and our Spencer. Taffo, in his Aminta, has as far excelled all the paftoral writers, as, in his Gierufalemme, he has outdone 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. Spencer's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the most 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 paftoral style, as the Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric measure, which is contrary to the practice of the old poets. His ftanza is not ftill the fame, nor always well chofen. This last may be the reafon his expreffion is, fometimes not concife enough; for the Tetrastic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length of four lines, which would have been more closely confined in the couplet.

In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himfelf; though, notwithstanding all the care he has taken, he is certainly inferior in his dialect; for the Doric had its beauty and propriety in

D 3

the

Rapin Ref. on Arift. part. ii. Refi. xxvii---Pref. to the Eçi. in Dryden's Virg. P. Dedication to Virg. Ecl. F

!

the time of Theocritus; it was ufed in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest perfons: whereas the old English and country phrases of Spencer were either entirely obfolete, or fpoken only by people of the loweft condition. As there is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, to the expreffion of fimple thoughts fhould be plain, but not clownifh. 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 himself; he compares human live to the feveral feasons, and at once exposes 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 description in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhaufted before, entirely to omit it: wence it comes to pafs that fome of his Eclogues (as the Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth, for example) have nothing but their titles to distinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defeription, as it may every feafon.

Of the following Eclogues I fhall only tay, 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 Spencer's: that, in order to add to this variety, the feveral times of the day are obferved, 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 paffions proper to each age.

But, after all, if they have any merit, it is to be at*tributed to fome good old authors, whofe works, as I had leisure to study, fo, I hope, I have not wanted care to imitate.

PASTORAL I.

OR,

DAMON.

TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBALL.

FIRST in these fields I try the fylvan strains,
Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains;
Fair Thames! flow gently from thy facred spring,
While on thy banks Sicilian mufes fing;

Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play,
And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay.

You that, too wife for pride, too good for pow'r,
Enjoy the glory to be great no more,

And carrying with you all the world can boast,
To all the world illuftriously are loft!
O let my Mufe her slender reed inspire,
Till in your native fhades you tune the lyre:
So when the nightingale to reft removes,
The thrush may chant to the forfaken groves,
But charm'd to filence, liftens while fhe fings,
And all the aërial audience clap their wings.

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10

15

20

Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews, Two fwains, whom love kept wakeful, and the mufe, Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care, Fresh as the morn, and as the feafon fair: The dawn now blushing on the mountain's fide, Thus Daphnis fpoke, and Strephon thus reply'd. Daph. Hear how the birds on every bloomy spray With joyous mufic wake the dawning day! Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing, When warbling philomel falutes the spring? Why fit we fad, when Phofphor fhines fo clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year?

25.

Streph. Sing then, and Damon fhall attend the ftrain, While yon' flow oxen turn the furrowed plain.

Here

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Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow;
Here western winds on breathing roles blow.
I'll take yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing fhade furveys.
Daph. And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,
And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines:
Four figures rifing from the work appear,
The various feafons of the rolling year;
And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve fair figns in beauteous order ly!

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40

Dam. Then fing by turns, by turns the Mufes fing, Now hawthorns bloffom, now the daifies spring; Now leaves the trees, and flow'rs adorn the ground; Begin, the vales fhall ev'ry note rebound.

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Streph. Infpire me, Phoebus! in my Delia's praise, With Waller's ftrains, or Granville's moving lays: 46 A milk-white bull shall at your altars ftand, That threats a fight, and spurns the rifing fand. Daph. O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes: No lambs or theep for victims I'll impart; Thy victim, Love, fhall be the fhepherd's heart. Streph. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in fhades, eludes her eager fwain; But feigns a laugh, to fee me search around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found. Daph. The fprightly Sylvia trips along the green; She runs, but hopes fhe does not run unfeen; While a kind glance at her purfuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes!

Streph. O'er golden fands let rich Pactolus flow, And trees weep amber on the banks of Po; Bleft Thames's fhores the brightest beauties yield: Feed here my lambs, I'll feek no diftant field.

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60

Daph. Celeftial Venus haunts Idalia's groves; 65 Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves :

If Windfor fhades delight the matchlefs maid, Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windfor fhade. [how'rs,

Streph. All nature mourns, the fkies relent in Hush'd are the birds, and clos'd the drooping flow'rs;

If