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* 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 several times of the day are observ'd, the rural employments in each season or time of day,

and

* The fuperiority of Milton's Lycidas to all paftoral poems in our language is, I fhould hope, acknowledged by every man of true claffical judgment; and Dr. Johnson's strange animadverfions on it have been thus effectually answered. "Lycidas, (fays he,) is filled with the heathen deities; and a long train of mythological imagery, fuch as a College eafily fupplies.-But it is alfo fuch as even the Court itself could now have easily fupplied. The public diverfions, and books of all forts, and from all forts of writers, more efpecially compofitions in poetry, were at this time over-run with claffical pedantries. But what writer, of the fame period, has made thefe obfolete fictions the vehicle of fo much fancy and poetical defcription? How beautifully has he applied this fort of allufion to the Druidical rocks of Denbighshire, to Mona, and the fabulous banks of Deva! It is objected, that its pastoral form is disgusting. But this was the age of paftoral; and yet Lycidas has but little of the bucolic cant, now fo fashionable. The fatyrs and fauns are but just mentioned. If any trite rural topics occur, how are they heightened!

"Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd

Under the opening eye-lids of the morn,
We drove afield, and both together heard

What time the gray-fly winds her fultry horn,
Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night.

"Here the day-break is defcribed by the faint appearance of the upland lawns under the first gleams of light: the fun-fet, by the buzzing of the chaffer: and the night sheds her fresh dews on their flocks. We cannot blame paftoral imagery and paftoral allegory, which carry with them fo much natural painting. In

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 attributed to fome good old Authors, whose works as I had leisure to ftudy, fo I hope I have not wanted care to imitate.

this piece there is perhaps more poetry than forrow. But let us read it for its poetry. It is true, that paffion plucks no berries from the myrtle and ivy, no calls upon Arethuse and Mincius, nor tells of rough fatyrs with cloven heel. But poetry does this ; and in the hands of Milton, does it with a peculiar and irresistible charm. Subordinate poets exercise no invention, when they tell how a fhepherd has loft his companion, and must feed his flocks alone without any judge of his fkill in piping: but Milton dignifies and adorns these common artificial incidents with unexpected touches of picturefque beauty, with the graces of fentiment, and with the novelties of original genius. It is faid, "here is no art, for there is nothing new.' But this objection will vanish, if we confider the imagery which Milton has raised from local circumstances. Not to repeat the ufe he has made of the mountains of Wales, the Ifle of Man, and the river Dee, near which Lycidas was fhip-wrecked; let us recollect the introduction of the romantic fuperftition of Saint Michael's Mount in Cornwall, which overlooks the Irish feas, the fatal scene of his friend's difafter.

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"But the poetry is not always unconnected with paffion. The poet lavishly defcribes an ancient fepulchral rite, but it is made preparatory to a stroke of tenderness. He calls for a variety of flowers to decorate his friend's hearfe, fuppofing that his body was prefent, and forgetting for a while he was drowned; it was fome confolation that he was to receive the decencies of burial. This is a pleafing deception: it is natural and pathetic. But the real catastrophe recurs. And this circumftance again opens a new vein of imagination."

Poems of Milton, fecond edition, Robinson, 1791, p. 35.

7

SPRING:

THE FIRST PASTORAL,

OR,

DAMON.

TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL.

IRST in these fields I try the fylvan strains,

FIRS

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

Let

REMARKS.

These Pastorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then past through the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lanfdown, Sir William Trumbal, Dr. Garth, Lord Hallifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring, and others. All these gave our Author the greatest encouragement, and particularly Mr. Walsh, whom Mr. Dryden, in his Postscript to Virgil, calls the beft Critic of his age. "The Author (says he) seems to have a particular genius for this kind of Poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds his years. He has taken very freely from the Ancients. But what he has mixed of his own with theirs is no way inferior to what he has taken from them. It is not flattery at all to say that Virgil had written nothing fo good at his Age. His Preface is very judicious and learned." Letter to Mr. Wycherley, Ap. 1705. The Lord Lanfdown about the fame time, mentioning the youth of our Poet, fays (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley), "that if he goes on as he hath begun in the Pastoral way, as Virgil

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

5

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

REMARKS.

And

The

first tried his ftrength, we may hope to fee English Poetry vie with the Roman," &c. Notwithstanding the early time of their production, the Author efteemed these as the most correct in the verfification, and musical in the numbers, of all his works. reafon for his labouring them into fo much softness, was, doubtlefs, that this fort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural ease of thought and smoothness of verse; whereas that of most other kinds confifts in the strength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walsh about this time we find an enumeration of feveral niceties in Verfification, which perhaps have never been ftrictly obferved in any English poem, except in thefe Paftorals. They were not printed till 1709. P.

Sir William Trumbal.] Our Author's friendship with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years; he was under fixteen, but Sir William above fixty, and had lately refign'd his employment of Secretary of State to King William. P.

VER. 7. You, that too wife] This amiable old man, who had been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Dr. of Civil Law, was fent, by Charles II, Judge Advocate to Tangier, and afterwards in a public character to Florence, to Turin, to Paris; and by James II, Ambaffador to Conftantinople; to which city he went through the continent on foot. He was afterwards a Lord of the Treasury, and Secretary of State with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which office he refigned 1697, and retiring to Eaft Hampstead, died there in December 1716, aged feventy-feven. Nothing of his writing remains but an elegant character of Archbishop Dolben.

IMITATIONS,

VER. 1. "Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu,

Noftra nec erubuit sylvas habitare, Thalia.” This is the general exordium and opening of the Paftorals, in imitation of the sixth of Virgil, which fome have therefore not improbably thought to have been the firft originally. In the beginnings of the other three Paftorals, he imitates expressly those

which

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