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 pass that fome of his Eclogues (as the fixth, eighth, and tenth for example) have nothing but their Titles to diftinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defcription, as it may every season.

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 seasons, 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 paffions proper to each age.

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

F

To Sir WILLLIAM TRUMBAL.

IRST in thefe fields I try the fylvan ftrains, Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred fpring, While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing;

NOTES.

These Paftorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then paft thro' the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lansdorun, 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 best Critic of his age. "The Author fays he) "feems to have a particular genius for this kind of Poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds his years. 4

He has taken very

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

NOTES.

"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 cur Poet, fays (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley) "that if he goes on as he has begun in his Pastoral "way, as Virgil first tried his ftrength, we may hope to fee "English Poetry vie with the Roman," &c. Notwithstanding the carly time of their production, the Author esteemed these as the most correct in the verfification, and mufical in the numbers, of all his works. The reafon for his labouring them into fo much softness, was, doubtless, that this fort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural cafe of thought and smoothness of verfe; whereas that of most other kinds confists in the ftrength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walsh about this time we find an enumeration of several niceties in Verfification, which perhaps have never been strictly observed in any English poem, except in these Paftorals. They were not printed till 1709.

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.

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, int

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 illustriously are lost !

ΙΟ

O let my Muse her flender reed infpire,
Till in your native fhades you tune the lyre :
So when the Nightingale to reft removes,
The Thrush may chant to the forsaken groves,
But charm'd to filence, liftens while fhe fings,
And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.
Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews,
Two Swains, whom Love kept wakeful, and the
Mufe,

NOTES.

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VER. 12. in your native fhades] Sir W. Trumbal was born in Windfor-foreft, to which he retired, after he had refigned the poft of Secretary of State to King William III.

VER. 17, etc. The Scene of this Paftoral a Valley, the Time the Morning. It stood originally thus,

Daphnis and Strephon to the fhades retir'd,

Both warm'd by Love, and by the Mufe infpir'd,

Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair,

In flow'ry vales they fed their fleecy care;
And while Aurora gilds the mountain's fide,
Thus Daphnis fpoke, and Strephon thus reply'd.

IMITATIONS.

imitation of the fixth of Virgil, which some have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Paftorals, he imitates exprefly those which now ftand firft of the three chief Poets in this kind, Spencer, Virgil, Theocritus.

Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care,
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:
The dawn now blushing on the mountain's fide,
Thus Daphnis fpoke, and Strephon thus reply'd.

DAPHNI S.

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry 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 Phosphor fhines fo clear,
And lavish Nature paints the purple year?

STREP HON.

Sing then, and Damon shall attend the ftrain,
While yon' flow oxen turn the furrow'd plain.
Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow;
Here western winds on breathing roses blow.
I'll stake yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing fhade furveys.

IMITATIONS.

A Shepherd's Boy (he feeks no better name).
Beneath the fhade a fpreading beech displays,-
Thyrfis, the Mufic of that murm'ring Spring,-
are manifeftly imitations of

-A Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call)
--Tityre, tu patule recubans fub tegmine fagi.
Αδύ τι το ψιθύρισμα καὶ ὁ πίτυς, αἰπόλε, τήν α
VARIATIONS.

VER. 34. The first reading was,

And his own image from the bank furveys,

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