SPRING: THE FIRST PASTORAL, ОВ DAMO N. TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL. FIRST 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 REMARKS. Thefe Paftorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then passed through the hands of Mr. Walfh, 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 Poftfcript to Virgil, calls the best Critic of his age. "The Author (fays 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 fay that Virgil had written nothing fo good at his Age. His Preface is very judicious and learned." Letter to Mr. Wy. cherley, Ap. 1705. The Lord Lansdown, 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 Paftoral way, as Virgil firft tried his ftrength, we may Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play, 5 You, REMARKS. 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 mufical in the numbers, of all his works. The reafon for his labouring them into fo much foftnefs, was, doubtlefs, that this fort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural cafe of thought and smoothnefs of verfe; whereas that of most other kinds confifls in the ftrength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walfh 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. POPE. Sir William Trumbal.] Our Author's friendfhip with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years; he was under fixteen but Sir William above fixty, and had lately refign'd his employ. ment of Secretary of State to King William. POPE. LINE I. First in thefe fields, &c.] It feems natural for a young Poet to initiate himself by Paftorals, which, not profeffing to imitate real life, require no experience, and exhibiting only the fimple operation of unmingled paffions, admit no fubtle reafoning or deep enquiry. Pope's Pattorals, however, are not compofed but with close thought. JOHNSON. In this fentence, Dr. Johnfon does not appear fufficiently attentive to the true character and nature of Paftoral Poetry. No doubt it is natural for a young Poet to initiate himself by Paftorals; for what youthful heart does not glow at the defcriptions of rural nature, and scenes that accord with its own innocence and cheerfulness; but although Pastorals do not, in the fenfe of Dr. Johnson, imitate real life, nor require any great infight into human paffions and characters, yet there are many things neceffary in this fpecies of compofition, more than Dr. Johnfon feems to require. The chief thing is an eye for picturefque and rural fcenery, and an intimate acquaintance with thofe minute objects and particular appearances of nature, which alone can give a lively and original colour to the painting of Paftoral 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, O let my Mufe her flender reed inspire, REMARK 5. IO So Paftoral Poetry. To copy the common defcriptions of Spring or Summer, Morning or Evening, or to iterate from Virgil the fame complaints of the fame fhepherds, is not furely to write Paftoral Poetry. It is alfo difficult to conceive where is theclofe thought," with which Johnfon fays Pope's Paftorals are compofed. They are pleafing as copies of "the Poems of Antiquity," although they exhibit no ftriking taste in the felection," and they certainly exhibit a series of musical verfification, which, till their appearance, had no precedent in English Poetry. .. 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 East Hampstead, died there in December 1716, aged seventy-seven. Nothing of his writing remains but an elegant character of Archbishop Dolben. WARTON. VER. 12. in your native bades] Sir W. Trumbal was born in Windfor-foreft, to which he retreated, after he had refigned the post of Secretary of State of King William III. IMITATIONS. VER. 1." Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu, POPE. This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the fixth of Virgil, which fome have therefore not improbably So when the Nightingale to reft removes, REMARKS. VER. 13. So when the Nightingale Warton obferves that the Nightingale does not fing till the other birds are at reft. This is a mittake the Nightingale fings by day as well as at night; but there is an obscurity, if not an inaccuracy, in the paffage. The expreffions, " to reft removes" and "forfaken groves," give an idea of evening, in which cafe there would be certainly an error in making the Thrush "chant to the forfaken groves" after the Nightingale. As to the Thruf being charmed to filence at any time by the Nightingale, and the " aërial audience" applauding, it is allowable as a fanciful allufion, perhaps, though the circumftance is contrary to nature and fact. IMITATIONS. improbably thought to have been the firft originally. In the beginnings of the other three Paftorals, he imitates expressly those which now ftand first * of the three chief Poets in this kind, Spenfer, Virgil, Theocritus. A Shepherd's Boy (he feeks no better name)- "A Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call)" VER. 9. And carrying, &c.] Happy is he that from the world retires, And carries with him what the world admires. POPE. Waller. Maid's Tragedy altered. * The learned and accurate Heyne, after much inveftigation, is of opinion, that the following is the order in which the Eclogues of Virgil were written: what is now ufually called the fecond was firft; the third, fecond; the fifth, third; the firft, fourth; the ninth, fifth; the fixth, as it was called, to be the fixth fill ; |