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THE CHARMS OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

A scene, where if a god should cast his sight,
A god might gaze and wonder with delight!
Joy touched the messenger of heaven; he stayed
Entranced, and all the blissful haunt surveyed.

VIRGIL.

423

THE CHARMS OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

TRANSLATED BY DRYDEN,

Он, happy, if he knew his happy state,
The swain who, free from business and debate,
Receives his easy food from nature's hand,

And just returns of cultivated land.
No palace with a lofty gate he wants,
To admit the tide of early visitants,
With eager eyes, devouring as they pass,
The breathing figures of Corinthian brass;
No statues threaten from high pedestals,
No Persian arras hides his homely walls
With antic vests, which, through their shadowy fold,
Betray the streaks of ill-dissembled gold.

He boasts no wool where native white is dyed

With purple poison of Assyrian pride.

No costly drugs of Araby defile,

With foreign scents, the sweetness of his oil:
But easy quiet, a secure retreat,

A harmless life that knows not how to cheat,
With home-bred plenty the rich owner bless,
And rural pleasures crown his happiness.
Unvexed with quarrels, undisturbed by noise,
The country king his peaceful realm enjoys.

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Ye sacred Muses! with whose beauty fired,
My soul is ravished and my brain inspired—

*

Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear-
Would you your poet's first petition hear;
Give me the way of wandering stars to know,
The depths of heaven above, and earth below.

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But if my heavy blood restrain the flight
Of my free soul, aspiring to the height
Of nature, and unclouded fields of light-
My next desire is, void of care and strife,
To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life—
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.

*

THEOCRITUS.

SUMMER WOODLANDS.

TRANSLATED BY FAWKES.

HE courteous bade us on soft beds recline,
Of lentesch and young branches of the vine;
Poplars and elms above their foliage spread,
Lent a cool shade, and waved the breezy head.
Below, a stream, from the nymphs' sacred cave,
In free meanders led its murmuring wave;
In the warm sunbeams, verdant shrubs among,
Shrill grasshoppers renewed their plaintive song;
At distance far, concealed in shades alone,
The nightingale poured forth her tuneful moan:
The lark, the goldfinch, warbled lays of love,
And sweetly pensive cooed the turtle-dove;
While honey bees, for ever on the wing,
Hummed round the flowers, and sipped the silver spring:
The rich, ripe season gratified the sense

With summer's sweets and autumn's redolence.
Apples and pears lay strewed in heaps around,

And the plum's loaded branches kissed the ground.

PASTORAL.

I sat me down to watch upon a bank,
With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honeysuckle; and began,
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsy.

Till fancy had her fill.-MILTON.

Piping on their reeds the shepherds go,

Nor fear an ambush, nor suspect a foe.-POPE.

PASTORAL POETRY, though it properly belongs to the species termed Descriptive, is more circumscribed in its range, and may with propriety form the subject of a few introductory remarks. The word Pastoral, in its literal meaning, refers to a shepherd or herdsman. The professed object of this kind of composition is to represent the simple pleasures of a country life, and to describe the pursuits of the shepherds and shepherdesses, who form its principal characters. Dr. JOHNSON has observed, in one of his essays in the "Rambler," "there is scarcely any species of poetry that has allured more readers, or excited more writers, than the pastoral. It is generally pleasing, because it entertains the mind with representations of scenes familiar to almost every imagination, and of which all can equally judge whether they are well described. It exhibits a life, with which we have been always accustomed to associate peace, and leisure, and innocence: and therefore we readily set open the heart for the admission of its images, which contribute to drive away cares and perturbations, and suffer ourselves, without resistance, to be transported to elysian regions, where we are to meet with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment; where every gale whispers pleasure, and every shade promises repose." It has been erroneously supposed that pastoral poetry was one of the earliest forms of poetical writing. Being mainly devoted to the delineation of rural scenes, and to the pursuits of society in a condition of primitive simplicity, this was a natural supposition. Our most eminent authorities, however, on subjects relating to the origin, history, and progress of poetical literature, have clearly proved that pastorals were the growth of a later time than heroic, lyric, or dramatic poetry, and that they flourished in the greatest vigour during periods when civilization had made considerable advancement. It has been remarked, that the best of our pastoral poets wrote their most admired productions in ages of literary and social progress. Doctor BLAIR, in his "Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres," assigns various causes for the fact. He observes, that “whatever may

have been the origin of pastoral poetry, it is undoubtedly a natural and agreeable form of poetical composition. It recalls to our imagination those gay scenes and pleasing views of nature which are the delight of our childhood and youth, and to which, in more advanced years, the great majority of men recur with pleasure. At the same time, no subject seems to be more favourable to poetry. Amidst rural objects, nature presents the finest field for description; and nothing appears to flow more of its own accord into poetical numbers than rivers and mountains, meadows and hills, flocks and trees, and shepherds void of care."

These being the attractive subjects of pastoral poetry, we need not feel surprised, that it should have obtained a favourable reception from all polished nations, and that it should continue to fascinate the admirers of a simple and natural kind of poetical composition. The Scriptures abound in beautiful descriptions of pastoral life. The histories of Abraham, of Jacob, of Joseph, of Ruth, of David, and many other portions of the Sacred volume, might be quoted as examples. DAPHNIS was the first Greek poet who attempted to write pastorals. The two eminent classical authors, who have given the greatest celebrity to this species of poetry, are THEOCRITUS and VIRGIL. The former was the earliest writer in this department of poetical literature, and was a perfect master of the art. He was a Sicilian by birth, and resided at Syracuse about the time of Alexander the Great. The scene of his most beautiful eclogues, or select pieces, was laid in his native country. In originality of thought, simplicity of sentiment, and melody of versification, he is said to have excelled all other competitors for distinction in this pleasing walk of poetry. The writer of the life of THEOCRITUS, in the "Penny Cyclopedia," informs us, that the "particular species of poetry by which he acquired most celebrity are the Bucolics. This pastoral poetry was very popular in Sicily, and having been originally cultivated by shepherds and rustics, was raised to a really artistic rank by several poets before THEOCRITUS. He however brought it to perfection, and the ancient critics regard him as the model of bucolic poetry." His works gave rise to a number of imitators, of whom VIRGIL, the eminent Latin poet, was the most graceful and finished, though not always accurate and judicious. To the Greek poet Dr. BLAIR has awarded the merit of "following nature more closely," and to the Latin that of "exhibiting more of the polish and correctness of art." In our introductory remarks on Descriptive Poetry, we have given the opinion of an eminent critic on the comparative merits of THEOCRITUS and VIRGIL as pastoral writers. Among modern writers of pastorals, GESNER, a celebrated poet of Switzerland, has acquired the highest reputation. His "Idyllia," says Dr. DRAKE, 66 are compositions which have secured him immortality, and placed him on a level with the Grecian. By many indeed, and upon no trifling grounds, he is preferred, having with much felicity assumed a medium between the rusticity of THEOCRITUS and the too refined and luxuriant imagination of BION and MOSCHUS, presenting at the same time the natural painting of the Sicilian, with the pathetic touches and exquisite sensibility of the contemporary bards." MoSCHUS and BION, the two

PASTORAL POETRY.

427

Greek poets referred to by Dr. DRAKE, wrote several pleasing and harmonious compositions of a pastoral character. Among the English poets, SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE, FLETCHER, MILTON, BROWN, POPE, PHILLIPS, GAY, and SHENSTONE, are the most distinguished who have attempted this species of poetry; but none of these have attained to the excellence of THEOCRITUS and VIRGIL. With reference to the paucity of genuine pastorals to be found in the works of English authors, HAZLITT makes the following striking observations, in his "Lectures on the English Poets:" "Our manners are not Arcadian; our climate is not an eternal spring; our age is not the age of gold. We have no pastoral writers equal to THEOCRITUS, nor any landscapes like those of CLAUDE LORRaine. The best parts of SPENSER'S 'Shepherd's Calendar,' are two fables, 'Mother Hubberd's Tale,' and the Oak and the Brier;' which last is as splendid a piece of oratory as any to be found in the records of the eloquence of the British senate. BROWN, who came after SPENSER and WITHERS, has left some pleasing allegorical poems of this kind. POPE'S are as full of senseless finery and trite affectation, as if a peer of the realm were to sit for his picture, with a crook and cocked hat on, smiling with an insipid air of no meaning between nature and fashion. Sir PHILIP SIDNEY'S Arcadia' is a lasting monument of perverted power; where an image of extreme beauty as that of the 'shepherd boy piping as though he should never be old,' peeps out at once in a hundred folio pages, amidst heaps of intricate sophistry and scholastic quaintness. Perhaps the best pastoral in the language is that prose poem, WALTON'S 'Complete Angler.' In describing the scenes on the banks of the river Lea, he gives the feeling of the open air; we walk with him along the dusty road-side, or repose on the banks of the river under a shady tree; and in watching for the finny prey, imbibe what he beautifully calls 'the patience and simplicity of the poor honest fisherman.'"

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In justification of this panegyric upon "WALTON'S Angler," we quote the following exquisite descriptive passage from that quaint old writer:

"Turn out of the way a little, good scholar, towards yonder high honeysuckle hedge; there we'll sit and sing, whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming earth, and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers that adorn these verdant meadows. Look under the broad beech tree, I sat down, when I was last this way a-fishing, and the birds in the adjoining grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to the brow of that primrose hill; there I sat viewing the silver streams glide silently towards their centre, the tempestuous sea; yet sometimes opposed by rugged roots and pebble stones, which broke their waves and turned them into foam and sometimes I beguiled time by viewing the harmless lambs, some leaping securely in the cool shade, whilst others sported themselves in the cheerful sun; and saw others craving comfort from the swollen udders of their bleating dams. As I thus sat, these and other sights had so fully possest my soul with content, that I thought, as the poet has happily exprest it,

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"I was for that time lifted above earth.'"

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