Clam to operi furare, et aquas effinge ferendas If any thing is blameable in this charming compofition, it i the epithet alpinis, perhaps too lofty. The former lines please better than the latter, which are more in the style of Petrarch and Taffo. Above all, I am delighted with the charming circumftance, aquas effinge fe rendas. In order to give to the English reader fome idea of the original, I have attempted the following translation. Come hither Peggy !-Ah, why doft thou beat Now, while the corn is parching on the ground, Now, while with frequent blows the barns refound, Steal hither, Peggy! and pretend to bring A pail of water from this crystal spring: Steal hither, Peggy! Oh delightful maid ! How sweet this stream, how cool this poplar's fhade! To her my words; and may my words prevail : But fhould her father hinder her to go, At least her labours foothe, and cook around her blow. The writings of this illuftrious poet abound with many fuch strokes of nature. The following lines put one in mind of a picture of Evening by Claude Lorraine. Nox venit, et paftae redeunt ad tecta capellae ; Pone gregem reliquum compellit arundine virgo Night comes, and near the placid main, And drives the lagging on with blows. When defcribing the pleafures of a house in a winter day, he fays, Congefta tum focus orno, Ingenti aut fago, vel fragmine roboris ardet, The grate with afh, or beech, or oak, is crown'd, And adds thefe lines fo pleafing to a father: Ante focum tibi parvus erit qui ludat Julus, Before the fire, thy fportive child affords Fracaftoro and our Buchanan are generally supposed to dispute the fceptre of modern poetical latinity. I have before me a collection of eulogies on each of these poets, transcribed in the course of my reading, and it is difficult to fay on which they are most lavish. Note (k) p. 46.-S. Johnfon has endeavoured to defend Mr Pope from the usual charge, that his pastorals want invention; he obferves, that this is to require what never was intended, and that it is fuffi cient for an author of fixteen" to be able to copy the poems of antiquity with judicious felection." As to the judgment of the selection, we shall appeal to the following lines. Infpire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise, With Waller's frains, or Granville's moving lays ! ̈ That threats a fight, and spurns the rising fand. Here a shepherd is reprefented as intending to facrifice a white bull to Apollo, in the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the fecond pastoral, a shepherd boy, who leads forth " his flocks along the filver Thame," fays: When weary reapers quit the fultry field, And, crown'd with corn, their thanks to Ceres yield. Now, unless Ceres be adopted into the Roman calendar as one of the faints, this is altogether unfuitable and improper. I beg leave to quote one other example. Johnson, speaking of Pope's paftorals, fays, "The last, that which turns the attention on age and death, was the author's favourite. His preference was probably juft. I wish, however, that his fondness had not overlooked a line in which the zephyrs are made to lament in filence. The great critic alludes to the two following verses. The balmy zephyrs, filent fince. her death, But furely these bear no comparison, with regard to abfurdity, to the following. The title of the poem is a pastoral to the Memory of Mrs Tempeft; in addreffing whom, a fhepherd fays, To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb fball bleed ! The jealousy of Pope and Philips is well known. Not fatisfied with his ironical attack of that writer in the Guardian (No. 40.) Pope: incited Gay to copy real rustic life in his Shepherd's Week, in order to fhew how ridiculous it would appear, and thus get rid of the objec-- ~ tions of those who accused the want of it in his own pastorals. "But the effect of reality and truth (says Johnson) became confpicuous, even when the intention was to fhow them groveling and degraded. These pastorals became popular, and were read with delight, as just representations of rural manners and occupations, by those who had no interest in the rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of their critical difputes." Note (1) p. 47.-Fielding has thought proper to write, "An effay to prove that an author will write the better for having some knowledge of the subject on which he writes." Shakespeare and Moliere were both players; and in general little can be expected from those who copy only at fecond hand. Most of our pastoral writers never conversed with a shepherd during their lives, nor perhaps faw a sheep, except hanging up in the fhambles. RAMSAY was acquainted with the scenes which he deferibes; and his taste was not much corrupted. by the [at least to us] fantastic pictures, and trite common-places, borrowed from the claffical writers. Aft hae I wade the glens wi' chorkin feet, When neither plaid nor kilt could fend the weet.. In fome of his pastoral pieces, indeed, he has introduced fawns, fatyrs, &c. and acted like his neighbours. In his great work, he has been more wife or fortunate. Note (m) p: 48-In a poem on pastoral poetry by BURNS, vol. iv. p. 359, he observes that " scarce ane has tried the shepherds' fang but wi' miscarriage:" that Homer, that Æfchylus, that Horace, have been imitated, and equalled; but that none, except Allan Ramfay, has matched Theocritus. And then he writes the following compli mentary verses in praise of the Scotish, bard. THOU paints auld nature to the nines, Nae gowden stream through myrtles twines, While nightly breezes sweep the vines, In gowany glens thy burnie ftrays, Where blackbirds join the fhepherds' lays, Thy rural lays are nature's fel', Nae bombaft fpates o' nonfense swell, Nae fnap conceits, but that sweet spell That charm that can the strongest quell, Note (n) p. 48.-An excellent critic, the late W. Tytler, Efq; has the following remark on the pastoral of Ramfay: "The Gentle Shepherd, for the natural ease of the dialogue, the propriety of the characters, perfectly fimilar to the pastoral life in Scotland, the picturesque fcenery, and above all the fimplicity and beauty of the fable, may justly rank among the most eminent pastoral dramas.”—Works of James I. It was not without reason that this elegant writer insists so much on the fable; the difficulty of finding which, it appears, was what, in a confiderable degree, prevented Burns from attempting a pastoral; nor does it appear that his friends, whom he confulted, could give him much affiftance. "To produce, (fays J. Warton), and carry on with probability and decorum, a feries of events, is the most difficult work of invention; and if we were minutely to examine the popular stories of every nation, we fhould be amazed to find how few circumstances have been ever invented. Facts and events have been indeed varied |