ancients. Spenfer's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever fince the time of Virgil *. Not but that he may be thought imperfect in fome few points. His Eclogues are fomewhat too long, if we compare them with the ancients. He is fometimes too allegorical, and treats of matters of religion in a pastoral style, as the Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric measure, which is contrary to the practice of the old Poets. His ftanza is not ftill the fame, nor always well chofen. This laft may be the reason his expreffion is fometimes not concife enough: for the Tetraftic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length of four lines, which would have been more closely confined in the Couplet.

In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himself; though, notwithstanding all the care he has taken, he is certainly inferior in his Dialect: For the Doric had its beauty and propriety in the time of Theocritus; it was used in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greateft perfons: whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenfer were either entirely obfolete, or spoken only by people of the loweft condition. As there is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, fo the expreffion of fimple thoughts fhould be plain, but not clownish. The addition he has made of a Calendar to his Eclogues, is very beautiful; fince by this, befides the general moral of

* Dedication to Virg. Ecl.

innocence

innocence and fimplicity, which is common to other authors of Paftoral, he has one peculiar to himself; he compares human Life to the several Seasons, and at once expofes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and aspects. Yet the fcrupulous divifion of his Fastorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame defcription, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhausted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pass that some of his Eclogues (as the fixth, eighth, and tenth, for example) have nothing but their Titles to diftinguish them. The reafon is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular description, 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 feafons, as Spenfer's: That, in order to add to this variety, the feveral times of the day are obferved, the rural employments in each feason or time of day, and the rural scenes 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 study, fo, I hope, I have not wanted care to imitate.

SPRING.

F

IRST in these fields I try the sylvan strains,
Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains:
Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred spring,
While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing;
Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play,
And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay.
You that, too wife for pride, too good for power,
Enjoy the glory to be great no more,
And, carrying with you all the world can boast,
To all the world illustriously are loft!

O let my Mufe her slender reed inspire,
Till in your native shades you tune the lyre:
So when the Nightingale to rest 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.

10

15

Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews, Two Swains, whom Love kept wakeful, and the Muse,

Pour'd

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

DAPHNIS.

Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day! Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing, When warbling Philomel falutes the fpring? Why fit we fad, when Phofphor fhines fo clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year?

STREPHON.

Sing then, and Damon fhall attend the strain,
While yon' flow oxen turn the furrow'd plain.
Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow;
Here western winds on breathing rofes blow.
I'll stake yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.

DAPHNIS.

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,
And swelling clusters bend the curling vines :
Four figures rifing from the work appear,
The various feafons of the rolling year;

And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve fair figns in beauteous order lie?

20

25

૩૦

35

40

VARIATIONS.

DA

Ver. 34. The firft reading was,

And his own image from the bank furveys. Ver. 36. And clusters lurk beneath the curling vines.