See, where on earth the flow'ry glories lie, With her they flourish'd, and with her they die. For her the flocks refuse their verdant food, In notes more fad than when they fing their own; Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore, No grateful dews defcend from ev'ning skies, 35 4I 45 50 No more the mounting larks, while Daphne fings, Shall lift'ning in mid-air fufpend their wings; No more the birds fhall imitate her lays, Or hufh'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays; No more the streams their murmurs fhall forbear, A sweeter music than their own to hear, REMARK S. 55 VER. 41. fweet echo] This expreffion of sweet echo is taken from Comus; as is another expreffion, loofe traces, Third Paft. v. 62. And he recommends these poems in high terms to Sir W. Trumball (see the Letters) fo early as the year 1704. But But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal fhore, Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze, 60 65 Swell'd with new paffion, and o'erflows with tears; The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore, Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more! But fee! where Daphne wond'ring mounts on high 70 Above the clouds, above the starry sky! Eternal beauties grace the fhining scene, Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green! REMARKS. 75 VER. 70. Above the clouds,] In Spenfer's November, and in Milton's Lycidas, is the fame beautiful change of circumstances: in the latter moft exquifite, from line 165. Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more Where other groves and other streams along, With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, And hears the inexpreffive nuptial fong In the bleft kingdoms meek of joy and love. VER. 69, 70. IMITATIONS. "miratur limen Olympi, Sub pedibufque videt nubes et fydera Daphnis." Virg. P. LYCIDA S. How all things liften, while thy Mufe complains! Such filence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still ev'ning, when the whisp❜ring breeze To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb fhall bleed, 80 While plants their fhade, or flow'rs their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise fhall live! THYRS I S. But fee, Orion fheds unwholefome dews; Arife, the pines a noxious fhade diffufe; VARIATIONS. VER. 83. Originally thus in the MS. While vapours rife, and driving fnows defcend, REMARKS. 85 VER. 85. unholefome dews;] Obferve how the melody of those four verfes is improved, by the pure iambic foot at the end of each line, except the second, unwholesomě dews děcay VER. 87.] If, according to fome critics, pleafing images alone are proper to be exhibited in paftoral poetry, it must be unsuitable, to the intent of this fort of poetry, to lay the scene in the feverities of winter. VER. 81. IMITATIONS. ❝ illius aram VER. 86. Juniperi gravis umbra." Virg." Saepe tener noftris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. Virg.' P. "folet effe gravis cantantibus umbra, P. VER. 88. Time conquers all, &c.] "Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori.” Vid. etiam Sannazarii Ecl. et Spenfer's Calendar, Adieu, 90 Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams and groves, REMARKS. VER. 89, &c.] These four laft lines allude to the feveral fubjects of the four paftorals, and to the feveral fcenes of them, particularized before in each. P. The Sycophancy of A. Phillips, who had prejudiced Mr. Addison against Pope, occafioned thofe papers in the Guardian, written by the latter, in which there is an ironical preference given to the Paftorals of Phillips, above his own; in order to support the profound judgment of those who could not distinguish between the rural and the ruftic; and on that account, condemned the Paftorals of Pope for wanting fimplicity. These papers were fent by an unknown hand to Steele, and the irony efcaping him, he communicated them to Mr. Pope, declaring he would never publish any paper, where one of the Club was complimented at the expence of another. Pope told him he was too delicate, and infifted that the papers fhould be published in the Guardian. They were fo. And the pleafantry efcaped all but Addison who, taking Pope afide, faid to him in his agreeable manner; You have put your friends here in a very ridiculous light, as will be feen when it is understood, as it must foon be, that you was only laughing at the admirers of Phillips. But this ill conduct of Phillips occafioned a more open ridicule of his Pastorals, in the mock poem called the Shepherd's Week, written by Gay. But tho' more open, the object of it was ill understood by those who were ftrangers to the quarrel. These mistook the Shepherd's Week for a Burlefque of Virgils Paftorals. How far this goes towards a vindication of Phillips's fimple painting, let others judge. W. Upon the whole, the principal merit of thefe paftorals confifts, in their mufical and correct verfification; musical, to a degree of which rhyme could hardly be thought capable; and in giving the trueft fpecimen of that harmony in English verfe, which is now become indifpenfably neceffary; and which has fo forcibly and univerfally univerfally influenced the public ear, as to have obliged every moderate rhymer to be at leaft melodious. Ten paftorals written by Dr. Evans, the friend of Pope, are inferted in the Eighth Volume of Nichols's Poems, never before printed, and as early as our Author's. Some of them in the ruftic ftyle and manner of Gay. In the fame volume, page 208, are fourteen Pifcatory Eclogues, entitled Nereides, by Diaper, who was patronized by Swift, and who dedicates them to Congreve. |