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PASTORALS

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1704.

Rura mihi et rigui placeant in valibus amnes,
Flumina amem, fylvafque, inglorius.

DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY.*

THERE are not, I believe, a greater number of any fort of verfes than those which are called Paftorals; nor a fmaller, than those which are truly fo. It therefore feems neceffary to give fome account of this kind of Poem; and it is my defign to comprife in this fhort paper the fubftance of thofe numerous differtations the Critics have made on the fubject, without omitting any of their rules in my own favour. You will alfo find fome points reconciled, about which they feem to differ; and a few remarks, which, I think, have escaped their obfervation.

The original of Poetry is afcribed to that Age which fucceeded the creation of the world; and 2s the keeping of flocks feems to have been the firft employment of mankind, the most ancient fort of Poetry was probably Paftoral †. It is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient fhepherds admitting and inviting fome diverfion, none was fo proper to that folitary and fedantary life as finging; and that in their fongs they took occafion to celebrate their own felicity. From hence a Poem was invented, and after wards improved to a perfect image of that happy time; which, by giving us an esteem for the virtues of a former age, might recommend them to the prefent. And fince the life of fhepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other

• Written at fixteen years of age. ↑ Fontenelle's Difcourfe on Paftorals.

rural employment, the poets chose to introduce their perfons, from whom it received the name of Paftoral.

A pastoral is an imitation of the action of a fhepherd, or one confidered under that character. The form of this imitation is dramatic, or narrative, or mixed of both; the fable fimple, the manners not too polite nor too ruftic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quickness and paffion, but that short and flowing the expreffion humble, yet as pure as the language will afford; neat, but not florid; eafy, and yet lively. In fhort, the fable, manners, thoughts, and expreffions, are full of the greatest fimplicity in na

ture.

:

The complete character of this poem confifts in fimplicity (, brevity, and delicacy; the two firft of which render an eclogue natural, and the laft delightful.

If we could copy nature, it may be useful to take this idea along with us, that paftoral is an image of what they call the Golden Age. So that we are not to describe our shepherds as shepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to have been, when the best of men followed the employment. To carry this refemblance yet further, it would not be amifs to give these fhepherds some skill in astronomy, as

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far as it may be useful to that fort of life. And an air of piety to the gods fhould fhine through the poem, which fo vifibly appears in all the works of antiquity; and it ought to preferve fome relish of the old way of writing: the connection fhould be loose, the narrations and defcriptions short", and the periods concife: yet it is not fufficient, that the fentences only be brief; the whole eclogue fhould be fo too: for we cannot fuppofe poetry in those days to have been the bufinefs of men, but their recreation at vacant hours

his defcriptions, of which that of the cup in the firft paftoral is a remarkable inftance. In the manners he seems a little defective; for his swains are fometimes abusive and immodest, and perhaps too much inclining to rufticity; for inftance, in his fourth and fifth Idyllia. But it is enough that all others learned their excellence from him, and that his dialect alone has a fecret charm in it, which no other could ever attain.

Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines npon his original and in all points, where judgment is principally concerned, he is much fuperior to his mafter. Though fome of his fubjects are not paftoral in themselves, but only feem to be fuch; they have a wonderful variety in them, which the Greek was a stranger to *. He exceeds him

But with respect to the present age, nothing more conduces to make these compofures natural, than when fome knowledge in rural affairs is discovered + This may be made to appear ra ther done by chance than on defign, and fome-in regularity and brevity, and falls fhort of him times is beft fhewn by inference; left by too much tudy to feem natural, we destroy that eafy fimplicity from whence arises the delight for what is inviting in this fort of poetry proceeds not fo much from the idea of that bufinefs, as the tranquillity of a country life.

We must therefore ufe fome illufion to render a paftoral delightful; and this confifts in expofing the beft fide only of a fhepherd's life, and in concealing its miferies t. Nor is it enough to introduce thepherds difcourfing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the fubject, that it contain fome particular beauty in itself, and that it be different in every eclogue. Befides, in each of them a defigned fcenc or profpect is to be prefented to our view, which should likewife have its variety §. This variety is obtained in a great degree by frequent comparisons, drawn from the molt agreeable objects of the country; by interrogations to things inanimate; by beautiful digreffions, but thofe fhort; fometimes by infifting a little on circumftances; and laftly, by elegant turns on the words, which render the numbers extremely fweet and pleafing. As for the numbers themfelves, though they are properly of the heroic measure, they should be the fmootheft, the most easy and flowing imaginable.

It is by rules like thefe that we ought to judge of paftoral. And fince the inftructions given for any art are to be delivered as that art is in perfection, they muft of neceflity be derived from thofe in whom it is acknowledged fo to be It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undifputed authors of paftoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

in nothing but fimplicity and propriety of ftyle; the first of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the laft of his language.

Among the moderns, their fuccefs has been greatest who have moft endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The most considerable genius appears in the famous Taffo, and our Spenfer. Taffo in his Aminta has as far excelled all the paftoral writers, as in his Gierufalemme he has outdone the epic poets of his country. But as his piece feems to have been the original of a new fort of poem, the pastoral comedy, in Italy, it cannot fo well be confidered as a copy of the 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 Virgilt: not but that he may be thought imper fect 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 meafure, which is contrary to the practice of the old poets. His flanza is not ftill the fame, nor always well chofen. This last may be the reafon his expreffion is fometimes not concife enough: for the tetraflic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length of four lines, which would have been more clofely con fined 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 ufed in part of Greece, and frequent Theocritus excells all others in nature and fim-in the mouths of many of the greatest perfons: plicity, The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely paftoral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers aud fishermen as well as fhepherds. He is apt to be too long in

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whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenfer were either entirely obfolete, or spoken only by people of the lowest condition. is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, fo the expreffion of fimple thoughts should be plain, but not clownish. The addition he has made of a calendar to his eclogues, is very beautiful;

• Rapin, Ref. on Arift. part ii. RA, xxvi. Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg. Dedication to Virg. Ecl.

since by this, besides the general moral of innocence and fimplicity, which is common to other authors of pastoral, he has one peculiar to himself; he compares human life to the feveral seasons, and at once exposes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and afpects. Yet the fcrupulous divifion of his paftorals into months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame defcription, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhaufted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pass that fome of his eclogues (as the fixth, eighth, and tenth, for example) have nothing but their titles to distinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defcription, as is may every feafon.

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 respect of the several feafons, as Spenfer's: That, in order to add to this variety, the feveral times of the day are observed, the rural employments in each season or time of day, and the rural scenes or places proper to fuch employments; not without fome regard to the several 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 some good old authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, fo, I hope, I have not wanted care to imitate.

PASTORALS.

SPRIN G.

THE FIRST PASTORAL, OR DAMON.

TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL,

FIRST in thefe fields I try the fylvan strains,
Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blifsful plains:
Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred fpring,
While on thy banks Sicilian mufes fing;
Let vernal airs through trembling ofiers play,
And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay.
Youth at, 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 illuftriously are loft!
O let my mufe her flender reed infpire,
Till in your native fhades you tune the lyre :'
So when the nightingale to rest removes,
The thrush may chant to the forfaken groves,
But charm'd to filence, liftens while fhe fings,
And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.

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DAPHNIS.

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines, And fwelling clufters 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 fky, Where twelve fair figns in beauteous order lie?

DAMON.

Then fing by turns, by turns the mufes fing; Now hawthorns bloffom, now the daifies fpring, Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the

ground;

Begin, the vales fhall every note rebound.

STREPHON.

Infpire me, Phœbus, in my Delia's praife, With Waller's ftrains, or Granville's moving lays! A milk-white bull fhall at your altars ftand, That threats a fight, and spurns the rifing fand.

DAPHNIS.

O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes; 50 No lambs or fheep for victims I'll impart, Thy victim, Love, fhall be the fhepherd's heart.

STREPHON.

Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in fhades, eludes her eager fwain; But feigns a laugh, to fee me fearch around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found.

DAPHNIS,

The fprightly Sylvia trips along the green, She runs, but hopes fhe does not run unfeen; While a kind glance at her purfuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes! 60

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 36. And clusters lurk beneath the curling

vines.

Ver. 49. Originally thus in the MS. Pan, let my numbers equal Strephon's lays, Of Parian ftone thy flatue will I raife; But if I conquer, and augment my fold, Thy Parian ftatue fhall be chang'd to gold.

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