As the feptuagint-tranflation of the Old Teftament was performed at the request, and under the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it were not to be wondered if Theocritus, who was entertained at that prince's court, had borrowed fome part of his paftoral imagery from the poetical paffages of those books. I think it can hardly be doubted that the Sicilian poct had in his eye certain expreffions of the prophet Ifaiah, when he wrote the following lines: Νυν τα μεν φορεοιτε βατοι, φορεοιτε δ ̓ ἀκανθαι 'Α δε καλα ναρκισσος επ ἀρκευθοισι κομάσαι Παντα δ' ἐναλλα γενοιντο, και ο πιτυς όχνας ενεικάς και τως κυνας ώλαφος ἑλκοι. Let vexing brambles the blue violet bear, On the rude thorn Narciffus drefs his hair-All, all revers'd-The pine with pears be crown'd, And the bold deer fhall drag the trembling hound. the the caufe, indeed, of these phænomena is very different in the Greek from what it is 1 in the Hebrew poet; the former employing them on the death, the latter on the birth of an important perfon: but the marks of imitation are nevertheless obvious; IT might, however, be expected, that if Theocritus had borrowed at all from the facred writers, the celebrated paftoral Epithalamium of Solomon, so much within his own walk of poetry, would not certainly have escaped his notice. His Epithalamium on the marriage of Helena, moreover, gave him an open field for imitation; therefore, if he has any obligations to the royal bard, we may expect to find them there. The very opening of the poem is in the spirit of the Hebrew fong: Οντω δε πρίζα κατέδραθες, ὦ φίλε γαμβρί; The colour of imitation is ftill ftronger in the following paffage : * Αως αντέλλοισα καλον διέφαινε προσωπον, This defcription of Helen is infinitely above the style and figure of the Sicilian pastoral— "She is like the rifing of the golden morn"ing, when the night departeth, and when "the winter is over and gone. She refem"bleth the cyprefs in the garden, the horfe "in the chariots of Theffaly." These figures plainly declare their origin, and others equally imitative might be pointed out in the fame idyllium. THIS beautiful and luxuriant marriage paftoral of Solomon is the only perfect form of of the oriental eclogue that has furvived the ruins of time,a happiness for which it is, probably, more indebted to its facred character than to its intrinfick merit. Not that it is by any means destitute of poetical excellence: like all the eastern poetry, it is bold, wild and unconnected in its figures, allufions and parts, and has all that graceful and magnificent daring which characterises its metaphorical and comparative imagery. IN confequence of these peculiarities, fo ill adapted to the frigid genius of the north, Mr. COLLINS could make but little use of it as a precedent for his oriental eclogues, and even in his third eclogue, where the fubject is of a fimilar nature, he has chosen rather to follow the mode of the Doric and the Latin paftoral. THE scenery and subjects then of the following eclogues alone are Oriental; the ftyle and colouring are purely European; and, for this reason, the author's preface, in which he intimates that he had the originals from a merchant who traded to the Eaft, is omitted, as being now altogether fuperfluous. WITH regard to the merit of these Eclogues, it may justly be afferted, that in fimplicity of description and expreffion, in delicacy and softness of numbers, and in natural and unaffected tenderness, they are not to be equalled by any thing of the paftoral kind in the English language. |