From shepherds, flocks, and plains, I may remove, Thus sung the shepherds till th' approach of night, 90 95 100 WINTE R2. THE FOURTH PASTORAL, OR DAPHNE. To the Memory of Mrs. Tempest3. TH LYCIDAS. HYRSIS, the music of that murm'ring spring, There is a little inaccuracy here; the first line makes the time after sunset; the second, before. Warburton. 2 This was the poet's favourite pastoral. Warburton. 3 Mrs Tempest.] This lady was of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and particularly admired by the author's friend Mr Walsh, who, having celebrated her in a pastoral elegy, desired his friend to do the same, as appears from one of his letters, dated Sept. 9, 1706: 'Your last eclogue being on the same subject with mine on Mrs Tempest's death, I should take it very kindly in you to give it a little turn as if it were to the memory of the same lady.' Her death having happened on the night of the great storm in 1703, gave a propriety to this eclogue, which in its general turn alludes to it. The scene of the pastoral lies in a grove, the time at midnight. P. [Walsh's elegy is that entitled 'Delia; an insignificant piece.] THYRSIS. Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, LYCIDAS. So may kind rains their vital moisture yield, THYRSIS. Ye gentle Muses, leave your crystal spring, Nor thirsty heifers seek the gliding flood. In notes more sad than when they sing their own; Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore, No grateful dews descend from ev'ning skies, Nor morning odours from the flow'rs arise; 'This expression of sweet Echo is taken from Comus; as is another expression, loose traces, Third Past. v. 62.' Warton. ΙΟ 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 2 'I wish that his fondness had not overlooked a line in which the zephyrs are made to lament in silence.' Johnson. No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings, Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze, 55 бо 65 The winds and trees and floods her death deplore, Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears; But see! where Daphne wond'ring mounts on high 70 75 LYCIDAS. How all things listen, while thy Muse complains! In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. 80 To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed, If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed. While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live! THYRSIS. But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews, 85 Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must Time obey. Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams and groves, 90 [Warton naturally compares the 'same beautiful change of circumstances' in Spenser's November (S. K.) and Milton's Lycidas, from line 165.] 2 These four last lines allude to the several subjects of the four Pastorals, and to the several scenes of them, particularized before in each. P. Ver. 1. SPRING. 'Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu, Nostra nec erubuit sylvas habitare Thalia.' This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the 6th of Virgil, which some have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Pastorals, he imitates expressly those which now stand first of the three chief poets in this kind, Spenser, Virgil, Theocritus. 'A Shepherd's Boy (he seeks no better name)'— 'Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,''Thyrsis, the musick of that murm'ring spring,'are manifestly imitations of -'A Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call)' —‘Tityre, tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi' —Αδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα καὶ ὁ πίτυς, αἰπόλε,τήνα. Ρ. Ver. 35, 36, 'Lenta quibus torno facili superaddita vitis, Diffusos hedera vestit pallente corymbos.' Virg. P. Ver. 38. The various seasons.] The subject of these Pastorals engraven on the bowl is not without its propriety. The shepherd's hesitation at the name of the Zodiac, imitates that in Virgil. 'Et quis fuit alter, Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem? P. 'Alternis dicetis, amant alterna Camænæ : Ver 47. A milk-white bull.] Virg. 'Qui cornu petat, et pedibus jam spargat arenam.' Ver. 58. She runs, but hopes.] Imitation of Virgil, 'Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella, Et fugit ad salices, sed se cupit ante videri. P. Ver. 69. All nature mourns.] Virg. 'Aret ager, vitio moriens sitit aeris herba, &c. Phyllidis adventu nostræ nemus omne virebit.' P. Ver. 90. The two riddles are in imitation of those in Virg. Ecl. iii. 'Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina Regum Nascantur flores, et Phillida solus habeto.' P. SUMMER. Ver. 8. And Fove consented.] Ver. 23. Where stray ye Muses, etc.] 'nuper me in littore vidi Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallat imago.' P. Ver. 40. bequeath'd in death; etc.] Virg. 'Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis Fistula, Damœtas dono mihi quam dedit olim, Et dixit moriens, te nunc habet ista secundum.' P. Ver. 60. Descending gods have found Elysium here.] -'Habitarunt di quoque sylvas'— Virg. 'Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis.' Idem. P. Ver. 80. And winds shall waft, etc.] 'Partem aliquam, venti, divum referatis ad aures! Virg. P. Ver. 88. Ye gods! etc.] 'Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adsit amori?' Idem. P. AUTUMN. 'Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.' P. Ver. 89. 'Nunc scio quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum,' etc. P. This from Virgil is much inferior to the passage in Theocritus, whence it Ecl. v. P. is taken. Warton. Ver. 43, etc.] 'Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per æstum Dulcis aquæ saliente sitim restinguere rivo.' IN ADVERTISEMENT. N reading several passages of the Prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but made use of such ideas as best agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served .most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the Prophet are superior to those of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation. P. [Dr Johnson, who translated this poem into Latin verse as a college exercise, in his Life of Pope observes, 'That the Messiah excels the Pollio is no great praise, if it be considered from what original the improvements are derived.' Many may, however, be indisposed to agree with the assumption for which so triumphant an explanation is found in the above remark. Whilst it is by no means improbable (see Merivale's Romans under the Empire, ch. xxvII, referred to by Conington) that 'Virgil was acquainted with the prophetic portions of the Jewish Scriptures, if not directly, at least through the medium of the so-called Sibylline oracles,' these references are in the Roman poet after all only ornaments of an offering distinctly intended to celebrate by anticipation the birth of a Roman child. In Pope these ornaments become the subject-matter of the poem, which is thus merely the paraphrase of an authoritative prophecy on the same subject.] |