If we would 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 defcribe our fhepherds as fhepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then tho have been; when the best of men follow. ed the employment. ΤΟ carry this refemblance yet further, it would not be ainifs to give thefe fhepherds fome fkill in aftronomy, as far as it may be useful to that fort of life. And an air of piety. to the Gods' fhould shine through the Poem, which fo vifibly appears in all the works of antiquity: and it ought to preferve fome relifh of the old way of writing; the connection fhould be loose, the narrations and defcriptions fhort), and the periods concife. Yet it is not fufficient, that the sentences only be brief, the whole Eclogue fhould be fo too. For we cannot fuppofe Poetry in those days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant hours.

But with a refpect to the prefent age, nothing more conduces to make thefe compofures natural, than when fome Knowledge in rural affairs is difcovered f). This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on design, and sometimes is beft fhewn

e) Rapin, Reflex. fur l'Art Poet. d'Arift. p. 2. Ref. xxvii. f) Pref. to Virg. Paft. in Dryd. Virg.

6

A DISCOURSE

by inference; left by too much study to seem natu-
ral, we deftroy that eafy fimplicity from whence
For what is inviting in this
arifes the delight.
fort of poetry proceeds not fo much from the Idea
of that business, as of the tranquillity of a coun-
try 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 &). Nor is it enough to introduce fhepherds difcourfing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the subject; that it contain particular beauty in itself, and that it be diffein every Eclogue. Befides, in each of them a defigned scene

fom c

rent

our This quent objects

or profpect is to be prefented to

view, which fhould likewife have its variety h). variety is obtained in a great degree by frecomparifons, drawn from the moft agreeable of the country; by interrogations to things inanizzare; by beautiful digreffions, but thofe fhort; fometimes by insisting

a little on circumftances; and

laftly, by elegant turns on the words, which render

the

numbers extremely fweet and pleafing. As for the numbers themselves, though they are properly of the heroic meafure, they fhould be the flnootheft, the molt easy and flowing, imaginable.

e's

8) Fontenelle

Difc. of Paftorals. h) See the forementioned Preface.

It is by rules like these 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 neceffity be derived from thofe in whom it is acknowledged fo to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undispu ted authors of Paftoral) that the Critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimpli city. The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely paftoral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers and fishermen as well as fhepherds. He is apt to be too long in his defcriptions, of which that of the Cup in the firft paftoral is a remarkable inftance. In the manners he feems a little defective, for his fwains are fometimes, abufive and immodeft, and perhaps too much inclining to rufticity: for inftance, in his fourth and fifth Idyllia. But 'tis enough that all others learnt their excellencies from him, and that his dialect alone has a fecret charm in it, which no other could ever attain.

Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines upon his original; and in all points, where judgment is prin cipally concerned, he is much fuperior to his master. Though fome of his fubjects are not paftoral in themselves, but only feem to be fuch; they have

i) OEPIETAI, Idyl. 2. and AAIEIE, Idyl. xxi.

wonderful variety in them, which the Greek was a ftranger to 4). He exceeds him in regularity and bre vity, and falls fhort of him in nothing but fimplicity and propriety of ftyle; the firft of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the last of his language.

Among the moderns, their fuccefs has been greateft who have molt endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The molt confiderable Genius appears in the famous Taffo, and our Spenfer. Taffo in his Aminta has as far excelled all the Paftoral writers, as in his Gierufalemime he has outdone the Epic poets of his country. But as this piece feems to have been the original of a new fort of poem, the Paftoral 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 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 Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric measure, which is contrary to the practice of the old Poets. His Stanza is not ftill the

k) Rapin Ref. on Arift. part. ii, refl, xxvii, Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg. 1) Dedication to Virg. Ecl.

fame, nor always well chofen. This laft may be the reafon his expreffion is fometimes not concife enough : for the Tetraffic has obliged him to extend his fense to the length of four lines, which would have been more clofely confined in the Couplet.

In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himfelf; tho, nothwithstanding all the care he has taken, he is certainly inferior in his Dialect: For the Doric hat its beauty and propriety in the time of Theocritus; it was ufed in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greateft perfons: whereas the old English and country phrafes of Spenfer were either entirely obfolete, or spoken only by people of the lowest condition. As there is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, fo the expreffion of fimple thoughts fhould be plain, but not clownifh. The addition he has made of a Calendar to his. Eclogues, is very beautiful; fince by this, befides the general moral of innocence and fimplicity, which is common to other authors of Paftoral, he has one peculiar to himfelf; he compares human Life to the feveral Seafons, 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 Paftorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame defcription,

AS