In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himself; tho', 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 used in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest persons: whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenser 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 should be plain, but not clownish. 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 himself; he compares human Life to the several Seasons, and at once exposes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and aspects. Yet the fcrupulous divifion of his Pastorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame defcription, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhausted 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 diftinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defcription, as it may season. every Of the following Eclogues I fhall only fay, that these 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 refpect of the feveral feafons, as Spenfer's: that in order to add to this variety, the several times of the day are obferv'd, 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 feveral 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 fome good old Authors, whose works as I had leifure to ftudy, fo I hope I have not wanted care to imitate. 1 'IRST in these fields I try the fylvan strains, Norblush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred spring, While on thy banks Sicilian Mufes fing; REMARK S. Thefe Paftorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then paft thro' the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lanfdown, Sir William Trumbal, Dr. Garth, Lord Hallifax, Lord Semers, Mr. Mainwaring, and others. All thefe gave our Author the greatest encouragement, and particularly Mr. Walsh, whom Mr. Dryden, in his Postscript to Virgil, calls the beft Critic of his age. "Author (fays he) feems to have a particular genius for this "kind of Poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds his years. He has taken very freely from the Ancients. But "The Let vernal airs thro' trembling ofiers play, And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay. 5 You, that too wife for pride, too good for pow'r, Enjoy the glory to be great no more, 66 REMARK S. "what he has mixed of his own with theirs is no way infe"rior to what he has taken from them. It is not flattery at "all to say that Virgil had written nothing fo good at his Age. His Preface is very judicious and learned." Letter to Mr. Wycherley, Ap. 1705. The Lord Lanfdown about the fame time, mentioning the youth of our Poet, fays (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley)" that if " he goes on as he hath begun in the Pastoral way, as Vir"gil firft tried his ftrength, we may hope to fee English "Poetry vie with the Roman," &c. Notwithstanding the early time of their production, the Author esteemed these as the most correct in the verfification, and mufical in the numbers, of all his works. The reafon for his labouring them into fo much softness, was, doubtlefs, that this fort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural ease of thought and fmoothness of verfe; whereas that of moft other kinds confifts in the ftrength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walsh about this time we find an enumeration of feveral niceties in Verfification, which perhaps have never been strictly obferved in any English poem, except in thefe Paftorals. They were not printed till 1709. P. Sir William Trumbal.] Our Author's friendship with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years; he was under fixteen, but Sir William above fixty, and had lately refign'd his employment of Secretary of State to King William. P. IMITATIONS. VER. 1. Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu, Noftra nec erubuit fylvas habitare Thalia. This is the general exordium and opening of the Paftorals, in imitation of the fixth of Virgil, which fome have therefore not improbably thought to have been the firft originally. In } And carrying with you all the world can boast, To all the world illustriously are lost! ΙΟ O let my Mufe her flender reed inspire, Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews, REMARKS. VER. 12. in your native Shades.] Sir W. Trumbal was born in Windfor-foreft, to which he retreated, after he had refigned the post of Secretary of State to King William III. P. VER. 17, etc.] The Scene of this Pastoral a Valley, the Time the Morning. It ftood originally thus, Daphnis and Strephon to the fhades retir'd, IMITATIONS. the beginnings of the other three Paftorals, he imitates ex- A Shepherd's Boy (he feeks no better name)- -A Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call) Αδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα καὶ ὁ πίτυς, αἰπόλε, τήνα. Ρ. |