they must of neceffity be derived from those in whom it is acknowledged fo to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undifputed authors of Pastoral) that the Critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it. * i Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimplicity. The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely pastoral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers and fishermen as well as fhepherds t. He is apt to be too long in his descriptions, of which that of the Cup in the first pastoral is a remarkable inftance. In the manners he seems a little defective, for his fwains are fometimes abufive and immodeft, and perhaps too much inclining to rusticity; for instance, 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 princi *Stefichorus, it is faid, wrote paftorals also. i OEPIETAI, Idyl. x. and AAIEIE, Idyl. xxi. pally WARTON. POPE. The 10th and 21ft Idyll. here alluded to, contain some of the most exquifite ftrokes of nature and true poetry any where to be met with, as does the beautiful defcription of the carving on the cup; which, indeed, is not a cup, but a very large pastoral vesfel or cauldron. Vas paftoritium ampliffimum. WARTON. Dr Warton might have mentioned the 7th and 22d Idyll, as moft highly picturesque, romantic, and beautiful. He refines indeed fo much as to make him, on this very ac count, much inferior to the beautiful fimplicity of his original. WARTON. pally concerned, he is much fuperior to his mafter. Though some of his fubjects are not pastoral 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 in regularity and brevity, and falls fhort of him in nothing but fimplicity and propriety of ftyle; the first of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the last of his language. Among the moderns, their fuccefs has been greatest who have most endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The most confiderable Genius appears in the famous Taffo, and our Spenfer. Taffot in It is difficult to conceive where is the "wonderful variety" in Virgil's Eclogues, which the "Greek was a ftranger to." Many of the more poetical parts of Virgil are copied literally from Theocritus, but are weakened by being made more general, and often lofe much of their picturesque and poetical effect from that circumftance. Every thing in Theocritus is painted with the hand of a Pouffin, a Salvator, or a Rubens. Witness the pines and broken waterfalls, the Bebrycian mountains, and the favage Amycus, near the clear fount, and the rich glowing fummer scene in the 7th Idyll. It is indeed the variety, the wildnefs, and the nature, which give such a charm to Theocritus. * Rapin, Refl. on Arift. part ii. refl. xxvii.—Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg, POPE.. : The Aminta of Taffo is here erroneously mentioned by Pope as the very firft paftoral comedy that appeared in Italy and Dr. Hurd alfo fell into the fame mistake. But it is certain that Il Sacrificio of Agoftino Beccari was the first, who boasts of it in his prologue, and who died very old in 1590; which drama was acted in the Palace of Francefco of Efte. Such a mistake is very pardonable in so young an author, and very different from in his Aminta has as far excelled all the Paftoral writers, in his Gierufalemme he has out-done 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 considered 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 the Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric measure, which is contrary to the practice of the old Poets. His ftanza is not still the fame, nor always well chofen. This last may be the reason his expreffion is sometimes not concise enough for the Tetrastic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length the grofs and unscholar-like blunder of Trapp, who tells us in his fourteenth Lecture, that all the Eclogues of Calphurnius and Nemefian, who flourished under Diocletian, were entirely loft. I will just add, that the famous Critic, Jafon de Nores, who wrote fo well on Horace's Art of Poetry, condemned the Pastoral Drama. And that the above-mentioned I! Sacrificio was acted at Ferrara 1550, and the Aminta 1573, and the Pastor Fido be fore Cardinal Borghefe 1590. It is obfervable, that Pope does not mention the Comus of Milton, the most exquifite of all paftoral dramas. WARTON. 1 Dedication to Virg. Ecl. POPE. length of four lines, which would have been more closely confined in the Couplet. In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himfelf; 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 used in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest perfons: whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenfer were either entirely obfolete, or spoken only by people of the loweft condition. As there is a difference betwixt fimplicity and rufticity, fo the expreffion of simple 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 feveral Seafons, and at once exposes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and afpects. Yet the fcrupulous division of his Pastorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame description, 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 reafon is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish E 4 furnifn every month with a particular description, as it may every featon. * Of the following Eclogues I fhall only fay, that thefe four comprehend all the fubjects which the Critics The fuperiority of Milton's Lycidas to all paftoral poems in our language is, I fhould hope, acknowledged by every man of true claffical judgment; and Dr. Jchaion's ftrange animadverfions on it have been thus effectually aníwered. “Lycidas, fays be,) is filled with the heathen deities; and a long train of mythological imagery, fuch as a College eafily fupplies.—But it is also fuch as even the Court itself could now have ezfly supplied. The public diverfions, and books of all forts, and from all forts of writers, more especially compofitions in poetry, were at this time over-run with claffical pedantries. But what writer, of the fame period, has made these obsolete fictions the vehicle of fo much fancy and poetical description? How beautifully has he applied this fort of aliufion to the Druidical rocks of Denbighshire, to Mona, and the fabulous banks of Deva! It is objected, that its paftoral form is disgusting. But this was the age of paftoral; and yet Lycidas has but little of the bucolic cant, now so fashionable. The fatyrs and fauns are but juft mentioned. If any tritę rural topics occur, how are they heightened! "Together both, ere the high lawns appear’d Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, We drove afield, and both together heard Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night. "Here the day-break is defcribed by the faint appearance of the upland lawns under the first gleams of light: the fun-fet, by the buzzing of the chaffer: and the night sheds her fresh dews on their flocks. We cannot blame paftoral imagery and pastoral allegory, which carry with them fo much natural painting. In this piece there is perhaps more poetry than forrow. But let us read it for its poetry. It is true, that paffion plucks no berries from the myrtle and ivy, no calls upon Arethuse and Mincius, Hor tells of rough fatyrs with cloven heel. But poetry does this; and |