FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]There was only one paper.[2]Warburton implies that Addison's remark to Pope was made immediately after the essay appeared in the Guardian, in which case Pope could have lost no time in avowing that he was the author of the criticism when once it was in print, for Addison had no suspicion of him from internal evidence. "He did not," says Spence, "discover Mr. Pope's style in the letter on Pastorals, which he published in the Guardian; but then that was a disguised style."[3]The effect of reality and truth became conspicuous, even when the intention was to show them grovelling and degraded. Gay's pastorals became popular, and were read with delight as just representations of rural manners and occupations, by those who had no interest in the rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of the critical dispute.—Johnson.[4]Warton was master of Winchester school.[5]But if Pope had no invention, and had exhibited in his Pastorals no new or striking images, how could his example have led the way to others, "in point of genius and imagination," whatever it might have done in point of correctness?—Roscoe.[6]They are not coupled but contra-distinguished, and surely the poet might draw a contrast from Greece without being chargeable with a faulty mixture of British and Grecian ideas.—Ruffhead.[7]That such causes of complaint will more frequently occur in the Grecian climate is unquestionable; but is it necessary to make a complaint of this kind consistent that every day should be a dog-day? The British shepherd might very consistently describe what he often felt, and we have days in England which might make even a Grecian faint.—Ruffhead.[8]"New sentiments and new images," says Johnson, in his Life of Pope, "others may produce; but to attempt any further improvement of versification will be dangerous. Art and diligence have done their best, and what shall be added will be the effort of tedious toil and needless curiosity."[9]Works of Lord Lansdowne, vol. ii. p. 113.[10]De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 114.[11]Singer's Spence, p. 162.[12]Spence, p. 211.[13]Works of Lady Mary Wortley, ed. Thomas, vol. i. p. 166.[14]Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern.[15]Spence, p. 236.[16]Spence, p. 212.[17]Œuvres, ed. Beuchot, tom. xxxvii. p. 258.[18]Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, vol. iii. p. 136. The principle which Johnson derided in his Life of Pope he had upheld in No. 86 of the Rambler: "We are soon wearied with the perpetual recurrence of the same cadence. Necessity has therefore enforced the mixed measure, in which some variation of the accents is allowed. This, though it always injures the harmony of the line considered by itself, yet compensates the loss by relieving us from the continual tyranny of the same sound, and makes us more sensible of the harmony of the pure measure."[19]Elements of Criticism, 6th ed. vol. ii. p. 143, 155.[20]Gray's Works, ed. Mitford, vol. v. p. 303.[21]Trapp's Virgil, vol. i. p. lxxix.[22]Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 136.[23]Guardian, No. 30, April 15, 1713.[24]Guardian, No. 40, April 27, 1713.[25]Life of Hannah More, vol. i. p. 301.[26]Pope to Caryll, June 8, 1714.[27]Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. Hist. vol. vii. 713.

[1]There was only one paper.

[2]Warburton implies that Addison's remark to Pope was made immediately after the essay appeared in the Guardian, in which case Pope could have lost no time in avowing that he was the author of the criticism when once it was in print, for Addison had no suspicion of him from internal evidence. "He did not," says Spence, "discover Mr. Pope's style in the letter on Pastorals, which he published in the Guardian; but then that was a disguised style."

[3]The effect of reality and truth became conspicuous, even when the intention was to show them grovelling and degraded. Gay's pastorals became popular, and were read with delight as just representations of rural manners and occupations, by those who had no interest in the rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of the critical dispute.—Johnson.

[4]Warton was master of Winchester school.

[5]But if Pope had no invention, and had exhibited in his Pastorals no new or striking images, how could his example have led the way to others, "in point of genius and imagination," whatever it might have done in point of correctness?—Roscoe.

[6]They are not coupled but contra-distinguished, and surely the poet might draw a contrast from Greece without being chargeable with a faulty mixture of British and Grecian ideas.—Ruffhead.

[7]That such causes of complaint will more frequently occur in the Grecian climate is unquestionable; but is it necessary to make a complaint of this kind consistent that every day should be a dog-day? The British shepherd might very consistently describe what he often felt, and we have days in England which might make even a Grecian faint.—Ruffhead.

[8]"New sentiments and new images," says Johnson, in his Life of Pope, "others may produce; but to attempt any further improvement of versification will be dangerous. Art and diligence have done their best, and what shall be added will be the effort of tedious toil and needless curiosity."

[9]Works of Lord Lansdowne, vol. ii. p. 113.

[10]De Quincey's Works, vol. xv. p. 114.

[11]Singer's Spence, p. 162.

[12]Spence, p. 211.

[13]Works of Lady Mary Wortley, ed. Thomas, vol. i. p. 166.

[14]Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern.

[15]Spence, p. 236.

[16]Spence, p. 212.

[17]Œuvres, ed. Beuchot, tom. xxxvii. p. 258.

[18]Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, vol. iii. p. 136. The principle which Johnson derided in his Life of Pope he had upheld in No. 86 of the Rambler: "We are soon wearied with the perpetual recurrence of the same cadence. Necessity has therefore enforced the mixed measure, in which some variation of the accents is allowed. This, though it always injures the harmony of the line considered by itself, yet compensates the loss by relieving us from the continual tyranny of the same sound, and makes us more sensible of the harmony of the pure measure."

[19]Elements of Criticism, 6th ed. vol. ii. p. 143, 155.

[20]Gray's Works, ed. Mitford, vol. v. p. 303.

[21]Trapp's Virgil, vol. i. p. lxxix.

[22]Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 136.

[23]Guardian, No. 30, April 15, 1713.

[24]Guardian, No. 40, April 27, 1713.

[25]Life of Hannah More, vol. i. p. 301.

[26]Pope to Caryll, June 8, 1714.

[27]Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. Hist. vol. vii. 713.

There are not, I believe, a greater number of any sort of verses than of those which are called pastorals; nor a smaller, than of those which are truly so. It therefore seems necessary to give some account of this kind of poem; and it is my design to comprise in this short paper the substance of those numerous dissertations the critics have made on the subject, without omitting any of their rules in my own favour. You will also find some points reconciled, about which they seem to differ, and a few remarks, which, I think, have escaped their observation.

The original of poetry is ascribed to that age which succeeded the creation of the world: and as the keeping of flocks seems to have been the first employment of mankind, the most ancient sort of poetry was probably pastoral.[2]It is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient shepherdsadmitting and inviting some diversion, none was so proper to that solitary and sedentary life as singing; and that in their songs they took occasion to celebrate their own felicity. From hence a poem was invented, and afterwards improved to a perfect image of that happy time; which, by giving us an esteem for the virtues of a former age, might recommend them to the present. And since the life of shepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other rural employment, the poets chose to introduce their persons, from whom it received the name of pastoral.

A pastoral is an imitation of the action of a shepherd, or one considered under that character. The form of this imitation is dramatic, or narrative, or mixed of both[3]; the fable simple; the manners not too polite nor too rustic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quickness and passion, but that short and flowing: the expression humble, yet as pure as the language will afford; neat, but not florid; easy, and yet lively. In short, the fable, manners, thoughts, and expressions are full of the greatest simplicity in nature.

The complete character of this poem consists in simplicity[4], brevity, and delicacy; the two first of which render an eclogue natural, and the last delightful.

If we would copy nature, it may be useful to take this idea along with us, that pastoral is an image of what they call the golden age. So that we are not to describe our shepherds as shepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to have been; when the best of men followed the employment.[5]To carry this resemblance yet further, it wouldnot be amiss to give these shepherds some skill in astronomy, as far as it may be useful to that sort of life. And an air of piety to the gods should shine through the poem, which so visibly appears in all the works of antiquity; and it ought to preserve some relish of the old way of writing; the connection should be loose, the narrations and descriptions short,[6]and the periods concise. Yet it is not sufficient, that the sentences only be brief, the whole eclogue should be so too. For we cannot suppose poetry in those days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant hours.[7]

But with respect to the present age, nothing more conduces to make these composures natural, than when some knowledge in rural affairs is discovered.[8]This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on design, and sometimes is best shown by inference; lest by too much study to seem natural, we destroy that easy simplicity from whence arises the delight. For what is inviting in this sort of poetry, as Fontenelle observes, proceeds not so much from the idea of that business, as of the tranquillity of a country life.

We must therefore use some illusion to render a pastoral delightful; and this consists in exposing the best side only of a shepherd's life, and in concealing its miseries.[9]Nor is it enough to introduce shepherds discoursing together in a natural way: but a regard must be had to the subject, that it contain some particular beauty in itself, and that it be different in every eclogue. Besides, in each of them a designed scene or prospect is to be presented to our view, which should likewise have its variety.[10]This variety is obtained in a great degree by frequent comparisons, drawn from the most agreeable objects of the country; by interrogations to things inanimate; by beautiful digressions, but those short; sometimes by insisting a little on circumstances; and lastly, by elegant turns on the words, which render the numbers extremely sweet and pleasing. As for the numbers themselves, though they are properly of the heroic measure, they should be the smoothest, the most easy and flowing imaginable.

It is by rules like these that we ought to judge of pastoral. And since the instructions given for any art are to be delivered as that art is in perfection, they must of necessity be derived from those in whom it is acknowledged so to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed authors of pastoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

Theocritus excels all others in nature and simplicity. The subjects of his Idyllia are purely pastoral; but he is not so exact in his persons, having introduced reapers and fishermen[11]as well as shepherds.[12]He is apt to be too long in his descriptions, of which that of the cup in the first pastoral is a remarkable instance.[13]In the manners he seems a little defective, for his swains are sometimes abusive and immodest, and perhaps too much inclining to rusticity; for instance, in his fourth and fifth Idyllia. But it is enough that all others learnt their excellencies from him, and that his dialect alone has a secret charm in it, which no other could ever attain.

Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines upon his original;[14]and in all points, where judgment is principally concerned, he is much superior to his master. Though some of his subjects are not pastoral in themselves, but only seem to be such, they have a wonderful variety in them,[15]which the Greek was a stranger to.[16]He exceeds him in regularity and brevity, and falls short of him in nothing but simplicity and propriety of style; the first of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the last of his language.

Among the moderns, their success has been greatest who have most endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The most considerable genius appears in the famous Tasso, and our Spenser. Tasso in his Aminta has far excelled all the pastoral writers, as in his Gierusalemme he has outdone the epic poets of his country. But as this piece seems to have been the original of a new sort of poem, the pastoral comedy, in Italy, it cannot so well be considered as a copy of the ancients.[17]Spenser's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil.[18]Not but that he may be thought imperfect in some few points. His Eclogues are somewhat too long, if we compare them with the ancients.[19]He is sometimes 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 stanza is not still the same, nor always well chosen. This last may be the reason his expression is sometimes not concise enough: for the tetrastic has obliged him to extend his sense to the 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 himself; 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 persons, whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenser were either entirely obsolete, or spoken only by people of the lowest condition.[20]As there is a difference betwixt simplicity and rusticity, so the expression of simple thoughts should be plain, but not clownish. The addition he has made of a calendar to his Eclogues, is very beautiful; since by this, besides the general moral of innocence and simplicity, which is common to other authors of pastoral, 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 changesand aspects.[21]Yet the scrupulous division of his pastorals into months, has obliged him either to repeat the same description, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhausted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pass that some of his Eclogues (as the sixth, eighth, and tenth, for example) have nothing but their titles to distinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular description, as it may every season.

Of the following Eclogues I shall only say, that these four comprehend all the subjects which the critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for pastoral: that they have as much variety of description, in respect of the several seasons, as Spenser's: that in order to add to this variety, the several times of the day are observed, the rural employments in each season or time of day, and the rural scenes or places proper to such employments; not without some regard to the several ages of man, and the different passions proper to each age. But after all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, so I hope I have not wanted care to imitate.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Written at sixteen years of age.—Pope.This sensible and judicious discourse written at so early an age is a more extraordinary production than the Pastorals that follow it. Our author has chiefly drawn his observations from Rapin, Fontenelle, and the preface to Dryden's Virgil. A translation of Rapin's Discourse had been some years before prefixed to Creech's translation of Theocritus, and is no extraordinary piece of criticism. And though Hume highly praises the Discourse of Fontenelle, yet Dr. Hurd thinks it only rather more tolerable than his Pastorals.—Warton.Hume had said that there could not be a finer piece of criticism than Fontenelle's Dissertation on Pastorals, but that the Pastorals themselves displayed false taste, and did not exemplify the rules laid down in the criticism.[2]Fontenelle's Discourse of Pastorals.—Pope.[3]Heinsius in Theocr.—Pope.[4]Rapin de Carm. Past.,P.2.—Pope.[5]I cannot easily discover why it is thought necessary to refer descriptions of a rural state to the golden age, nor can I perceive that any writer has consistently preserved the Arcadian manners and sentiments. The only reason that I have read on which this rule has been founded is that, according to the customs of modern life, it is improbable that shepherds should be capable of harmonious numbers, or delicate sentiments; and therefore, the reader must exalt his ideas of the pastoral character by carrying his thoughts back to the age in which the care of herds and flocks was the employment of the wisest and greatest men. These reasoners seem to have been led into their hypothesis by considering pastoral, not in general, as a representation of rural nature, and consequently as exhibiting the ideas and sentiments of those, whoever they are, to whom the country affords pleasure or employment, but simply as a dialogue or narrative of men actually tending sheep, and busied in the lowest and most laborious offices; from whence they very readily concluded, since characters must necessarily be preserved, that either the sentiments must sink to the level of the speakers, or the speakers must be raised to the height of the sentiments. In consequence of these original errors, a thousand precepts have been given, which have only contributed to perplex and confound.—Johnson.[6]Rapin, Reflex. sur l'Art. Poet. d'Arist.,P.ii. Refl. xxvii.—Pope.[7]Pope took this remark from Dr. Knightly Chetwood's Preface to the Pastorals in Dryden's Virgil: "Not only the sentences should be short and smart, but the whole piece should be so too, for poetry and pastime was not the business of men's lives in those days, but only their seasonable recreation after necessary hours." The rule is purely fanciful. By continuing the same subject from week to week, a shepherd could as easily find leisure to compose a single piece of a thousand lines as ten pieces of a hundred lines each. Most of the laws of pastoral poetry which Pope has collected are equally unfounded.[8]Pref. to Virg. Past. in Dryd. Virg.—Pope.[9]Fontenelle's Disc. of Pastorals.—Pope.[10]See the forementioned Preface.—Pope.[11]ΘΕΡΙΣΤΑΙ, Idyl. x. and ΑΛΙΕΙΣ, Idyl. xxi.—Pope.Pope's definition of Pastoral is too confined. In fact, his Pastoral Discourse seems made to fithisPastorals. For the same reason he would not class as a true Pastoral the most interesting of all Virgil's Eclogues,—I mean the first, which is founded on fact, which has the most tender and touching strokes of nature, and the plot of which is entirely pastoral, being the complaint of a shepherd obliged to leave the fields of his infancy, and yield the possession to soldiers and strangers. Pope says, because it relates to soldiers, it is not pastoral; but how little of a military cast is seen in it. The soldier is mentioned, but only as far as was absolutely necessary, and always in connection with the rural imagery from whence the most exquisite touches are derived. Pope's pastoral ideas, with the exception of the Messiah, seem to have been taken from the least interesting and poetic scenes of the ancient eclogue,—the Wager, the Contest, the Riddle, the alternate praises of Daphne or Delia, the common-place complaint of the lover, &c. The more interesting and picturesque subjects were excluded, as not being properly pastoral according to his definition.—Bowles.In saying that Pope would not allow Virgil's first eclogue to be "a true pastoral," Bowles refers to the paper in the Guardian, where the design was to laugh at the strict definition which would exclude a poem from the pastoral class on such frivolous grounds. In the same jesting tone, Pope asserts that the third eclogue must be set aside, because it introduces "calumny and railing, which are not proper to a state of concord," and the eighth, because it has a shepherd "whom an inviting precipice tempts to self-destruction."[12]The tenth and twenty-first Idyll here alluded to contain some of the most exquisite strokes of nature and true poetry anywhere to be met with, as does the beautiful description of the carving on the cup, which, indeed is not a cup, but a very large pastoral vessel or cauldron.—Warton.[13]In what does the great father of the pastoral excel all others? In "simplicity, and nature." I admit with Pope, but more particularly in one circumstance, which seems to have escaped general attention, and that circumstance is the picturesque. Pope says he is too long in his descriptions, particularly of the cup. Was not Pope, a professed admirer of painting, aware that the description of that cup contains touches of the most delightful and highly-finished landscape? The old fisherman, and the broken rock in one scene; in another, the beautiful contrast of the little boy weaving his rush-work, and so intent on it, that he forgets the vineyard he was set to guard. We see him in the foreground of the piece. Then there is his scrip, and the fox eyeing it askance; the ripe and purple vineyard, and the other fox treading down the grapes whilst he continues at his work. Add to these circumstances the wild and beautiful Sicilian scenery, and where can there be found more perfect landscapes in the works, which these pictures peculiarly resemble, of Vernet or Gainsborough? Considered in this view, how rich, wild, and various are the landscapes of the old Sicilian, and we cannot but wonder that so many striking and original traits should be passed over by a "youthful bard," who professed to select from, and to copy the ancients.—Bowles.[14]He refines indeed so much, as to make him, on this very account, much inferior to the beautiful simplicity of his original.—Warton.[15]It is difficult to conceive where is the "wonderful variety" in Virgil's Eclogues which "the Greek was a stranger to." Many of the more poetical parts of Virgil are copied literally from Theocritus; but are weakened by being made more general, and often lose much of their picturesque and poetical effect from that circumstance.—Bowles.[16]Rapin. Refl. on Arist.,P.ii. Refl. xxvii. Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virgil.—Pope.[17]The Aminta of Tasso is here erroneously mentioned by Pope as the very first pastoral comedy that appeared in Italy. But it is certain that Il Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari was the first, who boasts of it in his prologue, and who died very old in 1590.—Warton."There were," says Roscoe, "several writers of pastoral in Italy prior to those mentioned either by Pope or Warton." Roscoe mistook the question, which was, who was the first author of the pastoraldrama? None of the prior pastoral writers he enumerates produced a drama, and Warton was right in giving the precedency to Beccari.[18]Dedication to Virg. Ecl.—Pope.[19]In the manuscript Pope had added, "Some of them contain two hundred lines, and others considerably exceed that number."[20]Johnson remarks that while the notion that rustic characters ought to use rustic phraseology, led to the adoption in pastorals "of a mangled dialect which no human being ever could have spoken," the authors had the inconsistency to invest their personages with a refinement of thought which was incompatible with coarse and vulgar diction. "Spenser," he continues, "begins one of his pastorals with studied barbarity:Diggon Davie, I bid her good day;Or Diggon her is, or I missay.Dig.Her wus her while it was day-light,But now her is a most wretched wight.What will the reader imagine to be the subject on which speakers like these exercise their eloquence? Will he not be somewhat disappointed when he finds them met together to condemn the corruptions of the church of Rome? Surely at the same time that a shepherd learns theology, he may gain some acquaintance with his native language."[21]"It was from hence," the poet went on to say in his manuscript, "I took my first design of the following eclogues. For, looking upon Spenser as the father of English pastoral, I thought myself unworthy to be esteemed even the meanest of his sons, unless I bore some resemblance of him. But, as it happens with degenerate offspring, not only to recede from the virtues, but to dwindle from the bulk of their ancestor; so I have copied Spenser in miniature, and reduced his twelve months into four seasons." When Pope published his Pastorals he stated that three of them were imitated from Virgil and Theocritus, which occasioned his cancelling this passage where he speaks as if he had taken Spenser alone for his model.

[1]Written at sixteen years of age.—Pope.This sensible and judicious discourse written at so early an age is a more extraordinary production than the Pastorals that follow it. Our author has chiefly drawn his observations from Rapin, Fontenelle, and the preface to Dryden's Virgil. A translation of Rapin's Discourse had been some years before prefixed to Creech's translation of Theocritus, and is no extraordinary piece of criticism. And though Hume highly praises the Discourse of Fontenelle, yet Dr. Hurd thinks it only rather more tolerable than his Pastorals.—Warton.Hume had said that there could not be a finer piece of criticism than Fontenelle's Dissertation on Pastorals, but that the Pastorals themselves displayed false taste, and did not exemplify the rules laid down in the criticism.

[1]Written at sixteen years of age.—Pope.

This sensible and judicious discourse written at so early an age is a more extraordinary production than the Pastorals that follow it. Our author has chiefly drawn his observations from Rapin, Fontenelle, and the preface to Dryden's Virgil. A translation of Rapin's Discourse had been some years before prefixed to Creech's translation of Theocritus, and is no extraordinary piece of criticism. And though Hume highly praises the Discourse of Fontenelle, yet Dr. Hurd thinks it only rather more tolerable than his Pastorals.—Warton.

Hume had said that there could not be a finer piece of criticism than Fontenelle's Dissertation on Pastorals, but that the Pastorals themselves displayed false taste, and did not exemplify the rules laid down in the criticism.

[2]Fontenelle's Discourse of Pastorals.—Pope.

[3]Heinsius in Theocr.—Pope.

[4]Rapin de Carm. Past.,P.2.—Pope.

[5]I cannot easily discover why it is thought necessary to refer descriptions of a rural state to the golden age, nor can I perceive that any writer has consistently preserved the Arcadian manners and sentiments. The only reason that I have read on which this rule has been founded is that, according to the customs of modern life, it is improbable that shepherds should be capable of harmonious numbers, or delicate sentiments; and therefore, the reader must exalt his ideas of the pastoral character by carrying his thoughts back to the age in which the care of herds and flocks was the employment of the wisest and greatest men. These reasoners seem to have been led into their hypothesis by considering pastoral, not in general, as a representation of rural nature, and consequently as exhibiting the ideas and sentiments of those, whoever they are, to whom the country affords pleasure or employment, but simply as a dialogue or narrative of men actually tending sheep, and busied in the lowest and most laborious offices; from whence they very readily concluded, since characters must necessarily be preserved, that either the sentiments must sink to the level of the speakers, or the speakers must be raised to the height of the sentiments. In consequence of these original errors, a thousand precepts have been given, which have only contributed to perplex and confound.—Johnson.

[6]Rapin, Reflex. sur l'Art. Poet. d'Arist.,P.ii. Refl. xxvii.—Pope.

[7]Pope took this remark from Dr. Knightly Chetwood's Preface to the Pastorals in Dryden's Virgil: "Not only the sentences should be short and smart, but the whole piece should be so too, for poetry and pastime was not the business of men's lives in those days, but only their seasonable recreation after necessary hours." The rule is purely fanciful. By continuing the same subject from week to week, a shepherd could as easily find leisure to compose a single piece of a thousand lines as ten pieces of a hundred lines each. Most of the laws of pastoral poetry which Pope has collected are equally unfounded.

[8]Pref. to Virg. Past. in Dryd. Virg.—Pope.

[9]Fontenelle's Disc. of Pastorals.—Pope.

[10]See the forementioned Preface.—Pope.

[11]ΘΕΡΙΣΤΑΙ, Idyl. x. and ΑΛΙΕΙΣ, Idyl. xxi.—Pope.Pope's definition of Pastoral is too confined. In fact, his Pastoral Discourse seems made to fithisPastorals. For the same reason he would not class as a true Pastoral the most interesting of all Virgil's Eclogues,—I mean the first, which is founded on fact, which has the most tender and touching strokes of nature, and the plot of which is entirely pastoral, being the complaint of a shepherd obliged to leave the fields of his infancy, and yield the possession to soldiers and strangers. Pope says, because it relates to soldiers, it is not pastoral; but how little of a military cast is seen in it. The soldier is mentioned, but only as far as was absolutely necessary, and always in connection with the rural imagery from whence the most exquisite touches are derived. Pope's pastoral ideas, with the exception of the Messiah, seem to have been taken from the least interesting and poetic scenes of the ancient eclogue,—the Wager, the Contest, the Riddle, the alternate praises of Daphne or Delia, the common-place complaint of the lover, &c. The more interesting and picturesque subjects were excluded, as not being properly pastoral according to his definition.—Bowles.In saying that Pope would not allow Virgil's first eclogue to be "a true pastoral," Bowles refers to the paper in the Guardian, where the design was to laugh at the strict definition which would exclude a poem from the pastoral class on such frivolous grounds. In the same jesting tone, Pope asserts that the third eclogue must be set aside, because it introduces "calumny and railing, which are not proper to a state of concord," and the eighth, because it has a shepherd "whom an inviting precipice tempts to self-destruction."

[11]ΘΕΡΙΣΤΑΙ, Idyl. x. and ΑΛΙΕΙΣ, Idyl. xxi.—Pope.

Pope's definition of Pastoral is too confined. In fact, his Pastoral Discourse seems made to fithisPastorals. For the same reason he would not class as a true Pastoral the most interesting of all Virgil's Eclogues,—I mean the first, which is founded on fact, which has the most tender and touching strokes of nature, and the plot of which is entirely pastoral, being the complaint of a shepherd obliged to leave the fields of his infancy, and yield the possession to soldiers and strangers. Pope says, because it relates to soldiers, it is not pastoral; but how little of a military cast is seen in it. The soldier is mentioned, but only as far as was absolutely necessary, and always in connection with the rural imagery from whence the most exquisite touches are derived. Pope's pastoral ideas, with the exception of the Messiah, seem to have been taken from the least interesting and poetic scenes of the ancient eclogue,—the Wager, the Contest, the Riddle, the alternate praises of Daphne or Delia, the common-place complaint of the lover, &c. The more interesting and picturesque subjects were excluded, as not being properly pastoral according to his definition.—Bowles.

In saying that Pope would not allow Virgil's first eclogue to be "a true pastoral," Bowles refers to the paper in the Guardian, where the design was to laugh at the strict definition which would exclude a poem from the pastoral class on such frivolous grounds. In the same jesting tone, Pope asserts that the third eclogue must be set aside, because it introduces "calumny and railing, which are not proper to a state of concord," and the eighth, because it has a shepherd "whom an inviting precipice tempts to self-destruction."

[12]The tenth and twenty-first Idyll here alluded to contain some of the most exquisite strokes of nature and true poetry anywhere to be met with, as does the beautiful description of the carving on the cup, which, indeed is not a cup, but a very large pastoral vessel or cauldron.—Warton.

[13]In what does the great father of the pastoral excel all others? In "simplicity, and nature." I admit with Pope, but more particularly in one circumstance, which seems to have escaped general attention, and that circumstance is the picturesque. Pope says he is too long in his descriptions, particularly of the cup. Was not Pope, a professed admirer of painting, aware that the description of that cup contains touches of the most delightful and highly-finished landscape? The old fisherman, and the broken rock in one scene; in another, the beautiful contrast of the little boy weaving his rush-work, and so intent on it, that he forgets the vineyard he was set to guard. We see him in the foreground of the piece. Then there is his scrip, and the fox eyeing it askance; the ripe and purple vineyard, and the other fox treading down the grapes whilst he continues at his work. Add to these circumstances the wild and beautiful Sicilian scenery, and where can there be found more perfect landscapes in the works, which these pictures peculiarly resemble, of Vernet or Gainsborough? Considered in this view, how rich, wild, and various are the landscapes of the old Sicilian, and we cannot but wonder that so many striking and original traits should be passed over by a "youthful bard," who professed to select from, and to copy the ancients.—Bowles.

[14]He refines indeed so much, as to make him, on this very account, much inferior to the beautiful simplicity of his original.—Warton.

[15]It is difficult to conceive where is the "wonderful variety" in Virgil's Eclogues which "the Greek was a stranger to." Many of the more poetical parts of Virgil are copied literally from Theocritus; but are weakened by being made more general, and often lose much of their picturesque and poetical effect from that circumstance.—Bowles.

[16]Rapin. Refl. on Arist.,P.ii. Refl. xxvii. Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virgil.—Pope.

[17]The Aminta of Tasso is here erroneously mentioned by Pope as the very first pastoral comedy that appeared in Italy. But it is certain that Il Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari was the first, who boasts of it in his prologue, and who died very old in 1590.—Warton."There were," says Roscoe, "several writers of pastoral in Italy prior to those mentioned either by Pope or Warton." Roscoe mistook the question, which was, who was the first author of the pastoraldrama? None of the prior pastoral writers he enumerates produced a drama, and Warton was right in giving the precedency to Beccari.

"There were," says Roscoe, "several writers of pastoral in Italy prior to those mentioned either by Pope or Warton." Roscoe mistook the question, which was, who was the first author of the pastoraldrama? None of the prior pastoral writers he enumerates produced a drama, and Warton was right in giving the precedency to Beccari.

[18]Dedication to Virg. Ecl.—Pope.

[19]In the manuscript Pope had added, "Some of them contain two hundred lines, and others considerably exceed that number."

[20]Johnson remarks that while the notion that rustic characters ought to use rustic phraseology, led to the adoption in pastorals "of a mangled dialect which no human being ever could have spoken," the authors had the inconsistency to invest their personages with a refinement of thought which was incompatible with coarse and vulgar diction. "Spenser," he continues, "begins one of his pastorals with studied barbarity:Diggon Davie, I bid her good day;Or Diggon her is, or I missay.Dig.Her wus her while it was day-light,But now her is a most wretched wight.What will the reader imagine to be the subject on which speakers like these exercise their eloquence? Will he not be somewhat disappointed when he finds them met together to condemn the corruptions of the church of Rome? Surely at the same time that a shepherd learns theology, he may gain some acquaintance with his native language."

Diggon Davie, I bid her good day;Or Diggon her is, or I missay.Dig.Her wus her while it was day-light,But now her is a most wretched wight.

What will the reader imagine to be the subject on which speakers like these exercise their eloquence? Will he not be somewhat disappointed when he finds them met together to condemn the corruptions of the church of Rome? Surely at the same time that a shepherd learns theology, he may gain some acquaintance with his native language."

[21]"It was from hence," the poet went on to say in his manuscript, "I took my first design of the following eclogues. For, looking upon Spenser as the father of English pastoral, I thought myself unworthy to be esteemed even the meanest of his sons, unless I bore some resemblance of him. But, as it happens with degenerate offspring, not only to recede from the virtues, but to dwindle from the bulk of their ancestor; so I have copied Spenser in miniature, and reduced his twelve months into four seasons." When Pope published his Pastorals he stated that three of them were imitated from Virgil and Theocritus, which occasioned his cancelling this passage where he speaks as if he had taken Spenser alone for his model.

First in these fields I try the sylvan strains,[2]Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains:[3]Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring,[4]While on thy banks Sicilian[5]muses sing;Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play,[6]5And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay.[7]You, that too wise for pride, too good for pow'r,[8]Enjoy the glory to be great no more,And carrying with you all the world can boast,[9]To all the world illustriously are lost!10O let my muse her slender reed inspire,Till in your native shades[10]you tune the lyre:So when the nightingale to rest removes,The thrush may chant to the forsaken groves,[11]But, charmed to silence, listens while she sings,15And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.[12]Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews,[13]Two swains, whom love kept wakeful, and the muse,Poured o'er the whit'ning[14]vale their fleecy care,Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:[15]20The dawn now blushing on the mountain's side,Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.[16]DAPHNIS.Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,[17]With joyous music wake the dawning day![18]Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing,25When warbling Philomel salutes the spring?[19]Why sit we sad, when Phosphor[20]shines so clear,And lavish nature paints the purple[21]year?[22]STREPHON.Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain,While yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain.30Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow,[23]Here western winds on breathing[24]roses blow.[25]I'll stake yon lamb that near the fountain plays,And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.[26]DAPHNIS.And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,[27]35And swelling clusters bend the curling vines:[28]Four figures rising from the work appear,[29]The various seasons of the rolling year;[30]And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?[31]40DAMON.Then sing by turns, by turns the muses sing;[32]Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring,Now leaves the trees, and flow'rs adorn the ground;Begin, the vales shall ev'ry note rebound.[33]STREPHON.Inspire me, Phœbus, in my Delia's praise,[34]45With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays![35]A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand,That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand.[36]DAPHNIS.O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,[37]And make my tongue victorious as her eyes:50No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart,Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart.STREPHON.Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,Then hid in shades, eludes her eager swain;[38]But feigns a laugh to see me search around,55And by that laugh the willing fair is found.[39]DAPHNIS.The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green,She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen,[40]While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,[41]How much at variance are her feet and eyes![42]60STREPHON.[43]O'er golden sand let rich Pactolus flow,[44]And trees weep amber on the banks of Po;[45]Bright Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield,Feed here, my lambs, I'll seek no distant field.DAPHNIS.Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves;65Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves;If Windsor-shades delight the matchless maid,Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windsor-shade.[46]STREPHON.All nature mourns, the skies relent in show'rs,[47]Hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flow'rs;70If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring,The skies to brighten, and the birds to sing.[48]DAPHNIS.All nature laughs,[49]the groves are fresh and fair,The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air;If Sylvia smiles, new glories gild the shore,75And vanquished nature seems to charm no more.[50]STREPHON.In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love,At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,But Delia always; absent from her sight,Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.80DAPHNIS.Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May,More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day;[51]Ev'n spring displeases, when she shines not here;But blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.STREPHON.Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears,85A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears;[52]Tell me but this, and I'll[53]disclaim the prize,And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes.DAPHNIS.Nay tell me first, in what more happy fields[54]The thistle springs, to which the lily yields:[55]90And then a nobler prize I will resign;For Sylvia, charming Sylvia shall be thine.DAMON.Cease to contend; for, Daphnis, I decreeThe bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee.[56]Blest swains, whose nymphs in ev'ry grace excel;95Blest nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well!Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bow'rs,A soft retreat from sudden vernal show'rs;The turf with rural dainties shall be crowned,[57]While op'ning blooms diffuse their sweets around.100For see! the gath'ring flocks to shelter tend,And from the Pleiads[58]fruitful show'rs descend.

DAPHNIS.

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,[17]With joyous music wake the dawning day![18]Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing,25When warbling Philomel salutes the spring?[19]Why sit we sad, when Phosphor[20]shines so clear,And lavish nature paints the purple[21]year?[22]

STREPHON.

Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain,While yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain.30Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow,[23]Here western winds on breathing[24]roses blow.[25]I'll stake yon lamb that near the fountain plays,And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.[26]

DAPHNIS.

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,[27]35And swelling clusters bend the curling vines:[28]Four figures rising from the work appear,[29]The various seasons of the rolling year;[30]And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?[31]40

DAMON.

Then sing by turns, by turns the muses sing;[32]Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring,Now leaves the trees, and flow'rs adorn the ground;Begin, the vales shall ev'ry note rebound.[33]

STREPHON.

Inspire me, Phœbus, in my Delia's praise,[34]45With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays![35]A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand,That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand.[36]

DAPHNIS.

O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,[37]And make my tongue victorious as her eyes:50No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart,Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart.

STREPHON.

Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,Then hid in shades, eludes her eager swain;[38]But feigns a laugh to see me search around,55And by that laugh the willing fair is found.[39]

DAPHNIS.

The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green,She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen,[40]While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,[41]How much at variance are her feet and eyes![42]60

STREPHON.[43]

O'er golden sand let rich Pactolus flow,[44]And trees weep amber on the banks of Po;[45]Bright Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield,Feed here, my lambs, I'll seek no distant field.

DAPHNIS.

Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves;65Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves;If Windsor-shades delight the matchless maid,Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windsor-shade.[46]

STREPHON.

All nature mourns, the skies relent in show'rs,[47]Hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flow'rs;70If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring,The skies to brighten, and the birds to sing.[48]

DAPHNIS.

All nature laughs,[49]the groves are fresh and fair,The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air;If Sylvia smiles, new glories gild the shore,75And vanquished nature seems to charm no more.[50]

STREPHON.

In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love,At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,But Delia always; absent from her sight,Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.80

DAPHNIS.

Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May,More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day;[51]Ev'n spring displeases, when she shines not here;But blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.

STREPHON.

Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears,85A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears;[52]Tell me but this, and I'll[53]disclaim the prize,And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes.

DAPHNIS.

Nay tell me first, in what more happy fields[54]The thistle springs, to which the lily yields:[55]90And then a nobler prize I will resign;For Sylvia, charming Sylvia shall be thine.

DAMON.

Cease to contend; for, Daphnis, I decreeThe bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee.[56]Blest swains, whose nymphs in ev'ry grace excel;95Blest nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well!Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bow'rs,A soft retreat from sudden vernal show'rs;The turf with rural dainties shall be crowned,[57]While op'ning blooms diffuse their sweets around.100For see! the gath'ring flocks to shelter tend,And from the Pleiads[58]fruitful show'rs descend.

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