1 commend any mifcellanies, or works of other men; with my writings, or with this apology for them. I cannot but regret thofe delightful vifions of my childhood, which, like the fine colours we fee when our eyes are fhut, are vanished for ever. Many trials, and fad experience, have fo undeceived me by degrees, that I am utterly at a lofs at what rate to value myself. As for fame, I thall be glad of any I can get, and not repine at any I mifs; and, as for vanity, I have enough to keep me from hanging myself, or even from wishing thofe hanged who would take it away. It was this that made me write. The sense of my faults made me correct; befides, that it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write. But if this publication be only a more folemn VARIATIONS in the Author's Manufcript Preface. AFTER page 9. c. I. 1. 27. it followed thus: For my At p. 9. c. 2. 1. 26. In the firft place, I own that I have used my best endeavours to the finishing thefe pieces: That I made what advantage I could of the judgment of authors dead and living; and that I omitted no means in my power to be informed of my errors by my friends and my enemies: And that I expect no favour on account of my youth, bufinefs, want of health, or any fuch idle excufes. But the true reafon they are not yet more correct, is owing to the confideration how short a time they, and I, have to live. A man that can expect but fixty years, may be ashamed to employ thirty in measuring syllables, and bringing fenfe and rhyme together. We spend our youth in purfuit of riches or fame, in hopes to enjoy them when we are old; and when we are old, we find it too late to enjoy any thing. I therefore hope the Wits will pardon me, if I reserve some of my time to fave my foul; and that fome wife men will be of my opinion, even if I fhould think a part of it better spent in the enjoyments of life, PASTORALS WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1704. Rura mihi et rigui placeant in valibus amnes, DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY.* Take are not, I believe, a greater number of any fort of verfes than those which are called Paftorals; nor a smaller, than thofe which are truly fo. It therefore feems neceffary to give fome account of this kind of Poem; and it is my defign to comprife in this short paper the fubftance of those numerous differtations the Critics have made on the fubject, without omitting any of their rules in my own favour. You will alfo find fome points reconciled, about which they feem to differ; and a few remarks, which, I think, have escaped their obfervation. rural employment, the poets chofe to introduce their perfons, from whom it received the name of Paftoral. A paftoral is an imitation of the action of a fhepherd, or one confidered under that character. The form of this imitation is dramatic, or narra. tive, or mixed of both; the fable fimple, the manners not too polite nor too ruftic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quickness and paffion, but that fhort and flowing: the expreffion humble, yet as pure as the language will afford; neat, but not florid; eafy, and yet lively. In fhort, the fable, manners thoughts, and expreflions, are full of the greatest fimplicity in na ture. The complete character of this poem confists in fimplicity f, brevity, and delicacy; the two first of which render an eclogue natural, and the laft delightful. The original of Poetry is afcribed to that Age which fucceeded the creation of the world; and as the keeping of flocks feems to have been the first employment of mankind, the most ancient fort of Poetry was probably Paftoral f. It is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient fhepherds admitting and inviting fome diverfion, none was fo proper to that folitary and fe- If we could copy nature, it may be useful to dantary life as finging; and that in their fongs take this idea along with us, that paftoral is an they took occafion to celebrate their own felicity.image of what they call the Golden Age So From hence a Poem was invented, and afterwards improved to a perfect image of that happy time; which, by giving us an efteem for the vir tnes of a former age, might recommend them to the prefent. And fince the life of fhepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other • Written at fixteen years of a e. that we are not to defcribe our shepherds as fhepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to have been, when the best of men followed the employment. To carry this refemblance yet further, it would not be amifs to give these fhepherds fome skill in aftronomy, as Heinfius in Thear. far as it may be ufeful to that fort of life. And an air of piety to the gods fhould fhine through the poem, which fo vifibly appears in all the works of antiquity; and it ought to preferve fome relish of the old way of writing: the connection fhould be loofe, the narrations and defcriptions fhort", and the periods concife: yet it is not fufficient, that the fentences only be brief; the whole eclogue fhould be fo too: for we cannot suppose poetry in those days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant hours But with respect to the prefent age, nothing more conduces to make these composures natural, than when fome knowledge in rural affairs is discovered + This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on defign, and fometimes is beft fhewn by inference; left by too much tudy to feem natural, we destroy that easy fimplicity from whence arifes the delight: for what is inviting in this fort of poetry proceeds not fo much from the idea of that bufinefs, as the tranquillity of a country life. We must therefore use 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 t. Nor is it enough to introduce thepherds difcourfing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the subject, that it contain feme particular beauty in itself, and that it be different in every eclogue. Befides, in each of them a designed scene or profpect is to be presented to our view, which should likewife have its variety §. This variety is obtained in a great degree by frequent comparifons, drawn from the molt agreeable objects of the country; by interrogations to things inanimate; by beautiful digreffions, but thofe fhort; fometimes by infifting a little on circumftances; and lastly, 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 measure, they fhould be the fmootheft, the moft eafy and flowing imaginable. his defcriptions, 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 rufticity; for instance, în his fourth and fifth Idyllia. But it is enough that all others learned their excellence from him, and that his dialect alone has a fecret charm in it, which no other could ever attain. Virgil, who copies l'heocritus, refines npon his original: and in all points, where judgment is principally concerned, he is much fuperior to his mafter. Though fome of his fubjects are not pastoral in themfelves, but only seem to be such; 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 firft of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the laft 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. Talo in his Aminta has as far excelled all the paftoral writers, as in his Gierusalemme he has outdone the epic poets of his country. But as his piece feems to have been the original of a new fort of poem, the pastoral comedy, in Italy, it can、 not 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 Virgilt: not but that he may be thought imper fect in fome few points. His eclogues are fomewhat too long, if we compare them with the ans cients. He is fometimes too allegorical, and treats of matters of religion in a paftoral ftyle, as the Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the lyric meafure, which is contrary to the practice of the old poets. His ftanza is not ftill the fame, nor always well chofen. This last may be the reafon his expreffion is fometimes not concife enough: for the tetraflic has obliged him to extend his fenfe to the length of four lines, which would have been more clofely con 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 per-fined in the couplet. fection, they must 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 undifputed authors of paitoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it. Theocritus excells all others in nature and fimplicity, The fubjects of his Idyllia are purely pafloral; but he is not fo exact in his perfons, having introduced reapers || aud fishermen well as fhepherds. He is apt to be too long in as + Pref. to Virg. Paft in Dryd. Virg. Fontenelle's Dife. of Paftorals. See the forementioned Preface 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 ufed 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 fimple thoughts fhould be plain, but not clownish The addition he has made of a calendar to his eclogues, is very beautiful; Rapin, Ref. on Arift. part ii. Ref. xxvi.Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg. A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY. ince by this, befides the general moral of inno cence and fimplicity, which is common to other authors of patloral, he has one peculiar to himself; be compares human life to the several feafons, and at once exposes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and afpects. Yet the fcrupulous divifion of his paftorals into months, has obliged him either to repeat the fame description, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhaufted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to país 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 every month with a particular description, as it may every season, 33 Of the following eclogues I fhall only fay, that thefe four comprehend all the fubjects which the critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for paftoral: That they have as much va riety of description, in respect of the several sea fons, as Spenfer's: That, in order to add to this variety, the feveral times of the day are observed, 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 study, fo, I hope, I have not wanted care to imitate. PASTORAL S. SPRING. THE FIRST PASTORAL, OR DAMON. TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL, FIRST in thefe fields I try the fylvan strains, Youth at, too wife for pride, too good for power, Enjoy the glory to be great no more, Soon as the flocks fhook off the nightly dews, Two fwains, whom love kept wakeful, and the mufe, Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care, DAFHNIS. Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray, With joyous mufic wake the dawning day! Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing, When warbling Philomel falutes the spring? Why fit we fad, when Phofphor fhines fo clear, And lavish nature paints the purple year? STREPHON. 20 Sing then, and Damon fhall attend the ftrain, While yon' flow oxen turn the furrow'd plain. 30 Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow; Here western winds on breathing rofes blow, I'll stake yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays, And from the brink his dancing fhade furveys. VARIATIONS. Ver. 34. The first reading was, DAPHNIS. And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines, And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines: Four figures rifing from the work appear, The various feafons of the rolling year; And what is that, which binds the radiant sky, Where twelve fair figns in beauteous order lie? 40 DAMON. Then fing by turns, by turns the mufes fing; Now hawthorns bloffem, now the daifies spring, Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the ground; Begin, the vales fhall every note rebound. STREPION. Infpire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise, With Waller's ftrains, or Granville's moving lays! A milk-white bull fhall at your altars ftand, That threats a fight, and fpurns the rifing fand. DAPHNIS. O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes; 50. No lambs or fheep for victims I'll impart, Thy victim, Love, fhall be the fhepherd's heart. STREPHON. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain, Then, hid in fhades, eludes her eager fwain; But feigns a laugh, to see me search around, And by that laugh the willing fair is found. DAPHNIS, The fprightly Sylvia trips along the green, She runs, but hopes fhe does not run unfeen; While a kind glance at her pursuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes! 60 VARIATIONS. Ver. 36. And clusters lurk beneath the curling vines. Ver. 49. Originally thus in the MS. |