diverfion, none was so proper to that solitary and sedentary life as finging; and that in their fongs they took occafion 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 fince the life of shepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other rural employment, the Poets chose to introduce their Perfons, from whom it received the name of Pastoral.

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 narrative, or mixed of both; the fable fimple, the manners not too polite nor too rustic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quicknefs and paffion, but that short 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 expreffions are full of the greatest fimplicity

in nature,

The complete character of this confifts poem in fimplicity, brevity, and delicacy; the two first of which render an eclogue natural, and the laft delightful.

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 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 resemblance yet further, it would not be amiss to give these fhepherds fome skill in aftronomy, as far as it may be useful to that fort of life. And an air of piety to the Gods should shine through the poem, which fo visibly appears in all the works of antiquity and it ought to preserve some relish of the old way of writing; the connection fhould be loose, the narrations and descriptions fhort, and the periods concife. Yet it is not fufficient, that the fentences only be brief, the whole Eclogue should be fo too. For we cannot fuppofe Poetry in those days to have been the bufinefs of men, but their recreation at vacant hours.

But with a respect to the present age, nothing more conduces to make these compofures natural, than when some Knowledge in rural affairs is difcovered'. This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on defign, and sometimes is best fhewn by inference; left by too much study to seem natural, we deftroy that eafy fimplicity Rapin, Reflex. fur l'Art Poet. d' Arift. p. 2. Refl. xxvii. P. f * Pref. to Virg. Paft. in Dryd. Virg. P.

e

from whence arises the delight. For what is inviting in this fort of poetry proceeds not so much from the Idea of that business, as of 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". Nor is it enough to introduce fhepherds difcourfing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the fubject; that it contain fome particular beauty in itfelf, and that it be different in every Eclogue. Befides, in each of them a defign'd scene or profpect is to be prefented to our view, which fhould likewise have its variety ". 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 digreffions, but those short; fometimes by infifting a little on circumstances; 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 measure, they fhould be the fmootheft, the most eafy and flowing imaginable.

It is by rules like thefe 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

s Fontenelle's Difc. of Paftorals. P.

See the forementioned Preface. P.

those in whom it is acknowledged fo to be. It is therefore from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed authors of Paftoral) that the Critics have drawn the foregoing notions concerning it.

Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimplicity. 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 thepherds. He is apt to be too long in his defcriptions, of which that of the Cup in the first 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 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 principally concerned, he is much fuperior to his master. Though some of his subjects are not pastoral in themselves, but only feem to be fuch; they have a wonderful variety in them, which the Greek was a ftranger to *. He exceeds him in regularity and brevity, and falls fhort of him in nothing but fimplicity and propriety of ftyle;

i OEPIETAI, Idyl. x. and AAIEIZ, Idyl. xxi. P. Rapin, Refl. on Arift. part ii. refl. xxvii.-Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virg. P.

k

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. Taffo in his Aminta has as far excelled all the Pastoral writers, as 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 Pastoral 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 paftoral 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 still the fame, nor always well chofen. This last may be the reason his expreffion is fometimes 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.

1 Dedication to Virg. Ecl. P.