LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pope's Monument, Twickenham. "Thy forest, Windsor! and thy green retreats, At once the monarch's and the Muses' seats' Orleans House, on the Thames "Belinda still her downy pillow press'd: To face page X " 18 27 Her guardian sylph prolong'd the balmy rest" "In these deep solitudes and awful cells, Where heavenly-pensive contemplation dwells". 95 "In clouded majesty here Dulness shone; 'Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere, "Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the fault I see.' "And yet the fate of all extremes is such, Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne." 107 Men may be read, as well as books, too much" 213 "One of us two must rule, and one obey; And since in man right reason bears the sway, 425 525 PASTORALS, WITH A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY. 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 is therefore 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 that 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 it is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient shepherds admitting 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;* 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; * Heinsius in Theocr. B |