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DISCOURSE

ON

PASTORAL POETRY'.

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HERE 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 fo. It therefore feems neceffary to give fome account of this kind of Poem, and it is my design to comprize in this fhort paper the fubftance of those numerous differtations that Critics have made on the subject, without omitting any of their rules in

a Written at fixteen years of age.

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This fenfible and judicious discourse, written at so early an age, is a more extraordinary production, than the pastorals that follow it in which, I hope, it will not be deemed an injurious criticism to say, there is scarcely a fingle rural image to be found that is new. The ideas of Theocritus, Virgil, and Spencer, are indeed here exhibited in language equally mellifluous and pure; but the descriptions and fentiments are trite and common. this affertion, formerly made, Dr. Johnfon anfwered; "That no invention was intended:" he therefore allows the fact, and the charge. Our author has chiefly drawn his obfervations from Rapin, Fontenelle, and the preface to Dryden's Virgil. A tranflation of Rapin's Difcourfe had been fome years before prefixed to Creech's Tranflation of Theocritus, and is no extraordinary piece of criticism. And though Hume highly praises the Difcourfe of Fontenelle, yet Dr. Hurd thinks it only,

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my own favour.

You will also find fome points reconciled, about which they seem to differ, and a few remarks, which, I think, have escaped their

obfervation.

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 pastoral. It is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient shepherds admitting and inviting fome diverfion, none was fo

rather more tolerable than his Paftorals. I much wonder our author did not allude to the elegant lines on Pastoral Poetry at the beginning of the second canto of Boileau's Art of Poetry. The best differtations on this fubject, seem to be those in the IId and Vth volumes of the Memoirs of the French Academy, that which is prefixed to Heyne's excellent edition of Virgil's Eclogues, and that which is prefixed to the Oxford edition of Theocritus, in two volumes 4to, 1776; in which the reader will find a particular account of the three distinct characters and perfonages introduced by Theocritus, namely, the Keepers of Oxen, the Keepers of Sheep, and of Goats; to which diftinction even Virgil did not attend: and in which he also will find fuch reasons for preferring the paftorals of Theocritus to thofe of Virgil, as will ferve for a complete confutation of Dr. Johnson's opinion on this fubject, delivered with a furprizing want of taste and judgment, in the Life of that great man, vol. ii. p. 329. The truly learned Heyne goes fo far as to say, that if Virgil had written only his Bucolics, vix eum in cenfum principum poetarum venturum fuiffe arbitror. So competent and able a judge as the sweet and pathetic Racine, affured M. de Longepierre, that he thought the fecond Idyllium of Theocritus was one of the moft exquifite pieces that antiquity had left us, and that it contained the moft ftriking and forcible defcriptions of the paffion of love he had ever seen.

Fontenelle's Difc. on Paftorals.

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proper to that solitary and fedentary 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 fhepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other 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 narrative, or mixed of both; the fable fimple, the manners not too polite nor too ruftic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quicknefs and paffion, but that fhort and flowing: the expreffion humble, yet as pure as the language will afford; neat, but not florid; easy, and yet lively. In fhort, the fable, manners, thoughts, and expreffions are full of the greatest fimplicity in nature.

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

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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 defcribe our fhepherds 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 amifs to give these fhepherds some skill in astronomy, as far as it may be useful 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 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 fhould be fo too. For we cannot fuppofe Poetry in thofe days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant

hours.

But with a respect to the prefent age, nothing more conduces to make these compofures natural, than when some Knowledge in rural affairs is discovered'. This may be made to appear rather

*Avoiding, what a fenfible writer calls, les fentimens quinteffencies, les douceurs metaphyfiques. Gefner's Paftorals are exquifite; and abound in new fituations, images, and fentiments.

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Rapin, Reflex. fur l'Art Poet. d'Arift. p. 2. Reff. xxvii. P. f Pref. to Virg. Paft. in Dryd. Virg.

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