Ah what avail the beauties nature wore ? For her the flocks refuse their verdant food, 35 41 In notes more sad than when they sing their own; Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore, 50 No grateful dews descend from ev'ning skies, 45 Nor morning odours from the flow'rs arise; No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field, Nor fragrant herbs their native incense yield. The balmy Zephyrs, silent since her death, Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath; Th' industrious bees neglect their golden store! Fair Daphne's dead, and sweetness is no more! No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings, Shall list'ning in mid-air suspend their wings; No more the birds shall imitate her lays, Or hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays: No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear, A sweeter music than their own to hear, But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal shore, Fair Daphne's dead, and music is no more! Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze, And told in sighs to all the trembling trees; REMARKS. 55 60 Ver. 41. sweet echo] This expression of sweet echo is taken from Comus; as is another expression, loose traces, Third Past. v. 62. And he recommends these poems in high terms to Sir W. Trumball (see the Letters) so early as the year 1704. The trembling trees, in ev'ry plain and wood, The silver flood, so lately calm, appears 65 Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears; The winds, and trees, and floods, her death deplore, Daphne, our grief! our glory now no more! 70 But see! where Daphne wond'ring mounts on high Above the clouds, above the starry sky! Eternal beauties grace the shining scene, Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green! There while you rest in Amaranthine bow'rs, Or from those meads select unfading flow'rs, Behold us kindly, who your name implore, Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more! LYCIDA S. 75 How all things listen, while thy Muse complains! Such silence waits on Philomela's strains, In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze REMARKS. 80 Ver. 70. Above the clouds,] In Spenser's November, and in Milton's Lycidas, is the same beautiful change of circumstances: in the latter most exquisite, from line 165. Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more- With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. Ver. 69, 70. IMITATIONS. "miratur limen Olympi, Sub pedibusque videt nubes et sidera Daphnis." Virg. P. Ver. 81. "illius aram Sæpe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus." Virg. P. While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise, shall live! THYRSIS. 85 But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must Time obey. Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and groves, Adieu, ye shepherds' rural lays and loves; Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye sylvan crew; Daphne, farewell; and all the world adieu! 90 VARIATIONS. Ver. 83. Originally thus in the MS. While vapours rise, and driving snows descend, REMARKS. Ver. 85. Unwholesome dews ;] Observe how the melody of those four verses is improved, by the pure iambic foot at the end of each line, except the second, -unwholesomě dews děcay Ŏbey. Ver. 87.] If, according to some critics, pleasing images alone are proper to be exhibited in pastoral poetry, it must be unsuitable, to the intent of this sort of poetry, to lay the scene in the severities of winter. Ver. 89, &c.] These four last lines allude to the several subjects of the four pastorals, and to the several scenes of them, particularized before in each. P. "Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori." Vid. etiam Sannazarii Ecl. et Spenser's Calendar. The sycophancy of A. Phillips, who had prejudiced Mr. Addison against Pope, occasioned those papers in the Guardian, written by the latter, in which there is an ironical preference given to the Pastorals of Phillips, above his own; in order to support the profound judgment of those who could not distinguish between the rural and the rustic; and, on that account, condemned the Pastorals of Pope for wanting simplicity. These papers were sent by an unknown hand to Steele, and the irony escaping him, he communicated them to Mr. Pope, declaring he would never publish any paper, where one of the Club was complimented at the expense of another. Pope told him he was too delicate, and insisted that the papers should be published in the Guardian. They were so. And the pleasantry escaped all but Addison who, taking Pope aside, said to him in his agreeable manner; You have put your friends here in a very ridiculous light, as will be seen when it is understood, as it must soon be, that you was only laughing at the admirers of Phillips. But this ill conduct of Phillips occasioned a more open ridicule of his Pastorals, in the mock poem called the Shepherd's Week, written by Gay. But though more open, the object of it was ill understood by those who were strangers to the quarrel. These mistook the Shepherd's Week for a Burlesque of Virgil's Pastorals. How far this goes towards a vindication of Phillips's simple painting, let others judge. W. Upon the whole, the principal merit of these pastorals consists, in their musical and correct versification; musical, to a degree of which rhyme could hardly be thought capable; and in giving the truest specimen of that harmony in English verse, which is now become indispensably necessary; and which has so forcibly and universally influenced the public ear, as to have obliged every moderate rhymer to be at least melodious. Ten pastorals written by Dr. Evans, the friend of Pope, are inserted in the Eighth Volume of Nichols's Poems, never before printed, and as early as our Author's. Some of them in the rustic style and manner of Gay. In the same volume, page 208, are fourteen Piscatory Eclogues, entitled Nereides, by Diaper, who was patronized by Swift, and who dedicates them to Congreve. |