variety in it to furnish every month with a particular description, as it may every season. Of the following Eclogues I shall only say, that these four comprehend all the subjects. which the critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for Pastoral: that they have as much variety of description, in respect of the several seasons, as Spenser's: that in order to add to this variety, the several times of the day are observed, the rural employments in each season or time of day, and the rural scenes or places proper to such employments; not without some regard to the several ages of man, and the different passions proper to each age. But after all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old authors, whose works, as I had leisure to study, so I hope I have not wanted care to imitate. SPRING: THE FIRST PASTORAL, OR DAMON.1 TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.2 IRST in these fields I try the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring, 1 These Pastorals were written at the age of sixteen, and then passed through the hands of Mr. 2 Our author's friendship with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years: he was under sixteen, but Sir William above sixty, and had lately resigned his employment of Secretary of State to King William. Sir W. Trumbull was born in Windsor Forest, to which he retired, after he had resigned the post of Secretary of State to King William III.—P. 3 "Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu, Nostra nec erubuit sylvas habitare Thalia." This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the sixth of Virgil, which some have, therefore, not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Pastorals, he imitates expressly those which now stand first of the three chief poets in this kind, Spenser, Virgil, Theocritus: 'A shepherd's boy (he seeks no better name) " 'Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,' "Thyrsis, the Music of that murm'ring Spring, are manifestly imitations of 66 "A shepherd's boy (no better do him call) " Tityre, tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi' “Αδύ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα καὶ ἁ πίτυς, αἰπόλε, τήνα.” Ρ. While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing; You, that too wise for pride, too good for power, Enjoy the glory to be great no more, 66 ΙΟ Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, Sir William Trumbull, Dr. Garth, Lord Halifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring, and others. All these gave our author the greatest encouragement, and particularly Mr. Walsh, whom Mr. Dryden, in his Postscript to Virgil, calls the best critic of his age. "The author," says he, seems to have a particular genius for this kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds his years. He has taken very freely from the ancients. But what he has mixed of his own with theirs is no way inferior to what he has taken from them. It is not flattery at all to say, that Virgil had written nothing so good at his age. His Preface is very judicious and learned." Letter to Mr. Wycherley, Apr. 1705. The Lord Lansdowne, about the same time, mentioning the youth of our poet, says (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley), that if he goes on as he has begun in the pastoral way, as Virgil first tried his strength, we may hope to see English poetry vie with the Roman," &c. Notwithstanding the early time of their production, the author esteemed these as the most correct in the versification, and musical in the numbers, of all his works. The reason for his labour ing them into so much softness, was, doubtless, that this sort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural ease of thought and smoothness of verse; whereas that of most other kinds consists in the strength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walsh about this time, we find an enumera tion of several niceties in versification, which, per haps, have never been strictly observed in any English poem, except in these Pastorals. They were not printed till 1709.-P. O let my Muse her slender reed inspire, Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews,' Two swains, whom love kept wakeful and the Muse, 20 Poured o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care, DAPHNIS. Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day! Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing, 25 When warbling Philomel salutes the spring? Why sit we sad, when Phosphor shines so clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year? STREPHON. Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain, While yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain. 30 Here the bright crocus and blue violet glow; Here western winds on breathing roses blow. I'll stake yon lamb, that near the fountain plays, And from the brink his dancing shade surveys. DAPHNIS. And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines, 35 And swelling clusters bend the curling vines : 1 The scene of this Pastoral, a valley; the time, the morning.-P. 1 Four figures rising from the work appear, DAMON. 40 Then sing by turns, by turns the Muses sing,2 Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring, Now leaves the trees, and flowers adorn the ground; Begin, the vales shall every note rebound. STREPHON. Inspire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise, 45 With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays! 3 A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand,1 That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand. DAPHNIS. O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize, And make my tongue victorious as her eyes: 50 1 The subject of these Pastorals, engraven on the bowl, is not without its propriety. The shepherd's hesitation at the name of the zodiac imitates that in Virgil: "Et quis fuit alter Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem?"-P. 2 Literally from Virgil: "Alternis dicetis, amant alterna Camœnæ : Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos, Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus."--P. 3 George Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, known for his poems, most of which he composed very young, and proposed Waller as his model.-P. Virg. : "Pascite taurum, Qui cornu petat, et pedibus jam spargat arenam."-P. |