having fo great a rival, he must have proceeded with. uncommon caution. If we fearch the writings of Virgil, for the true definition of a paftoral, it will be found a poem in which any action or paffion is reprefented by its effects upon a country life. Whatsoever therefore may, according to the common courfe of things, happen in the country, may afford a fubject for a paftoral poet. In this definition, it will immediately occur to those who are verfed in the writings of the modern criticks, that there is no mention of the golden age. I cannot indeed eafily difcover why it is thought neceffary to refer defcriptions of a rural ftate to remote times, nor can I perceive that any writer has confiftently preferved the Arcadian manners and fentiments. The only reafon, that I have read, on which this rule has been founded, is, that, according to the customs of modern life, it is improbable that fhepherds fhould be capable of harmonious numbers, or delicate fentiments; and therefore the reader must exalt his ideas of the paftoral character, by carrying his thoughts back to the age in which the care of herds and flocks was the employment of the wifeft and greatest men. Thefe reafoners feem to have been led into their hypothefis, by confidering paftoral, not in general, as a representation of rural nature, and confequently as exhibiting the ideas and fentiments of thofe, whoever they are, to whom the country affords pleasure or employment, but fimply as a dialogue, or narrative of men actually tending fheep, and bufied in the lowest and most laborious offices; from whence they very readily concluded, fince characters must neceffarily be preferved, that either the fentiments. muft fink to the level of the fpeakers, or the fpeakers must be raised to the height of the fentiments. In confequence of these original errors, a thousand precepts have been given, which have only contributed to perplex and to confound. Some have thought it neceffary that the imaginary manners of the golden age fhould be univerfally preferved, and have therefore believed, that nothing more could be admitted in paftoral, than lilies and rofes, and rocks and streams, among which are heard the gentle whispers of chafte fondness, or the foft complaints of amorous impatience. In paftoral, as in other writings, chastity of fentiment ought doubtless to be obferved, and purity of manners to be reprefented; not because the poet is confined to the images of the golden age, but because, having the fubject in his own choice, he ought always to confult the intereft of virtue. Thefe advocates for the golden age lay down other principles, not very confiftent with their general plan; for they tell us, that, to fupport the character of the fhepherd, it is proper that all refinement should be avoided, and that fome flight inftances of ignorance fhould be interfperfed. Thus the fhepherd in Virgil is fuppofed to have forgot the name of Anaximander, and in Pope the term Zodiack is too hard for a ruftick apprehenfion. But if we place our fhepherds in-their primitive condition, we may give them learning among their other qualifications; and if we fuffer them to allude at all to things of later exiftence, which, perhaps, cannot with any great propriety be allowed, there can be no danger of making them fpeak with too much accuracy, fince they converfed with divinities, and tranfmitted to fucceeding ages the arts of life. Other writers, having the mean and despicable condition of a fhepherd always before them, conceive it neceffary to degrade the language of pastoral, by obfolete terms and ruftick words, which they very very learnedly called Dorick, without reflecting, that they thus become authors of a mingled dialect, which no human being ever could have spoken, that they may as well refine the fpeech as the fentiments of their perfonages, and that none of the inconfiftencies which they endeavour to avoid, is greater than that of joining elegance of thought with coarsenefs of diction. Spenfer begins one of his pastorals with ftudied barbarity; Diggon Davie, Ibid her good day: What will the reader imagine to be the fubject on which speakers like these exercise their eloquence ? Will he not be fomewhat disappointed, when he finds them met together to condemn the corruptions of the church of Rome? Surely, at the fame time that a fhepherd learns theology, he may gain fome acquaintance with his native language. Paftoral admits of all ranks of perfons, because perfons of all ranks inhabit the country. It excludes not, therefore, on account of the characters necef fary to be introduced, any elevation or delicacy of fentiment; thofe ideas only are improper, which, not owing their original to rural objects, are not paftoral. Such is the exclamation in Virgil, Nunc fcio quid fit Amor, duris in cautibus illum I know thee, Love, in defarts thou wert bred, Alien of birth, ufurper of the plains. DRYDENS which Pope endeavouring to copy, was carried to ftill greater impropriety. K 6 I kn w I know thee, Love, wild as the raging main, Sentiments like thefe, as they have no ground in nature, are indeed of little value in any poem, but in paftoral they are particularly liable to cenfure, because it wants that exaltation above common life, which in tragick or heroick writings often reconciles us to bold flights and daring figures. Paftoral being the reprefentation of an action or paffion, by its effects upon a country life, has nothing peculiar but its confinement to rural imagery, without which it ceafes to be paftoral. This is its true characteristick, and this it cannot lofe by any dignity of fentiment, or beauty of diction. The Pollio of Virgil, with all its elevation, is a compofition truly bucolick, though rejected by the criticks; for all the images are either taken from the country, or from the religion of the age common to all parts of the empire. The Silenus is indeed of a more difputable kind, because though the fcene lies in the country, the fong being religious and hiftorical, had been no lefs adapted to any other audience or place. Neither can it well be defended as a fiction, for the introduction of a god feems to imply the golden age, and yet he alludes to many fubfequent tranfactions, and mentions Gallus the poet's contemporary. It feems neceffary, to the perfection of this poem, that the occafion which is fuppofed to produce it, be at least not inconfiftent with a country life, or less likely to intereft those who have retired into places of folitude and quiet, than the more bufy part of mankind. It is therefore improper to give the title of a paftoral to verfes, in which the fpeakers, 205 fpeakers, after the flight mention of their flocks, fall to complaints of errors in the church, and corruptions in the government, or to lamentations of the death of fome illuftrious perfon, whom when once the poet has called a fhepherd, he has no longer any labour upon his hands, but can make the clouds weep, and lilies wither, and the fheep hang their heads, without art or learning, genius or study. It is part of Claudian's character of his ruftick, that he computes his time not by the fucceffion of confuls, but of harvests. Those who pass their days in retreats diftant from the theatres of business, are always leaft likely to hurry their imagination with publick affairs. The facility of treating actions or events in the paftoral ftile, has incited many writers, from whom more judgment might have been expected, to put the forrow or the joy which the occafion required into the mouth of Daphne or of Thyrfis, and as one abfurdity muft naturally be expected to make way for another, they have written with an utter difregard both of life and nature, and filled their productions with mythological allufions, with incredible fictions, and with fentiments which neither paffion nor reason could have dictated, fince the change which religion has made in the whole system of the world. NUMB |