Theatres, and there fung their Verfes for the Prize and Victory. There was in this Ceremony a great Leaf filled with the Images of Wild Beafts, a Boracchio with Wine, and a Bag full of Pulfe; on their Heads there was a Crown, in their Hand a ftudded Crook of a Shepherd, and fo the Multitude went round to all the Doors of the Victors, and fo out of their Basket ftrow'd them with the Pulfe. There is yet another Occafion mentioned, and that is from the Flight of Oveftes and his Sifter from Tauris into Sicily, where he inflituted this fort of Poem in Honour of Diana, whose Priestess Iphigenia was. In short from the Doric Dialect in which these Paftorals were always written, it is pretty plain that they arofe either in Lacedemon or Sicily, where that was fpoken, and Mofchus and Theocritus, the greatest of the Poets in that kind, were both Sicilians.

Having thus given you the Account of its Original, though very obfcure, as that of all great Things has ever been, we now proceed to the Art of the Compofition, which is fomething more material, and much more certain.

To render the Critical Difcourfe as easy and entertaining as poffible, I fhall give you in Verse the Judgment of Boileau, the prefent Duke of Buckingham, and others, as they offer themselves on the several Parts of Poetry under our Confideration. Horace among the Romans, and our English Horace, his Grace, in his EfLay on Poetry has not taken the leaft Notice of the Paf toral, in the juft Formation of which, hear what the. great Boileau has left in his Art of Poetry.

As on a gaudy Day, fome Shepherdess

Does not her Head with sparkling Diamonds dress:
But without Gold, or Pearl, or coftly Scents,
Gathers from Neighb'ring Fields her Ornaments;
So, unaffected, is the PASTORAL Strain,
Fair without Pomp, and elegantly plain.
G 6

1

Its bumble Method nothing has of fierce,
And hates the rattling of Lee's Tragic Verfe:
There Native Beauty pleafes, and excites,
And never with rafb Sounds the Ear affrights.
But in this Stile a Rhimer, often spent,
In rage throws by his Rural Inftrument;
And vainly, when disorder'd Thoughts abound,
Amidst the Eclogue makes the Trumpet found:
PAN flies, alarm'd, into the Neighb'ring Woods,
And frighted Nymphs dive down into the Floods.
Another, in an abject clownish Stile,

Makes Shepherds fpeak a Language base and vile;
His ftupid Writings moft profoundly creep,
Barren of Wit, Provocatives of Sleep:
You'd fwear Tom Durfey, in his ruftic Strains,
Was Quav'ring to the Milkmaids and the Swains;
Changing, without respect to Sound or Dress,
Strephon and Phillis, into Tom and Bess.
"Twixt thefe Extremes, 'tis hard to please the Town;
Read Virgil, Spenfer, Poets of Renown,
And equally avoid the Courtier and the Clown..
Be their foft Lines, by ev'ry Grace infpir'd,
Your conftant Pattern practis'd and admir'd.
By them alone you'll quickly comprehend

How Poets, without Shame, may condescend

3

To fing of Gardens, Fields, of Flow'rs, and Fruit,
To ftir up Shepherds, and to tune the Flute;
Of Love's Reward to tell the happy Hour,
Daphne a Tree, Narciffus made a Flow'r :
And by what helps the Eclogue you may raife,
To make it worthy Halifax's Praise.
This of fuch Writings is the niceft Part;
He who writes thus, will few a Master's Art.

You find Boileau recommends to you the reading of Virgil and Theocritus, that you may arrive at the juft Stile and Manner of the PASTORAL. We have them both in the English Tongue, and therefore the unlearned

in Greek and Latin may make their Advantage of their Perufal. Give me leave to recommend another of much more Modern Date, I mean a Cotemporary of our own, Mr. Ambrofe Philips, who is beyond Controversy the third at least in this kind of Poefy. In him you will find the true and genuine Simplicity of the Paftoral both in the Diction and in the Sentiments, that is, in the Language, and in the Thoughts.

This fort of Poem has been the Bow, in which moft of our young Dablers in Rhime have try'd their Strength; but alas! not one befides Mr. Philips has hit the Mark; and if you compare him with the very beft of France or Italy, you will eafily perceive how much he has excelled them all. I dare not fet him on a foot with Virgil, it would look too much like Flattery, in an Age when Envy will not allow Juftice to the living Author; but I am very much deceiv'd if Pofterity do not afford him a far greater Efteem than he at prefent enjoys, though I think all tolerable Judges give him the firft Place among the Moderns. But to proceed more directly to the Rules of Paftoral. ...

i

POETRY in all its Parts is an Imitation, and Paftoval Poefy is an Imitation of the Lives and Conversation of Shepherds, or rather of rural Actions. And for this very Reason there ought to be an Air of Piety maintained through the whole, the Perfons introduc'd being uncorrupted, innocent and fimple, fuch as Shepherds, Goatherds, Cowherds, Pruners, and the like. We fhou'd therefore always find reprefented in thefe Characters that ancient Innocence, and unpractis'd, and undefigning Plainnefs, which was fuppos'd by a fort of general Confent to have been then in the World; and which is visible in Theocritus, Virgil, and Mr. Philips, as you will find by reading the beft Tranflations of the two former, and the admirable Compofitions of the laft. This is concifely exprefs'd in Verfe by a Modern Author on this Subject.

The

The PASTORAL, that fings of happy Swains, 4
And barmless Nymphs that haunt the Woods, and
[Plains,
Should, through the whole, discover every where
Their old Simplicity, and Pious Air.

And in the Characters of Maids and Youth,
Unpractis'd Plainnefs, Innocence and Truth.

Each PASTORAL a little Plot foou'd own,
Which, as it must be fimple, must be one.
With Short Digreffions it will yet difpenfe,
Nor needs it always Allegoric Senfe.

Perhaps there is nothing in which the Ancients excelled the Moderns more, than in always forming fome Plot, Plan or Defign to their Poems, which guided and led then from the Beginning to the End, while every Verfe depended on the former, and continued to carry on the faid Design. Whereas the Moderns have thought it fufficient to throw together a Company of Rhimes independent of each other, and directed to no manner of End, fo that the Antients were Poets indeed, the Moderns generally speaking are Verfifyers. This we fhall fee by what I fhall deliver on the several forts of Poems of which Ishall difcourfe.

But to the prefent.

Every Paftoral Poem muft have a little Plot or visible Defign or Fable, to which we may juftly give the Name of a Paftoral Scene. But this Plot, Fable, or Defign muft be fimple, and one not compounded of two or more, as the Moderns have introduc'd into the Drama, contrary to right Reason and the conftant Practice of the Antients, which in Inventions made by them ought to be facred and inviolable. Though this Plot muft be fimple, and one, yet this Simplicity and Unity does by no means exclude Digreffions, if they are fhort. The

Poet

Poet does not lie under any neceffity of making his Plot Allegorical, that is, to have fome real Perfons meant by thofe fictitious Names of the Shepherds introduc'd.

Virgil every where is a ftrict obferver of thefe Rules of the Plot, and moft eminently fo in his firft Paftorals which great and juft Critics have made the Standard of this fort of Poem. This will appear yet plainer by a short Argument of the firft, and of two or three more.

The Argument of the first Paftoral of Virgil, is thus: Melibus an unfortunate Shepherd is introduc'd with Tityrus a Shepherd under more fortunate Circumftances. Melibus addreffes his Complaint of his Sufferings and Banishment to Tityrus, who in the midft of these Calamities enjoys his Flocks, and there with the higheft Senfe of the Favour expreffes his Gratitude to the Benefactor, from whom fo great and peculiar a Benefit was deriv'd; while Melibaus fends forth his Accufations againft Fortune, and the fatal Events of a Civil War, and bids farewel to his Native Country.

By this you find that the first Paftoral of Virgil is a Dialogue. The fecond is a Paftoral Complaint, without Dialogue. Corydon in a Courtship entirely Rural and Paftoral deplores the Coynefs of Alexis, to whofe good Graces he recommends himself for the Comelinefs of his Perfon, and his Skill in playing on the rural Pipe. He invites him into the Country, promifing him the Pleasures of that agreeable Retreat, and a Prefent of Nuts and Apples. But in the Conclufion, finding all his Court fhip in vain, he refolves to quit fo barren a Paffion, and wholly employ himself in his Shepherd's Bufinefs.

Here is plainly a Defign, by keeping to which every thing depends on that which went before, and all carries on the fame End.

I

Menalcas, Damatas, and Palamon are introduced in the third, in the following Manner- Damatas and Menalcas, after fome Country Raillery, agree to try which of the two had the best Skill in Song; and that their Neighbour Palamon fhall be judge of their Per

formance,