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PASTORAL POETRY.-LYRIC POETRY.

In the last lecture, I gave an account of the rise and progress of poetry, and made some observations on the nature of English versification. I now proceed to treat of the chief kinds of poetical composition, and of the critical rules that relate to them. I shall follow that order which is most simple and natural; beginning with the lesser forms of poetry, and ascending from them to the epic and dramatic, as the most dignified. This lecture shall be employed on pastoral and lyric poetry.

Though I begin with the consideration of pastoral poetry, it is not because I consider it as one of the earliest forms of poetical composition. On the contrary, I am of opinion that it was not cultivated as a distinct species, or subject of writing, until society had advanced in refinement. Most authors have, indeed, indulged the fancy, that because the life which mankind at first led was rural, therefore their first poetry was pastoral, or employed in the celebration of rural scenes and objects. I make no doubt, that it would borrow many of its images and allusions from those natural objects with which men were best acquainted; but I am persuaded, that the calm and tranquil scenes of rural felicity were not, by any means, the first objects which inspired that strain of composition, which we now call poetry. It was inspired, in the first periods of every nation, by events and objects which roused men's passions; or, at least, awakened their wonder and admiration. The actions of their gods and heroes, their own exploits in war, the successes or misfortunes of their countrymen and friends, furnished the first themes to the bards of every country. What was of a pastoral kind in their compositions, was incidental only. They did not think of choosing for their theme the tranquillity and the pleasures of the country, as long as these were daily and familiar objects to them. It was not till men had begun to be assembled in great cities, after the distinctions of rank and station were formed, and the bustle of courts and large societies was known, that pastoral poetry assumed its present form. Men then began to look back upon the more simple and innocent life which their forefathers led, or which, at least, they fancied them to have led they looked back upon it with pleasure, and in those rural

scenes, and pastoral occupations, imagining a degree of felicity to take place, superior to what they now enjoyed, conceived the idea of celebrating it in poetry. It was in the court of King Ptolemy, that Theocritus wrote the first pastorals with which we are acquainted; and, in the court of Augustus, he was imitated by Virgil.

But whatever may have been the origin of pastoral poetry, it is undoubtedly a natural and very agreeable form of poetical composition. It recalls to our imagination those gay scenes, and pleasing views of nature, which commonly are the delight of our childhood and youth; and to which, in more advanced years, the greatest part of men recur with pleasure. It exhibits to us a life, with which we are accustomed to associate the ideas of peace, of leisure, and of innocence; and, therefore, we readily set open our heart to such representations as promise to banish from our thoughts the cares of the world; and to transport us into calm elysian regions. At the same time, no subject seems to be more favourable to poetry. Amidst rural objects, nature presents, on all hands, the finest field for description; and nothing appears to flow more of its own accord, into poetical numbers, than rivers and mountains, meadows and hills, flocks and trees, and shepherds void of care. Hence, this species of poetry has, at all times, allured many readers, and excited many writers. But, notwithstanding the advantages it possesses, it will appear from what I have farther to observe upon it, that there is hardly any species of poetry which is more difficult to be carried to perfection, or in which fewer writers have excelled.

Pastoral life may be considered in three different views: either such as it now actually is; when the state of shepherds is reduced to be a mean, servile, and laborious state; when their employments are becoine disagreeable, and their ideas gross and low; or such as we may suppose it once to have been, in the more early and simple ages, when it was a life of ease and abundance, when the wealth of men consisted chiefly in flocks and herds, and the shepherd, though unrefined in his manners, was respectable in his state; or lastly, such as it never was, and never can in reality be, when, to the ease, innocence, and simplicity of the early ages, we attempt to add the polished taste and cultivated manners of modern times. Of these three states, the first is too gross and mean, the last too refined and unnatural, to be made the ground-work of pastoral poetry. Either of these extremes is a rock upon which the poet will split, if he approach too near it. We shall be disgusted if he gives us too much of the servile employments, and low ideas of actual peasants, as Theocritus is censured for having sometimes done: and if, like some of the French and Italian writers of pastorals, he makes his shepherds discourse as if they were courtiers and scholars, he then retains the name only, but wants the spirit of pastoral poetry.

He must, therefore, keep in the middle station between these. He must form to himself the idea of a rural state, such as in certain periods of society may have actually taken place, where there was ease, equality, and innocence; where shepherds were gay and agreeable, without being learned or refined; and plain and artless

without being gross and wretched. The great charm of pastoral poetry arises, from the view which it exhibits of the tranquillity and happiness of a rural life. This pleasing illusion, therefore, the poet must carefully maintain. He must display to us all that is agreeable in that state, but hide whatever is displeasing. Let him paint its simplicity and innocence to the full; but cover its rudeness and misery. Distresses, indeed, and anxieties he may attribute to it; for it would be perfectly unnatural to suppose any condition of human life to be without them; but they must be of such a nature, as not to shock the fancy with any thing peculiarly disgusting in the pastoral life. The shepherd may well be afflicted for the displeasure of his mistress, or for the loss of a favourite lamb. It is a sufficient recommendation of any state, to have only such evils as these to deplore. In short, it is the pastoral life somewhat embellished and beautified, at least, seen on its fairest side only, that the poet ought to present to us. But let him take care that, in embellishing nature, he do not altogether disguise her; or pretend to join with rural simplicity and happiness, such improvements as are unnatural and foreign to it. If it be not exactly real life which he presents to us, it must, however, be somewhat that resembles it. This, in my opinion, is the general idea of pastoral poetry. But, in order to examine it more particularly, let us consider, first, the scenery; next, the characters; and, lastly, the subjects and actions, which this sort of composition should exhibit.

As to the scene, it is clear, that it must always be laid in the country, and much of the poet's merit depends on describing it beautifully. Virgil is, in this respect, excelled by Theocritus, whose descriptions of natural beauties are richer and more picturesque

In the following beautiful lines of the first Eclogue, Virgil has, in the true spirit of a pastoral poet, brought together as agreeable an assemblage of images of rural pleasure as can any where be found:

Fortunate senex! hìc inter flumina nota,
Et fontes sacros, frigus captabis opacum.
Hinc tibi, quæ semper vicino ab limite sepes,
Hyblæis apibus, florem depasta salicti,
Sæpe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro,
Hinc altâ sub rupe, canet frondator ad auras;
Nec tamen interea raucæ, tua cura, palumbes,
Nec gemere aëriâ cessabit turtur ab ulmo.

Happy old man! here mid th' accustom'd streams
And sacred springs, you'll shun the scorching beams;
While from yon willow fence, thy pasture's bound,
The bees that suck their flowery stores around,
Shall sweetly mingle, with the whisp'ring boughs,
Their lulling murmurs, and invite repose.
While from steep rocks the pruner's song is heard;
Nor the soft cooing dove, thy fav'rite bird,

Meanwhile shall cease to breathe her melting strain,
Nor turtles from the aërial elms to plain.

WARTON.

than those of the other. In every pastoral, a scene, or rural prospect, should be distinctly drawn, and set before us. It is not enough, that we have those unmeaning groups of violets and roses, of birds, and brooks, and breezes, which our common pastoralmongers throw together, and which are perpetually recurring upon us without variation. A good poet ought to give us such a landscape, as a painter could copy after. His objects must be particularized; the stream, the rock, or the tree, must each of them stand forth, so as to make a figure in the imagination, and to give us a pleasing conception of the place where we are. A single object happily introduced, will sometimes distinguish and characterize a whole scene; such as the antique rustic sepulchre, a very beautiful object in a landscape, which Virgil has set before us, and which he has taken from Theocritus.

Hinc adeo media est nobis via; jamque sepulchrum
Incipit apparere Bianoris: hic ubi densas
Agricolæ stringunt frondes.

ECL. IX.t

*What rural scenery, for instance, can be painted in more lively colours, than the following description exhibits?

Εν τε βαθείαις

Αδείας σχίνοιο χαμευνίσιν ἐκλίνθημες,
Εν το νεοτμάτοισι γεγαθότες οἰναρίοισι.

Πολλαὶ δ' ἄμμιν ὑπερθε κατὰ κρατὸς δονίοντο
Αίγειροι πτελέαι τε· τὸ δ ̓ ἐγγύθεν ἱερὸν ὕδωρ
Νυμφᾶν ἐξ ἄντροιο κατειβόμενον κελάρυσδι.
Τοὶ δὲ ποτὶ σκιεραῖς ὁροδαμνίσιν αἰθαλίωνος
Τέττιγες λαλαγοῦντες ἔχον πόνον. ο δ' ὀλολυγων
Τηλόθεν ἐν πυκινῇσι βάτων τρύζεσκεν ακάνθαις.
*Αειδον κόρυδοι καὶ ἀκανθίδες, ἔστενο τρυγών
Πωτῶντο ξεθαί περὶ πίδακας ἀμφὶ μέλισσαι.
Παντ ̓ ὦσδεν θέλεις μάλα πίονος, ὦσδε δ' ὑπώρης.
Ὄχναι μὲν τὰς ποσσὶ, παρὰ πλευρῇσι δὲ μᾶλα
Δαψιλίως ἄμμιν ἐκυλίνδετο· τοὶ δ ̓ ἐκέχυντο
Ορπακος βραβύλοισι καταβρίθοντες έρασδι.

on soft beds recline

THEOCRIT. Idyl. vii. 182.

Of lentisk, and young branches of the vine;
Poplars and elms above their foliage spread,
Lent a cool shade, and wav'd the breezy head;
Below, a stream, from the nymph's sacred cave,
In free meanders led its murm'ring wave.
In the warm sunbeams, verdant shades among,
Shrill grasshoppers renew'd their plaintive song;
At distance far, conceal'd in shades, alone,
Sweet Philomela pour'd her tuneful moan;
The lark, the goldfinch, warbled lays of love,
And sweetly pensive coo'd the turtle dove;

While honey bees, for ever on the wing,

Humm'd round the flowers, or sipt the silver spring;
The rich, ripe season, gratified the sense

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Not only in professed descriptions of the scenery, but in the frequent allusions to natural objects, which occur, of course, in pastorals, the poet must, above all things, study variety. He must diversify his face of nature, by presenting to us new images; or otherwise, he will soon become insipid with those known topics of description, which were original, it is true, in the first poets, who copied them from nature, but which are now worn thread-bare by incessant imitation. It is also incumbent on him, to suit the scenery to the subject of the pastoral; and, according as it is of a gay or a melancholy kind, to exhibit nature under such forms as may correspond with the emotions or sentiments which he describes. Thus Virgil, in his second Eclogue, which contains the lamentation of a desparing lover, gives, with propriety, a gloomy appearance to the scene:

Tantùm inter densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos

Assiduè veniebat; ibi hæc incondita solus
Montibus & sylvis studio jactabat inani.*

With regard to the characters, or persons, which are proper to be introduced into pastorals, it is not enough that they be persons residing in the country. The adventures, or the discourses of courtiers, or citizens, in the country, are not what we look for in such writings; we expect to be entertained by shepherds, or persons wholly engaged in rural occupations; whose innocence and freedom from the cares of the world may, in our imagination, form an agreeable contrast with the manners and characters of those who are engaged in the bustle of life.

One of the principal difficulties which here occurs has been already hinted; that of keeping the exact medium between too much rusticity on the one hand, and too much refinement on the other. The shepherd, assuredly, must be plain and unaffected in his manner of thinking, on all subjects. An amiable simplicity must be the ground-work of his character. At the same time, there is no necessity for his being dull and insipid. He may have good sense and reflection; he may have sprightliness and vivacity; he may have very tender and delicate feelings; since these are, more or less, the portion of men in all ranks of life; and since, undoubtedly, there was much genius in the world, before there were learning or arts to refine it. But then he must not subtilize; he must not deal in general reflections and abstract reasoning; and still less in the points and conceits of an affected gallantry, which surely belong not to his character and situation. Some of these conceits are the chief blemishes of the Italian pastorals, which are otherwise beautiful. When Aminta, in Tasso, is disentangling his mistress's hair from the tree to which a savage had bound it, he is represented as saying: 'Cruel tree! how couldst thou injure that lovely hair which did thee so much honour? Thy rugged trunk was not worthy of such lovely

Mid shades of thickest beech he pin'd alone,

To the wild woods and mountains made his moan;
Still day by day, in incoherent strains,

'Twas all he could, despairing told his pains.

WARTON.

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