[228] Art. Poet. ℣ 77.
[229] L. I. Od. 33.
[230] Ov. Amor. L. III. El. 9.
[231] De Art. Poet. 75.
[232] Amor. Lib. II. Eleg. 12.
[233] Lib. I. Eleg. 9.
[234] L. I. El. 9.
[235] Amor. L. III. El. 1.
[236] L. I. El. 3.
[237] Amor. L. III. El. 8.
[238] L. I. El. 3.
[239] Eclog. X. 72.
LECTURE XIV.
_Of Pastorals._
This, also, is another Species of Poetry, not professedly treated of by
any of the Ancients, nay, not so much as mention'd amongst their various
Precepts relating to this Art. The later _Latin_ Critics have bestow'd
some Pains upon it; but our modern ones, of the present Age, much more;
and (to speak my own Judgment, which I shall always be ready to submit
to better) seem to have attributed too much Honour to it, and to have
rais'd more Dust, than the Importance of the Subject deserv'd. Not but
that I think it a very elegant Kind of Writing, and every Way worthy of
Imitation. As it is now incumbent on me to say somewhat of it, agreeably
to my present Design, I shall put together what I think most material
relating to it, without making any Difference between what I have
advanced new, or others have observed before me.
In the first Ages of the World, before Men were united in Cities,
and had learnt the studied Arts of Luxury, they lead in the Country
plain harmless Lives; and Cottages, rather than Houses, might be said
to be their Habitation. Those happy Times abounded with Leisure and
Recreation: To feed the Flock, and cultivate the Land, was the only
Employ of its peaceable Inhabitants; the former the joint Care of the
Women and the Men. Hence arose abundant Matter for Love and Verse. Nay,
when the World was grown older, and Mankind so numerous, that they
began to secure themselves in Walls, and to introduce what we call a
more civil Life, yet still Shepherds and Husbandmen maintain'd their
primitive Honour. Country Affairs, but especially the Care of the Flock,
was not only the Labour of the Vulgar, but the Exercise of the Rich and
Powerful, nay, of Princes of either Sex. This appears sufficiently, from
sacred History, in the Example of _Jacob_, _Rachel_, _Moses_, and the
other Patriarchs: From the Testimony of Heathen Writers; as in that of
_Virgil_,
_Nec te pœniteat pecoris, divine Poeta,
Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis._
Them, heav'nly Poet, blush not thou to own:
Ev'n fair _Adonis_ did not scorn to tend
Along the River's Side his fleecy Care.
And in another Place, to omit other Instances:
_Quem fugis, ah! demens? habitarant Dii quoque silvas,
Dardaniusque Paris._
Whom fly'st thou, thoughtless? Gods have liv'd in Woods;
And _Trojan Paris_.
From what has been said, it is easy to see the Origin of _Pastorals_.
It appears to have been a very ancient Species of Poetry, tho' I can
by no means agree with _Scaliger_[242], in thinking it the oldest,
which is an Honour I shall hereafter shew to be due to the Lyric Kind,
Shepherds, 'tis true, were the first Poets; but Odes and Hymns, not
Pastorals, were their original Compositions. However, Pastorals, as I
said, are undoubtedly of very great Antiquity; and the _Song of Solomon_
in sacred Writ comes under this Denomination; from whence, 'tis very
observable, _Theocritus_ has borrow'd literally many Expressions; making
use of the Version of the Seventy-two, with whom he was cotemporary.
The Nature of this Kind of Poem is to be sweet, easy, and flowing,
and simple beyond all others: And yet not so humbly simple, (which is
a common Mistake) as if it represented only the Characters of poor
ignorant Shepherds, and the Thoughts of modern Rustics. The Scene,
indeed, of Bucolics (for that is another Name for Pastorals, the former
derived from the Herds, as the latter from the Flocks, that are the
different Objects of the rural Care) ought always to be laid in the
Country. Nor ought it to be diversify'd with any Thing repugnant to
such a Situation; nay, Views, and little Descriptions of Lawns and
Groves, ought always to be interspers'd in these Poems, whatsoever the
Subject of them be. Yet there may be a Mixture of Images of a different
Kind, and much elevated above the Apprehension of the Vulgar. _Virgil_,
therefore, is very undeservedly censured by many for having introduced
Philosophy, and even somewhat of the Sublime, into his Eclogues: For
since, as we observ'd, many of the ancient Shepherds were Persons, I
need not say of the better, but even of the first Rank, it is no great
Wonder if some of them were Scholars, and Philosophers. 'Tis a Mistake
to say that _Virgil_'s fourth and fifth Eclogues are not Pastorals; and
that nothing sublime, but every Thing simple and rustic, is compatible
with this Kind of Poetry. They are Pastorals, undoubtedly; tho' of a
different Kind from the common ones. There is a certain Sublimity,
agreeable enough to Pastorals; a Sublimity that arises from Philosophy
and Religion, not from the Tumults of War, the Pomps of a Court, or
the Refinements of the City. I don't see, therefore, why that divine
Eclogue; _Sicelides Musæ_, &c. (divine I may call it, on many Accounts)
should not be allow'd a Place among the Pastorals. The rural Muses are
invok'd; the Woods are celebrated; many Things expresly relate to the
Country, and nothing repugnant to it. The Subject, indeed, is great; the
Words and Thoughts sublime; sublimer, I may say, than the Poet himself
was aware of. For it is the Opinion of the most learned Divines, to
which I very readily adhere, that he by happy Error celebrates from the
Sibylline Oracles the Birth of _Christ_, which was then approaching;
and it is evident, that many of the Lines describe the Nature of the
Messias, and of his Kingdom, in Terms of near Affinity with the sacred
Writings[243]. And nothing, surely, could be more proper, than that the
Prince of Poets should promulge that joyful News in Pastorals, which was
first proclaim'd from Heaven to Shepherds. That Objection drawn from
the Invention of War and Ships, both which the Poet touches upon in the
following Lines, is of little Moment.
_Alter erit tum Tiphys, & altera quæ vehat Argo
Delectos heroas; erunt etiam altera bella,
Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles._
Another _Tiphys_ o'er the Main shall waft
The chosen Chiefs, another _Argo_ guide;
New warlike Expeditions shall be form'd,
And great _Achilles_ sail again for _Troy_.
These are only incidental Ornaments of the Poem, not properly the
Subject of it. Now it is impossible that the Argonautic Expedition,
so famous throughout the World, should be unknown to Shepherds of
Birth and Education. And as little probable is it, that they should be
ignorant of the _Trojan_ War, occasion'd by one of their own Profession.
It is repugnant, indeed, to Pastorals, to turn wholly upon warlike
Affairs; but it is a very different Thing to bring them in only as
Embellishments. This is what may be justly pleaded for all the Eclogues
of _Virgil_, where Arms are mentioned; excepting only the tenth:
_Nunc insanus amor duri me Martis in armis
Tela inter media, atque adversos detinet hostes._
Now frantic Love amidst thick Darts and Foes
Detains me in the rigid Toil of Arms.
Which, I confess, raises in me some Difficulty; because the Speaker
introduc'd is manifestly a Soldier. But it must be observ'd, that he
does not at the same Time personate a Shepherd, as is manifest, from his
Speech to the _Arcadians_, when he expresses his Envy of their happy
Retirement:
_Atque utinam è vobis unus, vestrique fuissem
Aut custos gregis, aut maturæ vinitor uvæ._
O had kind Fortune made me one of you,
Keeper of Flocks, or Pruner of the Vine.
Had he been _one of them_, he would have join'd two contradictory
Ideas; for a Shepherd in Arms, who could have born? But if it be
ask'd, Why then is the chief Person in the Pastoral drawn of a very
different Character from Pastoral; it is sufficient to answer, That
_Virgil_ so thought fit; and there is nothing absurd, or unnatural,
in such a Conduct. For the State of the Case is no more than this:
_Gallus_, engag'd in Camps, happens to fall in Love, and retires to
the Solitude of the Country, to give vent to his Passion. Shepherds,
Nymphs, _Sylvanus_, _Pan_, and even _Apollo_ himself, lend their kind
Endeavours to asswage it. Thus far every Thing is natural, elegant, and
truly pastoral. And the whole Poem is of the same Nature, excepting only
the two Verses I have now cited. Leave out these, and even _Gallus_'s
Complaint is perfectly rural, and all the Thoughts drawn from the
Country. In short, so far am I from assenting to those Critics who would
exterminate this from the Number of Pastorals, that I would place it
the very first of all. The sixth Eclogue of _Virgil_, which I just now
mention'd, is full of Philosophy and Religion: And that's a sort of
Sublime, which, I before observ'd, was very consistent with Pastoral.
The fourth I have likewise spoke to. The rest of them are Pastoral,
without any Objection; tho' the Etymology of the Word _Eclogue_ by no
means implies it; which signifies no more than _Select Poems upon any
Subject whatsoever_. The Word _Idyllium_ is as little expressive of
_Pastorals_, nor are all _Theocritus_'s such: It is deriv'd from ειδος,
Species; and the Word _Idyllia_ imports no more than _Poems of
various Sorts_.
It must be own'd, however, that the greatest Essential in Pastoral is
_Simplicity_; and that these Lines have much less of the Nature of it,
_Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum,
Terrasque, tractusque maris_, &c.
See the globous Weight
Of Earth, of Heav'n, of Ocean, nod and shake.
than the following:
_Forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis,
Compulerantque greges Corydon & Thyrsis in unum,
Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas._
By chance, beneath the Covert of an Oak,
That whisper'd with the Breezes, _Daphnis_ sate;
And _Corydon_ and _Thyrsis_ to one Place
Together drew their Flocks; _Thyrsis_, his Sheep;
His milch Goats, _Corydon_.
But then it ought to be elegantly simple, for the Plowmen should appear
in their Holyday Garments. Thus we see Shepherds and Shepherdesses
introduced upon the Stage; and tho' they bring Crooks in their Hands,
and Straw Hats on their Heads, yet their Dress is nearly rural, and
above the Habit of the Vulgar. In _Virgil_ we have frequent Examples
of this polite Rusticity, in those Places, especially, where Love
is concern'd. I shall only produce one, out of many, where _Damon_,
desperately in Love with the fair, but cruel _Nisa_, vents his Passion
in these Words:
_Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala
(Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem;
Alter ab undecimo tum me jam ceperat annus,
Jam fragiles poteram à terra contingere ramos:
Ut vidi! ut perii! ut me malus abstulit error!_
Thee, with thy Mother, in our Meads I saw,
Gathering fresh Apples; I myself your Guide;
Then thou wert little; I, just then advanc'd
To my twelfth Year, cou'd barely from the Ground
Touch with my reaching Hand the tender Boughs:
How did I look! how gaze my Soul away!
How did I die! in fatal Error lost!
How unartful the Complaint, but yet how lovely?
Tho' the Style of Pastoral is humble, it is not sordidly mean, nor
slovenly careless, neither resembling the Diction of Comedy, which is
almost Prose; nor of the bantering Satire, which is one Degree farther
from it: But is sweet, pleasant, and easy; elegant with Plainness, and
but poetically low:
_O tantum libeat mecum tibi sordida rura,
Atque humiles habitare casas, & figere cervos!_
O! were but thy Delight with me to dwell,
In lowly Cottages, and rural Shades
By thee despis'd! _to drive the Kids a-field
With a green Wand_, and shoot the flying Deer!
Antique Phrases, Ænigma's, Proverbs, superstitious Fables, are no
unbecoming Ornaments of this Sort of Poetry.
It generally consists of Dialogue, in which some little dramatical
Action ought to be represented, a rural Scene described, Interlocutors
under different Circumstances, and a certain Plot carried on to a
Conclusion. For 'tis not to be imagin'd, as many, now a-days do, that
every Dialogue between two Shepherds, full of the bleating of Flocks,
is a proper Pastoral. No, 'tis a Thing that requires more Labour, Art,
and Judgment, than we are generally aware of: Nor is any Kind of Poem
less tolerable, if ill, or even moderately perform'd. Who can bear those
Crowds of Pastorals, as they are inscrib'd, that are daily publish'd
in _Latin_ and _English_, upon the Death of Princes, or Friends? They
are all cast in the same Mould; read one, you read all. _Daphnis_ asks
_Thyrsis_ the Reason of his Grief, whether he has lost a Goat; or
_Amaryllis_, or _Neæra_, has been unkind to him. The Answer is, his
Sorrow is owing to no such Cause; but that _Pan_, or _Phyllis_, or
any one else is dead. Say you so, says _Daphnis_, I thought all along
that _Pan_ had been immortal, or _Phyllis_, I am sure, deserv'd to
have been so. They then join in celebrating, alternately, the Praises
of the deceas'd. Birds, Sheep, Woods, Mountains, Rivers, are full of
Complaints. We are told how the croaking Raven foreboded the dismal
Event; Oaks were riv'd with Thunder; every Thing, in short, is wondrous
lamentable, and in the most emphatical Sense miserable.
The Subjects of Pastoral are as various as the Passions of human Nature,
nay, it may, in some measure, partake of every Kind of Poetry, but with
this Proviso, that the Scene of it ought always to be in the Country,
and the Thoughts never contrary to those that are bred there. Some of
these short Strictures of Wit between contending Shepherds, favour
something of Epigram: Thus in _Virgil_;
_Fraxinus in silvis pulcherrima, pinus in hortis,
Populus in fluviis, abies in montibus altis:
Sæpius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas;
Fraxinus in silvis cedet tibi, pinus in hortis._
In Groves the Beech, in Gardens is the Pine
Most beautiful; the Poplar near the Streams;
On the high Mountain's Tops, the stately Fir.
Yet, lovely _Lycidas_, if oft thou come
To visit me; thou, beauteous, shalt excel
The Pine in Gardens, and the Beech in Groves.
The second Eclogue is _Elegiac_, containing a Love Complaint; so is the
latter Part of the fifth, bewailing the Death of _Daphnis_. The Songs,
and Pipe, seem reducible to some Kind of _Ode_. And I see no Reason, why
the third Eclogue may not be deem'd a short rural _Comedy_, representing
the Manners, the Follies, little Tricks, and Quarrels of low Country
Life; intermix'd, likewise, with various Strokes of _Satire_, many
Examples of which we have elsewhere produced. _Damon_'s Complaint; in
the former Part of the eighth Eclogue, is _tragical_, and ends thus:
_Præceps aerii specula de montis in undas
Deferar; extremum hoc munus morientis habeto._
From yon aerial Rock
Headlong I'll plunge into the foamy Deep.
Take this last Gift, which dying I bequeath.
But the Thoughts and Diction of the fourth Eclogue, I before observ'd,
favour much of the Heroic.
The Pleasure that arises from this Kind of Poetry, is owing to those
beautiful rural Scenes, which it represents; and to that innate Love,
which human Nature, depraved as it is, still retains for its primitive
Simplicity. Simplicity and the Country I join together, because in Fact
they were both united. We are born with a Love for a Country Life, for
Nature always pleases us more than Art, not only as it is prior to it
in Point of Time, but as the Works of God are more perfect, and more
various, than those of Men. Nay, Art itself is then most pleasing, when
it represents Nature. Thus Architecture affects the Mind with less
Pleasure and Wonder than Poetry, or its Sister Painting because that is
the Effect of Art only, these of Nature likewise. And tho' it may be the
Business of one Art to describe another, yet it never is so successfully
employ'd, as when Nature sits for the Description. Thus, in Painting,
the Prospect of a magnificent Structure is beautiful; but how much more
agreeable is _that_ which is diversified with Woods, Flowers, Rivers,
Mountains, Cottages, Birds, Flocks, Herds, and Husbandmen? And how much
would the Pleasure be still heighten'd, could the Picture convey to us
the Fragrancy of Flowers, the Warbling of Birds, the Lowing of Oxen,
the Bleating of Sheep, and all those other Gratifications that are the
Objects, not of the Sight, but of the Hearing, and other Senses. Since
Nature, then, and the Country, are the same, and Cities the Effect of
Art and Refinement; it is no Wonder, if the former has the Preference.
It pleads Prescription for our Choice; if we date our own Infancy from
that of the World, we are all by Birth Inhabitants of the Fields and
Woods: Thither, therefore, we naturally tend, and, as _Ovid_ says, less
justly, upon another Occasion,
----_documenta damus, qua simus origine nati._
Give Proofs of our Original.
For, I'll be bold to say, that they who prefer a City Life, have a
natural Affection for a Country one. It is _Horace_'s Observation:
_Nempe inter varias nutritur silva columnas,
Laudaturque domus, longos quæ prospicit agros;
Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret._
That House is most esteem'd, he wisely builds,
That hath a Prospect to the open Fields.
Strive to expel strong Nature, 'tis in vain,
With doubled Force she will return again. _Creech._
And those that make the City Life their Choice, do so, as the
Schoolmen speak, only _by Accident_; either to indulge their Vices and
Extravagancies; or on account of some Inconveniencies which the Country
_sometimes_ labours under; as the Want of Company, or the Opportunity
of gaining or increasing a Fortune; not out of any Distaste of the
Pleasures of the Country. Who can help sympathizing with _Horace_'s
Citizen, and wish him Success in so reasonable a Request?
_O rus, quando ego te aspiciam? quandoque licebit
Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, & inertibus horis,
Ducere sollicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ?_
Oh! when shall I enjoy my Country Seat?
Oh! when remov'd from Noise to quiet Peace,
Amidst my learned Books, my Sleep and Ease,
While Hours do smoothly flow, and free from Strife
Forget the Troubles of a busy Life?
_Creech._
And it is impossible to read _Virgil_'s Description of the Country, in
his second _Georgic_, without being in Love with the Subject, as well
as the Poet. Upon the whole, since Innocence and the Country are even
now so agreeable to human Nature, it is easy to see from what Source the
Pleasure of Pastoral Poetry springs.
As _Theocritus_ is the first that attempted this Way of Writing, so
has he excell'd all others that have follow'd him. _Virgil_ copies,
and in some Places literally translates him. He has sometimes, however
ventur'd to deviate from his Original, by throwing in a Mixture of the
Sublime. If _Theocritus_'s are truer Pastorals; _Virgil_'s may be said,
_perhaps_, to be the better Poems. I speak this with some Hesitation;
for, it must be own'd, the _Idyllia_ are truly beautiful; and the Author
of them, I think, ought to be rank'd among the best Poets. The Sweetness
of his Versification (owning partly to his own Ingenuity, and partly to
his Doric Dialect) is equall'd by none. Take, only as a Specimen, what
first offers, the very Beginning of the first _Idyllium_:
Θ. Ἁδυ τι το ψιθυρισμα, και, ἁ πιτυς, αιπολε, τηνα,
Ἁ ποτι ταις παγαισι, μελισδεται ἁδυ δε και τυ
Συρισδες· μετα Πανα το δευτερον αθλον αποισηι, κ.λ.
Αι. Ἁδιον, ω ποιμαν, το τεον μελος, η το καταχες
Την απο τας πετρας καταλειβεται hυψοθεν hυδωρ.
Αικα ται Μωσαι ταν οιιδα δωρον αγωνται,
Αρνα τυ σακιταν λαψηι γερας· αι δε κ' αρεσκηι
Τηναις αρνα λαβειν, τυ δε ταν οιν hυστερον αξεις.
Θ. Ληις, ποτι ταν νυμφαν, ληις, αιπολε, τηδε καθιξας, κ.λ.
Th. Hadu ti to psithyrisma, kai, ha pitus, aipole, têna,
_Thyr._ Goatherd, that Pine-tree's Boughs by yonder Spring,
In pleasing Murmurs mix, and sweetly sing:
And thou dost sweetly pipe; dear charming Swain,
And well deserv'st the next Reward to _Pan_, &c.
_Goat._ And sweeter Notes thy Pipe, dear Shepherd, fill,
Than murm'ring Springs, that roll from yonder Hill
When Muses claim a Sheep, a Lamb's thy Due;
When they a Lamb, thou shalt receive a Ewe.
_Creech._
_Thyrsis_ then proceeds to lament, in the softest Verse that is
possible, _Daphnis_'s unhappy Love, the Beginning of which only I shall
recite to you:
Παι ποκ' αρ' ησθ' ὁκα Δαφνις ετακετο· παι ποκα, νυμφαι·
Η κατα Πηνειω καλα τεμπεα, η κατα Πινδω·
Ου γαρ δη ποταμοιο μεγαν ῥοον ειχετ' Αναπω,
Ουδ' Αιτνας σκοπιαν, ουδ' Ακιδος ἱερον hυδωρ.
Where were you, Nymphs? Where did the Nymphs reside?
Where were you then, when _Daphnis_ pin'd and dy'd?
On _Pindus_' Top, or _Tempe_'s open Plain,
Where careless Nymphs, forgetful of the Swain?
For not one Nymph by swift _Asopus_ stood,
Nor _Ætna_'s Cliff, nor _Acis_' sacred Flood.
_Creech._
These harmonious Lines, _Virgil_ imitates, in the following ones, but
does not equal.
_Quæ nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellæ_, &c.
What Groves, ye Nymphs, detain'd you hence? what Lawns?
What _Bion_ and _Moschus_ have done in this Kind, among the _Greeks_,
the Learned are no Strangers to. Among the Latins, we have nothing
remaining of _Calphurnius Siculus_ and _Aurelius Nemesianus_, but their
Names[257]. The Syrinx, or Shepherd's Pipe; the Form, the Number, and
the Manner of disposing the _Oaten Reeds_; the Names of the first
Inventors of this Sort of Poetry, and other Things of the like Nature,
I pass over, as foreign to my Province. Whoever is studious this Way,
may consult the Writers of poetical History. I would only observe,
that it seems universally agreed upon, that Pastoral owes its Rise and
Increase to _Sicily_.
I cannot but think it a Poem less suitable to modern Times, on account
of the Difference in the Circumstances of human Life, from what it was
anciently. As the Condition of Shepherds is now mean and contemptible;
it seems too forced a Prosopopœia to affix to them any Character
of Politeness, or to introduce them as Men of Wealth and Education:
These Things are contradictory to Truth, and therefore leave no Room
for Fiction. The very Foundation, then, of Pastorals, as they are
accommodated to the present Times, seems wholly taken away. But setting
aside this, it must be own'd, several of the Moderns have attempted
them very successfully, both in their own Tongue, and in _Latin_.
The _Italians_ and _French_ generally want the Bucolic Genius: Their
Shepherds are too genteel; as well bred as Citizens at least, if not
as Courtiers, and fall into other Absurdities of the same Kind. Our
Countryman _Spencer_ has succeeded much better; and one or two of the
present Age seem justly to have deserv'd the Prize.