various fubjects Edyllia : this ancient title, then, may ferve to exprefs the fmalinefs and variety of their natures: they would now, perhaps, be called Poems on Several Occafions. Though in defererce to fo great an authority, I fhall take the liberty to make a conje&ure: Heinfius tells us, that originally there were different titles or infcriptions prefixed to the poems of Theocritus; firit of all his Bucolies were feparated and diftinguished by the title of Ewa Bouzohize, and were called by the grammarians Eiduki Bourchina; but might it not at first have been written Eva? which fignifics Poems or Verfes, and by an eafy mistake of the tranfcriber altered into Eλ? this reading delivers us at once from the embarrament attending the derivation of the word Idylliums, and Ers, the fame as Verficu'i, very naturally flows from the word En, the plural of Exos, Caran; thes we have Ern xgureiz: it is to be observed, that Aristophanes ufes the word three times, fee his Rarz. ver. 973, Acharnenfes, ver. 397; and in his l'ax, ver. 531, he has sudλiwv Evgiñids, Verficulorum Euripidis: this, however, is only ce njesture Under the fecond title, every poem that was afcribed to Theocritus, though the character and argument were very different, was inferted. Under the third were contained a collection of bucolic poems, whether by Theocritus, Moschus, Bien, or others, and the name of Theocritus prefixed to the whole; on which occafion there is an Epigram in the Anthologia, afcribed to Artemi. dores: Βουκολικοί Μονται σποράδην ποια, νυ Εντι μιας ματέρας, εντι μιας αγέλας. Wild rov'd the paftora! Mufes o'er the plains, But now one fold the fingle flock contains. Befides the Idylliams that we now have, Theocri tes is faid by Suidas to have written gardes, Eλπόλης. Τμνους, Ηρωινας, Επικήδεια μέλη. Ελεγειας, και Is that is, Prætides, Hopes, Hvrins, He. reine, Dirges, Elegies, and lambics: the Protides were the daughters of Proteus, king of the Argives, who preferring themselves to Juno, went mad, and imagined themfelves turned into crows, but were cured by Melampus; the idyllium in praife of Caftor and Pollux is fuppofed to be one of the hymns, and there are five verfes remaining of a poem, in praife of Berenice, which may be cified among the Hercines. It is to be obferved, that Theocritus generally wrote in the modern Doric, fometimes indeed, he ufed the Ionic, the Doric dialect was of two forts, the old and new; the old founded harsh and rough, but the new was much fofter and fmoother; this, as Mr Pope juftly obterves, in the time of Theocritus had its beauty and propriety, was ufed in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest perfons. It has been thought by fome that the Drian phrafe in which he wrote, has a great tha e in his honours but exclufive of this acvantage, he can produce other ample claims to fecure his rural crown from the | | boldest competitor. A proof of this, I think, will appear from this circumftance, that Virgil, who is the great rival of the Sicilian, has few images in his Eclogues but what are borrowed from l'heocritus; nay, he not only continually imitates, but frequently tranflates feveral lines together, and. often in thefe very paffages falls fhort of his nafter, as will appear in the notes. Though Theocritus is generally esteemed only a paftoral poet, yet he is manifeftly robbed of a great part of his fame, if his other pieces have not their proper laurels. At the fame time his Paftorals are, without doubt, to be confidered as the foundation of his credit; upon this claim, he will be admittel for the happy finisher, as well as the inventor of his art; and will be acknowledged to have excelled all his imitators, as much as originals ufually do their copies. He has the fame advantag: in bucolic, as Homer had in epic poetry, which is to make the critics turn his practice into eternal rules and to measure nature herself by his accom plished model: therefore, as to enumerate the glo ries of heroic poetry, is the fame thing as to fu up the prafes of Homer, fo to exhibit the beauties of pastoral verfe, is only an indirect way of making panegyrics on Theocritus. Indeed, the Sicilian has in this refpect been formewhat more fortunate than Homer, as Virgil's Eclogues are reckoned more unequal imitations of his Idylliums, than in the Aneis of the Iliad. I think I cannot conclude this account of Theocritus with more propriety than by collecting the fentiments, not only of the ancients, but likewife of the moderns, in regard to the character of our author. Longinus fays, (fee the motto) Thee"critus has fhown the happieft vein imaginable "for paftorals, excepting thofe in which he has "deviated from the country :" or perhaps it may more properly be rendered, as Fabricius underftands it," excepting in thofe few pieces that are "of another argument." Quintilian fays, “Admi"rabilis in fuo genere Theocritus, fed mufa illa "ruftica et paltoralis non forum medo verum "etiam urbem reformidat :" " Theocritus is ad"mirable in his way, but his ruflic and pastoral "mufe is not only afraid of appearing in the fo rum, but even in the city:" by which he means, that the language and thoughts of Theocritus's thepherds ought not to be imitated in pub: lic fpeaking, nor in polite compofiti n; yet, for all this." he was admirable in his way." lius in the fecond book of his Aaronomicon gives a just character of our poet *: Man Quinetiam pecorum ritus, et Para fonantem * Infiead of pecorum ritus, Dr. Bently reads titus patterum. As if the mufes fat in every vale, 66 66 "vafis paftoritii genus; capacitatem ejus licet col"ligere ex cælaturæ multiplici argumento:" and I am informed, that when Mr. Thomas Warton's long-expected edition of Theocritus appears, it will be evidently proved, perhaps, from fome old scho lia not yet printed, that this iußion was of an extraordinary fize, very deep and wide, and therefore capable of being adorned with fuch a variety of figures in the fculpture; it was not intended for the ufe of drinking out of, or mixing any paftoral beverage, but chiefly for ornament: and therefore the veffel being fo capacious and remarkable, the poet will be cleared from the charge of being thought tedious in the description of it. "yard, the foxes, and the boy fitting carelessly "and framing traps for grafhoppers," are charmCREECH. ing embellishments, and far more pastoral and naOne would imagine thefe authorities were fuffi- tural than Virgil's Orpheaque in medio pofuit tient to establish, or at least to fix the reputation fylvafque fequentes," "Orpheus in the middle, of Theocritus, on a very sure footing; and yet Dr. "and the woods following him." In regard to John Martyn, who has translated Virgii's Eclogues the length of the description, it is obferved, that and Georgics into profe, with many learned notes, the cup of Theocritus was very large and capafeems to be of a different perfuafion. In the latter cious; he calls it Babu xiußion," a deep pastoral end of his preface to the Eclogues, after obferv-" cup;" and Caufabon fays it was " ampliffimi ing that Virgil, in almost every Eclogue, entertains the reader with a rural fcene, a fort of fine landfcape, and enumerating these scenes, he fays, " and having now feen this excellence in Virgil, we may venture to affam, that there is fomething more required in a good paftoral, than "the affectation of ufing coarse, rude, or obfolete expreffions; er a mere nothingnefs, without "either thought or defign, under a falfe notion of "rurst fimplicity." That he here means Theocritus, or elfe he means nothing, is plain from his mention of him immediately after: in regard to the charge of his affectedly using coarfe, rude, " and obfolete expreffions," I imagine he alludes to the fifth Idyllium, which indeed must be al- In the preface above mentioned, the Doctor says, lowed to be too ruftic and abufive: but we must "It is not a little furprising, that many of our remember that Theocritus intended this poem as "modern poets and critics should be of opinion, a fpecimen of the original old bucolic Idyllium, "that the rufticity of Theocritus is to be imiwhich was very rude, and often obfcene: as the "tated rather than the rural delicacy of Virgil." learned Heinfius has more than once obferved; How can it be thought surprising that Theocritus his words are, "multum a reliquis differunt quæ fhould be imitated rather than Virgil? the reafon "aixohiza funt, in quibus major eft incivili- is manifeft, becaufe the generality of poets and tas; ut in quinto apparet, quod Idyllium fingu- critics prefer the Sicilian far before the Roman, as "lare eft, et in fuo genere exemplum, antiquæ a paftoral writer. I fhould not have troubled my"nimiram Bexoλı25, ubi nunquam fere fine ob- felf about Dr. Martyn's opinion, but only as it is fceno fenfu rixatur caprarius." And in another prefixed to Virgil, I thought perhaps it might place: veræ przodias exemplum in quinto The- poflibly mislead the unwary young scholar into a ocriti, in Virgili tertio habemus." Therefore, wrong judgment, and induce him to prefer Virgil, inftead of condemning Theocritus, we ought to without first confidering the more original beauthink ourselves much obliged to him for leaving ties of Theocritus. As a contrast to the Doctor's us one example of the ancient ruftic bucolic: Vir-range and fingular decifion, who acknowledges gil certainly thought fo, otherwife he would not have imitated that very piece. As to the fcenery with which the Eclogues are embellifhed, all the Idylliums, or at leaft the greateft part of them, are ornamented in the fame manner, which will appear fo evident to every reader, that it would be impertinent to point it out. As to the other part of the Doctor's obfervation, a mere nothingnefs, without thought or defign," it is fuch a defpicable falfity, that it is not worth no " ર tice. ་་ Throughout his whole preface and life of Virgil, the Doctor is very fingular in giving Virgil the preference to Theocritus upon every occafion : particularly he declaims against the cup in the first Idyllium, fays the defcription of it is long and tedious, and far exceeded by Virgil in the third Eclogue; notwithstanding the Doctor's affertion, fome gentlemen, whofe critical difquifitions have defervedly announced them the beft judges of poJite literature, think that the images in Theocritus' cup, viz. "the beautiful woman and two lovers, the ftriking figure of the fisherman labouring to throw his net, the rock, the vine himfelf to be no poet, and therefore cannot be deemed a competent judge of poetical writings, I fhall conclude this account with the fentiments of feveral of the finest writers, both critics and poets, of the last and present age, in regard to the matter in queftion: two of them are tranflators of Virgil, and therefore cannot be fuppofed to be partial to Theocritus. I fhall begin with Mr. Dryden: "That which "diftinguishes Theocritus," fays he, "from all "other poets, both Greek and Latin, and which "raifes him even above Virgil in his Eclogues, "is the inimitable tenderness of his paffions, and "the natural expreffion of them in words fo be"coming of a paftoral A fimplicity fhines "throughout all he writes. He shows his art and "learning by difguifing both. His shepherds never rife above their country education in their "complaints of love. There is the fame differ"ence between him and Virgil, as there is be. "tween Taflo's Aminta, and the Paftor Fido of "Guarini. Virgil's fhepherds are too well read "in the philofophy of Epicurus and Plato; and "Guarini's feem to have been bred in courts. 3 "But Theocritus and Taffo have taken theirs "from cottages and plains. It was faid of Taffo, in relation to his fimilitudes, that he never de"parted from the woods, that is, all his com"parifons were taken from the country: the "fame may be faid of Theocritus. He is fofter "than Ovid; he touches the paffions more de"licately, and performs all this out of his own #fand, without diving into the arts and sciences "for a fupply. Even his Doric dialect has an in"comparable fweetness in its clownishness, like a "fair thepherdefs, in her country ruffet, talking "in a Yorkshire tone. This was impoffible for "Virgil to imitate, because the severity of the "Roman language denied him that advantage. "Spenfer has endeavoured it in his Shepherd's Calendar, but it can never fucceed in English.” Thus far Mr. Dryden in the preface to his tranflations; in another place he fays, "Theocritus "may juftly be preferred as the original, with"out injury to Virgil, who modeftly contents "himfelf with the fecond place, and glories only "in being the first who transplanted pastoral into his own country." Dr. Felton obferves, "The Idylliums of Theo"critus have fomething fo inimitably sweet in "the verfe and thoughts, fuch a native fimplicity, ❝ and are so genuine, so natural a result of the rural life, that I must in my judgment allow "him the honour of the paftoral." Mr. Blackwell upon the claffics, fays, "Theo"critus is another bright instance of the happy abilities and various accomplishments of the an"cients. He has writ in feveral forts of poetry, " and fucceeded in them all. It seems unne"ceffary to praise the native fimplicity and easy "freedom of his pastorals, when Virgil himself fometimes invokes the mufe of Syracufe ; " when he imitates him through all his own "poems of that kind, and in feveral paffages tranflates him. In many of his other poems he fhows fuch strength of reafon and politenefs, as would qualify him to plead among the "erators, and make him acceptable in the courts "of princes. In his fmaller poems of Cupid "Lung, Adonis killed by the boar, and others, you have the vigour and delicacy of Anacreon; in his Hylas, and combat of Pollux and Amycus, he is much more pathetical, clear, and pleasant, than Apollonius on the "fame, or any other fubject. In his converfa "tion of Alcmena and Tirefias, of Hercules and the old fervant of Augeas, in Cynifca "and Thyonichus, and the women going to the " ceremonies of Adonis, there is all the cafinefs "and engaging familiarity of humour and dia"logue which reign in the Odyffey; and in Hercules deftroying the lion of Nemæa, the fpirit and majefty of the Iliad. The panegy ric upon King Ptolemy is juftly esteemed an "original and model of perfection in that way of writing. Both in that excellent poem, and the noble hymn upon Caftor and Pollux, he has praised his gods and his hero with that delicacy and dexterity of addrefs, with thofe "fublime and graceful expreffions of devotion " and respect, that in politenefs, smoothness of turn, and refined art of praifing without of"fence, or appearance of flattery, he has c"qualled Callimachus; and, in loftiness and flight of thought, fcarce yields to Pindar of "Homer." The author of the Guardian, No. 28. obferves, "The foftnefs of the Doric dialect, which "Theocritus is faid to have improved beyond any who came before him, is what the an"cient Roman writers owned their language "could not approach. But, befides this beauty, "he feems to me to have a foul more foftly "and tenderly inclined to this way of writing "than Virgil, whofe genius led him naturally to "fublimity." Mr. Pope briefly remarks, that "Theocritus "excels all others in nature and fimplicity: that "the fubjects of his Idylliums are purely paf. "toral: that other paftoral writers have learned "their excellencies from him; and that his dia "lect alone has a fecret charm in it, which ne "other could ever attain." Mr. Warton, the worthy mafter of Wincher. ter chool, gives us his fentiments on this fubject in his prefatory dedication of Virgil to Lord Lyttleton: "There are few images and fenti. "ments in the Eclogues of Virgil, but what "are drawn from the Idylliums of Theocritus: "in whom there is a rural, romantic wildnes "of thought, heightened by the Doric dialect; "with fuch lively pictures of the paffions, and "of fimple unadorned nature, as are infinitely "pleafing to fuch lovers and judges of true poetry as yourself. Theocritus is indeed the 66 great ftorehouse of paftoral defcription; and every fucceeding painter of rural beauty (ex"cept Thomfon in his Seafons) hath copied "his images from him, without ever looking "abroad upon the face of nature themfelves." To the fanie purpose, in his Differtation on Pas. toral Poetry, he fays, "If I might venture to "fpeak of the merits of the feveral paftoral "writers, I would fay, that in Theocritus we "are charmed with a certain fweetnefs, a ro"mantic rufticity and wildnefs, heightened by "the Doric dialect, that are almoft inimitable. "Several of his pieces indicare a genius of a "higher clafs, far fuperior to pastoral, and e"qual to the fublimeft fpecies of poetry: fuch are particularly his panegyric on Ptolemy, "the fight between Amycus and Pollux, the "Epithalamium of Helen, the young Hercules, "the grief of Hercules for Hylas, the death of "Pentheus, and the killing of the Nemean "lion." AN ESSAY ON PASTORAL POETRY. BY EDWARD BURNBAY GREEN, ESQ. Gaudentes rure Camænæ. THE precife time when the paftoral mufe made ber appearance in the worid, history feems to have left uncertain. Conjures have been na zarded, and profu uptions multiphed, yet her origin is fil uurivalied; and the lefs inquifitive genius fits down contented with afcertaining her ürft perfection in the writings of Theocritis Indeed refearches of this nature are rather curicus, than interefting; for hough we may perhaps meet with fome plaufible accounts, we can trace none that carry conviction. The very few writers, handed down to us from Greece and Rome in that fpecies of compofition, are but infuflicient guides to the rife of the art itself As it is more entertaining, it is likewife more to the honour of pafioral to obferve, that it must neceffarily have exifted in the earlier ages of the world; exifted, not indeed in the fet form and elegance of numbers, but in the genuine fentiments of the heart, which nature alone infpired. For the mind being on all fides furrounded with rural objects, thofe objects would not fail to make an impreflion; and whether the patriarchs of old, with our parents in Milton, pioufly broke out into the praife of their Creator, or reflected in filent admiration on the beauties of the earth, their hymns or their meditations mult have been purely paftoral. It has been remarked by a laborious commentator on the Eclogues of Virgil, that the lives of our earliest forefathers were spent in husbandry, and the feeding of cattle. And indeed it could not have been otherwife. At a period, when the numbers of mankind were comparatively infignificant, and their thoughts engaged HOR. in procuring fubfiftence, while luxury and ambition were yet unknown, it is inconfiftent to fuppofe, but that the fons of earth were all in`a manner the fons of agriculture. When the world, however, increased, and its inhabitants difperfed into various regions; when focieties were formed, and laws eftablished; and when (the natural confequence of such expansion) the plagues of war and contention arofe, different orders and conditions were fettled for the regulation of kingdoms, ruftic awkwardnefs received the polish of civil life, and the ploughfhare was converted into inftruments of deftruction. Thus, by degrees, from an honourable fituation, hufbandry became the employment of thofe alone who had the leaf ambition and the greatest probity. But in those climates, whither emigrations being lefs fashionable, the people retained their pri mitive fimplicity, it is no wonder, if in process of time confiderable advance was made, and regula rity introduced into paftoral reflections, that the diétates of unrefined nature were improved by the harmony of numbers. We may accordingly obferve, that in the countries which fuffered the leaft variation from their original form, pastoral was moft efteemed; there the thoughts were ftill allured, and the imagination feasted with rural fceues unimproved, or more properly uncorrupted, for the cottage had not felt the infection of the court. well-known cha Arcadia, fo ufually painted the flowery kingdom of romance, is more ingenioufly accounted the land of paftoral. Its inland fituation, and the plenty of its pafture, with the racters of its inhabitants, confpire to favour the See what may be called the Prolegomena to the title. That the ancient poets defcribed this place Alonger sugionopera cum Græcis Scholiis, printed as the feat of paftoral, is evident, a fhepherd †, at London 1743, ILI TY WY XXI TWS Eugnen ra feno- peculiarly skilled in finging, being familiarly term2ixa, where the reputed invention of paftoral poetryed an Arcadian. There appears, however, in mabas neither the air of probability nor ingenuity. + Mofcbus and Bion, with Theocritus among the Greeks, and Virgil among the Romans, are the only fandard writers of paßoral, mentioned by Warton in the differtation prefixed to bis edition of Virgil; that editor, with the critic Rapin, feeming to explode all other ancient authors in that branch of poetry. Rapin's Critical Works, vol. ii. remarks on paftoral postry. * Dr. Martyn, in bis preface to the celogues of Virgil, calls Arcadia “ mountainous, and aloft inaceffi. ble ;" another reafon in support of the pafloral dispofition of its people. + Vi gil in bis 7th eclogue, fays of two jepherds, that they were "Arcades ambo; upon rubich Servius remarks, that they were not Arcadias, but so skilful in Singing, that they might be fleemed Arcadians. ay traditions of the country, fuch a strong mixture of the fabulous, that we may well fufpect them to, be the product rather of fancy than of truth. Nor lets faataftic are the defcriptions of the golden age; the ideal manners of which are esteemed, by the more refined critic, the genuine fource of patoral. To a rate fo delicate, the leaft appearance of the rustic i digufting. A becoming, indeed an dlegant implicity, and the pureit innocence, muft couple the chara&er of the fhepherd. No pat Luas, but of the fofteft and most engaging kind, are to be introduced: in short, the fwain is to be what no fwain ever was. La thele elevated notions of humble paftoral, reality is facrificed to the phantoms of the imagination the more characteristic ftrokes in the pic ture of rural hfe being utterly erazed, the bright cakers of unipotted integrity are indeed more plung to the eye, but in a picce where nature hould predominate, are more properly blended with the fade of frailty. For if mankind are to be reprefented entirely free from faults, we cannot look for their existence later than the fall. On this faftidious principle, it is esteemed necdary that rural happineis fhould be defcribed perfect and uninterrupted. The life of the thepherd is to be one perpetual fpring, without a cloud to dillurb its calmness. The viciffitudes, indeed, of love, which gives birth to more than half our me en pastorals, are admitted into the piece; for at ferms to be with fome as effential for a fhepherd to love, as to have been born. Yet even here the reprefentation is confined. The trin, after whining and crying (as Achilles ded to si- good-mother Thetis), calls on the trees Luthes, and every thing in nature, to be witBees of his unhappiness; but, after all, the performance, like our novels and romances, thofe ftanerds of propriety, muit have a fortunate conclu Ear whatever fond and amusing profpects the Country naturally opens to the mind, experience teaches us, that even there vexations will arife: te kafons of quiet and uneafinels fucceed as faurly as fummer and winter; groves and lawns, 21 purhng ftreams, found very prettily in dekaption, chiefly when flowing through the numbars or fome under-aged amorato; but reafon not let her feal to the luxuriancy of this Mahometan paradife. From fentiments fo extravagantly refined, let turn to these of a more fordid complexion. As the former fatiate the judicious reader with beds of rufes, the latter difguft him with the filiness el a dunghill. With critics of this caft, the manDers of the mere peafant are the fole foundation of paftoral; even lefs ruftic and homely appellations are banished from the characters; and the It has indeed a tendency altogether immoral to reprint with Theocritus a disappointed lover hanging kimmelf. The prefent mode of indifference in thefe conLorms, is more eligible, and on the whole may be thought Bare Buture!. Love-forrows are very rarely fatal. Melibus, or Neæra of Virgil, are fo much too courtly, that in their place are to be fubftituted the Airoho; and Bouxakirnos of Theocritus, and the Colin Clout or Hobbinol of Spenfer. The Doric dialect, which transfufes fuch a natural gracefulness over the Idylliums of the Grecian, has been a ftumbling-block to thefe lovers of inelegance. There is a ruftic propriety in the language of the dialect, which was familiar to the cottagar in the age of Theocritus; but it must be remembered, that his pastorals contain likewise a delicacy of fentiment which may well be prefumed to have attracted the attention of * Ptolemy, whofe palifhed court was the afylum of genius. But though it fhould be allowed that paftoral ought ftrictly to be limited to the actions of the peafant, it is not folely intended for his perufal. The critic, as he cannot on the one hand permit nature to be excluded, cannot relifh on the other her being expofed in difgraceful colours. There are in almoft every fituation fome cir cumftances over which we fhould draw the veil, for all is not to be painted with a clofe exactnefs. Coarfenels of fentiment, and indelicacy of expreffion, are an offence to decorum, and give modefty the blufh. Writings of fuch illiberal tendency counteract the best and principal end of composi tion; they hold up the mirror to vice and im morality, and facrifice virtue to contempt. To thofe who live in our meridian of more refined fimplicty, paftoral appears most properly in the drefs of rural elegance. Something is indulged to the character of the fhepherd, and fomething to the genius of the writer. They who fhould place the former on the toilette, would betray an abfurdity which would no lefs extend to the latter, whofe thoughts flowed in the rude channel of uninformed rufticity. The country is the fcene in which pastoral is naturally laid; but various may be the fubjects of this little drama. The fpirit of the poet would be wretchedly cramped, if never permitted to step afide. An infipid famenefs runs through the pieces, founded on the impropriety of this indulgence; and moft of our later paftorals are in this refpect but unmeaning paraphrafes of earlier authors." Were we to attempt an hiftorical epitome of pafloral compofition, we might place l'heocritus in its dawn, in that earlier age when rural fimpli * Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, to make amends for many atrocious crimes, was remarkable for bis fingular regard to the welfare of bis fubjects, and was a diftinguifbed encourager of learned men. See Anc. Univ. Hift. vol. 9. p. 386. note T. On this principle, it avere to be wished that the fubject of Virgil's fecond eclogue were not greatly liable to exception; though the morals of the poet jould not be perfonally impeached, we must lament that he bas varnifbed in bis Alexis the depravity of his times. Severa! reprefentations in Thescritus are glaringly obscene. Modern eclogues. from this reafon, abound with repetitions of amorous fcenes, or of fwains piping for a reward; not to mention other fubjects of a like inte ef in nature, which from conflant use are work to tatters, |