and Heroes. The scene is generally laid in Sicily, that country being famous for the ftories of the fhepherd Polyphemus and the herdman Daphnis, and at the fame time the native place of the Poet; who nevertheless fometimes lays the scene in other countries, where he happened to travel. The language is plain and coarse, the Doric dialect being almoft conftantly ufed, which greatly increases the rufticity of these Poems. We may observe, that the pronunciation of the Dorians was very coarse and broad, and founded harsh in the ears of the politer Grecians, from a paffage in the fifteenth Idyllium, where a citizen of Alexandria finds fault with the Syracufian goffips for opening their mouths fo wide when they fpeak; Παύσασθ ̓ ὦ δύστανοι, ἀνάνυτα κωτίλλοισαι Τρυγόνες ἐκκναισεῦντι πλατυάσδοισαι ἅπαντα. "Hift, hift, your tattling filly talk forbear, "Like turtles you have mouths from ear to ear. The good women are affronted, and tell him, that as they are Dorians, they will make ufe of the Doric Dialect; Μα, πόθεν ἄνθρωπος ; τί δέ τίν, εἰ κωτίλαι εἰμὲς * And "And who are you? pray what have you to fay, "If we will talk? Seek those that will obey. "Would you the Syracufian women rule? "Befides, to tell you more, you meddling fool, "We are Corinthians, that's no great difgrace, Bellerophon himself did boast that race. "We speak our language, ufe the Dorick tone, And, Sir, the Dores, fure, may ufe their own. CREECH. This Rufticity of the Idyllia of Theocritus, feems to have been well adapted to the age and country in which that Poet lived; and to have given the fame kind of pleasure, which the Scottish fongs give to us, merely by being natural. There are indeed, amidst all this Rufticity, many sentiments of a moft wonderful delicacy, which are highly worthy of imitation: but at the fame time we meet with many others, which are most abominably clownish, and even brutal. Hence Quintilian, who allows Theocritus to be admirable in his way, yet thinks his Mufe too ruftick and coarfe for politer ears This Poet however had continued in full poffeffion of the rural crown, about two hundred * Admirabilis in fuo genere Theocritus, fed Mufa illa ruftica et paftoralis non forum modo verum ipfam etiam urbem reformidat. Lib. 10. cap. 1. years, years, when VIRGIL became his rival; a Genius formed to excel in wit all thofe who had gone before him. That great Mafter of writing knew very well, that as the Roman Language had not a variety of Dialects, like the Greek, it would be in vain to think of giving his Bucolicks an air of Rufticity, like thofe of Theocritus. Nor. would it have been natural, if he could have fucceeded in the attempt. The manners of his age. and country were different: the Roman Swains talked in as pure Latin, in their fields, as Cicero could fpeak in the Senate. He therefore wifely gave a different air to his Bucolicks, making his Shepherds exprefs themselves with that softness and elegance*, which gained him the esteem and admiration of the contemporary poets and criticks; and recommended him to the protection and favour of the greatest men of his time. Virgil, without doubt, intended to imitate Theocritus, as appears by his frequent addresses to the Muses of Sicily but then he judicioufly chose to imitate Molle atque facetum Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae. Horat. Lib. I. Sat. 10. : + Sicelides Mufae paulo majora canamus. Ecl. IV. ver. 1. Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere verfu Noftra, nec erubuit fylvas habitare, Thalia. Ecl. VI. ver. 1, 2. the most beautiful paffages, and to pass by thofe which were too coarfe, or not well enough adapted to the time in which he lived. Hence the Bucolicks of Virgil are called Eclogues, or felect poems; because they are not a general collection of all the various fubjects of Paftoral Poetry, or an imitation of the whole thirty Idyllia of Theocritus; but only a few chofen pieces, in which that Poet's manner of writing is in fome measure imitated; but at the fame time very much improved. The Simplicity, the Innocence, and the Piety, which many of our Criticks think effential to a Paftoral, are far more confpicuous in the Bucolicks of Virgil, than in the Idyllia of Theocritus. The Lover, in the twenty-third Idyllium, hangs himself, whereas Corydon, in the fecond Eclogue, fees the folly of his unruly paffion, and repents. The fhepherds, indeed, in the third Eclogue, rail fharply at each other; and Damoetas goes fo far as to hint at fome obfcene action of his adversary: but the Travellers, in the fifth Idyllium, speak out plainly, in terms not fit to be repeated. We are not entertained by Virgil with any particular Hymn, in honour of Gods and Heroes. He looked upon that, as the province of the Lyric Poet, which we are told * he left en * Martial, Lib. VIII. Ep. 18. tirely to his friend Horace. But there is an air of Piety and Religion, that runs through all the Eclogues, and indeed through all the writings of our excellent Poet. As for the particular beauties of thefe Bucolicks, the Reader will find most of them pointed out in the following Notes: but there is one general beauty, which muft not be paffed by without obfervation. In almost every Eclogue, we are entertained with a rural Scene, a fort of fine Landscape, painted by a most masterly hand. In the Tityrus, a fhepherd is lying at ease, under the fhade of a spreading beech, playing on his rural pipe; whilst another reprefents the different fituation of his unhappy circumftances. We have the prospect before us of a country, partly rocky and partly marshy, a river and facred fprings, bees humming about the willows, and pigeons and tur tles cooing on the lofty elms: and at last with the defcription of the evening, the lengthening of the shadows, and the fmoaking of the cottage chimneys. In the Alexis, a mournful fhepherd laments his unhappy paffion, in a thick wood of beech-trees: we are prefented with a most beautiful collection of flowers; and we see the tired oxen bringing back the plough after their work is over, and the setting fun doubles the length of the fhadows. b 4 |