gularity and brevity, and falls short of him in nothing but simplicity and propriety of style; the first of which perhaps was the fault of his age, and the last of his language. Among the moderns, their success has been greatest who have most endeavoured to make these ancients their pattern. The most considerable Genius appears in the famous Tasso, and our Spenser. Tasso* in his Aminta has as far excelled all the Pastoral writers, as in his Gierusalemme he has out-done the Epic poets of his country. But as this piece seems to have been the original of a new sort of Poem, the Pastoral Comedy, in Italy, it cannot so well be considered as a copy of the ancients. Spenser's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opi * The Aminta of Tasso is here erroneously mentioned by Pope as the very first pastoral comedy that appeared in Italy: and Dr. Hurd also fell into the same mistake. But it is certain that Il Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari was the first, who boasts of it in his prologue, and who died very old in 1590; which drama was acted in the Palace of Francesco of Este. Such a mistake is very pardonable in so young an author, and very different from the gross and unscholar-like blunder of Trapp, who tells us in his fourteenth Lecture, that all the Eclogues of Calphurnius and Nemesian, who flourished under Diocletian, were entirely lost. I will just add, that the famous Critic, Jason de Nores, who wrote so well on Horace's Art of Poetry, condemned the Pastoral Drama. And that the above-mentioned, Il Sacrificio, was acted at Ferrara 1550, and the Aminta 1573, and the Pastor Fido before Cardinal Borghese 1590. It is observable, that Pope does not mention the Comus of Milton, the most exquisite of all pastoral dramas. Warton. There were several writers of Pastoral in Italy prior to those mentioned either by Pope or Warton; amongst whom may be enumerated Bernardo Pulci, Politian, and Sannazaro in his Arcadia. nion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil. Not but that he may be thought imperfect in some few points. His Eclogues are somewhat too long, if we compare them with the ancients. He is sometimes too allegorical, and treats of matters of religion in a pastoral style, as the Mantuan had done before him. He has employed the Lyric measure, which is contrary to the practice of the old Poets. His stanza is not still the same, nor always well chosen. This last may be the reason his expression is sometimes not concise enough for the Tetrastic has obliged him to extend his sense to the length of four lines, which would have been more closely confined in the Couplet. In the manners, thoughts, and characters, he comes near to Theocritus himself; though, notwithstanding all the care he has taken, he is certainly inferior in his Dialect: For the Doric had its beauty and propriety in the time of Theocritus; it was used in part of Greece, and frequent in the mouths of many of the greatest persons: whereas the old English and country phrases of Spenser were either entirely obsolete, or spoken only by people of the lowest condition. As there is a difference betwixt simplicity and rusticity, so the expression of simple thoughts should be plain, but not clownish. The addition he has made of a Calendar to his Eclogues, is very beautiful; since by this, besides the general moral of innocence and simplicity, which is common to other authors of Pastoral, he has one peculiar to himself; he compares human Life to the several Seasons, and at once exposes to his readers a view of the great and little worlds, in their various changes and aspects. Yet the scrupulous division of his Pastorals into Months, has obliged him either to repeat the same description, in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhausted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pass that some of his Eclogues (as the sixth, eighth, and tenth, for example) have nothing but their Titles to distinguish them. The reason is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular description, as it may every season. Of the following Eclogues I shall only say, that these four comprehend all the subjects which the Critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for pastoral: that they have as much variety of description, in respect of the several seasons, as Spenser's that in order to add to this variety, the several times of the day are observed, the rural employments in each season or time of day, and the rural scenes or places proper to such employments; not without some regard to the several ages of man, and the different passions proper to each age. But after all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old Authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, so I hope I have not wanted care to imitate.* * By this ingenuous and judicious confession he precludes the cavil of his adversaries, who would be ready to exclaim, that these pastorals were mere translations from Theocritus and Virgil. This is true; for the original thoughts are by no means numerous; but these imitations are transfused with such a classical spirit, and not unfrequently with such elegant improvement, as none but Pope, young as he was, could have compassed. The truth is, nature, in her form and operations, is the same in all ages. The first observers anticipate all their successors, in a faithful delineation of her features, and thus pre-occupy the praise of originality, by leaving but few discoveries even for unwearied and accurate inspection. And this remark, without recurring to the erroneous and injurious supposition of the superiority of ancient genius, will sufficiently apologize for modern poetry; not to mention that the habit of attending to the ancients from early initiation, not only inspires a reverence for their works, but renders it difficult for new adventurers to deviate with success from the paths already made, and which they themselves have so long trodden with rapture and animation. Wakefield. SPRING: THE FIRST PASTORAL,* OR DAMON. TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL. FIRST in these fields I try the sylvan strains, NOTES. * These Pastorals were written at the age of sixteen, and then passed through the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lansdown, Sir William Trumbal, Dr. Garth, Lord Hallifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring, and others. All these gave our Author the greatest encouragement, and particu IMITATIONS. Ver. 1. "Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu, larly This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the sixth of Virgil, which some have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Pastorals, he imitates expressly those which now stand first of the three chief Poets in this kind, Spenser, Virgil, Theocritus. A Shepherd's Boy (he seeks no better name)— "-A Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call)" " P. |