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VII.

DR. SWIFT.6

THE HAPPY LIFE OF A COUNTRY PARSON.

PARSON, these things in thy possessing

Are better than the bishop's blessing :-
A wife that makes conserves; a steed
That carries double when there 's need;
October store, and best Virginia,
Tithe pig, and mortuary guinea;
Gazettes sent gratis down and frank'd,
For which thy patron's weekly thank'd;
A large Concordance, bound long since;
Sermons to Charles the First when prince;
A Chronicle of ancient standing;
A Chrysostom to smooth thy band in:
The Polyglot-three parts-my text,
Howbeit-likewise-now to my next:
Lo, here the Septuagint-and Paul,
To sum the whole-the close of all.

He that has these may pass his life,
Drink with the 'squire, and kiss his wife;
On Sundays preach, and eat his fill,
And fast on Fridays-if he will ;

Toast Church and Queen, explain the news,
Talk with churchwardens about pews,

Pray heartily for some new gift,

And shake his head at Doctor S-t.

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Pastorals:

WITH

A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCIV.

"Rura mihi, et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes;
Flumina amem, sylvasque, inglorius!"-VIRG.

["My next desire is, void of care and strife,

To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life

A country cottage near a crystal flood,

A winding valley and a lofty wood."-DRYDEN.]

[The correctness and elegance of versification displayed in these early Pastorals seem to have astonished Wycherley and Walsh, to whom they were submitted in manuscript. Both were veteran poets, and one was a judicious classical critic, yet the self-taught youth of sixteen, in the shades of Windsor Forest, had at one bound placed himself above them, and, indeed, above all the poets of that period, as a master of at least one branch of his art. "The preface is very judicious and very learned," says Walsh, in a letter to Wycherley, April 20, 1705, "the author seems to have a particular genius for that kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the years you told me he was of." Again, "It is no flattery at all to say that Virgil had written nothing so good at his age." With what enthusiastic delight this praise, through the friendly medium of Wycherley, would be received by Pope, and with what joy it would be read aloud in his family circle, it is easy to conceive. He was now a poet for life! Walsh died in 1708, before any of his young friend's works had been published, but in the conclusion of his Essay on Criticism, Pope has paid a tribute to the taste and talents of his first learned and complimentary critic. All Pastorals, from Theocritus down to Pope and Ambrose Philips, are essentially the same in subject and imagery. They have no foundation in nature, and the most juvenile rhymester would not now dream of rivalling the classics in such a field. With respect to Pope's success, apart from his melodious numbers, Warton has thrown out some remarks. A mixture of British and Grecian ideas," he says, " may justly be deemed a blemish in these Pastorals; and propriety is certainly violated when

he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windsor with Hybla. Complaints of immoderate heat, and wishes to be conveyed to cooling caverns, when uttered by the inhabitants of Greece, have a decorum and consistency, which they totally lose in the character of a British shepherd; and Theocritus, during the ardours of Sirius, must have heard the murmurings of a brook, and the whispers of a pine, with more heartfelt pleasure than Pope could possibly experience on the same occasion." Pope, however, avoided the error of Spenser, in introducing wolves into England, and showed his judgment in substituting for the laurels appropriated to Eurotas, the willows native to the Thames. As to the clustering grapes, the pipe of reeds, and the sacrifice of lambs, they are no doubt inappropriate to English rural life, but they seem inseparable from the idea of a Pastoral. Pope retained this stock classic property not through inadvertence, but because he believed it to be indispensable. Sir William Trumbull, to whom the first Pastoral is inscribed, was educated at All Souls' College, Oxford, and on entering public life, was employed under Charles II., in various diplomatic missions at Tangier, Florence, Turin, and Paris. He was in the next reign ambassador at Constantinople, and, as Pope has stated, Secretary of State under William III. He resigned in 1697, and died at Easthampstead, about two miles from Pope's residence at Binfield, in 1716. So quiet and unambitious a close of a long political life, ending where it began, and soothed at the last with the strains of a young descriptive poet, is in fine keeping with these Pastorals.]

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THERE

A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY.1

are not, I believe, a greater number of any sort of verses than of those which are called Pastorals; nor a smaller, than of those which are truly so. It therefore seems necessary to give some account of this kind of Poem, and it is my design to comprise in this short paper the substance of those numerous dissertations the critics have made on the subject, without omitting any of their rules in my own favour. You will also find some points reconciled, about which they seem to differ, and a few remarks, which, I think, have escaped their observation.

The original of Poetry is ascribed to that age which succeeded the creation of the world: and as the keeping of flocks seems to have been the first employment of mankind, the most ancient sort of poetry was probably pastoral. It is natural to imagine, that the leisure of those ancient shepherds admitting and inviting some diversion, none was so proper to that solitary and sedentary life as singing; and that in their songs they took occasion to celebrate their own felicity. From hence a Poem was invented, and afterwards improved to a perfect image of that happy time; which, by giving us an esteem for the virtues of a former age, might recommend them to the present. And since the life of shepherds was attended with more tranquillity than any other rural employment, the Poets chose to introduce their persons, from whom it received the name of Pastoral.

A Pastoral is an imitation of the action of a shepherd, or one considered under that character. The form of this imitation is dramatic, or narrative, or mixed of both; the fable simple, the manners not too polite nor too rustic: the thoughts are plain, yet admit a little quickness and passion, but that short and flowing: the expression humble, yet as pure as the language will afford; neat, but not florid; easy, and yet lively. In short, the fable, manners, thoughts, and expressions are full of the greatest simplicity in nature.

The complete character of this Poem consists in simplicity,4

1 Written at sixteen years of age. 3 Heinsius in Theocr.

2 Fontenelle's Disc. on Pastorals. Rapin, de Carm. Past, p. 2.

brevity, and delicacy; the two first of which render an Eclogue natural, and the last delightful.

If we would copy nature, it may be useful to take this idea along with us, that Pastoral is an image of what they call the Golden Age. So that we are not to describe our shepherds as shepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to have been; when the best of men followed the employment. To carry this resemblance yet further it would not be amiss to give these shepherds some skill in astronomy, as far as it may be useful to that sort of life. And an air of piety to the gods should shine through the Poem, which so visibly appears in all the works of antiquity: and it ought to preserve some relish of the old way of writing; the connection should be loose, the narrations and descriptions short,5 and the periods concise. Yet it is not sufficient, that the sentences only be brief, the whole Eclogue should be so too. For we cannot suppose Poetry in those days to have been the business of men, but their recreation at vacant hours.

But with respect to the present age, nothing more conduces to make these composures natural, than when some knowledge in rural affairs is discovered.6 This may be made rather to appear done by chance than on design, and sometimes is best shown by inference; lest by too much study to seem natural, we destroy that easy simplicity from whence arises the delight. For what is inviting in this sort of poetry proceeds not so much from the idea of that business, as the tranquillity of a country life.

We must therefore use some illusion to render a Pastoral delightful; and this consists in exposing the best side only of a shepherd's life, and in concealing its miseries. Nor is it enough to introduce shepherds discoursing together in a natural way; but a regard must be had to the subject; that it contain some particular beauty in itself, and that it be different in every Eclogue. Besides, in each of them a designed scene or prospect is to be presented to our view, which should likewise have its variety. This variety is obtained in a great degree by frequent comparisons, drawn from the most agreeable objects of the country; by interrogations to things inanimate; by beautiful digressions, but those short; sometimes by insisting a little on

8

5 Rapin, Reflex. sur l'Art Poet. d'Arist. p. 2, Reflex. xxvii. 6 Pref. to Virg. Past. in Dryd. Virg.

8 See the forementioned Preface.

7 Fontenelle's Disc. of Pastorals.

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