190 June — The Aminta of Tasso. 



mon, or perhaps it may be more accurate to say that one 

 quality was preserved in the imitation, and that is, their 

 habit of calling every thing by its own name. It is un- 

 necessary to give examples of this, because every extract 

 that I have made is an example. The weak pastoral 

 poetry of their feeblest and latest imitators is not 

 marked by this masterly precision. Theocritus always 

 had before his mind's eye the image of a tree, when he 

 thought of a tree at all, much too clearly for him to be 

 ignorant of its species. The weak imitator does not see 

 an elm or a poplar, but only ' trees,' which in English 

 have generally the advantage of rhyming with breeze, 

 and ■ groves/ which are useful because they rhyme with 

 loves. 



XXXV. 



The Aminta of Tasso — His Indifference to Scenery — His Musicai 

 Verse — Tasso's Treatment of Landscape — His Way of Sketching 

 — Human Interest. 



WHEN we pass from the early genuine pastorals to 

 such a pastoral as the ■ Aminta ' of Tasso, we 

 very soon find out that we have left sylvan Nature 

 behind us. We have shepherds, and satyrs, and pas- 

 toral costumes, and an abundance of pretty talk, but 

 we are no more in the fresh air of Theocritus than if the 

 Tuscan poet had studied nothing but a classical die- 



