766 
PAST 
tindlions of rank and ftation were formed, and the buf- 
tle of courts and large focieties was known, that paftoral 
poetry affumed its prefent form. It was in the court of 
king Ptolemy that Theocritus wrote the firft: paftorals 
with which we are acquainted ; and in the court of Au- 
guftus he was imitated by Virgil. 
Paftoral poetry, whatever was its origin, is undoubt¬ 
edly a natural and very agreeable form of compofition. 
It recalls to our imaginatiqn thole gay fcenes, and 
pleafing views of nature, which are commonly the de¬ 
light of our childhood and youth; and to which, in more 
advanced life, moft men recur with pleafure. It exhibits 
to us a life, with which we are accuftomed to afl'ociate 
the ideas of peace, of leifure, or of innocence; and 
therefore we readily fet open our hearts to fuch reprefen- 
tations as promife to banilh from our thoughts the cares 
of the world, and to tranfport us into calm Elyfian re¬ 
gions. No fubjeft, at the fame time, feems to be more 
favourable to poetry. Amidft rural objefts, nature pre- 
fents, on all hands, the fineft field for defcription ; and 
nothing appears to flow more, of its own accord, into 
poetical numbers, than rivers and mountains, meadows 
and hills, flocks and trees, and Ihepherds void of care. 
Hence it is, that this fpecies of poetry has, at all times, 
allured many readers and excited many writers. Never- 
thelefs, there is hardly any fpecies of poetry more diffi¬ 
cult to be carried to perfection, or in which fewer wri¬ 
ters have excelled. 
Paftoral life is defcribed by the author now cited in 
three different dates of it: either as it now is, when 
Ihepherds are reduced to a mean, fervile, and laborious, 
condition ; or fuch as it may be fuppofed to have been 
in the more early and Ample ages, when flocks and herds 
were numerous, and fhepherds, though unrefined in their 
manners, were refpeftable in their ftation ; or fuch as it 
never was, nor can be, when, to the eafe, innocence, and 
flmplicity, of the early ages, we attempt to add the po- 
lifhed tafte and cultivated manners, of modern times. 
The firft of thefe dates is too grofs and mean, and the 
lad too refined and unnatural, to become the ground¬ 
work of padoral-poetry, Theocritus is cenfured for 
having deviated too much to the firft extreme; and fome 
of the French and Italian writers of paftorals have erred 
in making their fhepherds difcourfe like courtiers and 
fcholars; and in either way a perfon may retain the 
name, whilft he wants the fpirit, of paftoral poetry. He 
that would fucqeed in this fpecies of compofition muft 
keep in the middle ftation between thefe two extremes. 
The great charm of paftoral poetry arifes from the 
view which it exhibits of the tranquillity and happinefs 
of a rural life. Yet the fcenes of country life will be 
thought by many, and perhaps not without reafon, too 
barren of incidents. The tenor of the fhepherd’s life is 
uniform, and does not admit of that variety which ren¬ 
ders poetry interefting. Hence it is that, of all poems, 
the moft meagre commonly in the fubjeft, and the lead 
diverfified in the drain, is the paftoral. Common-place 
topics have been thrummed over by all eclogue-writers, 
fince the days of Theocritus and Virgil ; and to this cir- 
cumftance is owing much of that infipidity which prevails 
in modern paftoral compofitions. But why, fays Dr. 
Blair, may not paftoral poetry take a wider range ? Hu¬ 
man nature, and human pafiions, are much the fame in 
every rank of life ; and, whenever thefe pafiions operate 
on objefts that are within the rural fphere, there may 
be a proper fubjeft for paftoral. In the mean time, as 
Dr. Johnfon well obferves, “an intelligent reader, who 
is acquainted with the fcenes of real life, fickensmt the 
mention of the crook, the pipe, the flieep, and the kids, 
which it is not neceflary to bring forward to notice; for 
the poet’s art is feleftion ; and he ought to fliow the 
beauties without the grofl'nefs of the country life.” 
The two great fathers of paftoral poetry are Theocri¬ 
tus and Virgil. In thofe Idyllia of the former which 
.are properly paftorals, there are many great beauties. 
ORAL. 
He is diftinguifhed for the fimplicity of his fentiments j 
for the great fweetnefs and harmony of his numbers ; and 
for the richnefs of his fcenery and defcription. He is 
the original after which Virgil has copied ; but he has 
followed him with judgment, and in fome refpefts im¬ 
proved upon him. Mofchus and Bion, two other Greek 
poets, have alfo conflderable merit in the paftoral ftyle ; 
and, if they want the fimplicity of Theocritus, they ex¬ 
cel him in tendernefs and delicacy. 
The modern writers of paftorals have generally con¬ 
tented themfelves with imitating the ancient poets. 
Sannazarius, indeed, a famous Latin poet in the age of 
Leo X. attempted a bold innovation, by compofing 
Pifcatory Eclogues ; changing the fcene from woods to 
the fea, and from the life of fhepherds to that of fifher- 
men. But he has gained no followers among the mo¬ 
derns. Gefner, a poet of Swifierland, has been, in the 
judgment of Dr. Blair, the moft fuccefsful in his pafto¬ 
ral compofitions. He has introduced into his Idyils 
many new ideas. His rural fcenery is ftriking, and his 
defcriptions are lively. He prefents paftoral life to us, 
with all the etnbellifhments of which it is fufceptible, 
but without any excels of refinement. The chief merit 
of this poet confifts in his writing to the heart; and he 
has enriched the fubjefts of his Idylls with incidents 
which give rife to much tender fentiment. Scenes of 
domeftic felicity are beautifully painted. The mutual 
aft'eftion of hufbands and wives, of parents and children, 
of brothers and filters, as well as of lovers, are difplayed 
in a pleafing and touching manner. 
Shenftone’s Paftoral Ballad, in four parts, mayjuftly 
be reckoned, fays Dr. B. one of the moft elegant poems 
of this kind in the Englifli language. Neither Pope’s 
nor Philips’s paftorals do any great honour, in our au¬ 
thor’s opinion, to the Englifli poetry. Mr. Gay pub- 
lifhed his Shepherd’s Week, in fix paftorals, with a de- 
fign of ridiculing that fort of fimplicity which Philips 
and his partifans extolled; and they are an ingenious 
burlefque of paftoral writing, when it rifes,no higher 
than the manners of modern clowns and ruftics. The 
literary diftinftion which Ambrofe Philips had obtained 
from the fuccefs of his tragedy of the Diitrefied Mother, 
was probably the caufe of an exaggerated compliment 
from Tickell, which eventually expofed him to ridicule 
and mortification. That writer, in a paper in tlie 
Guardian upon paftoral poetry, abfurdly enough made 
the true paftoral pipe to deficend in fucceilioji from Theo¬ 
critus to Virgil, Spenfer, and Philips. Pope, who thus 
found his own juvenile paftorals undervalued, fent to 
the Guardian a comparifon between his and thofe of 
Philips, in which he ironically gave the preference to 
the latter ; and the irony zvas fu well concealed, that Steele 
zoos deceived, and it was not till Addifon had made the 
difcovery that the purpofe was detefted. It probably 
ruined the paftoral reputation of Philips; and thence¬ 
forth open war prevailed between the two poets, enve¬ 
nomed by the double hoftility of party and rivalry. 
Paftoral writing has appeared in later ages under the 
form of a regular drama, blending plot, charafters, and 
pafiions, with the fimplicity and innocence of rural man¬ 
ners. Accordingly paftoral has been defined a dramatic 
piece, in which the perfons are clad like nymphs and 
Ihepherds, and aft their own amours. The fcene is al¬ 
ways in the fields or woods; whence Tafl'o calls paftoral 
favole hoj'careccia. Such are the Paftor Fido of Guarini; 
the Aminta of Taffo; the Sylvia of Mair^t, fee French 
poet; and the Comus of Milton, See. Thlfo aflumes ta 
liimfelf the honour of having invented paftoral; but the 
firft idea of this kind of drama feems to be Beccari’s, 
who made the attempt in 1552: yet, Tafio’s Aminta, 
which did not appear till the year 1573, effacing what 
had been done by Beccari, the firft author was forgot, 
and Tafl'o left as the inventor. It is certain this kind 
of paftoral fable, compofed according to the rules 
of the ftage, was unknown among the ancients. The 
Greeks 
