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blank verse is of a freer kind, and is naturally read with less cadence or tone, the pauses in it, and the effect of them, are not always so sensible to the ear. It is constructed, however, entirely upon the same principles, with respect to the place of the pause.

575. Our BLANK VERSE possesses great advantages, and is indeed a noble, bold, and disencumbered species of versification. The principal defect in rhyme, is the full close which it forces upon the ear, at the end of every couplet. Blank verse is freed from this, and allows the lines to run into each other with as great liberty as the Latin hexameter permits, perhaps with greater. Hence it is particularly suited to subjects of dignity and force, which demand more free and manly numbers than rhyme.

Illus. The constraint and strict regularity of rhyme, are unfavourable to the sublime, or to the highly pathetic strain. An epic poem, or a tragedy, would be fettered and degraded by it. It is best adapted to compositions of a temperate strain, where no particular vehemence is required in the sentiments, nor great sublimity in the style; such as pastorals, elegies, epistles, satires, &c. To these it communicates that degree of elevation which is proper for them; and without any other assistance, sufficiently distinguishes the style from prose. He who should write such poems in blank verse, would render his work harsh and unpleasing. In order to support a poetical style, he would be obliged to affect a pomp of language unsuitable to the subject.

Scholia. 1. The present form of our English heroic rhyme in couplets, is a modern species of versification. The measure generally used in the days of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles I., was the stanza of eight lines, such as Spenser employs, borrowed from the Italian; a measure very constrained and artificial.

2. Waller was the first who brought couplets into vogue; and Dryden afterwards established the usage. Waller first smoothed our verse; Dryden perfected it. Pope's versification has a peculiar character. It is flowing and smooth in the highest degree; far more laboured and correct than that of any who went before him. He introduced one considerable change into heroic verse, by totally throwing aside the triplets, or three lines rhyming together, in which Dryden abounded. Dryden's versification, however, has very great merit; and, like all his productions, has much spirit, mixed with carelessness. It is not so smooth and correct as Pope's; it is, however, more varied and easy. He subjects himself less to the rule of closing the sense with a couplet; and frequently takes the liberty of making his couplets run into one another, with somewhat of the freedom of blank verse. If any one, after reading Pope's Rape of the Lock, or Eloisa to Abelard, shall not admit our rhyme, with all its varieties of pauses, to carry both elegance and sweetness of sound, his ear must be pronounced to be of a very peculiar kind.

CHAPTER III.

OF PASTORAL POETRY.

576. THE object of Pastoral Poetry is to delight the imagination with descriptions of the beauties of nature, and of human life spent in the midst of these beauties, the persons possessing health, sensibility, and innocence, and undisturbed by the anxieties and cares of business and activity.

Obs. 1. The simple recapitulation of the principal objects of which such descriptions consist, communicates pleasing and exhilarating emotions. Zephyrs whispering through the trees and woods; rivulets gliding along their mossy banks; birds chanting their lively notes; shepherds playing on their rural pipes; lambkins skipping after their dams; and the shepherdesses listening to the enchanting lays of their amorous swains.

2. The survey of pictures of innocence and happiness cannot fail to be agreeable, if the reader can be convinced of their reality. But, as he finds such descriptions continually falsified by experience, the poet artfully lays the scenes of his pastorals in remote places and ages, when, it is supposed, human life was less corrupted, and when shepherds and shepherdesses retained more refined sentiments, and more elevated rank, than persons of that character in modern times. If we wish to survey rural felicity in perfection, we must suppose ourselves transplanted into Sicily or Arcadia, where the pastoral life appeared in perfection, and where nature lavished all her stores to render the shepherd happy.

577. It is not sufficient, however, that the face of nature be lively and gay; the picture, to interest, must be animated with sentiment.

Illus. The shepherd must discover anxiety to obtain some object of importance to his happiness, or he must solace himself with the possession of it. He may signify his regret for the absence of a mistress or a friend; he may indulge in the hope to recover their society; he may sympathize with their misfortunes, or rejoice at their prosperity. But no violent feeling must be excited; no deep distress, or pungent sorrow must appear, which would produce vexation in the mind of the reader, because such a feeling would interfere with the gayety and pleasant emotions naturally prompted by this kind of composition.

578. Attention also must be bestowed to preserve the pastoral character both in sentiment and in action.

Пlus. The shepherds must not appear too learned or refined in their notions; neither must they display rudeness, cruelty, or indecency in their manners or words. Good sense, sensibility, observation of the striking beauties of nature, conjoined with simplicity and innocence, are the qualifications they must chiefly display.

579. A similar regard must be paid to local character, and national circumstances.

Illus. The British swain must not offer sacrifice to Pan, nor defend his flock against the lion and the wolf; he may, however, believe in the existence of invisible spirits or incantations, or fortify his lambs against the hound and the fox. In a word, the pastoral poet may indulge in every supposition which may render his pictures more beautiful, interesting, or sentimental: but he must not push his demands too far, nor shock the faith of his reader; he must not ask him to believe what is inconsistent or incredible.

580. Theocritus is the most early writer of pastorals. His works have descended to posterity, and he has been imitated by all his successors, particularly by Virgil.

Obs. 1. Theocritus was an inhabitant of Syracuse, in Sicily, about the time of Alexander the Great, and he has laid the scenes of all his poems in that delightful island. He paints nature, and delineates the sentiments and actions of his shepherds with great address. No pastoral writer has been more happy in striking the due medium between refinement and rudeness; and the use he makes of the Doric dialect, so admirably suited to the rusticity and simplicity of his characters, i none of the least marks of his merit.

2. Virgil succeeds Theocritus both in time and merit. Several of his pastorals are finished with good taste, simplicity, and propriety. No writer excels him in painting delicate sentiment, for which this kind of composition affords frequent opportunity.

Example 1. Nothing can be more simple and natural than the following lines:

"Tityre, dum redeo, brevis est via, pasce capellas:

Et potum pastas age, Tityre; et inter agendum
Occursare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto."

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"Parta meæ veneri sunt munera; namque notavi
Ipse locum, aëriæ quo congessere palumbes."

Example 3. The two last lines are beautifully translated and inproved by Shenstone :

"I have found out a gift for my fair,

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:

But let me the plunder forhear;

She will say 'twas a barbarous deed."

Obs. 3. Not above the half, however, of ten eclogues, which Virgi has left, can properly be said to deserve the name of pastoral. Several of them, particularly the first and ninth, have little of that character. The third, fifth, seventh, and eighth only, can be said to belong strictly to this species of poetry; and though even in them the sentiments are sometimes too refined, yet they are never quaint or affected. 4. Pope has imitated, and almost translated, Theocritus and Virgil. His pastorals, accordingly, have little merit, but that of the versification. He has scarcely ventured to advance a single sentiment, of which he had not received a hint from the Sicilian or Roman poet. The subsequent examples will illustrate this remark.

Example 1. Virgil, with much simplicity, expresses a beautiful sentiment in the following lines:

"Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella,

Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri."

Example 2. Pope diminishes the effect of this thought, by adding to it an air of prettiness and conceit.

"The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green;
She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen,
While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,

How much at variance are her feet and eyes!"

Scholium. Pope wrote his pastorals when very young, which furnishes a good apology for their defects.

581. Among all the various poets, ancient or modern, who have attempted pastorals, Shenstone is entitled to the greatest praise. Neither Theocritus nor Virgil is, perhaps, to be compared with him, in combining the capital requisites of this kind of writing; for no author in this line has introduced with more success whatever is simple, tender, and delicate.

Obs. Even Shenstone's own works in this line are not equally meritorious. He degenerates sometimes into flatness and insipidity; but no language can furnish a performance of its kind superior to his pastoral ballad, in four parts, on Absence, Hope, Solitude, and Disappointment. No quaintness, no affectation, no false refinement, no indelicaey; all is nature, innocence, and elegance. The whole poem deserves high praise: as a short specimen, we shall present the following lines, from the part denominated Hope.

"One would think she might like to retire
To the bower I had labour'd to rear ;

Not a shrub that I heard her admire,

But I hasted and planted it there.

Oh! how sudden the jessamine strove
With the lilac, to render it gay!
Already it calls for my love,

To prune the wild branches away.

I have found out a gift for my fair,

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:

But let me the plunder forbear;

She will say 'twas a barbarous deed:

For he ne'er could be true, she averr'd,
Who could rob a poor bird of its young;
And I lov'd her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue."

582. The favourable reception which pastoral poetry has obtained from all polished nations, and the picture it is supposed to exhibit of the happy but fabulous times of the golden age, have prompted some eminent authors to attempt to improve it. They have retained the pastoral characters, occupations, and manners, and to these have added importance and interest, by moulding them into a beautiful and picturesque sentimental comedy. As a farther enhance

ment of its merit, they have made music contribute liberally to adorn it, and have introduced a number of tender characteristic songs, in which the shepherds and shepherdesses signify to one another their hopes and wishes, accompanied with correspondent airs of melody.

Obs. 1. Few entertainments can present an assemblage of so many captivating objects, beautiful pictures of nature; the charms of music, which touch the heart; characters pleased, cheerful, and happy, engaged in those simple cares and attachments, which occupy human life, without fatiguing it; and which, being dictated by innocence and restrained by virtue, gently agitate, without distracting the mind. tempts of merit of this sort have accordingly been honoured with the warmest approbation.

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2. Italy furnishes two eminent specimens, which all Europe has read and admired. The Amynta of Tasso, and Pastor Fido of Guarini. Both display vivid pictures of nature, and of rural manners. The fables are interesting, and happily conducted; the characters are thrown into many delicate and tender situations. Many of the scenes are beautiful, and wrought up with so much sensibility, that the reader receives a very exquisite amusement.

583. The Gentle Shepherd, a Scottish pastoral comedy, of Allan Ramsay, is admired by every reader of taste and genius. The author has exerted much pains to avoid the reprehensible qualities of his two rivals, and every candid critic must allow that he has been successful.

Obs. 1. That he might suggest an apology for the greater liberality of sentiment which he has ventured to throw into the characters of his principal shepherd and shepherdess, he has supposed them to inherit a genius superior to their station, communicated from their parents, who possessed a more elevated rank, but who, from political misfortunes, were obliged to permit their children to be educated in concealment and obscurity.

2. In every other view, his pastoral is entitled to much praise. The fable is well conceived, naturally and regularly conducted. The characters are distinctly marked; they are numerous, and properly varied. Their occupations, sentiments, manners, are all the most picturesque, local, and characteristic, that can be supposed. Simplicity, innocence, cheerfulness, rustic sports and merriment, rude prejudices, opinions, and fears, are beautifully and pertinently interspersed. The situations of the principal characters are delicate and interesting, and deeply engage the attention of the reader. The great change of fortune, and the consequent happiness they enjoy from the accidental discovery of their birth and opulence in the course of the action, terminate the performance, by suggesting the most pleasing and satisfactory frame of mind the reader could wish to possess. The music is national, tender, simple, and the diction is perfectly suited to the characters. It is finished in the true Doric taste, soft and expressive, neither too refined, nor too gross and unpolished.

3. Dr. Blair was the first who prejudiced the public taste against the Gentle Shepherd. Barron has followed him in this, as, indeed, in almost every other thing the doctor said. But let it be observed, that

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