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, Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains: 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)" Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring, While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing; Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play, 5 And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay. You, that too wise for pride, too good for pow'r, Enjoy the glory to be great no more, NOTES. larly Mr. Walsh, whom Mr. Dryden, in his Postscript to Virgil, calls the best Critic of his age. "The Author (says he) seems to have a particular genius for this kind of Poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds his years. He has taken very freely from the Ancients. But what he has mixed of his own with theirs is no way inferior to what he has taken from them. It is not flattery at all to say that Virgil had written nothing so good at his Age. His Preface is very judicious and learned." Letter to Mr. Wycherley, Ap. 1705. The Lord Lansdown, about the same time, mentioning the youth of our Poet, says (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley), "that if he goes on as he hath begun in the Pastoral way, as Virgil first tried his strength, we may hope to see English Poetry vie with the Roman." Notwithstanding the early time of their production, the Author esteemed these as the most correct in the versification, and musical in the numbers, of all his works. The reason for his labouring them into so much softness, was, doubtless, that this sort of poetry derives almost its whole beauty from a natural ease of thought and smoothness of verse; whereas that of most other kinds consists in the strength and fulness of both. In a letter of his to Mr. Walsh about this time, we find an enumeration of several niceties in Versification, which perhaps have never been strictly observed in any English poem, except in these Pastorals. They were not printed till 1709. P. Sir William Trumbal.] Our Author's friendship with this gentleman commenced at very unequal years; he was under sixteen, but Sir William above sixty, and had lately resigned his employment of Secretary of State to King William. P. Ver. 7. You, that too wise.] This amiable old man, who had been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Dr. of Civil Law, was sent by Charles II. Judge Advocate to Tangier, and afterwards And carrying with you all the world can boast, O let my Muse her slender reed inspire, 10 Till in your native shades you tune the lyre: Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews, Two Swains, whom Love kept wakeful, and the Muse, Pour'd o'er the whit'ning vale their fleecy care, NOTES. 20 afterwards in a public character to Florence, to Turin, to Paris; and by James II. Ambassador to Constantinople; to which city he went through the continent on foot. He was afterwards a Lord of the Treasury, and Secretary of State with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which office he resigned 1697, and retiring to East Hampstead, died there in December 1716, aged seventy-seven, Nothing of his writing remains but an elegant character of Archbishop Dolben. Warton. Ver. 12. in your native shades] Sir W. Trumbal was born in Windsor-forest, to which he retreated, after he had resigned the post of Secretary of State of King William III. P. Ver. 17, &c.] The Scene of this Pastoral a Valley, the Time the Morning. It stood originally thus, Daphnis and Strephon to the shades retir'd, DAPHNIS. Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day! Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing, When warbling Philomel salutes the spring? Why sit we sad, when Phosphor shines so clear, And lavish Nature paints the purple year? STREPHON. 25 Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain, While yon' slow oxen turn the furrow'd plain. 30 Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow, Here western winds on breathing roses blow. I'll stake yon' lamb that near the fountain plays, And from the brink his dancing shade surveys. NOTES. Ver. 32. Here western winds, &c.] The slow oxen, the bright crocus, and the blue violet, are images of Spring, the season of this Pastoral: the introduction of roses at the same time is not so appropriate. Bowles. VARIATIONS. Ver. 34. The first reading was, And his own image from the bank surveys. Warburton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 28. Purple year?] Dryden has "purple spring." Purple is used in the Latin sense, of the brightest, most vivid colouring in general, not of that peculiar tint so called. Warburton. Gray has adopted the expression of the purple year, in the first stanza of his exquisite Ode on Spring. Warton. Dr. Warton observes this verse is from Spenser's Muiopotmos. The words, " lavish nature," are, but there is nothing of "painting the purple year." Spenser's words are, There lavish nature, in her best attire, Pours forth sweet odors, and alluring sights. Bowles. |