A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral | Page 5

shall first sum up the whole
Discoverys the French or any other Criticks yet have made in Pastoral;
and where they have left it I shall take the Subject, and try how far
beyond I am able to carry it. For after that, every single Thought will be
the free Sentiment of my own Mind. And I desire all to judge as freely
as I write; and (if, after a strict Examination of the Rules, they see any
Reason) to condemn as peremtorily; for we cannot get out of an Error
too soon.
RUAEUS say's, The Pastoral Sentiments must have a Connection Plain
and Easy. Affirming that tho' Incoherence, may add a neglegence and
simple loosness to Pastoral, yet 'tis not such a Negligence or Simplicity
as Pastoral delight's in.
DRYDEN observe's, that the Dialect proper for Pastoral, must have a
Relish of the Fascion of speaking in the Country.
FONTENELL that most excellent Frenchman takes Notice, that no
Passion is so proper for Pastoral as that of Love. He mean's as to what
we are to describe in our Swains; not mentioning those Passions that
Poem is to raise in the Reader.
RAPIN observe's, The Fable should be One. The Swains not abusive, or

full of Raillery. The Sence should not be extended or long. This Author
has other Observations new, but you may guess of what a Nature, when
he confesses He walk'd but as Theocritus and Virgil lead him.
Therefore he cannot have carried the Poem to any Perfection beyond
the Condition they left it in; and so much any Reader may see from the
Authors themselves, without reading a large Volume to find it out.
Mr. _DRYDEN_, in another place, has an Observation which carrys the
Knowledge of Pastoral still farther. Pastorals, says he, must contain an
agreeable Variety after the manner of a Landscape.
But in the _GUARDIANS_, Vol. I. The Reader may see the Nature of
Pastoral more explain'd and enter'd into, in a few Dissertations, than by
all these Authors have deliver'd on the Subject. As these are Books in
every Bodies Hands, I shall not trouble my self to extract the Summary
of 'em. But he will find the Criticism on Phillips and the other
Observations are extreamly Ingenious.

CHAP. I
_Of the Parts of Pastoral; and of the several Sorts of that Poem_.
PASTORAL, in it's Imitation of the Lives of Shepherds, makes use of
FABLE, CHARACTERS, SENTIMENTS and LANGUAGE; and by
these four Parts conjoyntly obtain's it's End; that is, excites our Pity, or
our Joy, or both. For in FABLE I include the MORAL; in
SENTIMENTS both IMAGE and THOUGHT; and in LANGUAGE I
comprehend the HARMONY.
These four Parts of PASTORAL would lead us into an easy and natural
enumeration of the several Kinds or Sorts of that Poem: According as
they have more or fewer of those Parts; and as they do or do not excite
the Pastoral passions. Not that all those Kinds are perfect Pastorals, or
even Poems, but only such as Authors have given us Examples of, from
THEOCRITUS and VIRGIL.
But I omit this Division for another more material. A Difference more
fundamental, arises in the PASTORALS written by different
AUTHORS, according to the Age which the Poet chuses to describe, or
the different Descriptions which he gives us of the COUNTRY. For he

may draw it as 'tis suppos'd to have been in the Golden Age; or be may
describe his own COUNTRY, but touching only what is agreable in it;
or lastly, may depaint the Life of Swains exactly as it is, their Fatigues
and Pleasures being equally blended together. And this, last Kind most
Writers have given into; for _Theocritus's_ rude unmanner'd Muse (as
many Criticks have stiled it, not much amiss) naturally led him into this
Method; and then, tis easy to conceive why the latter Pastoral-Writers
chose the same.
But as the second Method is plainly more delightful than the last, as it
collect's the most beautiful Images and sweetest Thoughts the Country
afford's; so I shall show that 'tis preferable on many other Accounts;
and even finer for Pastoral than the Golden Age. But this when I speak
of the Characters.
I would only settle now in short the most compleat Kind of Pastoral;
And such, I think, is that which most beautifully draw's the present Life
of Shepherds, and raises Pity or Joy, by the four Parts of Pastoral, Fable,
Characters, Sentiments, and Language. And since 'tis these which
constitute a perfect Pastoral, I shall crave leave to speak separately of
'em all. And first of the Fable.

CHAP. II.
_Of the Fable; and the means of making a perfect One_.
A Fable proper for Pastoral, and best adapted to delight, must have
these following Qualities