A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral | Page 6

to render It compleat.
_First_, It must be one entire _Action_, having a Beginning, a Middle,
and an End.
_Secondly_, A perfect Fable must have a due Length. And not consist
of only a mournful Speech which a Shepherd find's occasion to make;
or the like.
_Thirdly_, And since all Poetry is an Imitation of the most
Considerable, or the most Delightful Actions in the Person's Life we
undertake; not any trifling Action can be sufficient to constitute the
Fable.
_Fourthly_, Another Quality which a Pastoral Fable should have to be
the most compleat is a Moral Result.
I shall speak to all these Heads, except the first, concerning the _Unity_;
for without that Quality, it's self-evident that 'tis no Fable. By Unity I

mean the same with Aristotle.[A]
[Footnote A: _See his 6th
Chapter_
.]
SECT. 1.
What Length a perfect Pastoral should have.
All _Pastoral-Writers_ have used the same Length which Theocritus at
first happen'd into. I shall be therefore obliged, I doubt, to dwell longer,
on this Head, than the Importance of it may seem to require; and must
premise, that tho' a Fable would need, finely carry'd on, to be three or
four Hundred Lines, yet let no Writer be under any Concern about this:
If a Fable have Unity, shews a delightful story, paints proper
Characters, and contains a Moral, I shall not doubt to call the Poem a
perfect and compleat _Pastoral_, tho' the Length exceeds not fifty Lines.
But my Reasons for extending it are these:
Some Author I have seen, ingeniously observes, that even in telling
common Stories, 'twere best to give some short Account of the Persons
first, to be heard with Delight and Attention; For, says he, 'tis not so
much this being said, but its being said on such a particular Occasion,
or by such a particular Person. As this is true in a common Story, so 'tis
more so in a Poem. The strongest Pleasure that the Mind receives from
Poetry, flows from its being engaged and concerned in the Progress and
Event of the Story. We naturally side in Parties, and interest our selves
in their Affairs of one side or the other. Then 'tis, our Care pursues our
Favourite Character, where're he goes. We anticipate all his Successes,
and make his Misfortunes our own. Were the Catastrophe in a Tragedy
to appear in the first Act, but little should we be moved by it, not
having as yet imbibed a favourable Opinion of the Hero, nor learn'd to
be in Pain as often as he is in Danger.
Now, we may read, I fear, some Number of the Pastorals of the
ordinary Length, before we shall meet with this Pleasure. The Truth is,
we are commonly past a hundred Lines, the length of these Pieces,
before the Mind and Attention is entirely fix'd, and has lost all its

former and external Thoughts. All the Pleasure therefore which
proceeds from the Story is lost in these short Pieces.
'Tis true Indeed, I think it possible for a Novel, or perhaps a Poem, to
contain a Story in a hundred Lines which shall be able to engage the
Mind so as to delight it from the fable it self, stript of all its Ornaments.
But how few in a hundred Ages have had Genius's capable of this. And
if 'tis difficult in a Novel or Poem, which may couch the Circumstances
close together, how much more Difficult must it be in Pastoral. In the
former Pieces nothing is to be observed but the Story itself, in the latter
a thousand Beauties are to be adjoyn'd and as many Rules observ'd.
SECT 2.
The proper Length of Pastoral further collected from the Consideration
of the Characters.
Another Pleasure which the brevity of these Pieces robs us of, is this.
The Characters cannot finely and distinctly be depainted in so short a
Compass. And 'tis observable, we are concern'd for the Personages in
no Poetry so much as those of Pastoral. Simplicity and Innocence have
Charms for every Mind, and we pity most, where most our Pity's
wanted.
So that the two noblest Beauties, and which constitute the main
Difference between Poetry and Versification, between a perfect Poem
and a Madrigal, Epigram or Elegy, are entirely lost in those Pieces, and
the only Pleasure they can raise, must proceed alone from Sentiment
and Diction.
SECT 3.
_The Length of Pastoral, yet further shown from the Passions it raises_.
In every rational and consistent Piece, the Writer has some Aim in
View; as, to work every thing up to one End and a Moral Result; or to
excite some Passion, or the like. Otherwise it is but an Assay of Wit, a
Flirt of the Imagination, and no more. Too trifling to detain