A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral | Page 7

the rational

Mind. Now, that these short Pieces are not capable of having a Moral,
or raising any Passion, I need trouble my self for no other Proof than
there never having been such one produced.
But give me leave to instance in the usual Method of forming a Pastoral.
One Shepherd meets another; tells him some body is dead; upon which,
they begin the mournful Dialogue, or Elegy. But in such an Elegy,
there is but one thing can raise a fine Pleasure; which can be the only
solid Reason for the Writers performing such a Work; and that is the
raising Pity, without which no End is obtain'd by such a Dialogue. And
'tis only a School-Boy tryal of Wit; like a single Description. Unless the
Poet think's it enough that the Scene is laid in the Country, and the very
Talk of Shepherds is enough to support a Piece. And the truth is, of a
Nature so exceeding pleasant is Pastoral, that a Piece which has but
Fields and Hedges repeated pretty often in it, is at least tolerable;
whereas in any other Poetry, we see every day far better Poems cast out
of the World as soon as they enter into it. But another reason of their
Success proceeds from the little Knowledge most People have of
Pastoral; all Poets having gone in exactly the same Track, without one
endeavouring to raise the Poem to any greater Perfection than they
found it in; whereas Epick Poetry, Tragedy, and Comedy, arriv'd by
slow degrees to the Perfection they now bear; and this Writer still went
beyond the last of an equal Genius.
But I was going to give an Instance how incapable these Pieces are of
raising the Passions. A mournful Dialogue, or Elegy is formed upon the
Death of some Person. But if this Elegy raises not our Pity, 'tis a Trifle,
and only a childish Copy of Verses. But in order to raise that most
delightful Passion, should not the Reader be first prepossess'd in favour
of the Party dead? Can I pity a Person because deceas'd, without
knowing any thing of his while alive?
'Tis the same in that other well-known way of drawing up a Pastoral. I
mean, where two Shepherds sing alternately. Theocritus haply light
upon this, and every Pastoral Writer since his time, (that I have seen)
has been so unfortunate as to happen exactly upon the same. And I
believe it has as often been indifferent to the Readers which of the

Shepherds overcame. Our Joy in this Case is equal to our Grief in the
other.
SECT. 4.
_From the length by Nature prescribed to all Pieces, Epick, Tragick, &c.
is shown, That Pastoral will, at least, admit of the Length of three or
four hundred Lines_.
Thus far of the Necessity of extending a Pastoral to the Length of three
or four hundred Lines, if we would not deprive our selves of the
Opportunities of being as delightful as Poetry will permit. But if any
Commentator, who think's himself oblig'd to defend Theocritus and
Virgil in every particular, should not only not allow this Length to be
preferable, but even condemn it as faulty, it would oblige us to come
more close to the Point, and to take the Question from the bottom.
What is the Length by Nature fix'd for all Pieces? And why mayn't an
Epick be as short as a Tragick Poem? Methink's a Poet should not be
content to take these things on Trust, and tye himself down to Brevity
or Length only because Theocritus wrote short and Homer long Pieces.
I have not Leisure to enter fully into this Question, but would
recommend it to some Person who has, as a Subject that would prove
as Entertaining to the Reader as the Writer. However, I shall speak just
what I have at present in my Mind upon it.
Without considering Tragedy as drawn into Representation, it is plain it
would not endure the Length of Epick Poetry, without being wearious
in the Reading, for these Reasons among others: It's Nature is more
heated and violent than the Epick Poem, and consists of only Dialogue;
whereas the former has the Variety of Dialogue and Narration both.
Besides, the under-actions which work up to the main Action in
Heroick Poetry, are each as great and as different from each other, as
the main Actions of different Tragedies.
Nor would Pastoral bear the Length of even Tragedy. For it admits not
both those two kinds of Writing, the Sublime and the Beautiful, which
are the most different of any in Nature, having only the last. But these

two give so sweet a variety to the same Piece, when they are artfully
blended together, that a good Tragedy or Epick