A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral | Page 9

proceed from the One haveing many, the other no Under-Actions, but
rather from the different Actions, which a Hero and a Swain are
engag'd in. A Shepherd's leading his Lass to a Shade, and there sticking
her Bosom with Flowers, is the same in Pastoral, as an Hero's hurling a
Javelin, is in Epick Poetry. And a variety of Circumstances and Actions
is equally necessary in both Pieces. Or perhaps in Pastoral most; since
the Coolness and Sedateness of Pastoral is very apt to sate and tire the
Reader, if he dwell's long on one Action; and we can bear a longer
Description of a Battle than of two Shepherd's sitting together; because
the first fill's and actuate's the Mind the most; and where it is so much
employ'd, it cannot so easily flag and grow dull.
SECT. 2.
_Whether the Pastoral Fable should be simple or complex; and how it
must differ from the Epick Fable_.
The Implex Fables are to me, in all Poetry, the finest. And even
Pastoral may receive an additional Beauty from a Change of Fortune in
the chief Character, if manag'd with Discretion. 'Tis not easy to give
direct Proofs for things of this Nature. But what little I have to offer for
Pastoral's requiring an Implex Fable, is as follows.
Pastoral, like all Poetry, should aim at Pleasure and Profit. Pleasure is
best produc'd, if the Poem raises Pity, or Joy, or both; and Profit by its
having a Moral. Now the Implex Fable attain's it's End the easiest. For
we pity Misfortunes no where so much as in one we saw but lately
happy: Nor do we joy to see a Man flourish; but to see him rise from
Ills to a flourishing Condition, rejoyces the Mind. And as for the other
End of Poetry, which is Profit, every one may see that Implex Fables
are greatly best for producing a Moral.
But great Care must be taken in this Way. Whereas the Catastrophe in
Epick Poetry, is work'd up by violent Means, as Machines, and the like;
In Pastoral it must be produced so easy and natural, as to seem to
proceed from it self.
Nor must the Change of Fortune be produced by any sudden Contrast,
as in most Tragedies it is; since Surprize (unless very weak) is a Fault
in Pastoral, tho' a Beauty in other Poetry.
'Tis also evident that the Ills which a Shepherd falls into, from some
slight, and almost inevitable Slip (from which the Moral is form'd)

must be infinitely less than those which embarrass a Hero; because Ills
must be proportion'd to the Fault; and 'tis plain, the Faults of a Swain
are suppos'd to be very minute.
A hundred Observations, like this last, might be made, too
inconsiderable to enumerate; but the Poet, when he form's his Fable,
cannot avoid observing 'em. Otherwise, 'tis best he keep to the Simple
Fable; which, tho' a better may, by Industry, be form'd, is far enough
from being faulty.
SECT. 3.
_What Circumstances or Actions of a Shepherd's Life are properest for
the Poet to go upon_.
We cannot be pleas'd with the Description of any State, or Life, which
at that time we would not willingly exchange our present State for. Nor
is it possible to be pleas'd with any thing that is very low and beggarly.
Therefore, methinks, I would raise my Shepherd's Life to a Life of
Pleasure; contrary to the usual Method. For when a Citizen or Person in
Business divert's himself in the Country, 'tis not from seeing the Swains
employ'd or at Labour; he visits the Country for the easy and agreeable
Retiredness of it; and I believe the Pleasure of seeing a Shepherd
folding his Sheep, proceeds from the Prospect of Evening, of the
Woods and Fields, and from the Innocence we conceive in the Sheep,
and the like; not from the Action of the Shepherd folding them. So of
Reapers, we conceive 'em filling the following Year with Plenty; We
have, while we see 'em, the Thought of Fulness, and the time when
every thing is brought to Perfection; and these, and the like Thoughts,
rather raise the Delight of seeing those particular Labours, than the
Actions themselves. For we see, that if we behold Sheep, or the like, in
a City, tho' Countrymen are ordering them, we have no such Delight;
because there the Silence of Evening, the Prospect of Fields, &c. are
not added.
I would therefore omit the Labour of Shepherds, if I could invent a Life
more agreeable; but the latter must be form'd from a Man's Imagination,
the former from Observation; and Virgil could draw that almost as well
as Theocritus. I wonder the Writers of Pastoral should be so fond of
showing their