Chapter XVIII: Part 18

[Footnote 5: I cannot easily discover why it is thought necessary to refer descriptions of a rural state to the golden age, nor can I perceive that any writer has consistently preserved the Arcadian manners and sentiments. The only reason that I have read on which this rule has been founded is that, according to the customs of modern life, it is improbable that shepherds should be capable of harmonious numbers, or delicate sentiments; and therefore, the reader must exalt his ideas of the pastoral character by carrying his thoughts back to the age in which the care of herds and flocks was the employment of the wisest and greatest men. These reasoners seem to have been led into their hypothesis by considering pastoral, not in general, as a representation of rural nature, and consequently as exhibiting the ideas and sentiments of those, whoever they are, to whom the country affords pleasure or employment, but simply as a dialogue or narrative of men actually tending sheep, and busied in the lowest and most laborious offices; from whence they very readily concluded, since characters must necessarily be preserved, that either the sentiments must sink to the level of the speakers, or the speakers must be raised to the height of the sentiments. In consequence of these original errors, a thousand precepts have been given, which have only contributed to perplex and confound.--JOHNSON.]

[Footnote 6: Rapin, Reflex. sur l'Art. Poet. d'Arist., P. ii. Refl. xxvii.--POPE.]

[Footnote 7: Pope took this remark from Dr. Knightly Chetwood's Preface to the Pastorals in Dryden's Virgil: "Not only the sentences should be short and smart, but the whole piece should be so too, for poetry and pastime was not the business of men's lives in those days, but only their seasonable recreation after necessary hours." The rule is purely fanciful. By continuing the same subject from week to week, a shepherd could as easily find leisure to compose a single piece of a thousand lines as ten pieces of a hundred lines each. Most of the laws of pastoral poetry which Pope has collected are equally unfounded.]

[Footnote 8: Pref. to Virg. Past. in Dryd. Virg.--POPE.]

[Footnote 9: Fontenelle's Disc. of Pastorals.--POPE.]

[Footnote 10: See the forementioned Preface.--POPE.]

[Footnote 11: [Greek: THERISTAI], Idyl. x. and [Greek: ALIEIS], Idyl. xxi.--POPE.

Pope's definition of Pastoral is too confined. In fact, his Pastoral Discourse seems made to fit _his_ Pastorals. For the same reason he would not class as a true Pastoral the most interesting of all Virgil's Eclogues,--I mean the first, which is founded on fact, which has the most tender and touching strokes of nature, and the plot of which is entirely pastoral, being the complaint of a shepherd obliged to leave the fields of his infancy, and yield the possession to soldiers and strangers. Pope says, because it relates to soldiers, it is not pastoral; but how little of a military cast is seen in it. The soldier is mentioned, but only as far as was absolutely necessary, and always in connection with the rural imagery from whence the most exquisite touches are derived. Pope's pastoral ideas, with the exception of the Messiah, seem to have been taken from the least interesting and poetic scenes of the ancient eclogue,--the Wager, the Contest, the Riddle, the alternate praises of Daphne or Delia, the common-place complaint of the lover, &c. The more interesting and picturesque subjects were excluded, as not being properly pastoral according to his definition.--BOWLES.

In saying that Pope would not allow Virgil's first eclogue to be "a true pastoral," Bowles refers to the paper in the Guardian, where the design was to laugh at the strict definition which would exclude a poem from the pastoral class on such frivolous grounds. In the same jesting tone, Pope asserts that the third eclogue must be set aside, because it introduces "calumny and railing, which are not proper to a state of concord," and the eighth, because it has a shepherd "whom an inviting precipice tempts to self-destruction."]

[Footnote 12: The tenth and twenty-first Idyll here alluded to contain some of the most exquisite strokes of nature and true poetry anywhere to be met with, as does the beautiful description of the carving on the cup, which, indeed is not a cup, but a very large pastoral vessel or cauldron.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 13: In what does the great father of the pastoral excel all others? In "simplicity, and nature." I admit with Pope, but more particularly in one circumstance, which seems to have escaped general attention, and that circumstance is the picturesque. Pope says he is too long in his descriptions, particularly of the cup. Was not Pope, a professed admirer of painting, aware that the description of that cup contains touches of the most delightful and highly-finished landscape? The old fisherman, and the broken rock in one scene; in another, the beautiful contrast of the little boy weaving his rush-work, and so intent on it, that he forgets the vineyard he was set to guard. We see him in the foreground of the piece. Then there is his scrip, and the fox eyeing it askance; the ripe and purple vineyard, and the other fox treading down the grapes whilst he continues at his work. Add to these circumstances the wild and beautiful Sicilian scenery, and where can there be found more perfect landscapes in the works, which these pictures peculiarly resemble, of Vernet or Gainsborough? Considered in this view, how rich, wild, and various are the landscapes of the old Sicilian, and we cannot but wonder that so many striking and original traits should be passed over by a "youthful bard," who professed to select from, and to copy the ancients.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 14: He refines indeed so much, as to make him, on this very account, much inferior to the beautiful simplicity of his original.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 15: It is difficult to conceive where is the "wonderful variety" in Virgil's Eclogues which "the Greek was a stranger to." Many of the more poetical parts of Virgil are copied literally from Theocritus; but are weakened by being made more general, and often lose much of their picturesque and poetical effect from that circumstance.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 16: Rapin. Refl. on Arist., P. ii. Refl. xxvii. Pref. to the Ecl. in Dryden's Virgil.--POPE.]

[Footnote 17: The Aminta of Tasso is here erroneously mentioned by Pope as the very first pastoral comedy that appeared in Italy. But it is certain that Il Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari was the first, who boasts of it in his prologue, and who died very old in 1590.--WARTON.

"There were," says Roscoe, "several writers of pastoral in Italy prior to those mentioned either by Pope or Warton." Roscoe mistook the question, which was, who was the first author of the pastoral _drama_? None of the prior pastoral writers he enumerates produced a drama, and Warton was right in giving the precedency to Beccari.]

[Footnote 18: Dedication to Virg. Ecl.--POPE.]

[Footnote 19: In the manuscript Pope had added, "Some of them contain two hundred lines, and others considerably exceed that number."]

[Footnote 20: Johnson remarks that while the notion that rustic characters ought to use rustic phraseology, led to the adoption in pastorals "of a mangled dialect which no human being ever could have spoken," the authors had the inconsistency to invest their personages with a refinement of thought which was incompatible with coarse and vulgar diction. "Spenser," he continues, "begins one of his pastorals with studied barbarity:

Diggon Davie, I bid her good day;
Or Diggon her is, or I missay.

_Dig._ Her wus her while it was day-light,
But now her is a most wretched wight.

What will the reader imagine to be the subject on which speakers like these exercise their eloquence? Will he not be somewhat disappointed when he finds them met together to condemn the corruptions of the church of Rome? Surely at the same time that a shepherd learns theology, he may gain some acquaintance with his native language."]

[Footnote 21: "It was from hence," the poet went on to say in his manuscript, "I took my first design of the following eclogues. For, looking upon Spenser as the father of English pastoral, I thought myself unworthy to be esteemed even the meanest of his sons, unless I bore some resemblance of him. But, as it happens with degenerate offspring, not only to recede from the virtues, but to dwindle from the bulk of their ancestor; so I have copied Spenser in miniature, and reduced his twelve months into four seasons." When Pope published his Pastorals he stated that three of them were imitated from Virgil and Theocritus, which occasioned his cancelling this passage where he speaks as if he had taken Spenser alone for his model.]

SPRING:

THE FIRST PASTORAL,

OR

DAMON.

TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.[1]

First in these fields I try the sylvan strains,[2]
Nor blush to sport on Windsor's blissful plains:[3]
Fair Thames, flow gently from thy sacred spring,[4]
While on thy banks Sicilian[5] muses sing;
Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play,[6] 5
And Albion's cliffs resound the rural lay.[7]
You, that too wise for pride, too good for pow'r,[8]
Enjoy the glory to be great no more,
And carrying with you all the world can boast,[9]
To all the world illustriously are lost! 10
O let my muse her slender reed inspire,
Till in your native shades[10] you tune the lyre:
So when the nightingale to rest removes,
The thrush may chant to the forsaken groves,[11]
But, charmed to silence, listens while she sings, 15
And all th' aerial audience clap their wings.[12]
Soon as the flocks shook off the nightly dews,[13]
Two swains, whom love kept wakeful, and the muse,
Poured o'er the whit'ning[14] vale their fleecy care,
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:[15] 20
The dawn now blushing on the mountain's side,
Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.[16]

DAPHNIS.

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,[17]
With joyous music wake the dawning day![18]
Why sit we mute, when early linnets sing, 25
When warbling Philomel salutes the spring?[19]
Why sit we sad, when Phosphor[20] shines so clear,
And lavish nature paints the purple[21] year?[22]

STREPHON.

Sing then, and Damon shall attend the strain,
While yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain. 30
Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow,[23]
Here western winds on breathing[24] roses blow.[25]
I'll stake yon lamb that near the fountain plays,
And from the brink his dancing shade surveys.[26]

DAPHNIS.

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines,[27] 35
And swelling clusters bend the curling vines:[28]
Four figures rising from the work appear,[29]
The various seasons of the rolling year;[30]
And what is that, which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve fair signs in beauteous order lie?[31] 40

DAMON.

Then sing by turns, by turns the muses sing;[32]
Now hawthorns blossom, now the daisies spring,
Now leaves the trees, and flow'rs adorn the ground;
Begin, the vales shall ev'ry note rebound.[33]

STREPHON.

Inspire me, Phoebus, in my Delia's praise,[34] 45
With Waller's strains, or Granville's moving lays![35]
A milk-white bull shall at your altars stand,
That threats a fight, and spurns the rising sand.[36]

DAPHNIS.

O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,[37]
And make my tongue victorious as her eyes: 50
No lambs or sheep for victims I'll impart,
Thy victim, Love, shall be the shepherd's heart.

STREPHON.

Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,
Then hid in shades, eludes her eager swain;[38]
But feigns a laugh to see me search around, 55
And by that laugh the willing fair is found.[39]

DAPHNIS.

The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green,
She runs, but hopes she does not run unseen,[40]
While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,[41]
How much at variance are her feet and eyes![42] 60

STREPHON.[43]

O'er golden sand let rich Pactolus flow,[44]
And trees weep amber on the banks of Po;[45]
Bright Thames's shores the brightest beauties yield,
Feed here, my lambs, I'll seek no distant field.

DAPHNIS.

Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves; 65
Diana Cynthus, Ceres Hybla loves;
If Windsor-shades delight the matchless maid,
Cynthus and Hybla yield to Windsor-shade.[46]

STREPHON.

All nature mourns, the skies relent in show'rs,[47]
Hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flow'rs; 70
If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring,
The skies to brighten, and the birds to sing.[48]

DAPHNIS.

All nature laughs,[49] the groves are fresh and fair,
The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air;
If Sylvia smiles, new glories gild the shore, 75
And vanquished nature seems to charm no more.[50]

STREPHON.

In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love,
At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,
But Delia always; absent from her sight,
Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight. 80

DAPHNIS.

Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May,
More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day;[51]
Ev'n spring displeases, when she shines not here;
But blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.

STREPHON.

Say, Daphnis, say, in what glad soil appears, 85
A wondrous tree that sacred monarchs bears;[52]
Tell me but this, and I'll[53] disclaim the prize,
And give the conquest to thy Sylvia's eyes.

DAPHNIS.

Nay tell me first, in what more happy fields[54]
The thistle springs, to which the lily yields:[55] 90
And then a nobler prize I will resign;
For Sylvia, charming Sylvia shall be thine.

DAMON.

Cease to contend; for, Daphnis, I decree
The bowl to Strephon, and the lamb to thee.[56]
Blest swains, whose nymphs in ev'ry grace excel; 95
Blest nymphs, whose swains those graces sing so well!
Now rise, and haste to yonder woodbine bow'rs,
A soft retreat from sudden vernal show'rs;
The turf with rural dainties shall be crowned,[57]
While op'ning blooms diffuse their sweets around. 100
For see! the gath'ring flocks to shelter tend,
And from the Pleiads[58] fruitful show'rs descend.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: 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.--POPE.

This amiable old man, who had been a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and doctor of civil law, was sent by Charles II. judge advocate to Tangier, and 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.

Pope says that Sir William Trumbull had "lately" resigned his office at the period of their acquaintance, but seven years had elapsed after the date of Sir William's retirement, before Pope had reached the age of sixteen.]

[Footnote 2:

Prima Syracusio dignata est ludere versu,
Nostra nec erubuit sylvas habitare Thalia.

Ecl. vi. 1.

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)--
Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,--
Thyrsis, the Music of that murm'ring Spring,--

are manifestly imitations of

"--A shepherd's boy (no better do him call)."

"--Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi."

"--[Greek: Hadu ti to psithyrisma kai ha pitys, aitole, tena.]"--POPE.]

[Footnote 3: Pope not only imitated the lines he quotes from Virgil, but, as Wakefield points out, was also indebted to Dryden's translation of them.

I first transferred to Rome Sicilian strains:
Nor blushed the Doric muse to dwell on Mantuan plains.

Originally Pope had written,

First in these fields I sing the sylvan strains,
Nor blush to sport in Windsor's peaceful plains.

Upon this he says to Walsh, "Objection that the letter is hunted too much--_sing the sylvan_--_peaceful plains_--and that the word _sing_ is used two lines afterwards, _Sicilian muses sing_." He proposed to read "try" in the place of "sing;" "happy" instead of "peaceful," and adds, "Quaere. If _try_ be not properer in relation to _first_, as we first attempt a thing; and more modest? and if _happy_ be not more than _peaceful_?" Walsh replies, "_Try_ is better than _sing_. _Happy_ does not sound right, the first syllable being short. Perhaps you may find a better word than _peaceful_ as _flow'ry_." Pope rejected all three epithets, and substituted "blissful."]

[Footnote 4: Evidently imitated from Spenser's Prothalamion:

Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 5: Because Theocritus, the father of Pastoral Poetry, was a Sicilian.--PROFESSOR MARTYN.]

[Footnote 6: Paradise Regained, ii. 27:

Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play.

Dryden, Theodore and Honoria:

The winds within the quiv'ring branches played.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 7: Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse:

And Albion's rocks repeat his rural song.--WAKEFIELD.

The term "Albion's cliffs," which is usually appropriated to the steeps that bound the sea-shore, is applied by Pope to the hills about Windsor.]

[Footnote 8: The expression in this verse is philosophically just. True wisdom is the knowledge of ourselves, which terminates in a conviction of our absolute insignificancy with respect to God, and our relative inferiority in many instances to the accomplishments of our own species: and power is encompassed with such a multiplicity of dangerous temptations as to be almost incompatible with virtue. A passage in Lucan, viii. 493, is very apposite:

exeat aula
Qui vult esse pius. Virtus et summa potestas
Non coeunt.

He who would spotless live from courts must go:
No union power supreme and virtue know.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 9: Waller, The Maid's Tragedy Altered:

Happy is she that from the world retires,
And carries with her what the world admires.--WILKES.]

[Footnote 10: Sir W. Trumbull was born in Windsor-forest, to which he retreated after he had resigned the post of secretary of state of King William III.--POPE.

The address to Trumbull was not in the original manuscript which passed through his hands, and the lines were probably added when the Pastorals were prepared for the press. "Little Pope," wrote Sir William to the Rev. Ralph Bridges on May 2, 1709, "was here two days ago, always full of poetry and services to Mr. Bridges. I saw in the advertisement, after he was gone, the Miscellany is published, or publishing, by Jacob Tonson, wherein are his Pastorals, and which is worse, I am told one of them is inscribed to my worship." A more inappropriate panegyric could not have been devised than to pretend that Trumbull was among poets what the nightingale was among birds. The retired statesman had a true taste for literature, but his efforts as a versifier had been limited to a dozen lines translated from Martial.]

[Footnote 11: Warton observes that the nightingale does not sing till the other birds are at rest. This is a mistake; the nightingale sings by day as well as at night, but the expressions "to rest removes" and "forsaken groves" give an idea of evening, in which case there would be certainly an error in making the thrush "chant" after the nightingale. As to the thrush being "charmed to silence" at any time by the nightingale, and the "aerial audience" applauding, it is allowable as a fanciful allusion, perhaps, though the circumstance is contrary to nature and fact.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 12: Concanen, in a pamphlet called A Supplement to the Profound, objected to the use of an image borrowed from the theatre, and Pope, in vindication of his line, has written "Dryden" in the margin, alluding doubtless to a couplet in Dryden's verses to the Duchess of York:

Each poet of the air her glory sings
And round him the pleased audience clap their wings.

Every one must feel the image to be burlesque, and even Dryden's authority cannot recommend it.]

[Footnote 13: The scene of this Pastoral a valley, the time the morning. It stood originally thus,

Daphnis and Strephon to the shades retired,
Both warmed by love, and by the muse inspired,
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair,
In flow'ry vales they fed their fleecy care;
And while Aurora gilds the mountain's side,
Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.--POPE.

There was in the manuscript a still earlier, and perhaps better, version of the first two lines:

Daphnis and Strephon led their flocks along,
Both famed for love and both renowned in song.

They were however borrowed from Lycon, an Eclogue, in the fifth part of Tonson's Miscellany:

Strephon and Damon's flocks together fed,
Both famed for wit, and famed for beauty both.

Wakefield points out that the opening verse of the couplet, as it stands in the text, was indebted to Congreve's Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas:

When woolly flocks their bleating cries renew,
And from their fleecy sides first shake the silver dew.]

[Footnote 14: The epithet "whitening" most happily describes the progressive effect of the light.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 15: Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:

Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 16: From Virgil, Ecl. vii. 20:

Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrsis.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 17: Milton's first sonnet:

O! nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve!--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 18: Congreve's Tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas:

When grateful birds prepare their thanks to pay,
And warble hymns to hail the dawning day.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 19: Waller's Chloris and Hylas:

Hylas, oh Hylas! why sit we mute
Now that each bird saluteth the spring.--WAKEFIELD.

Concanen having commented in the Supplement to the Profound upon the impropriety "of making an English clown call a well-known bird by a classical name," Pope wrote in the margin, "Spenser and Ph." The remainder of the second name has been cut off by the binder. Pope's memory deceived him if A. Philips was meant, for the nightingale is not once called Philomela in his Pastorals.]

[Footnote 20: Phosphor was the Greek name for the planet Venus when she appeared as a morning star.]

[Footnote 21: Purple is here used in the Latin sense of the brightest, most vivid colouring in general, not of that specific tint so called.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 22: Dryden in his Cock and Fox:

See, my dear!
How lavish nature has adorned the year.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 23: In the manuscript this verse ran

There the pale primrose and the vi'let glow,

which was evidently borrowed from a line in Dryden's Cock and Fox, quoted by Wakefield:

How the pale primrose and the vi'let spring.

The first edition of the Pastorals had

Here on green banks the blushing vi'lets glow,

and this reading was retained till the edition of Warburton. It probably at last occurred to the poet that as people do not blush blue or purple, the epithet "blushing" was inapplicable to the violet.]

[Footnote 24: "Breathing" means breathing odours, and Wakefield quotes Paradise Lost, ii. 244:

his altar breathes
Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers.]

[Footnote 25: Pope rarely mentions flowers without being guilty of some mistake as to the seasons they blow in. Who ever saw roses, crocuses, and violets in bloom at the same time?--STEEVENS.]

[Footnote 26: The first reading was,

And his own image from the bank surveys.--POPE.

Pope submitted the reading in the note, and that in the text to Walsh, and asked which was the best. Walsh preferred the text.]

[Footnote 27:

Lenta quibus torno facili superaddita vitis,
Diffusos edera vestit pallente corymbos. Virg.--POPE.]

[Footnote 28: Variation:

And clusters lurk beneath the curling vines.--POPE.

Dryden's Virgil, Eclogues:

The grapes in clusters lurk beneath the vines.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 29: Dryden, AEn. viii. 830:

And Roman triumphs rising on the gold.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 30: The subject of these Pastorals engraven on the bowl is not without its propriety. The Shepherd's hesitation at the name of the zodiac imitates that in Virgil, Ecl. iii. 40:

et quis fuit alter,
Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem?--POPE.

Creech's translation of Eclogue iii.:

And showed the various seasons of the year.

Pope also drew upon Dryden's version of the passage:

Two figures on the sides embossed appear,
Conon, and what's his name who made the sphere,
And showed the seasons of the sliding year?

Virgil's commentators cannot agree upon the name which the shepherd had forgotten, but they unite in commending the stroke of nature which represents a rustic poet as unable to recall the name of a man of science.]

[Footnote 31: Dryden, Georg. i. 328.

And cross their limits cut a sloping way,
Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 32: Literally from Virgil, Ecl. iii. 59:

Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Camoenae,
Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos,
Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus.--POPE.

Creech's translation:

play
By turns, for verse the muses love by turns.

The usage was for the second speaker to imitate the idea started by the first, and endeavour to outdo him in his vaunt. All the speeches throughout the contest consisted of the same number of lines. In the third eclogue of Virgil we have two rivals and an umpire. One of the antagonists stakes a carved bowl, the other a cow; and the final effort of each poet is to propound a riddle, upon which the umpire interposes, and declares that the candidates are equal in merit. Pope keeps close to his original.]

[Footnote 33: Dryden, Ecl. x. 11.

And echo, from the vales, the tuneful voice rebound.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 34: In place of this couplet the original manuscript read,

Ye fountain nymphs, propitious to the swain,
Now grant me Phoebus', or Alexis' strain.

Pope imitated Virgil, Ecl. vii. 21:

Mihi carmen,
Quale meo Codro, concedite: proxima Phoebi
Versibus ille facit.]

[Footnote 35: George Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, known for his poems, most of which he composed very young, and proposed Waller as his model.--POPE.]

[Footnote 36: Virgil, Ecl. iii. 86:

Pascite taurum,
Qui cornu petat, et pedibus jam spargat arenam.--POPE.

Dryden, AEn. ix. 859:

A snow-white steer before thy altar led:
And dares the fight, and spurns the yellow sands.--WAKEFIELD.

The second line of the couplet in the text ran thus in the original manuscript:

With butting horns, and heels that spurn the sand.

This also was from Dryden, Ecl. iii. 135:

With spurning heels, and with a butting head.]

[Footnote 37: Originally thus in the manuscript:

Pan, let my numbers equal Strephon's lays,
Of Parian stone thy statue will I raise;
But if I conquer and augment my fold,
Thy Parian statue shall be changed to gold.--WARBURTON.

This he formed on Dryden's Vir. Ecl. vii. 45:

Thy statue then of Parian stone shall stand;
But if the falling lambs increase my fold,
Thy marble statue shall be turned to gold.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 38: Pope had at first written,

The lovely Chloris beckons from the plain,
Then hides in shades from her deluded swain.

"Objection," he says, in the paper he submitted to Walsh, "that _hides_ without the accusative _herself_ is not good English, and that _from her deluded swain_ is needless. Alteration:

The wanton Chloris beckons from the plain,
Then, hid in shades, eludes her eager swain.

Quaere. If _wanton_ be more significant than _lovely_; if _eludes_ be properer in this case than _deluded_; if _eager_ be an expressive epithet to the swain who searches for his mistress?"

Walsh. "_Wanton_ applied to a woman is equivocal, and therefore not proper. _Eludes_ is properer than _deluded_. _Eager_ is very well."]

[Footnote 39: He owes this thought to Horace, Ode i. 9, 21.--WAKEFIELD.

Or rather to the version of Dryden, since the lines of Pope have a closer resemblance to the translation than to the original:

The laugh that guides thee to the mark,
When the kind nymph would coyness feign,
And hides but to be found again.]

[Footnote 40: Imitation of Virgil, Ecl. iii. 64:

Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella,
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri.--POPE.

He probably consulted Creech's translation of the passage in Virgil:

Sly Galatea drives me o'er the green,
And apples throws, then hides, yet would be seen.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 41: Dryden's Don Sebastian;

A brisk Arabian girl came tripping by;
Passing, she cast at him a sidelong glance,
And looked behind, in hopes to be pursued.--STEEVENS.]

[Footnote 42: A very trifling and false conceit.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 43: In place of the next speech of Strephon, and the reply of Daphnis, the dialogue continued thus in the original manuscript:

STREPHON.

Go, flow'ry wreath, and let my Silvia know,
Compared to thine how bright her beauties show;
Then die; and dying, teach the lovely maid
How soon the brightest beauties are decayed.

DAPHNIS.

Go, tuneful bird, that pleased the woods so long,
Of Amaryllis learn a sweeter song;
To heav'n arising then her notes convey,
For heav'n alone is worthy such a lay.

The speech of Strephon is an echo of Waller's well-known song:

Go, lovely rose,
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Then die, that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share,
That are so wondrous sweet and fair.

The speech of Daphnis is from Dryden's Virgil, Ecl. iii. 113:

Winds, on your wings to heav'n her accents bear,
Such words as heav'n alone is fit to hear.]

[Footnote 44: It stood thus at first:

Let rich Iberia golden fleeces boast,
Her purple wool the proud Assyrian coast,
Blest Thames's shores, &c.--POPE.]

[Footnote 45: It is evident from the mention of the "golden sands" of Pactolus, and the "amber" of the poplars in connection with the Thames, that he had in view Denham's description in Cooper's Hill:

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold.--WAKEFIELD.

The sisters of Phaeton, according to the classical fable, were, upon the death of their brother, turned into poplars on the banks of the Po, and the tears which dropt from these trees were said to be converted into amber.]

[Footnote 46: This couplet is a palpable imitation of Virgil, Ecl. vii. 67:

Saepius at si me, Lycida formose, revisas,
Fraxinus in silvis cedet tibi, pinus in hortis.--WAKEFIELD.

The entire speech is a parody of the lines quoted by Wakefield, and of the lines which immediately precede them in Virgil's Eclogue. The passage omitted by Wakefield is thus translated in vol. i. of Tonson's Miscellany:

Bacchus the vine, the laurel Phoebus loves;
Fair Venus cherishes the myrtle groves;
Phyllis the hazel loves, while Phyllis loves that tree,
Myrtles and laurels of less fame shall be.]

[Footnote 47: Virg. Ecl. vii. 57:

Aret ager, vitio moriens sitit aeris herba [&c.]
Phyllidis adventu nostrae nemus omne virebit.--POPE.]

[Footnote 48: These verses were thus at first:

All nature mourns, the birds their songs deny,
Nor wasted brooks the thirsty flow'rs supply;
If Delia smile, the flow'rs begin to spring,
The brooks to murmur, and the birds to sing.--POPE.

Wakefield remarks that the last couplet of the original version, which is but slightly modified in the text, was closely imitated from Addison's Epilogue to the British Enchanters:

The desert smiles, the woods begin to grow,
The birds to warble, and the springs to flow.]

[Footnote 49: Dryden, Ecl. vii. 76:

And lavish nature laughs.]

[Footnote 50: Pope had at first written,

If Sylvia smiles she brightens all the shore,
The sun's outshined, and nature charms no more.

This he submitted to Walsh. Pope. "Quaere, whether to say the sun is outshined be too bold and hyperbolical?" Walsh. "For pastoral it is." Pope. "If it should be softened with _seems_? Do you approve any of these alterations?

If Sylvia smile, she brightens all the shore,
{ All nature seems outshined, and charms no more.
{ Light seems outshined, and nature charms no more.
{ And vanquished nature seems to shine no more.

Quaere, which of these three?" Walsh. "The last of these three I like best."]

[Footnote 51: Cowley, Davideis, iii. 553:

Hot as ripe noon, sweet as the blooming day,
Like July furious, but more fair than May.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 52: An allusion to the royal oak, in which Charles II. had been hid from the pursuit after the battle of Worcester.--POPE.

This wretched pun on the word "bears" is called "dextrous" by Wakefield, but Warton says that it is "one of the most trifling and puerile conceits" in all Pope's works, and is only exceeded in badness by the riddle "which follows of the thistle and the lily."]

[Footnote 53: The contraction "I'll," which often occurs in these pastorals, is familiar and undignified.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 54: It was thus in the manuscript:

Nay, tell me first what region canst thou find
In which by thistles lilies are outshined?
If all thy skill can make the meaning known,
The prize, the victor's prize, shall be thy own.--WAKEFIELD.

Pope submitted the first two lines to Walsh in conjunction with the version in the text. "Quaere, which of these couplets is better expressed, and better numbers? and whether it is better here to use _thistle_ or _thistles_, _lily_ or _lilies_, singular or plural? The epithet _more happy_ refers to something going before." Walsh. "The second couplet [the text] is best; and singular, I think better than plural."]

[Footnote 55: Alludes to the device of the Scots' monarchs, the thistle, worn by Queen Anne; and to the arms of France, the _fleur de lys_. The two riddles are in imitation of those in Virg. Ecl. iii. 106:

Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum
Nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto.--POPE.

Thus translated by Dryden;

Nay, tell me first in what new region springs
A flow'r that bears inscribed the names of kings;
And thou shalt gain a present as divine
As Phoebus' self, for Phyllis shall be thine.

Either the commentators on Virgil have not hit upon the true solution of his riddles, or they are not at all superior to the parody of Pope.]

[Footnote 56: This is from Virg. Ecl. iii. 109:

Et vitula tu dignus, et hic.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 57: Originally:

The turf with country dainties shall be spread,
And trees with twining branches shade your head.--POPE.]

[Footnote 58: The Pleiades rose with the sun in April, and the poet ascribes the April showers to their influence.]

SUMMER:

THE SECOND PASTORAL,

OR

ALEXIS.[1]

TO DR. GARTH.[2]

A shepherd's boy (he seeks no better name)[3]
Led forth his flocks[4] along the silver Thame,[5]
Where dancing sun-beams on the waters played,[6]
And verdant alders formed a quiv'ring[7] shade;[8]
Soft as he mourned, the streams forgot to flow,[9] 5
The flocks around a dumb compassion show,[10]
The Naiads wept in ev'ry wat'ry bow'r,
And Jove consented in a silent show'r.[11]
Accept, O GARTH! the muse's early lays,
That adds this wreath of ivy to thy bays;[12] 10
Hear what from love unpractised hearts endure,
From love, the sole disease thou canst not cure.
Ye shady beeches, and ye cooling streams,
Defence from Phoebus', not from Cupid's beams,[13]
To you I mourn; nor to the deaf I sing,[14] 15
"The woods shall answer, and their echo ring."[15]
The hills and rocks attend my doleful lay,
Why art thou prouder and more hard than they?[16]
The bleating sheep with my complaints agree,
They parched with heat, and I inflamed by thee.[17] 20
The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains,[18]
While in thy heart eternal winter reigns.[19]
Where stray ye, muses, in what lawn or grove,[20]
While your Alexis pines in hopeless love?
In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides, 25
Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?[21]
As in the crystal stream I view my face,[22]
Fresh rising blushes paint the wat'ry glass;
But since those graces please thy eyes no more,
I shun the fountains which I sought before. 30
Once I was skilled in ev'ry herb that grew,
And ev'ry plant that drinks the morning dew;[23]
Ah wretched shepherd, what avails thy art,
To cure thy lambs, but not to heal thy heart![24]
Let other swains attend the rural care, 35
Feed fairer flocks, or richer fleeces shear:[25]
But nigh yon' mountain[26] let me tune my lays,
Embrace my love, and bind my brows with bays.[27]
That flute is mine which Colin's[28] tuneful breath
Inspired when living, and bequeathed in death:[29] 40
He said; Alexis, take this pipe,[30] the same
That taught the groves my Rosalinda's name:[31]
But now the reeds shall hang on yonder tree,[32]
For ever silent, since despised by thee.
Oh! were I made by some transforming pow'r 45
The captive bird that sings within thy bow'r![33]
Then might my voice thy list'ning ears employ,
And I those kisses he receives enjoy.
And yet my numbers please the rural throng,[34]
Rough satyrs dance, and Pan applauds the song:[35] 50
The nymphs, forsaking ev'ry cave and spring,[36]
Their early fruit, and milk-white turtles bring![37]
Each am'rous nymph prefers her gifts in vain,
On you their gifts are all bestowed again.[38]
For you the swains their fairest flow'rs design, 55
And in one garland all their beauties join;
Accept the wreath which you deserve alone,
In whom all beauties are comprised in one.
See what delights in sylvan scenes appear!
Descending gods have found Elysium here.[39] 60
In woods bright Venus with Adonis strayed;
And chaste Diana haunts the forest-shade.
Come, lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours,
When swains from shearing seek their nightly bow'rs;
When weary reapers quit the sultry field,[40] 65
And crowned with corn their thanks to Ceres yield.
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,[41]
But in my breast the serpent love abides.[42]
Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you. 70
O deign to visit our forsaken seats,
The mossy fountains, and the green retreats![43]
Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade;
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade;
Where'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,[44] 75
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.[45]
O! how I long with you to pass my days,[46]
Invoke the muses, and resound your praise!
Your praise the birds shall chant in ev'ry grove,[47]
And winds shall waft it to the pow'rs above.[48] 80
But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain,[49]
The wond'ring forests soon should dance[50] again,
The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,
And headlong streams hang list'ning in their fall.[51]
But see, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat, 85
The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat,[52]
To closer shades the panting flocks remove;
Ye gods! and is there no relief for love?[53]
But soon the sun with milder rays descends
To the cool ocean, where his journey ends:[54] 90
On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey,[55]
By night he scorches, as he burns by day.[56]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The scene of this Pastoral by the river side, suitable to the heat of the season: the time noon.--POPE.]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Samuel Garth, author of the Dispensary, was one of the first friends of the author, whose acquaintance with him began at fourteen or fifteen. Their friendship continued from the year 1703 to 1718, which was that of his death.--POPE.

He was a man of the sweetest disposition, amiable manners, and universal benevolence. All parties, at a time when party violence was at a great height, joined in praising and loving him. One of the most exquisite pieces of wit ever written by Addison, is a defence of Garth against the Examiner, 1710. It is unfortunate that this second Pastoral, the worst of the four, should be inscribed to the best judge of all Pope's four friends to whom they were addressed.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 3: This was one of the passages submitted to Walsh. "Objection," remarks Pope, "against the parenthesis, _he seeks no better name_. Quaere. Would it be anything better to say,

A shepherd's boy, who sung for love, not fame, etc.

Or,

A shepherd's boy, who fed an amorous flame.

Quaere, which of all these is the best, or are none of them good." Walsh preferred the parenthesis in the text. "It is Spenser's way," he said, "and I think better than the others."]

[Footnote 4: Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar:

A shepherd boy (no better do him call)
Led forth his flock.--BOWLES.

Pope's second Pastoral is an ostensible imitation of Spenser's first eclogue, which is devoted to a lover's complaint, but though Pope has echoed some of the sentiments of Spenser, and appropriated an occasional line, his style has little resemblance to that of his model.]

[Footnote 5: "An inaccurate word," says Warton, "instead of Thames;" and rendered confusing by the fact that there is a real river Thame, which is a tributary of the Thames. Milton has used the same licence, and speaks of the "royal towered Thame" in his lines on the English rivers.]

[Footnote 6: Originally thus in the MS.:

There to the winds Headrigg plained his hapless love,
And Amaryllis filled the vocal grove.--WARBURTON.]

[Footnote 7: Dryden's Theodore and Honoria:

The winds within the quiv'ring branches played,
And dancing trees a mournful music made.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 8: Ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, were thus printed in the first edition:

A faithful swain, whom Love had taught to sing,
Bewailed his fate beside a silver spring;
Where gentle Thames his winding waters leads
Through verdant forests, and through flow'ry meads.--POPE.]

[Footnote 9: Dryden's Virg. Ecl. viii. 3:

To which the savage lynxes list'ning stood;
The rivers stood on heaps, and stopped the running flood.

Milton, Comus, 494:

Thyrsis, whose artful strains have oft delayed
The puddling brook to hear his madrigal.--WAKEFIELD.

Garth, in his Dispensary, canto iv., says that, when Prior sings,

The banks of Rhine a pleased attention show,
And silver Sequana forgets to flow.]

[Footnote 10: Milton, Comus:

That dumb things shall be moved to sympathise.--STEEVENS.

In the tears of Amaryllis for Amyntas, Congreve says of the tigers and wolves, that

They dumb distress and new compassion show.]

[Footnote 11: Virg. Ecl. vii. 60:

Jupiter et laeto descendet plurimus imbri.--POPE.

In the original manuscript the couplet was slightly different:

Relenting Naiads wept in ev'ry bow'r,
And Jove consented in a silent show'r.

Pope. "Objection, that the Naiads weeping in bowers is not so proper, being water nymphs, and that the word _consented_ is doubted by some to whom I have shown these verses. Alteration:

The Naiads wept in ev'ry wat'ry bow'r,
And Jove relented in a silent show'r.

Quaere. Which of these do you like best?" Walsh. "The first. Upon second thoughts I think the second is best." Pope ended by adopting the first line of the second version, and the second line of the first.]

[Footnote 12: This is taken from Virg. Ecl. viii. 12.--WAKEFIELD.

Dryden's translation, ver. 17:

Amidst thy laurels let this ivy twine,
Thine was my earliest muse.

Ivy, with the Romans, was the emblem of literary success, and the laurel crown was worn by a victorious general at a triumph. As Pollio, to whom Virgil addressed his eighth eclogue, was both a conqueror and a poet, the double garland allotted to him was appropriate, but there was no fitness in the application of the passage to Garth.]

[Footnote 13: A harsh line, and a false and affected thought.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 14: Virg. Ecl. x. 8.

Non canimus surdis: respondent omnia sylvae.--POPE.

Ogilby's translation of the verse in Virgil:

Nor to the deaf do we our numbers sing,
Since woods, in answ'ring us, with echoes ring.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 15: A line out of Spenser's Epithalamion.--POPE.]

[Footnote 16: A line unworthy our author, containing a false and trivial thought; as is also the 22nd line.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 17: Pope says his merit in these Pastorals is his copying from the ancients. Can anything like this, and other conceits, be found in the natural and unaffected language of Virgil? No such thing. But what do we find in Dryden's imitation of Virgil, Ecl. ii. 13:

The creaking locusts with my voice conspire,
They fried with heat, and I with fierce desire.

This is Virgil's:

Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis.

And Pope had the imitation in his eye, not the original.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 18: So Virgil says of Sirius, or the dog-star, Geor. ii. 353:

hiulca siti findit Canis aestifer arva.

"Gassendi has well remarked," says Arnauld in his Logic, "that nothing could be less probable than the notion that the dog-star is the cause of the extraordinary heat which prevails in what are called the dog days, because as Sirius is on the other side of the equator, the effects of the star should be greatest at the places where it is most perpendicular, whereas the dog days here are the winter season there. Whence the inhabitants of those countries have much more reason to believe that the dog-star brings cold than we have to believe that it causes heat."]

[Footnote 19: The Shepherd's Calendar of Spenser:

Such rage as winter's reigneth in my heart.]

[Footnote 20: Virg. Ecl. x. 9, out of Theocritus:

Quae nemora, aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellae
Naiades, indigno cum Gallus amore periret?
Nam neque Parnassi vobis juga, nam neque Pindi,
Ulla moram fecere, neque Aoniae Aganippe.--POPE.

Ogilby's translation:

Say, Naiades, where were you, in what grove,
Or lawn, when Gallus fell by ill-matched love.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 21: Addison's Campaign:

Or where the Seine her flow'ry fields divides,
Or where the Loire through winding vineyards glides.--WAKEFIELD.

Pope wrote at random. The Cam does not divide vales, but runs, or rather creeps, through one of the flattest districts in England.]

[Footnote 22:

Oft in the crystal spring I cast a view,
And equalled Hylas, if the glass be true;
But since those graces meet my eyes no more, shun, etc.

Virgil again (Ecl. ii. 25), from the Cyclops of Theocritus:

nuper me in littore vidi,
Cum placidum ventis staret mare; non ego Daphnim,
Judice te, metuam, si nunquam fallit imago.--POPE.

In his first version, which is closer to Virgil than the second, Pope had in his mind Dryden's translation, Ecl. ii. 33:

and if the glass be true,
With Daphnis I may vie.]

[Footnote 23: Milton, Penseroso, ver. 172:

And every herb that sips the dew.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 24: This is an obvious imitation of those trite lines in Ovid, Met. i. 522:

herbarum subjecta potentia nobis.
Hei mihi, quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbis;
Nec prosunt domino, quae prosunt omnibus, artes.--WAKEFIELD.

Dryden's translation:

What herbs and simples grow
In fields and forests, all their pow'rs I know.
To cure the pains of love no plant avails,
And his own physic the physician fails.

It is remarkable that the imitation in the text of some of the most hacknied lines in classical literature, should be one of four passages quoted by Ruffhead, to prove that all the images in Pope's Pastorals had not been borrowed from preceding poets.]

[Footnote 25: The only faulty rhymes, _care_ and _shear_, perhaps in these poems, where the versification is in general so exact and correct.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 26: The scene is laid upon the banks of the Thames, and "mountain" is a term inapplicable to any of the neighbouring hills. Pope was too intent upon copying Virgil to pay much regard to the characteristics of the English landscape.]

[Footnote 27: It is not easy to conceive a more harsh and clashing line than this. There is the same imagery in Theocritus (Idyll viii. 55), but it is made more striking by the circumstances and picturesque accompaniments, as well as by the extraordinary effect of the lines adapted to the subject.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 28: The name taken by Spenser in his Eclogues, where his mistress is celebrated under that of Rosalinda.--POPE.]

[Footnote 29: Virg. Ecl. ii. 36:

Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis
Fistula, Damoetas dono mihi quam dedit olim,
Et dixit moriens, Te nunc habet ista secundum.--POPE.

Pope's couplet originally ran thus:

Of slender reeds a tuneful flute I have.
The tuneful flute which dying Colin gave.

"Objection," he says to Walsh, "that the first line is too much transposed from the natural order of the words, and that the rhyme is inharmonious." He subjoined the couplet in the text, and asked, "Which of these is best?" to which Walsh replies, "The second."]

[Footnote 30: Dr. Johnson says, "that every intelligent reader sickens at the mention of the crook and the pipe, the sheep and the kids." This appears to be an unjust and harsh condemnation of all pastoral poetry.--WARTON.

Surely Dr. Johnson's decrying the affected introduction of "crook and pipe," &c., into English pastorals, is not a condemnation of all pastoral poetry. Dr. Johnson certainly could not very highly relish this species of poetry, witness his harsh criticisms on Milton's exquisite Lycidas; but we almost forgive his severity on several genuine pieces of poetic excellence, when we consider that he has done a service to truth and nature in speaking with a proper and dignified contempt for such trite puerilities.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 31: Virg. Ecl. i. 5:

Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 32: Imitated from Virg. Ecl. vii. 24:

Hic arguta sacra pendebit fistula pinu.--WAKEFIELD.

Dryden's translation:

The praise of artful numbers I resign,
And hang my harp upon the sacred pine.]

[Footnote 33: This thought is formed on one in Theocritus iii. 12, and our poet had before him Dryden's translation of that Idyllium:

Some god transform me by his heav'nly pow'r,
E'en to a bee to buzz within your bow'r.--WAKEFIELD.

Warton prefers the image of Theocritus, as more wild, more delicate, and more uncommon. It is natural for a lover to wish that he might be anything that could come near to his lady. But we more naturally desire to be that which she fondles and caresses, than to be that which she avoids, at least would neglect. The superior delicacy of Theocritus I cannot discover, nor can indeed find, that either in the one or the other image there is any want of delicacy.--JOHNSON.

Pope had at first written:

Some pitying god permit me to be made
The bird that sings beneath thy myrtle shade.

He submitted this couplet and the emendation in the text to Walsh, and said, "The epithet _captive_ seems necessary to explain the thought, on account of _those kisses_ in the last line [of the paragraph]. Quaere. If these be better than the other?" Walsh. "The second are the best, for it is not enough to _permit_ you to be made, but to make you."]

[Footnote 34: Virg. Ecl. ix. 33:

me quoque dicunt
Vatem pastores.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 35: Milton's Lycidas, ver. 34:

Rough satyrs danced.

Dryden's Virgil, Ecl. vi. 42:

He raised his voice, and soon a num'rous throng
Of tripping satyrs crowded to the song.

Pan was the god of shepherds, the inventor of the pastoral pipe of reeds, and himself a skilful musician. "The ancient images," says Archbishop Whately, "represent him as partly in the human form, and partly in that of a goat, with horns and cloven hoofs. And hence it is that, by a kind of tradition, we often see, even at this day, representations of Satan in this form. For the early christians seem to have thought that it was he whom the pagans adored under the name of Pan."]

[Footnote 36: Spenser's Elegy on the death of Sir P. Sidney:

Come forth, ye nymphs, forsake your wat'ry bowers,
Forsake your mossy caves.]

[Footnote 37: Spenser's Astrophel:

And many a nymph both of the wood and brook,
Soon as his oaten pipe began to shrill,
Both chrystal wells, and shady groves forsook
To hear the charms of his enchanting skill;
And brought him presents, flow'rs if it were prime,
Or mellow fruit if it were harvest time.]

[Footnote 38: From the Shepherd's Calendar of Spenser:

His clownish gifts and courtsies I disdain,
His kids, his cracknels, and his early fruit;
Ah, foolish Hobbinol, thy gifts been vain,
Colin them gives to Hobbinol again.]

[Footnote 39: Virg. Ecl. ii. 60:

habitarunt dii quoque sylvas.

Ecl. x. 18:

Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis.--POPE.

Dryden's translation of the first line is

The gods to live in woods have left the skies.

The second line he expanded into a couplet:

Along the streams, his flock Adonis led,
And yet the queen of beauty blest his bed.

This last verse has nothing answering to it in Virgil, but it suggested ver. 63 of the pastoral to Pope, who copied Dryden, and not the original.]

[Footnote 40: This is formed from Virg. Ecl. ii. 10:

rapido fessis messoribus aestu.
The reapers tired with sultry heats.--Ogilby.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 41: He had in his mind Virg. Ecl. iii. 93:

Frigidus, O pueri, fugite hinc! latet anguis in herba.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 42: I think these two lines would not have passed without animadversion in any of our great schools.--WARTON.

Another couplet followed in the manuscript:

Here Tereus mourns, and Itys tells his pain,
Of Progne they, and I of you complain.

The horrible mythological story of Progne killing her son Itys, and serving up his flesh to her husband Tereus out of revenge for his violence to her sister Philomela, had no connection with the plaintive sighs of a love-sick swain for an absent mistress. The inappropriateness of the allusion was no doubt the reason why Pope omitted the couplet.]

[Footnote 43: Virg. Ecl. vii. 45:

Muscosi fontes--mossy fountains.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 44: This thought occurs in several authors. Persius, Sat. ii. 39,

Quicquid calcaverit hic, rosa fiat.

Butler finely ridicules this trite fancy of the poets:

Where'er you tread your foot shall set
The primrose and the violet.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 45: The six lines from ver. 71 to ver. 76 stood thus in the original manuscript: