in other words, for three months together; or, when it was exhausted before, entirely to omit it: whence it comes to pass that fome of his Eclogues (as the Awth, eighth, and tenth for example) have nothing but their Titles to diftinguish them. The reafon is evident, because the year has not that variety in it to furnish every month with a particular defcription, as it may every feafon.

Of the following Eclogues I shall only fay, that these four comprehend all the fubjects which the Critics upon Theocritus and Virgil will allow to be fit for paftoral: That they have as much variety of description, in respect of the several seasons, as Spenfer's; that in order to add to this variety, the several times of the day are obferv'd, the rural employments in each feason or time of day, and the rural scenes or places proper to fuch employments; not without fome regard to the several ages of man, and the different paffions proper to each age.

But after all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old Authors, whose works as I had leifure to study, so, I hope, I have not wanted care to imitate.

SPRING.

THE

FIRST PASTORAL,

OR

DAMO N.

To Sir WILLIAM TRUMBAL.

FIRST

IRST in these fields I try the fylvan strains, Nor blush to sport on Windfor's blissful plains: Fair Thames, flow gently from thy facred spring, While on thy banks Sicilian Muses fing;

NOTES.

These Pastorals were written at the age of fixteen, and then paft thro the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Wycherley, G. Granville afterwards Lord Lansdown, Sir William Trumbal, Dr. Garth, Lord Hallifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring, and others. All these gave out Author the greatest encouragement, and particularly Mr. Walsh, whom Mr. Dryden, in his Postscript to Virgil, calls the best Critic of his age. "The Author (fays he) seems to have " a particular genius for this kind of Poetry, and a Judgment "that much exceeds his years. He has taken very freely from "the Ancients. But what he has mixed of his own with theirs " is no way inferior to what he has taken from them. It is

not flattery at all to fay that Virgil hat written nothing fo good at his Age. His Preface is very judicious and learned. " Letter to Mr. Wycherley, Ap. 1705. The Lord Lansdown about the fame time, mentioning the youth of our Poet, fays (in a printed Letter of the Character of Mr. Wycherley) "that if he goes on "as he has begun in his Paftoral way, as Virgil first tried his

Let vernal airs thro' trembling ofiers play,
And Albion's cliffs refound the rural lay.

5

You, that too wife for pride, too good for pow'r,

Enjoy the glory to be great no more,
And carrying with you all the world can boast,
To all the world illuftrioufly are loft!
O let my Muse her slender reed inspire,
Till in your native shades you tune the lyre:

10

So when the Nightingale to reft removes,
The Thrush may chant to the forfaken groves,
But charm'd to filence, liftens while she sings, Is
And all th' aërial audience clap their wings.

Soon as the flocks fhook of the nightly dews,
Two Swains, whom Love kept wakeful, and the Muse,
Pour'd o'er the whitening vale their fleecy care, o
Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair:
The dawn now blushing on the mountain's fide,
Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus reply'd.

20

DAPHNIS.

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray,

With joyous music wake the dawning day!
Why fit we mute, when early linnets fing,
When warbling Philomel falutes the spring?
Why fit we fad, when Phosphor fhines so clear,
And lavish Nature paints the purple year?

25

NOTES

VER. 17. etc. The Scene of this Paftoral a Valley, the Time the Morning. It stood originally thus,

Daphnis and Strephen to the shades retir'd,

Both warm'd by Love, and by the Muse inspir'd,
Fresh as the morn, and as the feafon fair,
In flow'ry vales they fed their Reecy care;
And while Aurora gilds the mountain's fide,
Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus reply'd.

IMITATIONS.

A Shepherd's Boy (he feeks no better name) -
Beneath the fhade a spreading beech difplays, -
Thyrfis, the Mufis of that murm'ring Spring,-

are manifeftly imitations of

Shepherd's Boy (no better do him call)

Tityre, tu patulæ recubans fub tegmine fagi.
-Αδὺ τι τὸ ψιθύρισμα καὶ ἱ πίτυς, αἰπόλε, τήνα.

STREPHON.

Sing then, and Damon fhall attend the strain, While yon' flow oxen turn the furrow'd plain. 30 Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow; Here western winds on breathing rofes blow. I'll stake yon' lamb, that near the fountain plays, And from the brink his dancing fhade surveys.

DAPHNIS.

35

And I this bowl, where wanton ivy twines, And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines: Four figures rifing from the work appear, The various seasons of the rowling year; And what is that, which binds the radiant sky, Where twelve fair figns in beauteous order lie? 40

DAMON.

Then fing by turns, by turns the Muses sing,

Now hawthorns bloffom, now the daifies spring,