valleys; that Venus was paffionately fond of a herdman on the mountains of Phrygia; that she both loved and lamented Adonis in the woods. He asks who was Endymion? was he not a herdman, and yet the Moon fell in love with him, as he was feeding his kine, and came down from heaven to embrace him. Rhea lamented a herdman, and Jupiter was fond of a boy that fed cattle. The dialogue between the two fifhermen, in the twenty-first, cannot indeed be faid to be Arcadian; for Arcadia was a midland country: but, as Sicily is an ifland, it was natural enough for a Sicilian herdman to relate a dialogue between two neighbours, whofe bufinefs was on the fea fhoar. But the twenty-fecond is a hymn, after the manner of the ancient Arcadians, in praise of Caftor and Pollux: Υμνέομες Λήδας τε καὶ αἰγιόχω Διος υἱώ, Κάστορα καὶ φοβερὸν Πολυδεύκεα πὺς ἐρεθίζεν. The defperate lover, in the twenty-third may eafily be imagined to belong to the country: though the narration of his paffion is very tragical. We cannot affirm any thing with certainty concerning the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth; as the end of one, and the beginning of the other is wanting. They are however both in praise of Hercules; and therefore belong to the Arcadian poe L try: as does alfo the twenty-fixth, in which the death of Pentheus is related, who violated the Orgies of Bacchus. The dialogue between Daphnis and the Shepherdefs, in the twenty-feventh, is a complete scene of rural courtship, and must be allowed to be a true Paftoral. In the twentyeighth Theocritus himself presents a distaff to Theogenis, the wife of his friend Nicias, a Milefian physician; a proper prefent, no doubt, to be fent out of the country, and a fubject worthy of a rural poet. The twenty-ninth is concerning Love, the common fubject of most Pastorals. The thirtieth is in Lyric measure, and the fubject of it is the boar that wounded the fhepherd Adonis, the favourite of Venus. It appears plainly, from this review of the Idyllia of Theocritus, that the Greek Poet never intended to write fuch a fett of poems, as the modern Criticks call Paftorals. They were Poems on feveral occafions, written by a Sicilian herdman, or by one who affumed that character. The greater part of them are of the Dramatic kind, each Idyllium being a fingle Scene, or Dialogue between the feveral forts of Herdmen, their wives, or neighbours. Some of them are Narrative, the Poet fpeaking all the while in his own perfon. The reft are Poems in praise of Gods and and Heroes. The scene is generally laid in Sicily, that country being famous for the ftories of the thepherd Polyphemus and the herdman Daphnis,, and at the fame time the native place of the Poet; who nevertheless fometimes lays the scene in other countries, where he happened to travel. The language is plain and coarfe, the Doric dialect being almost conftantly used, which greatly increafes the rufticity of thefe Poems. We may obferve that the pronunciation of the Dorians was very coarfe and broad, and founded harsh in the Cars of the politer Grecians, from a paffage in the, fifteenth Idyllium, where a citizen of Alexandria, finds fault with the Syracufian goffips for opening their mouths fo wide when they fpeak; Παύσασθ ̓ ὦ δύστανοι, ανήνυτα κωτίλλοισαι Τρυγόνες ἐκκναισεῦντι πλατυάσδοισαι ἅπαντα. Hift, hift, your tattling filly talk forbear, "Like turtles you have mouths from ear to ear.” The good women are affronted, and tell him, that as they are Dorians, they will make use of the Doric Dialect; i Μα, πόθεν ἄνθρωπος κ' εί δέ τίν, εἰ κωτίλαι εἰμὲς τ y Πασσάμενος, επίτασσε Συρακοσίαις ἐπιτάσσεις ; Ως είδος καὶ τοῦτο, Κορίνθιαι εἰμὲς ἄνωθεν, Ως και Βελλεροφῶν· Πελοποννησιστὶ λαλεῦμες. b 2 " And you to fay, "And who are you? pray what have "If we will talk? Seek thofe that will obey.. Would you the Syracufian women rule? "Befides, to tell you more, you meddling fool, "We are Corinthians, that's no great difgrace, Bellerophon himself did boaft that race. 22 "We speak our language, ufe the Dorick tone, And, Sir, the Dores, fure, may use their own. CREECHOWY This Rufticity of the Idyllia of Theocritus, feems to have been well adapted to the age and country in which that Poet lived; and to have given the fame kind of pleafure, which the Scottifh fongs give to us, merely by being natural. There are indeed, amidst all this Rufticity, many fentiments of a moft wonderful delicacy, which are highly worthy of imitation: but at the fame time we meet with many others, which are moft abominably clownish, and even brutal. Hence Quintilian, who allows Theocritus to be admirable in his way, yet thinks his Mufe too ruftick and coarse for politer ears . This Poet however had continued in full poffeffion of the rural crown, about two hundred * Admirabilis in fuo genere Theocritus, fed Mufa illa ruftica et paftoralis non forum modo verum ipfam etiam urbem refor midat. Lib. 10. cap. 1. years, years, when VIRGIL became his rival; a Genius formed to excel in wit all thofe who had gone before him. That great Mafter of writing knew very well, that as the Roman Language had not a variety of Dialects, like the Greek, it would be in vain to think of giving his Bucolicks an air of Rufticity, like thofe of Theocritus. Nor would it have been natural, if he could have fucceeded in the attempt. The manners of his age and country were different: the Roman Swains talked in as pure Latin, in their fields, as Cicero could fpeak in the Senate. He therefore wifely gave a different air to his Bucolicks, making his Shepherds exprefs themselves with that softness and elegance *, which gained him the esteem and admiration of the contemporary poets and criticks; and recommended him to the protection and favour of the greatest men of his time. Virgil, without doubt, intended to imitate Theocritus, as appears by his frequent addreffes to the Mufes of Sicily + but then he judiciously chose to imitate Molle atque facetum . Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae. Horat. Lib. I. Sat. 10. + Sicelides Mufae paulo majora canamus. Ecl. IV. ver. d. Prima Syracofio dignata eft ludere versu 10 Noftra,nec erubuit fylvas habitare, Thalia. Ecl. VI. ver. 1, 2. Extremum hunc Arethufa mihi concede laborem. b 3 Ecl. X. ver. 1. the |