by the inhabitants of Greece, have a decorum and confiftency, which they totally lofe in the character of a British fhepherd: and Theocritus, during the ardors of Sirius, must have heard the murmurings of a brook, and the whispers of a pine *, with more homefelt pleasure, than POPE † could poffibly experience upon the fame occafion. We can never completely relish, or a lequately underftand any author, efpecially any Ancient, except we conftantly keep in our eye his climate, his country, and his age. POPE him felf informs us, in a note, that he judiciously omitted the following verse, And lift'ning wolves grow milder as they hear on account of the abfurdity, which Spenfer overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. But on this principle, which is certainly a just one, may it not be asked, why he should speak, the scene lying in Windfor * Idyll. i. ver. 1. + Paft. iv. ver. 1. Paft. ii. Foreft, Foreft, of the SULTRY SIRIUS *, of the GRATEFUL CLUSTERS of grapes †, of a pipe of reeds, the antique fiftula, of thanking Ceres for a plentiful harvest §, of the facrifice of lambs, with many other inftances that might be adduced to this purpose. That POPE however was fenfible of the importance of adapting images to the fcene of action, is obvious from the following example of his judgment; for in translating, Audiit EUROTAS, juffitque edifcere LAUROS he has dextroufly dropt the laurels appropriated to Eurotas, as he is fpeaking of the river Thames, and has rendered it, Thames heard the numbers, as he flow'd along, In the paffages which POPE has imitated from Theocritus, and from his Latin tranflator Virgil, he has merited but little applaufe. It may not be unentertaining to fee *Paft. ii. ver. 21. § Ibid. ver. 65. + Paft. iii. ver. 24•, 1 Paft. iv. ver. 81. Paft. ii. ver. 41. §§ Ibid. ver. 14. how how coldly and unpoetically POPE has copied the fubfequent appeal to the nymphs on the death of Daphnis, in comparison of Milton on LYCIDAS, one of his juvenile pieces. Πα ποκ' αρ' ησθ' οκα Δαφνις ἐλακείο; πα ποκά, Νυμφαι; Ου γαρ δη ποταμοιο με αν ροον ειχει Αναπω, * Where ftray ye, Muses, in what lawn or grove, Or else where Cam his winding vales divides f. Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorfelefs deep For neither were ye playing on the steep Nor yet where Deva fpreads her wizard ftream 1. THE mention of places remarkably romantic, the fuppofed habitation of Druids, bards, and wizards, is far more pleafing to the imagination, than the obvious introduction of Cam and Ifis, as feats of the Muses. 2 * THEOGRITUS, Idyll. i. 66. † POPE, Paft. ii, 24. MILTON, A SHEP A SHEPHERD in Theocritus wishes with much tenderness and elegance, both which "Would I muft fuffer in a literal tranflation, Oh! were I made by fome transforming pow'r, On three accounts the former image is preferable to the latter: for the paftoral wildness, the delicacy, and the uncommonness of the thought. I cannot forbear adding, that the riddle of the Royal Oak, in the firft Paftoral, invented in imitation of the Virgilian ænigmas in the third eclogue, favours of pun, and puerile conceit. * Αιθε γενοίμαν Α βομβευσα μελισσα, κι 'ες τεον 'ανρον ἴκοιμαν, Τον κισσον διαδυς, και ταν πλεριν α τυ πυκασδη. Idyll. iii. 12. Say, Daphnis, fay in what glad foil appears With what propriety could the tree, whose shade protected the king, be faid to be prolific of princes? THAT POPE has not equalled Theocritus, will indeed appear lefs furprifing, if we reflect, that no original writer ever remained fo unrivalled by fucceeding copyifts, as this Sicilian mafter, IF it fhould be objected, that the barrenness of invention imputed to POPE from a view of his PASTORALS, is equally imputable to the Bucolics of Virgil, it may be answered, that whatever may be determined of the rest, yet the first and laft Eclogues of Virgil are indifputable proofs of true genius, and power of fancy. The influence of war on the tranquillity of rural life, rendered the subject of the first new, and interefting: its compofition is truely dramatic; and the characters |