From whence 'tis evident that in _Pastoral_, tho it never pretends to
any greatness, _Invocations_ {55} may be allow'd: But whatever Subject
it chooseth, it must take care to accommodate it to the Genius and
Circumstances of a Shepherd.
Concerning the Form, or mode of _Imitation_, I shall not repeat what
I have already said, _viz._ that this is in it self _mixt_; for
_Pastoral_ is either _Alternate_, or hath but _one Person_, or is
_mixt_ of both: yet 'tis properly and chiefly _Alternate_. as is
evident from that of _Theocritus_.
Sing _Rural_ strains, for as we march along
We may delight each other with a Song.
In which the _Poet_ shows that _alternate_ singing is proper to a
_Pastoral_: But as for the _Fable_, 'tis requisite that it should be
simple, lest in stead of _Pastoral_ it put on the form of a _Comedy_,
or _Tragedy_ if the _Fable_ be great, or intricate: It must be _One_;
this _Aristotle_ thinks necessary in every _Poem_, and _Horace_ lays
down this general Rule,
Be every _Fable_ simple, and but one:
For every Poem, that is not _One_, is imperfect, and this _Unity_ is
to be taken from the _Action_: for if that is _One_, the Poem will be
so too. Such is the Passion of _Corydon_ in _Virgil's_ second Eclogue,
_Meliboeus's_ Expostulation with _Tityrus_ about his Fortune;
_Theocritus's_ _Thyrsis, Cyclops_, and _Amaryllis_, of which perhaps
in its proper place I may treat more largely.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59